Times and Seasons - Prayers for Eucharist
Times and Seasons - Prayers for Eucharist
by Jan Berry
PRAYERS FOR EUCHARIST INVITATION Come to this table where God invites you to wait for the pain and hope of new life embodied in human birth. Come to this table where God invites you to wait for the fragments to be gathered and brokenness to be held. Continues... concludes with a …
Psalms for Everyone - GLOSSARY
Psalms for Everyone - GLOSSARY
by SPCK - John Goldingay
GLOSSARY aide A supernatural agent through whom God may appear and work in the world. Standard English translations refer to such agents as “angels,” but this term suggests ethereal winged figures wearing diaphanous white dresses. Aides are humanlike figures; hence it is possible…
Psalms for Everyone - I Whistle a Happy Tune
Psalms for Everyone - I Whistle a Happy Tune
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Whistle a Happy Tune Psalm 56 During the past few days people on the East Coast of the United States have been living through Hurricane Irene, which the media report to be among the top ten most costly disasters in U.S. history. As the Rock River rose on Sunday morning in Willi…
Psalms for Everyone - How to Deal with Unfulfilled Promises
Psalms for Everyone - How to Deal with Unfulfilled Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Deal with Unfulfilled Promises Psalm 60 Yesterday in church the Gospel reading from Matthew 18 included Jesus’ promise that where two people agree on anything, our heavenly Father will do it for them. Yet lots of people have the experience of God’s not doing something that…
Psalms for Everyone - A Challenge to the Principalities and Powers
Psalms for Everyone - A Challenge to the Principalities and Powers
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Challenge to the Principalities and Powers Psalm 58 A New Year event called the Rose Parade passes our house, and this year the organizers were in a state of panic about possible demonstrations designed to disturb it and make waves on TV. Here as in European cities and a number…
Psalms for Everyone - How to Be Immoderate
Psalms for Everyone - How to Be Immoderate
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Be Immoderate Psalm 59 People just down our street are incensed. There’s an affordable housing project whose residents are incensed because it has become a base for drug dealers and a locus of conflicts between local gangs. City officials and city police are incensed becau…
Psalms for Everyone - When the Knock Comes to Your Door
Psalms for Everyone - When the Knock Comes to Your Door
by SPCK - John Goldingay
When the Knock Comes to Your Door Psalm 64 I was just checking the U.S. State Department’s current travel warnings, a list of places where “long-term, protracted conditions that make a country dangerous or unstable lead the State Department to recommend that Americans avoid or co…
Psalms for Everyone - How to Pray with Your Leader
Psalms for Everyone - How to Pray with Your Leader
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Pray with Your Leader Psalm 61 During a recent presidential election, a spoof organization called the American Institute of Mentality published the findings of a research project on the question “Why would anyone run for president?” Their conclusion was that presidential c…
Poem/Meditation-A day to remember
Poem/Meditation-A day to remember
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem/Meditation : A day to remember? Remember a birth, insignificant coming, disruption, taxation, migration, not homing; except to a stable or some say a cave, foreshadow of future, too imminent grave. This is the day, but three years yet onward. Our dates mix and muddle, confus…
Psalms for Everyone - They're Trying to Wash Us Away
Psalms for Everyone - They're Trying to Wash Us Away
by SPCK - John Goldingay
They’re Trying to Wash Us Away Psalm 31 Last night we went to a concert by the great honky-tonk/blues singer Marcia Ball, who grew up in Louisiana. Her closing song was Randy Newman’s unbearably moving “Louisiana.” The song describes how the Mississippi River rose all day and all…
Psalms for Everyone - They Hated Me without a Reason; They Will Treat You the Same
Psalms for Everyone - They Hated Me without a Reason; They Will Treat You the Same
by SPCK - John Goldingay
They Hated Me Without a Reason; They Will Treat You the Same Psalm 35 It’s amusing that many of the nastier parts of the Old Testament don’t seem to raise a problem for Jesus in the way they raise a problem for Western people; it helps us see that our niceness has nothing to do w…
Psalms for Everyone - God's Commitment Fills the Earth
Psalms for Everyone - God's Commitment Fills the Earth
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God’s Commitment Fills the Earth Psalm 33 Yesterday we went to the beach. It was a foolish venture because it was an August Saturday; I forgot that everyone else would have the same idea and that the parking would be impossible, but in the late afternoon we finally sat on the san…
Psalms for Everyone - On Living in Two Different Worlds
Psalms for Everyone - On Living in Two Different Worlds
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Living in Two Different Worlds Psalm 36 The governor of Texas recently held a prayer rally that aroused the ire of people who believed he was transgressing the boundary between church and state, and it also aroused the fascinated incomprehension of commentators. One remarked t…
Psalms for Everyone - How to Be Codependent
Psalms for Everyone - How to Be Codependent
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Be Codependent Psalm 20 In our church we are in the midst of accepting that we can no longer afford a full-time rector. As a result I am becoming the only priest involved with the church on a regular basis, presiding at services and preaching except on occasions when I ask…
Psalms for Everyone - Go On, Look into My Heart
Psalms for Everyone - Go On, Look into My Heart
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Go on, Look into My Heart Psalm 17 From time to time my wife asks me what I’m thinking. She has to do so because whereas she instinctively tells me what she’s thinking, I’m not good at doing so. But it’s a potentially scary question. Occasionally I might be thinking something tha…
Psalms for Everyone - Sometimes God Speaks
Psalms for Everyone - Sometimes God Speaks
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sometimes God Speaks Psalm 12 Before coming to the United States to resume being an ordinary professor, I was principal of a theological college in England, a position that is a cross between being president, provost, and dean of a U.S. seminary, but on a much smaller scale. I ha…
Psalms for Everyone - Flee or Stay?