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Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Dreamer
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Dreamer
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Dreamer Genesis 37:5-36 I have known one or two people who had dreams or visions or words from God (indeed, I have had one or two myself). Sometimes these have been rather general and uncheckable, though edifying and at worst harmless. Sometimes they have been vindicated by e…
Exodus and Leviticus - The Expiation Day
Exodus and Leviticus - The Expiation Day
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Expiation Day LEVITICUS : 16: 1-34 I climbed Mount Sinai in September 1973, near the beginning of the seventh month in the Jewish year as Leviticus computes it (counting from Passover), and thus just after the New Year on the modern Jewish calendar. It was five days before Yo…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The First Family, the First Worship, the First Acceptance, the First Rejection
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The First Family, the First Worship, the First Acceptance, the First Rejection
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The First Family, the First worship, the First Acceptance, the First Rejection Genesis 4: 1-5a I once went through quite a long period of time (several years, I think) when God did not seem very real. I didn’t exactly doubt whether God was there; it was just that I didn’t feel Go…
Job for Everyone - The God of Wrath
Job for Everyone - The God of Wrath
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The God of Wrath Job 9: 1-35 We were preparing dinner for people in a homeless shelter on Friday when out of the blue my pastor asked me, “What do you say when people ask you why the God of the Old Testament is so different from the God of the New Testament?” Quick as a flash I r…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Grief of a Sister and the Strife Between Brothers
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Grief of a Sister and the Strife Between Brothers
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Grief of a Sister and the Strife between Brothers 2 Samuel 13: 15- 14: 24 I once knew someone who was sexually abused on an ongoing basis by a family member when she was a young girl. She never told me the details of what happened, and to be honest I never wanted her to do so…
Job for Everyone - The God Who Whispers in Our Ears
Job for Everyone - The God Who Whispers in Our Ears
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The God Who Whispers in Our Ears Job 36 1-25 A young man comes to see me from time to time to discuss what is going on between him and God. He used to seem depressed, but the depression lifted when he came to acknowledge that he was attracted to other men rather than to women. He…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Journey Actually Begins
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Journey Actually Begins
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Journey Actually Begins NUMBERS 9: 15-10: 36 Although I make decisions easily (though this does not mean I make them wisely), when it was a question of deciding to take my disabled wife six thousand miles from Britain to California to a place we had visited only once and wher…
Exodus and Leviticus - The Life Is in the Blood
Exodus and Leviticus - The Life Is in the Blood
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Life Is In the Blood LEVITICUS : 17: 1- 18: 30 A month ago a woman came to see me to talk about the general difficulties of her life. Her mother had died some time previously. She was barely on speaking terms with her father. She certainly was not on speaking terms with her m…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Peak of Rebellion
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Peak of Rebellion
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Peak of Rebellion Genesis 6: 1-4 We had a friend in England who had been sexually abused on an ongoing basis by her uncle, who was a minister. The abuse had happened when she was a little girl (she was then in her forties), but all her life she had been trying to come to term…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Rhythm of Pilgrimage
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Rhythm of Pilgrimage
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Rhythm of Pilgrimage Deuteronomy 15: 19- 16: 17 Five or six miles from where I live is an Episcopal church whose leadership and congregation recently decided to withdraw from its identification with the Episcopal Church in the United States, while staying Anglican in a broade…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (I)
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (I)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (I) JUDGES 19:1-30 One of the Oscar contenders at the time I write is the movie Precious, the story of a teenager whose life is characterized by systematic abuse in the context of her family, including rape and incest on the part of her father a…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Splendor is Gone
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Splendor is Gone
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Splendor is Gone 1 Samuel 4: 1b- 22 In his sermon yesterday, our rector (slightly apologetically) told us he had been watching a TV series about a psychopathic boy whom a police officer had adopted. The boy’s stepfather gave him a “code”: Don’t kill innocent people; make sure…
Job for Everyone - The Way I Have Walked (I)
Job for Everyone - The Way I Have Walked (I)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Way I Have Walked Job 31 1-12 A year after my first wife Ann died, I was out to dinner with a group that included a former colleague whose wife had died a while previously. He had remarried a year or so later, and I was intrigued to hear the story. He began from the aftermath…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Test
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - The Test
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Test Genesis 21: 33- 22: 2 I am writing at the beginning of Lent, and I have been thinking about the story of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, when he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. Every time I get to the end of that sentence, I hav…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response Psalm 78: 1-37 Yesterday in church the Old Testament reading was the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, and we followed that reading with some congregational discussion of which of these commands seem most import…
Psalms for Everyone - The Wretched of the Earth
Psalms for Everyone - The Wretched of the Earth
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Wretched of the Earth Psalm 9: 19- 10: 18 My stepdaughter and her husband spend their lives seeking to make known the plight of Darfuri refugees in Chad; they make dangerous visits there from time to time. They tell horrifying stories about the way the Sudanese government tre…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - They All Did What was Right in Their Own Eyes
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - They All Did What was Right in Their Own Eyes
by SPCK - John Goldingay
They All Did What Was Right in Their Own Eyes JUDGES 17:1-13 I am an Episcopalian/Anglican priest, but I don’t really believe in priesthood. One of the first things God pointed out at Sinai was that the whole people of God is a priesthood (see Exodus 19), and the New Testament re…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - To Love and to Cherish, to Desire and to Dominate