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Jeremiah for everyone - Remains
Jeremiah for everyone - Remains
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Remains When we were children, our parents sent my sister and me off to Sunday school on a Sunday afternoon. I never asked why they did so. I imagine they appreciated an hour’s quiet after Sunday lunch, but I also suspect that though they didn’t go to church, they somehow wanted …
Isaiah for everyone - Putting Down Edom, Giving the Mute Their Voice
Isaiah for everyone - Putting Down Edom, Giving the Mute Their Voice
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Putting Down Edom, Giving the Mute Their Voice As a result of multiple sclerosis, my first wife, Ann, indeed had collapsing knees, as well as weak hands. When we were relocating to the United States, as we arrived at Heathrow, I was helping her transfer into her wheelchair by usi…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Arrogance of Power
Jeremiah for everyone - The Arrogance of Power
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Arrogance of Power As we drank our morning tea my wife told me that some foreign banks had announced that they were pulling out of Greece during its economic crisis, and we wondered what this meant for people who had accounts at those banks…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Grimmest Scene in the Old Testament
Jeremiah for everyone - The Grimmest Scene in the Old Testament
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Grimmest Scene in the Old Testament I hate this story about Jerusalem’s fall and its aftermath, and I hate the fact that it comes more than once in the Old Testament (indeed, more than once in Jeremiah alone, for goodness’ sake)…
Isaiah for everyone - The Outrageous Hope into Which the City of God Is Invited
Isaiah for everyone - The Outrageous Hope into Which the City of God Is Invited
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Outrageous Hope into Which the City of God Is Invited This past Sunday we prayed for the peace of the world, for a spirit of respect and forbearance to grow among its peoples, for people in positions of public trust to serve justice and promote the dignity and freedom of ever…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Promise of a Future
Jeremiah for everyone - The Promise of a Future
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Promise of a Future It’s been a year since I became priest-in-charge at our church, when we could no longer afford a paid pastor. That fact was a sign that the church is getting smaller, and it wasn’t clear how long we’d be viable at all…
Jeremiah for everyone - Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (1)
Jeremiah for everyone - Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (1)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (1) News reports as I write (and over the past year or two) manifest a strange kind of naiveté about changes of government. A series of Middle Eastern countries have seen civil conflict and the overthrow of totalitarian regimes…
Jeremiah for everyone - Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (2)
Jeremiah for everyone - Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (2)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Things Can't Get Worse (Can They?) (2) There’s a story about a man who falls over the edge of a cliff but manages to grab the branch of a small tree and thus stop himself from falling hundreds of feet to his death. The tree saves him, but only temporarily, because he can’t get ba…
Isaiah for everyone - Can a Mother Forget?
Isaiah for everyone - Can a Mother Forget?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Can a Mother Forget? At a party, I overheard a mother talking to her daughter who is soon to have a baby, about how it would be to look after the baby, and about how it had been for the mother herself in relation to her daughter. The mother had gone back to work soon after her da…
Jeremiah for everyone - Expect Great Things
Jeremiah for everyone - Expect Great Things
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Expect Great Things In the 1780s a shoemaker and part-time Baptist preacher near Northampton in England named William Carey used to do his work with a world map on the wall in front of him, and while he worked he’d pray for the nations of the world, many of whom knew little or no…
Isaiah for everyone - God Is Our Refuge and Strength, Really?
Isaiah for everyone - God Is Our Refuge and Strength, Really?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God Is Our Refuge and Strength, Really? I have just read a message from an Indian Christian couple who expect tomorrow to go to another village for a day of teaching for which they expect Christians to gather from many villages in the area. They’re thirsty to hear the Word of God…
Isaiah for everyone - Gods You Have to Carry and the God Who Carries You
Isaiah for everyone - Gods You Have to Carry and the God Who Carries You
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Gods You Have to Carry and the God Who Carries You We had Mother’s Day dinner yesterday with some Jews and some Roman Catholics and some agnostics. The agnostics thought that if you need the prop of faith in something in order to keep you going, fine, but if you can live your lif…
Isaiah for everyone - If only...
Isaiah for everyone - If only...
by SPCK - John Goldingay
If Only… I was talking this week to a student who told me that his wife had left him. They had been married for five years and she had discovered he was addicted to porn; I don’t know how he had kept it secret for so long. I don’t know, and he doesn’t know, if this is the end of …
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Nightmares and Dreams (2)
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Nightmares and Dreams (2)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Nightmares and Dreams (2) My wife and I both have recurrent features of our dreams. Kathleen’s dreams tend to be frightening—yesterday in her dream she fell under a car. In my dreams, more often than not an incidental feature is that I am pushing my first wife, Ann, in her wheelc…
Isaiah for everyone - On Grieving God’s Holy Spirit, and the Consequences
Isaiah for everyone - On Grieving God’s Holy Spirit, and the Consequences
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Grieving God’s Holy Spirit, and the Consequences The Episcopal Daily Devotions that we use each morning include prayers from Psalm 51 asking God to renew a right spirit within us, to sustain us with his bountiful spirit, and not to take his holy spirit from us. Using that pray…
Isaiah for everyone - People Who Won’t Let Yahweh Rest