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Jeremiah for everyone - Another Wicked Play on Words
Jeremiah for everyone - Another Wicked Play on Words
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Another Wicked Play on Words For a while I was the faculty representative on the president’s cabinet in our seminary, which means I had to get up early once a month for a meeting of people in the administration to discuss big policy questions (but not so much their ongoing implem…
Isaiah for everyone - Choose Your Ending
Isaiah for everyone - Choose Your Ending
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Choose Your Ending There’s a classic movie called The French Lieutenant’s Woman, set in nineteenth-century England, that tells of a tortuous relationship in which a man is powerfully drawn to a woman who hardly belongs to his class and when he is already committed to marrying som…
Isaiah for Everyone - Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem
Isaiah for Everyone - Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Meanwhile, Back in Jerusalem I have just come off the phone from a conversation with a former student in England who was in tears about failing a degree program. She doesn’t claim that her exam performance was brilliant; she sees herself as a poor examinee. But she doesn’t think …
Jeremiah for everyone - Lucky Figs and Unlucky Figs
Jeremiah for everyone - Lucky Figs and Unlucky Figs
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Lucky Figs and Unlucky Figs We walked past a supermarket last night and marveled at the size of the truck delivering produce, and we wondered how quickly the supermarket would empty if there were a big earthquake (answer: about two hours)…
Jeremiah for everyone - Who Am I?
Jeremiah for everyone - Who Am I?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Who Am I? In a poem he wrote in prison, on his way to being executed by the Nazis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked the question, “Who am I?” Am I one person today, and tomorrow, another? Do I look brave to other people, though before myself I’m “a contemptibly woebegone weakling”?…
Psalms for Everyone - From Birth through Youth to MIddle Age and Old Age
Psalms for Everyone - From Birth through Youth to MIddle Age and Old Age
by SPCK - John Goldingay
From Birth through Youth to Middle Age and Old Age Psalm 71 Several people in our church are in their eighties or nineties, and yesterday several things made me think about the lifelong nature of their following Christ. The Gospel passage was Jesus’ story about laborers getting t…
Psalms for Everyone - The Mystery of Sin
Psalms for Everyone - The Mystery of Sin
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mystery of Sin Psalm 19 One of the Christians I know who have had affairs had three such relationships and got away with two without anyone knowing. Then some people discovered about the third (I don’t know what his wife might have suspected), which was how he came to be talk…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Restore Us Again
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Restore Us Again
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Restore Us Again Psalm 85 It is easy for me as a Brit to be resentful of the U.S. media’s critiques of Britain and Europe. “Why do they think it’s their business to criticize when the United States can’t solve its own problems?” I wonder. “Are the British media so critical of the…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How to End the Day
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How to End the Day
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to End the Day Psalm 133-134 When my wife and I got married fifty-one weeks ago, we discovered the Episcopal Prayer Book’s “Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families,” four one-page sets of psalms, Scripture readings, and prayers that you can use when you wake up, at lunch…
Praying for Jerusalem, Praying for Grace
Praying for Jerusalem, Praying for Grace
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Praying for Jerusalem, Praying for Grace Psalm 122-123 When people would ask me what I expected to miss about leaving England to move to the United States, I would say that one of the main things was proximity to Israel. From London I could get there in four hours or so, and I us…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Yes, Yahweh Has Begun to Reign
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Yes, Yahweh Has Begun to Reign
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Yes, Yahweh Has Begun to Reign Psalm 96 Today’s news includes a report about forces in Yemen firing on people protesting the government and killing some of them. In Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan soldiers have faced sharply increased attacks by insurgents from their base in Pakista…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Will You Just Shut Up and Listen?
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Will You Just Shut Up and Listen?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Will You Just Shut Up and Listen? Psalm 95 One of the most formative experiences of my life was being a chorister in the choir at the cathedral in my home city in England. I learned to sing and to read and write music, and I wouldn’t have become a music freak except for that expe…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Sacred Space, Sacred Acts, and Sacred Sound
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Sacred Space, Sacred Acts, and Sacred Sound
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Sacred Space, Sacred Acts, and Sacred Sound Psalm 99-100 Yesterday I received what initially seemed a puzzling invitation to a weekly, early-morning prayer meeting, described as “sacred space for a variety of prayer traditions.” It seemed puzzling because I always thought of s…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Bring Back! Come Back!
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Bring Back! Come Back!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Bring Back! Come Back! Psalm 80 It’s nearly three hundred years since the First Great Awakening, a revival of religious life in Britain and even more in the British colonies in America a few decades before the War of Independence. This First Great Awakening was mostly a movement …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Promise of a Poisoned Chalice
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Promise of a Poisoned Chalice
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Promise of a Poisoned Chalice Psalm 75 The news today tells of two men called Abu Elias and Robert who were interviewed as they sat at the bottom of the stairs of the Convent of Our Lady of Saydnaya, a city high in the mountains north of Damascus. It is one of the few communi…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Thine Is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Thine Is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Thine Is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory Psalm 145 A student once asked me why the Lord’s Prayer is so different from the prayers in the Psalms, which characteristically cry out to God and issue protests to God because of people’s urgent needs. I wasn’t sure, but in due cou…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Praise of God, the Eternal Creator, Is Finished and Completed