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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Mouth of the Faithful Person is Fruitful
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Mouth of the Faithful Person is Fruitful
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Mouth of the Faithful Person is Fruitful I rode to my mother’s funeral with our rector, who told me a funny, poignant story about her. Being a mother, she had an exaggerated sense of her son’s significance…
Jeremiah for everyone - The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest
Jeremiah for everyone - The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Perilous Position of Prophet and Priest Today we had a bumper crop of birthdays to celebrate at church; I was tempted to ask people to stand up if they were not having a birthday this week. As a wondrous coincidence, the Gospel reading was the story of a birthday party…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Secret of Life Is...
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Secret of Life Is...
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Secret of Life Is… We were in a bar last night to listen to a band playing blues. Behind and alongside us were people who at 8:30 were already rather the worse for wear. My wife commented that you could find some of these same people here every night…
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…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Things Complicated and Back to Front
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Things Complicated and Back to Front
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Things Complicated and Back to Front The time of our move to the United States in 1997 happened to be the moment when my disabled first wife, Ann, became totally wheelchair-bound. When I had been offered a job here a few months previously, she could still get about a little with …
Jeremiah for everyone - Things can only get worse
Jeremiah for everyone - Things can only get worse
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Things Can Only Get Worse As a newly ordained minister I was required to take part in “post-ordination training,” irreverently known as “potty training.” It’s no criticism of it that decades later I remember little about it, but I do have one vivid memory…
Isaiah for everyone - Three Ways a Prophet Speaks
Isaiah for everyone - Three Ways a Prophet Speaks
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Three Ways a Prophet Speaks It’s Pentecost Sunday. I came home from church with some mixed feelings. There were fewer people in church than usual (it happens also to be a holiday weekend), but the day had a sense of celebration, including red balloons flying from the pews. People…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Under the Sun, Where Randomness Rules
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Under the Sun, Where Randomness Rules
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Under the Sun, Where Randomness Rules There will be no remembering on their part, among the people who will be after them. I noted in connection with Proverbs 11 that I am inclined to think that nothing I do has any effect…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Yahweh Tests Minds
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Yahweh Tests Minds
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Yahweh Tests Minds A year after we came to California, one Sunday evening my son called to tell us that they had just had their first child on Monday morning in London. When Monday morning came in California, I rushed to book an air ticket to go back to London for the next weeken…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Yahweh's Name Is a Refuge
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Yahweh's Name Is a Refuge
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Yahweh's Name Is a Refuge We recently went for nine days to a country we had not previously visited. For some time beforehand, my wife was apprehensive because she had a sense that demonic spirits were active in this country. Kathleen doesn’t often talk in these terms, and neithe…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - You Could Suddenly Break, and There Could Be No Healing
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - You Could Suddenly Break, and There Could Be No Healing
by SPCK - John Goldingay
You Could Suddenly Break, and There Could Be No Healing The news is full of the story of a soldier in the U.S. army who ran amok and killed sixteen people in Afghanistan. When we discussed it at our Lent group last night as we prayed a psalm for him and for his victims, one of th…
Isaiah for everyone - A Politician’s One Fatal Mistake
Isaiah for everyone - A Politician’s One Fatal Mistake
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Politician’s One Fatal Mistake When I was the principal of a seminary, I would get lots of mail. Usually my assistant would open it, but on Saturday I would do so, and thus would get first sight of the tricky pieces of correspondence, ones that raised worrying issues or asked q…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Discipline Your Teenagers If You Can
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Discipline Your Teenagers If You Can
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Discipline Your Teenagers If You Can A mother recently told me how Christian parenting experts had urged her to start spanking her children; some said to continue only until the children become verbal, others at any sign of willful rebellion regardless of age…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Even in Laughter a Heart May Hurt