SPCK
glimpses of glory - Christmas Day - Year C
glimpses of glory - Christmas Day - Year C
by SPCK - David Adam
Christmas Day Almighty Father, we rejoice in the coming of Christ our Lord. We pray that, as he has taken on our humanity, through your grace and goodness we may share in your divinity, and so partake in the radiance of your glory; through him who came down for us and is alive an…
Isaiah for everyone - Our Ideas and Plans, and God’s
Isaiah for everyone - Our Ideas and Plans, and God’s
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Our Ideas and Plans, and God’s This morning we had the last regular seminary chapel of the year, the last regular seminary chapel ever for people who were graduating. The preacher was an eighty-year-old retired professor who told us stories about his experience at that stage of h…
Isaiah for everyone - A Time to Cry and a time to Whoop
Isaiah for everyone - A Time to Cry and a time to Whoop
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Time to Cry and a Time to Whoop We had dinner with a young couple a few months ago and were delighted to discover that they were expecting their first baby. It was not their first pregnancy; the wife had had a miscarriage last year. I remember how distressing it was when my fir…
Isaiah for everyone - The Man Who Kept His Mouth Shut
Isaiah for everyone - The Man Who Kept His Mouth Shut
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Man Who Kept His Mouth Shut I just came across a comment someone made when my first wife died five years ago. “We are forever grateful that she paid the price of her discipleship.” She “stands tall” among people who have “worked for our comfort and edification . . . Her direc…
Isaiah for everyone - Beautiful Feet
Isaiah for everyone - Beautiful Feet
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Beautiful Feet My feet went all nasty a few years ago in Jerusalem. Visiting Jerusalem was the only occasion when I got to wear sandals continually for two weeks, and the skin on my heels frayed. One result was that it became impossible to keep them clean…
Isaiah for everyone - On Following God’s Prompting
Isaiah for everyone - On Following God’s Prompting
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Following God’s Prompting We were at a singer-songwriter venue and the singer’s last song was about her mother’s death two or three years ago. The song title referred to the year of her mother’s birth, which was the same birth year of someone who was with us. She later told us…
Isaiah for everyone - Can a Mother Forget?
Isaiah for everyone - Can a Mother Forget?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Can a Mother Forget? At a party, I overheard a mother talking to her daughter who is soon to have a baby, about how it would be to look after the baby, and about how it had been for the mother herself in relation to her daughter. The mother had gone back to work soon after her da…
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 - If only...
Isaiah for everyone - If only...
by SPCK - John Goldingay
If Only… I was talking this week to a student who told me that his wife had left him. They had been married for five years and she had discovered he was addicted to porn; I don’t know how he had kept it secret for so long. I don’t know, and he doesn’t know, if this is the end of …
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…
Isaiah for everyone - Gods You Have to Carry and the God Who Carries You
Isaiah for everyone - Gods You Have to Carry and the God Who Carries You
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Gods You Have to Carry and the God Who Carries You We had Mother’s Day dinner yesterday with some Jews and some Roman Catholics and some agnostics. The agnostics thought that if you need the prop of faith in something in order to keep you going, fine, but if you can live your lif…
The Womens' Bible Commentary - Jerusalem’s Fall and Future