Month: March 2020

Someone I used to know at university had a very powerful and expressive way with words when he was frustrated, especially at table football. One of his favourites was “Christ on a bicycle”. Maybe a bicycle is the twenty first century equivalent of the donkey on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem. The ‘humble’ symbolism of Palm Sunday is a bit undermined by the fact that the deed was done – and the story was told – intentionally to reflect prophesies about the King. If Jesus was the king, he was at least the people’s king, travelling like an ordinary person. He was for a day or two anyway, until his support drained away.
I was pleased to hear that for the duration of this pandemic, bicycle shops are considered essential – it’s a serious form of transport. It’s also a Christian form of transport, a kingdom form of transport, which considers the needs of others and of the planet above one’s own ego. “Blessed are the meek”, says Jesus. And, FWIW, despite the fact that you have to share the road with some people who drive like ani, your bike will help you to live longer.
This bike picture is from 2013. I haven’t ridden since July 2018, which seems to help my knees. I’m hoping to get started again gently, now we’re here, and when we’re allowed out a bit more.

Funny word, ‘essential’. It seems to mean now what it ought to mean, but for most of the recent past, you’d have been able to read it in the Sunday supplements describing things that were the opposite of essential.

God bless you in all you do,
in your looking out and your staying in,
in happiness and mourning,
in your fearfulness and in your hope.
May God bless you beyond your dreams
and beyond your knowledge.

Janet’s prediction is coming true. I’ve seen the disease described online as ‘Corvid-19’. Covid is a new word, so I guess some spellcheckers have corrected it to Corvid.

Prayer..
We pray for the people who are now in more danger
from domestic violence,
confined at home with their abusers.
God, protect them we pray.
Lord, in your mercy…
…hear our prayer.

God protect all people from this virus,
and give strength and wisdom
to those who are working so hard
to protect us all.
Lord, in your mercy…
…hear our prayer.

Comfort those who mourn,
give hope to the fearful,
and remember all people
who do not have the advantages
of wealth and health.
When the aftermath comes
and we reflect,
help us remember the priorities of your Kingdom.
Lord, in your mercy…
…hear our prayer.

Palm Sunday Prayer…
God give us more faith:
not the noisy faith of the ever-changing crowds,
but the slow, hard, long faith
that walks with Jesus all the way.
Lord, in your mercy…
…hear our prayer.

Pleasant weather today for a walk. So we went from A to A via the reservoirs: bit of a chilly breeze though.

This epidemic has caused an inversion of values – using public transport is now possibly antisocial for a spell* – but I can’t yet bring myself to drive everywhere. Maybe there’s not that many journeys I need to make.

* Quite a long spell, more than likely. Not sure at the moment how it impacts our walking plans for later in the spring.

All three of our family have walked from Land’s End to John o’Groats, all in different years and with variations of route. There are a lot of photographs, and some of them are of the same place, taken years apart. I’ve been tagging such photos with Google’s help, and there’s a kind of mysterious pleasure in noting that a little wayside place that was logged 17 years ago was logged again more recently; like the padlock, which once was locked, but was open seven years later, or signs that have aged – or been renewed, or a parish notice board that’s changed, or the picture of a hemp leaf that’s mysteriously disappeared from a communications hut. Also it makes me think of Psalm 139. Not sure why.

Maybe it’s because these very different journeys, years apart, are connected by these things which are very small, very specific, in a very big landscape. They are in some way ‘special’.

The readings are here.
Genesis – we used to think it was all in the genes.
Psalm 121 – here’s a photo on a hilltop overlooking the M62 and South Pennines…

Romans 4 – it’s not all in the genes after all, but even underlying that old story is a meme – [the Good News that leads to] faith.
John 3 – being part of the kingdom of God is not about who you are born as in the conventional way (genes), but about being born “from above” or “of the Spirit” (meme), belief in Christ, the ‘word’ of God. All people can be part of the story.
Matthew 17 – depending on how you run the Christian year, this Sunday could be ‘Persil Day’ instead of a couple of weeks ago.

To pray about…
We have seen fire, floods, disease, often considered to be acts of God. But they are all connected with our twenty first century habits. Please pray especially for people who are vulnerable to these impacts.

Went into Manchester yesterday to watch a steam train climbing the bank between Manchester Victoria and Miles Platting. Amazing sound as the Stanier Jubilee tugged its load up the hill. I could hear that something was going on before I could even see it in the distance…

…And that thing I remember from childhood of a column of smoke and steam momentarily getting snuffed out, then reappearing on the other side of the bridge. Then I walked back to Ashton under Lyne for the bus…