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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Love Actually
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Love Actually
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Love Actually JUDGES 16:1-21 After the incident a few weeks ago when a man on a plane bound for Detroit tried to blow up himself and the plane as an act of terrorism against the United States and the Western world in general, an extraordinary piece of background to the event emer…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Murder Desecrates the Land
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Murder Desecrates the Land
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Murder Desecrates the Land Deuteronomy 21: 1-23 Last night I watched the second episode of an enchanting TV series called The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. At one level it’s just another detective series of the “Miss Marple” genre, but it has a winsomeness deriving from its set…
Exodus and Leviticus - My People - Your God
Exodus and Leviticus - My People - Your God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
My People – Your God EXODUS 6: 2- 7: 13 I am discussing their wedding with a young couple in my student Bible-study group. The wedding is a lovely thing to be involved in, and not only because it will happen within sight of the beach but because it brings home to me as a Brit one…
Exodus and Leviticus - More Prayer, More Flip-Flop
Exodus and Leviticus - More Prayer, More Flip-Flop
by SPCK - John Goldingay
More Prayer, More Flip-Flop EXODUS 10: 1-29 I’ve just been reading a paper by one of my students titled “Prayer in the Scriptures.” The student astonished me first by reporting a poll indicating that 72 percent of people in the United States pray at least several times a week. Th…
Exodus and Leviticus - Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance
Exodus and Leviticus - Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance EXODUS 15: 1-21 A few weeks before my disabled wife died, we were in a restaurant where they have a live band, one of my absolute favorites, playing swing, blues, and rockabilly. My feet and hands were tapping, or perhaps thumping and stomping (I c…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Not with Our Parents
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Not with Our Parents
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Not with Our Parents Deuteronomy 5: 1-15 This week I read an e-mail from a student now doing graduate work elsewhere: “I quit my job on Monday as I was averaging four hours of sleep a night and came down with two colds in the first two weeks of school. Best decision of the year.”…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Not You but God
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Not You but God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Not You But God Genesis 45:1-28 Last night we had a group of students in our home for dessert after class. One of them asked what is my favorite book in the Bible (the answer is Ecclesiastes) and then what is my disabled wife’s favorite book. I am not aware that she ever had one,…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Now I Know
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Now I Know
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Now I Know Genesis 22: 11- 19 In 1969, as the Vietnam war reached its peak, the Canadian Jewish poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen recorded a song about “The Story of Isaac.” The first two verses imaginatively retell the story from Isaac’s angle, but then the song ricochets into a…
Job for Everyone - On Birth and Death
Job for Everyone - On Birth and Death
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Birth and Death Job 10: 1-22 Yesterday a girl in her twenties was telling me about the death of her grandmother a day or two before. Like many people of her generation, she was very close to her grandmother, and the loss is a significant one. And yesterday another young woman …
Exodus and Leviticus - Now I will Seal a Covenant
Exodus and Leviticus - Now I will Seal a Covenant
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Now I Will Seal a Covenant EXODUS 34: 1-26 Visiting Jerusalem brings many striking experiences for sober-minded Westerners. The celebration of a bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah at the Western Wall is an occasion of enthusiastic rejoicing, dancing, and singing as Torah scrolls are carr…
Exodus and Leviticus - Promises and Warnings and Promises
Exodus and Leviticus - Promises and Warnings and Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Promises and Warnings and Promises LEVITICUS 26: 3- 46 Yesterday a student from a two-thirds-world country came to see me to talk about wealth and poverty, about the idea that God exercised a preferential option for the poor, about whether it was okay for us to enjoy the wealth w…
Exodus and Leviticus - Praying for the Enemy
Exodus and Leviticus - Praying for the Enemy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Praying for the Enemy EXODUS 8: 8- 32 I think it’s easier for my church to pray for the present U.S. president than it was to pray for his predecessor. They like the present president; they find it easy to identify with him (he is African American and so are most of them); and th…
Exodus and Leviticus - Pharaoh Flip-Flop
Exodus and Leviticus - Pharaoh Flip-Flop
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Pharaoh Flip-Flop EXODUS 9: 22-35 In the rough and tumble of U.S. politics, you have to be very careful about changing your mind, or you may be accused of flip-flopping. It’s appropriate that there should be a term for an unprincipled change of mind or change of policy, one that …
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 22 Year C
Gazing on the Gospels Year C - Proper 22 Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 22 Luke 17: 5-10 Gaze on this poor worker with the sweat running down his face, and blisters on his hands, plodding back from the fields. The light is dimming and he’s returning to the farmhouse. How he longs to be able to bathe his tired limbs, drink cool water, and gaze …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fifth Sunday of Lent Luke 12.1-8 Gaze on this cosy domestic setting, spruced up for a special celebration. It seems that this house is the nearest Jesus came to an adult family home. Martha is being Martha again – the carer in the kitchen. Mary is being Mary as ever – impetuo…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Day of Pentecost Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Day of Pentecost Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Day of Pentecost John 14.8-17 [25-27] Gaze on a wood in a storm, the trees blown every which way by the invisible wind. Branches are stripped of their leaves and the weaker boughs are broken, and fall to the forest floor. Listen to the rage of the storm, rushing through a garden,…
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - The Third Sunday before Advent Reflection Year A
Gazing on the Gospels Year A - The Third Sunday before Advent Reflection Year A
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Third Sunday before Advent - Year A Meditation on Matthew 25: 1-13 Gaze on an early Saturday morning in late summer, when the sun has come up and promises a glorious day. You open the curtains and delight at the weather – it is perfect for planting your bulbs for next spring;…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Sunday Next Before Lent Year C