SPCK
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Then He Died
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Then He Died
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Then He Died Genesis 5: 1-20 Three years ago, a friend of ours died. When he was about thirty, he developed a brain tumor. He had surgery and recovered, he fell in love, and I preached at his wedding. Then, within weeks the tumor reappeared. He died before he and his bride finish…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - A New Start
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - A New Start
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A New Start Genesis 4: 23-26 Why does anyone want to have a child? A year or so after the birth of our first son, Ann had a miscarriage, and she was deeply grieved about that, as happens especially to a woman (it is easier for a man—at least it was for this man—to shrug his shoul…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Bigamy, Music, Technology, Murder
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Bigamy, Music, Technology, Murder
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Bigamy, Music, Technology, Murder Genesis 4: 18-22 A few weeks ago my wife and I were in an Italian restaurant and jazz club, listening to jazz or blues, and a woman came up and said she was a nurse and was glad to see that I took Ann there, silent and immobile in her wheelchair.…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Mark of Cain
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Mark of Cain
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mark of Cain Genesis 4: 14-17 Our church shows up at a local homeless shelter to make dinner for the residents there once a month or so. Homeless “shelter” could give a false impression. Before I went there, I imagined something rather makeshift, almost like the shelters in w…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Blood Cries Out
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Blood Cries Out
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Blood Cries Out Genesis 4: 10-13 I write the week after bombings and attacks in Mumbai that killed hundreds of people. “This is our 9/11,” many Indians said. They did not merely mean that these were attacks on a vast and savage scale, carried out with unprecedented sophistication…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Why Did It Happen to Me?
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Why Did It Happen to Me?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Why Did It Happen to Me? Genesis 4: 5b-9 I was talking to a woman who was angry with God. It was a strangely unfocused anger. She was a homemaker of the old-fashioned kind. She had been faithful to her husband, and as far as she knew he had been faithful to her. But he was only r…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The First Family, the First Worship, the First Acceptance, the First Rejection
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The First Family, the First Worship, the First Acceptance, the First Rejection
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The First Family, the First worship, the First Acceptance, the First Rejection Genesis 4: 1-5a I once went through quite a long period of time (several years, I think) when God did not seem very real. I didn’t exactly doubt whether God was there; it was just that I didn’t feel Go…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Expulsion and Its Consequences
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Expulsion and Its Consequences
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Expulsion and Its Consequences Genesis 3: 23-24 I was once walking through the seminary campus when I spotted a former student, whom I had known quite well, sitting in a patio area with rather a disconsolate look. When I asked him if he was OK, he replied, “I’ve made a train …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Work Becomes Toil
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Work Becomes Toil
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Work Becomes Toil Genesis 3: 17-22 As I cycle to the seminary to give an evening lecture, I pass a particular bus stop where there are always a number of people waiting for the bus to take them home, and I am always struck by how weary they look. Whatever they have been doing all…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - To Love and to Cherish, to Desire and to Dominate
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - To Love and to Cherish, to Desire and to Dominate
by SPCK - John Goldingay
To Love and to Cherish, to Desire and to Dominate Genesis 3: 16b There is a Jewish story about the first human couple. Often such a Jewish midrash takes up a puzzling aspect of the biblical text and seeks to explain it or imagine something it might imply, using other scriptural m…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Pain of Motherhood
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Pain of Motherhood
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Pain of Motherhood Genesis 3: 14-16a I wrote an e-mail to someone this week and had an astonishing reply which, after the main part of the message, went on, “Oh, by the way. . . .” Actually it didn’t literally say that, but that is how it came across, because the news that fo…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Where Are You?
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Where Are You?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Where Are You? Genesis 3: 4-13 “I can resist everything except temptation.” I am writing on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States. It’s the greatest shopping day of the year, popularly assumed to be called by that name because it’s when stores hope to get …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Creation Asserts Itself
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Creation Asserts Itself
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Creation Asserts Itself Genesis 3: 1-3 A talking snake? But this is a parable, remember. In Julia Bolden’s version of the story, the tempter is a parrot, and God’s ban concerns television; Adam and Eve are not to watch the good and- bad-knowledge channel. A parrot flies in throug…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - This Is It!
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - This Is It!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
This Is It! Genesis 2: 21-25 I once took part in a workshop where students produced dramatic, modern versions of stories in Genesis. The one I most remember was a retelling of Genesis 1 by Julia Bolden. There were a number of neat aspects to the story. It is set in a house instea…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Human Beings as Gardeners
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Human Beings as Gardeners
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Human Beings as Gardeners Genesis 2: 8-14 Where I grew up as a toddler in Birmingham, England, my father grew potatoes. Then, when I was at junior school we had a plum tree, and when I was at secondary school we had two apple trees. When I taught at seminary in Nottingham, I grew…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - To Put It Another Way
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - To Put It Another Way
by SPCK - John Goldingay
To Put It Another Way… Genesis 2: 4b-7 There is a children’s story about Pinocchio, a wooden doll carved from a piece of pine who longs to become a real boy. After a series of adventures that come to a climax with his making a great sacrifice, this eventually happens, and everyon…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Creation Story as a Historical Parable
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Creation Story as a Historical Parable
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Creation Story as a Historical Parable Genesis 2: 4a Once when our sons were young we were driving through northern France, across a plain with a range of mountains in the background. In the back seat our younger son (who was about twelve) started giving a lecture on how thes…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Saturday