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John for Everyone part 2 - Washing the Disciples' Feet
John for Everyone part 2 - Washing the Disciples' Feet
by SPCK - N T Wright
Washing the Disciples’ Feet John 13.1-11 I had never washed anyone else’s feet (bathing my own children doesn’t really count) until I went to work in a church where they acted out this scene every Holy Week. On the Thursday, the day before Good Friday, many churches arrange a ser…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Warnings to the Rich
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Warnings to the Rich
by SPCK - N T Wright
Warnings to the Rich James 5.1-6 Suddenly we find ourselves in two quite different worlds – and we realize that James has been thinking this way all along. Reading through the book casually to this point, we might suppose it was a ragbag collection of different moral commands: a …
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Warnings and Greetings
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - Warnings and Greetings
by SPCK - N T Wright
Warnings and Greetings ROMANS 16.17-24 It had been a difficult meeting. Several complex issues had been on the table, some of them involving delicate political issues, others involving money. It was right at the end of a busy university term, and everyone was tired and inclined t…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Warnings and Encouragements
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Warnings and Encouragements
by SPCK - N T Wright
Warnings and Encouragements Matthew 10.24-31 Which command is repeated most often in the Bible? You might imagine it’s something stern: Behave yourself! Smarten up! Say your prayers! Worship God more wholeheartedly! Give more money away! You’d be wrong. It’s the command we find i…
Revelation for Everyone - Worthy is the Lamb!
Revelation for Everyone - Worthy is the Lamb!
by SPCK - N T Wright
Worthy is the Lamb! Revelation 5.8-14 Think of it as another visit to the theatre. You are sitting in the dark when the drum begins. A slow, steady rhythm. It’s telling you something. It’s going somewhere. It builds up, louder and louder. Then the voices join in. Wild, excited si…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - As Far as this Yahweh Has Helped Us
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - As Far as this Yahweh Has Helped Us
by SPCK - John Goldingay
As Far as This Yahweh Has Helped Us 1 Samuel 7: 2- 14 “Helping” can have a variety of connotations. On one occasion a tire came off my wife’s wheelchair when we were on our way to church. As I was bending down trying to get the tire back on, with Ann still in the chair, a car dri…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Lunchtime
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Lunchtime
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Friday Lunchtime Genesis 1: 26 We human beings are pretty self-centered creatures. For their Scripture reading, some churches (like mine) use a lectionary, a set list of passages for reading each Sunday, and when we read Genesis 1, we are inclined to jump from the opening verse (…
Job for Everyone - Is God Not Good or Not Sovereign?
Job for Everyone - Is God Not Good or Not Sovereign?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is God Not Good or Not Sovereign? Job 34 1-30 A student has been blowing fuses to me about having to read books that are full of words like eschatology and pneumatology and sentences about God’s “ontological revelatory self-communication and self-transcendence” or about “supralap…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses Begins His Last Sermon
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses Begins His Last Sermon
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Moses Begins His Last Sermon Deuteronomy 1:1-45 This coming Saturday, I am taking part in a service in which the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles expresses its regret and contrition for the way we have treated African Americans. The church to which I belong was founded to provide…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses' Last Song
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses' Last Song
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Moses’ Last Song Deuteronomy 31: 1- 32: 47 In commenting on Deuteronomy 1, I referred to a service of contrition in our Episcopal diocese concerning the way we had treated African Americans. In the early decades of the twentieth century, in different parts of greater Los Angeles …
Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-II
Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-II
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-II Psalm 40 As usual we had a time of sharing praise and prayer concerns in church yesterday, and as usual I had more success getting people to share prayer concerns than to share reasons for thanksgiving. As far as I remember the only t…
Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-I
Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-I
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-I Psalm 9: 1-18 Yesterday a pastor in Florida invited me to look at his blog, where he had written about God’s renewing the church. When God renewed the church (as happened with the emergence of Pentecostalism a century ago, for instance…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Sarai Becomes Sarah
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Sarai Becomes Sarah
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sarai Becomes Sarah Genesis 17: 15-19 On my father’s birth certificate, our family name is spelled Gouldingay. It was just a slip; I can imagine my grandfather and grandmother (hardly out of their teens) being a bit nervous when they registered the birth, and it seems they confus…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Sex in the City
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Sex in the City
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sex in the City Deuteronomy 22: 13-30 I’ve been reading a book that interweaves the story of three iconic 1960s singer-songwriters—Carole King, Carly Simon, and Joni Mitchell. The key to Joni Mitchell’s life story and music is something that happened when she was a teenager and t…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Sour Hour of Prayer
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Sour Hour of Prayer
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sour Hour of Prayer 1 Samuel 1: 9-11 For Hannah, too, the hour of prayer was initially sour, though eventually sweet. Presumably she prayed when she was at home in the village, as other Israelites did, but the occasion when the family went to Shiloh would be a natural time for sp…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - So Abraham Went
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - So Abraham Went
by SPCK - John Goldingay
So Abraham Went Genesis 12: 3-6a I first visited the Middle East six years after Israel occupied the West Bank. We were based mostly in Tel Aviv, but we had not been there long before we drove up into the West Bank and went to Nablus, one of its three most important towns. The na…
Isaiah for Everyone - Stand Firm, Or You Won't Stand At All
Isaiah for Everyone - Stand Firm, Or You Won't Stand At All
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Stand Firm, Or You Won’t Stand At All I mentioned in an early volume of The Old Testament for Everyone receiving a call from a Jewish lawyer in Los Angeles who had self-published a book titled Twenty-six Reasons Why Jews Don’t Believe in Jesus and wanted me to make sure that his …
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Cry from Sodom