Month: December 2019

About Sunday’s Lectionary…

Isaiah: Well, this is wacky – ‘your’ Lord, ‘my’ Lord, ‘the’ Lord – what’s all that about – you’ll have to consult a commentary about that! A few things stand out to me, though. One is God’s exasperation about about the people’s refusal to hope. Maybe we too can hope. Are there ways we can understand the story of what is going on in our times differently, and discover some hope? And is that story of hope also about what we can do? And who’s in charge of stories anyway? This is a crucial question in an age of social media, newspapers that are happy to call honest judges ‘traitors’, and ‘post-truth’. Second, no doubt you’ve heard many times that the prophecy is about “the young woman”, rather than a “virgin”. Third, “…before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good…”. We Christians often picture Jesus as perfect, and indeed it is fairly basic to our faith that he embodies God in a human being. But he was once a child – was he perfect then? How can he have known the difference between good and evil at a young age? How can any small child know the difference between good and evil? That knowledge can’t be a single thing anyway, it must be a developing understanding. The grown up Jesus criticises the Pharisees, but they thought they were doing right – as adults. Anyway, this thing about knowing good and evil is not just academic, it makes a difference to lives – see the BBC drama, ‘Responsible Child’. BTW, I fear for the future of the BBC as an impartial force. They too are in charge of the stories, but a voice not so often heard now.

Psalm 80: Here’s verse 6 … “You make us the scorn of our neighbours; our enemies laugh among themselves.” I hate it when that happens – don’t you?

Matthew: Just to note that Joseph doesn’t seem to be a very traditional man – or at least he wouldn’t seem to be in UK culture, and I guess not in first century Palestine either.

Merry Christmas to all my readers … correction … both my readers … correction … to you, Janet!

The Lectionary for Sunday, as we look forward to celebrating the coming of Jesus, is this… https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=3
These readings are full of hope, but at the time of writing it seems very unlikely that there will be any hope in my nation this Sunday. The Magnificat seems particularly misjudged… “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” At a time when the need for food banks is set to go even higher, in what universe can these words possibly come true? Well, lots of people debate this question about what the technical folk call eschatology. But just now, it’s not about debate, it’s about how people can keep on living. I don’t know what to say.

Just keep hoping, that’s all. Keep the hope alive, like that flickering candle flame of Advent. (Not a very carbon-efficient way to illuminate things BTW!)

Newness

Much newness over the last few days. It’s now not uncommon to see deer around dawn or dusk on the Longdendale Trail between Torside Crossing and Torside Car Park. And as we get to canal walks in Greater Manchester, we’ve been using public transport. This is greener and more fun. We’ve been on tram routes we’ve not used before, and we’ve experienced some new trains. (Well, this excites me, anyway). On Saturday, we got a nice surprise as we hopped onto a refurbished 323 at Hadfield. Nice new displays, too, although someone needs to attend to the widow and orphan control (see picture). There’s a thought for the day…

We’ve been on the same train again since, and it always brings out positive comments from people – and there’s plenty of excitement and curiosity about the new big onboard toilet. This is needed because of this. It states “Both sets of regulations require that all rail vehicles must be accessible by no later than 1 January 2020.” But regardless of the law, it is the right thing to do. More excitement as we had our first ride on a 195, coming back from Rochdale on the Leeds to Chester train. Nice inside, but the ride was a bit disappointing (better than a Pacer though), I guess because we were sitting over the bogie and the track was a bit rough.

God of love,
this Advent-time,
we put our faith in you,
we find our hope in Jesus,
a child of dangerous times,
the king of Love,
bringer of healing and forgiveness.

Canals

We’ve walked a number of canals this year, and there’s also been a rash of TV programmes about canals lately. There was one about Bath and a surveyor the other day. So I looked up the map, to remind myself of the lie of the land and found something called “Beckford’s Tower”. Now Beckford is a name like Henry or Pennant, that in my head I associate with people whose families moved from Jamaica, and sure enough, when I looked it up I found that Beckford was a slave-owner. And I read this… “One of my new estates in Jamaica brought me home seven thousand pounds last year more than usual. So I am growing rich and mean to build towers”. Make if this what you will.
I wonder what it feels like to walk around with a name that belongs to your ancestors’ oppressor. Or maybe you can claim it defiantly, saying “we have survived this”, as with the words “christian” or “queer”.