SPCK
Jeremiah for everyone - Bad News or Good News?
Jeremiah for everyone - Bad News or Good News?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Bad News or Good News? It’s possible to be pretty gloomy about the future. Today’s news includes a white gunman killing six Sikh worshipers in a temple in Milwaukee, which other worshipers took as a hate crime reflecting the assumption that people dressed in Sikh fashion were Mus…
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 - 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…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Wicked Play on Words in a King's Name
Jeremiah for everyone - The Wicked Play on Words in a King's Name
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Wicked Play on Words in a King's Name Names often matter. When we married eighteen months ago, I encouraged my wife to keep her name as it was so that in seminary and church circles it signalled that she continued to be a person in her own right and not simply my wife…
Jeremiah for everyone - Cursed Be the Day I Was Born
Jeremiah for everyone - Cursed Be the Day I Was Born
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Cursed Be the Day I Was Born When my first wife’s multiple sclerosis starting taking more of an emotional and mental toll on her (though I don’t think we recognized that this was what was happening), it began to take more of a toll on me, too…
Jeremiah for everyone - Pottery Smashed
Jeremiah for everyone - Pottery Smashed
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Pottery Smashed In Hanoi there’s an embassy that gives visas to people who want to find the bodies of relatives who died in Vietnam’s wars. The family wants to be able to give them a proper burial to avoid their becoming angry ghosts rather than guardian spirits…
Jeremiah for everyone - Clay in the Potter's Hand
Jeremiah for everyone - Clay in the Potter's Hand
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Clay in the Potter's Hand There’s a neat Christian song that expresses our commitment to being “clay in the potter’s hand.” It’s a suggestive image. It means that we are malleable, open to being formed into what God wants us to be…
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”?…
Jeremiah for everyone - Your Marriage Isn't Your Own
Jeremiah for everyone - Your Marriage Isn't Your Own
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Your Marriage Isn't Your Own I’ve mentioned my first wife’s illness, which was a dominant feature of our marriage for most of its forty-two years. If I’d wanted to separate Ann’s illness from my work, I couldn’t have done so…
Jeremiah for everyone - I Don't Trust You
Jeremiah for everyone - I Don't Trust You
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Don't Trust You In the latter years of my first wife’s life, from time to time I’d attempt to confront God about the way she was increasingly affected by her multiple sclerosis. God was inclined to be equally confrontational in his response (I could get away with a cry of pain …
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 - How Do You Get People to Change?
Jeremiah for everyone - How Do You Get People to Change?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Do You Get People to Change? In the 1960s a man called Arthur Blessitt moved from Louisiana to Hollywood in order to preach to hippies, runaways, addicts, bikers, prostitutes, flower children, and would-be actors and rock stars; he became known as the minister of Sunset Strip…
Jeremiah for everyone - Why Do the Faithless Do Well?
Jeremiah for everyone - Why Do the Faithless Do Well?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Why Do the Faithless Do Well? In connection with Jeremiah’s opening chapter, I mentioned a “How” question in connection with disability. There’s also a “Why” question. My first wife was wheelchair-bound and unable to do anything for herself for the last twelve years of her life…
Jeremiah for everyone - No Shrugging of God’s Shoulders
Jeremiah for everyone - No Shrugging of God’s Shoulders
by SPCK - John Goldingay
No Shrugging of God’s Shoulders Christians sometimes think that Jews believe they’re “justified by works.” I just came across a quotation from a Jewish commentary on Exodus from a thousand years ago, which undermines that assumption. Why do the Ten Commandments not appear at the …
Jeremiah for everyone - On Facing Reality
Jeremiah for everyone - On Facing Reality
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Facing Reality We were doing our monthly stint serving dinner at a homeless shelter last night, and I got to talk to one of the residents. She’d had a successful and lucrative career in the movie business and lived in a house in Malibu…
Jeremiah for everyone - Does God Really Punish?