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Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday of Advent Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Advent Zephaniah 3.14–20 Philippians 4.4–7 Luke 3.7–18 The new lectionary has hardly begun, and I fear I am going to grumble about it as I did about its predecessor. How will people ever learn that the Bible and its message are politically relevant – that the …
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - A Last Act of Loyalty to Saul
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - A Last Act of Loyalty to Saul
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Last Act of Loyalty to Saul 1 Samuel 30: 1- 31: 13 When I first came to California, students would sometimes ask how long I would be here, thinking it might just be for sabbatical. At first I would reply, “I want to die here,” which was a way of saying, “I am here permanently,”…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Brothers United and Divided
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Brothers United and Divided
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Brothers United and Divided Genesis 25: 7- 22 Not so many years ago, my wife and I were part of a regulation three-generation family. My mother, our only surviving parent, was at the top. We were in the middle. Our sons and their wives were at the bottom. Then, within two years, …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How Our Faithlessness Magnifies God’s Faithfulness
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How Our Faithlessness Magnifies God’s Faithfulness
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Our Faithlessness Magnifies God’s Faithfulness Psalm 106: 1-47 From six thousand miles’ distance I have been astonished to follow the London equivalent to Occupy Wall Street, which has involved protesters camping out at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where I was ordained, near the Lon…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Be a Mixed-up Person
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Be a Mixed-up Person
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Be a Mixed-up Person JUDGES 6:25- 40 This week I asked a group of students what impressions their Christian background had given them about prayer. One of the recurrent themes was that we need to be a bit careful how we talk to God. You don’t complain to God, question God,…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How to Recycle Your Killer Instinct
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How to Recycle Your Killer Instinct
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Recycle Your Killer Instinct 1 Samuel 17: 1- 54 It was the Oscars last weekend (I went to a great jazz concert two blocks away, though I was nearly late because of the road closures in Hollywood), and against the odds, The Hurt Locker beat Avatar (which grossed fifty times…
Psalms for Everyone - Neither Militarist nor Pacifist
Psalms for Everyone - Neither Militarist nor Pacifist
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Neither Militarist nor Pacifist Psalm 68: 19-35 On the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I read an article by a Pakistani titled “Why Do They Hate Us So Much?” It picked up a question people in the United States asked after those attacks but reversed it in light of convict…
Job for Everyone - On Learning From the Past
Job for Everyone - On Learning From the Past
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Learning from the Past Job 8: 1-22 The other Saturday we were sitting in a restaurant by the ocean, and a woman came to talk to us who is a student at the seminary. This particular beach is an hour away, so I asked her if she lived nearby. She explained that she came here on S…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Missing Garlic
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Missing Garlic
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Missing Garlic NUMBERS 11: 1-35 My mother didn’t know about garlic. This is not unreasonable; she had learned to cook in the days when British cooking was boring, before Elizabeth David introduced us to proper cooking (she was our Julia Child) and before immigration from the I…
Job for Everyone - Pastoral Care That Makes the Sufferer's Position Worse
Job for Everyone - Pastoral Care That Makes the Sufferer's Position Worse
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Pastoral Care That Makes the Sufferer’s Position Worse Job 33 1-33 A woman came to see me a little while ago to talk about an occasion when she had been given pastoral care by some people, and she said the occasion had left her disturbed for years. I knew her to be an intelligent…
Job for Everyone - Perish the Day I Was Born
Job for Everyone - Perish the Day I Was Born
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Perish the Day I was Born Job 3: 1-26 I never knew my Uncle Billy, my mother’s younger brother. The year I was born, he was killed in combat in the Second World War in North Africa. I did know my Uncle Ray, the husband of my mother’s older sister, who was also a combat soldier in…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Day of Pentecost Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Day of Pentecost Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Day of Pentecost Genesis 11.1–9 Acts 2.1–21 John 14.8–17 The story of the Tower of Babel continues the theology of sin that is found in Genesis 2 and 3, in the story of the Fall. Eve and Adam’s desire to seize for themselves a knowledge that properly belongs to God alone is at th…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday before Lent Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday before Lent Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday Before Lent Genesis 2.4b–9, 15–25 Revelation 4 Luke 8.22–5 If you go straight from today’s Genesis reading to the reading from Revelation, you could almost imagine that the history of God’s relations with people had been one of unbroken communion. From the intim…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Man Who Has Learned How To Be A Prophet
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - The Man Who Has Learned How To Be A Prophet
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Man Who Has Learned How to Be a Prophet 2 Samuel 12: 1- 15a A pastor once came to talk to me because he had had an affair. He had actually “got away with it.” He thinks his wife never realized, but he knew he had behaved in a way that was both wrong and stupid, and he knew he…
The Living God - Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation
The Living God - Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Creator of heaven and earth 4 Discerning wisdom: works of art and the creation One of my memories of my time as an undergraduate at Wadham College, Oxford, is admiring the portrait of Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) that adorned the panelled walls of the college’s dining hall. I…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and Healing: The New Creation
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and Healing: The New Creation
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
10 Jesus and Healing I wonder if you’ve ever played any part in healing somebody. Have you ever had a role in helping somebody become whole? I don’t mean ‘Have you ever performed a miracle?’ as much as ‘Do you think in terms of healing and behave as if healing were possible?’ Do …
Luke for Everyone - The Magnificat: Mary's Song of Praise
Luke for Everyone - The Magnificat: Mary's Song of Praise
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Magnificat: Mary’s Song of Praise Luke 1.39-56 What would make you celebrate wildly, without inhibition? Perhaps it would be the news that someone close to you who’d been very sick was getting better and would soon be home. Perhaps it would be the news that your country had e…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Love: The Bridge to God's Future