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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)…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Misleading Scholars
Jeremiah for everyone - The Misleading Scholars
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Misleading Scholars Yesterday a student asked me whether a particular book would be taken seriously by the wide majority of Old Testament scholars. The response I forgot to make was that whatever is the consensus of scholars today won’t be the consensus in a decade’s time…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Mouth of the Faithful Person is Fruitful
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Mouth of the Faithful Person is Fruitful
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mouth of the Faithful Person is Fruitful I rode to my mother’s funeral with our rector, who told me a funny, poignant story about her. Being a mother, she had an exaggerated sense of her son’s significance…
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 Power of Being Forgiven
Jeremiah for everyone - The Power of Being Forgiven
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Power of Being Forgiven Last night we listened to one of our favorite singer-songwriters performing an upbeat song with a downbeat account of her life (well, a downbeat account of a life—one mustn’t imagine that every song is autobiographical)…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest
Jeremiah for everyone - The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest Today we had a bumper crop of birthdays to celebrate at church; I was tempted to ask people to stand up if they were not having a birthday this week. As a wondrous coincidence, the Gospel reading was the story of a birthday party…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Prophet Who’s Forbidden to Pray (2)
Jeremiah for everyone - The Prophet Who’s Forbidden to Pray (2)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Prophet Who’s Forbidden to Pray (2) My wife’s daughter and her husband work on behalf of Darfuri refugees who long ago fled from Sudan to Chad, seeking to make their plight known in the United States. My wife often feels it’s as if they’re bashing their heads against a brick …
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…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Secret of Life Is...
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Secret of Life Is...
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Secret of Life Is… We were in a bar last night to listen to a band playing blues. Behind and alongside us were people who at 8:30 were already rather the worse for wear. My wife commented that you could find some of these same people here every night…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Prophet Who’s Forbidden to Pray (1)
Jeremiah for everyone - The Prophet Who’s Forbidden to Pray (1)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Prophet Who’s Forbidden to Pray My first Old Testament mentor once told us about his first visit to the new cathedral in Coventry in the center of England. The old cathedral, like much of the city, was devastated by bombing in the Second World War…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's A couple of years ago, when we were planning to get married in the month of December, I initially assumed we would honeymoon somewhere tropical like Bali…
Isaiah for everyone - The Servant's Servant
Isaiah for everyone - The Servant's Servant
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Servant’s Servant A few weeks ago I had to preach at the ordination of a friend. She asked me to choose a passage as a Scripture reading from which I would preach. She laughed when I told her it would be the first of these two paragraphs, because (she commented) everyone knew…
Isaiah for everyone - The Unexpected Fall of the Superpower
Isaiah for everyone - The Unexpected Fall of the Superpower
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Unexpected Fall of the Superpower I was born when the British Empire was about to fold. The tide was turning in the Second World War as Britain and its allies were about to defeat Nazi Germany and its allies. Yet in another sense Nazi Germany won, because war left Britain and…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Way of a Man Can Be Strange
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Way of a Man Can Be Strange
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Way of a Man Can Be Strange A newly married couple came to talk to us about a tension within their marriage (as if we were experts, being married for only a year ourselves). The husband is a lively, young man whom his wife regards as handsome…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Wicked Play on Words in a King's Name