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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Prophets and When to Ignore Them
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Prophets and When to Ignore Them
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Prophets, and When to Ignore Them 1 Kings 12:33-13:32 When I look back over the leadership of the various bosses I have had (present company excepted, in case he reads this) and reflect on my own time as a boss, I can see various ways in which proven ability and divine guidance p…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Provision and Purification
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Provision and Purification
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Provision and Purification NUMBERS 18: 1-19: 22 The other day I was visiting a big church in another city. It made for an extraordinary contrast with my little church, where the pastor is the only paid person and the building feels very full if there are seventy people present. T…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Provision for the Sanctuary
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Provision for the Sanctuary
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Provision for the Sanctuary NUMBERS 7: 1-8: 4 We want to build a “proper chapel” at our seminary. We outgrew the original chapel decades ago, and for services we use an auditorium or a church adjacent to the campus. Now, one of the great cultural strengths of the United States is…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Save First, Spend Afterward
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Save First, Spend Afterward
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Save First, Spend Afterward Genesis 41:25-57 Writers and TV producers have noted that the cell phone and other technological devices have undermined some of the staple plot devices that make novels and movies work. In Casablanca, Rick need not have been in any doubt as to why Ils…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Roots; or, Home Is Where Your Share Is
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Roots; or, Home Is Where Your Share Is
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Roots; or, Home Is Where Your Share Is JOSHUA 17:12- 19:21 Waiting for the jazz to start last night, I was reading a book about the opening chapters of Matthew’s Gospel (other people who are on their own stare at their iPhones). It noted how the list of names occupying the bulk o…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Shoot The Messenger
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Shoot The Messenger
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Shoot the Messenger 2 Kings 6:24-7:20 I muse from time to time on why it is that many Christians today fret about war more than Christians in previous ages. It’s not simply because they are following Jesus—at least, most previous generations of Christians did not think this way, …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - She's a Moabite, for Goodness' Sake!
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - She's a Moabite, for Goodness' Sake!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
She’s a Moabite, for Goodness’ Sake RUTH 1:19b-2: 9 I was just reading the story of a man called Maxo who died in the earthquake in Haiti a couple of weeks ago when his house collapsed on top of him. His cousin in New York called Maxo a hustler, but his story showed how he was al…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Should Our Sister Be Treated Like a Whore?
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Should Our Sister Be Treated Like a Whore?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Should Our Sister Be Treated Like a Whore? Genesis 33:18-34:31 There were a couple in the seminary who got into a tangle in their relationship. The man had lost his wife in an accident. He seemed to be doing all the right things in the way he coped: grieving but keeping her memor…
Exodus and Leviticus - Sex and Taboos
Exodus and Leviticus - Sex and Taboos
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sex and Taboos LEVITICUS : 15: 1-33 “Sexual intercourse began / in nineteen sixty-three / (which was rather late for me),” the poet Philip Larkin wrote in his poem “Annus mirabilis.” It was the decade when the pill made it possible to separate sex from procreation. My prospective…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Standing on the Promises
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Standing on the Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Standing on the Promises Psalm 119: 25-48 Yesterday I got our congregation to write out their thanksgivings, uncertainties, and commitments for the coming year, in line with the plan I mentioned in connection with Psalm 105. Just before doing so, I realized that there was another…
Exodus and Leviticus - Some Responsibilities of Priests
Exodus and Leviticus - Some Responsibilities of Priests
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Some Responsibilities of Priests LEVITICUS 21: 1- 22:33 When you give people presents, you can get into a lot of trouble, some of which you deserve. You can spend time and money finding what you hope will be just right for someone and find it was just the wrong thing: “You think …
Exodus and Leviticus - Surviving in the Wilderness
Exodus and Leviticus - Surviving in the Wilderness
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Surviving in the Wilderness EXODUS 15: 22- 17: 7 A former colleague of mine used sometimes to say of a seminary student, “He [I don’t remember it ever being a she] needs to learn to love the church.” The comment would be aroused by the student’s reaction to some piece of apparent…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Churches
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Churches
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Temples and Churches 1 Kings 6: 1-38 The little church building where I worship each Sunday holds only fifty or sixty people, but it divides into three parts. The congregation sits in the main body of the church; there is a little step up to the choir stalls; and finally there is…
Job for Everyone - Tested to the Limit
Job for Everyone - Tested to the Limit
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Tested to the Limit Job 34 31- 35: 16 One aspect of the forty-two years during which my first wife had multiple sclerosis was that it was a time of periodic testing, or even of continuous testing (but it was also joyful). As she got to be recurrently tired, or could no longer do …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Teach Me
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Teach Me
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Teach Me Psalm 119: 49-72 I’m grading student papers, and one effect that has on me (alongside making me want to commit suicide) is to make me puzzle over what it is that enables people to learn. There are people who have read the Scriptures with fresh eyes, seen things they had …
Exodus and Leviticus - The 3a.m. Scream
Exodus and Leviticus - The 3a.m. Scream
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The 3 a.m. Scream EXODUS 12: 28- 13: 16 It was midnight, not 3 a.m., but in the Western world where we organize our own time rather than following nature’s time, midnight is not the middle of the night; it is about the time I put out the light. So think of yourself as having been…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Bird in a Cage
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Bird in a Cage
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Bird in a Cage 2 Kings 18:1-37 When my sons were babies, we would play trust exercises with them, though I’m not sure whether we or they realized this was what we were doing. They would leap from some height, such as a wall, knowing that father or mother would catch them. As …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Appeal of the Lost Sheep