Month: May 2020

The shop was closed when I went this morning. I think I’ll try again later, maybe when it starts raining.

It’s ascension day, and mountains in the cloud are mysterious places. Also they are often wet, and dangerous, and confusing, and a bit downheartening, until the cloud moves away – and that can be amazing. As anyone who has driven over the Pennines will know, cloud and fog are the same thing, really – it’s all about location.

Also, Jesus is around, for you and for me.

It has started raining now, but too soon to try Tesco again.

Living God,
as we walk on through the cloud,
the fog of uncertainty,
we reach out in the gloom
for the hand of Christ.
Guide us, we pray;
guide this world,
show us, through the mist of confusion,
and the smokescreens of deceit,
where justice lies,
and how to make people matter
more than money.

I found a map server which has maps from the mid 20th century (about 1954, because half the houses around where I was brought up are still unbuilt). It comes from ‘National Library of Scotland Historic Maps’ and covers all of Britain (not UK). I can follow old railways that don’t exist any more, and remember a time when footpaths were in black. I remember when the Ordnance Survey first started using colours for rights of way, and how daring and new and exciting I thought it was.

After passing the old hillfort at Mouselow, I took my first walk through a park this morning, and the park was really looking good.

Enough of the past. We must think of the future and start learning lessons now from this pandemic: it won’t be the last.

Overnight my server’s started being stricter with PHP, and it’s found out some of the inadequacies of my coding. So a few things to change this morning, and a bit of tangled logic to disentangle. That’s the problem with programs that ‘just growed’.

Living God, walk with us
when we walk through the shadows,
hold us by the hand
and do not go far from us.

Sunday’s Lectionary contains a piece from John’s Gospel about Jesus glorifying the Father and the Father glorifying Jesus. I guess that ‘glory’ means different things to different people, from ‘Cup Glory’ (not a lot of that this year, sadly), to the glory of an army that’s killed a lot of its enemies, to the glories of nature. For me, it makes me think of a lot of gold-y stuff. But here in the gospel, there’s death, there’s resurrection, there’s the ‘knowing’ between Jesus and the Father and the Spirit of God which is how we can say there is ‘one God’. Jesus has also spoken to his disciples about joining in that ‘knowing’. We can join in with that glorious thing. And when it gets to this point I’m losing it with some of those other images of glory. The ‘victor in battle’ isn’t working any more. Maybe a better word is ‘love’. ‘Love’ can bring glory into real life. It can bring glory into the things we do and the way we treat one another.

Today it rained for short while while I was out for my ‘exercise’. Since I was under trees at the time, I knew it more in the sound than in the wetness. It was good to be rained on.

People as old as I am may remember a radio show called ‘The Goon Show’. There’s a character called Eccles. And someone asks him “what are you doing here?” And he replies, “Everybody’s got to be somewhere”. And the amazing thing about the incarnation of God in Jesus is that he is ‘somewhere’. And that ‘somewhere’ was a male Jewish person in first century Palestine.
When it comes to the Ascension of Jesus, I can’t do better than what I once heard someone say; “Jesus ascended into the everywhere”. That ‘somewhere’ is now ‘everywhere’ and ‘all time’ and free of all bonds of particularity, and here for me, and there for you.

Meanwhile, it’s a fair morning and I’m looking forward to a walk of reasonable length with Janet.

A decent day by the look of it, today. I’ve been indoors, catching up with computer stuff and zooming to worship, which is good. But the delay with the sound means hymn singing is not possible.

God of love,
may the community of Christ
always reflect the love of Christ.

It’s grey and quiet, I found not many people around when I went to the shop. Quite pleasant and calming really.

It seems there’s a few nations trying to steal a march on their competitors by being very liberal about COVID restrictions. The human consequences aren’t very pretty.

God of love, we pray for everyone
whose life has been wrecked by this virus.
We pray for healing of the body, mind and spirit,
and healing in our communal life.
May Jesus Christ be present among us
to help and to heal.

A gentle morning today, with low cloud on the sides of the valley, that came and went. I felt permitted to go a bit further and almost got to Crowden.

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and it was good to see someone doing well out of Coronavirus. The moors are almost empty of visitors, and it’s been the ideal opportunity for shooting estates to get rid of some of those pesky birds of prey. Thank you BBC for that information.

For the cry of the curlew
and the morning sun,
we thank you, O God.

Another sparkling frosty morning, like the one earlier in the week, and quite comfortable without a coat. It feels as if all creation is singing quietly.

“I will not leave you orphaned…” (John 14:18). That slender promise carried the early Christians through all kinds of trouble, persecution, danger and conflict. It can be hard to seize hold of – sometimes we keep it in mind only as a prayer.

Creator God, we praise and thank you
for the changing beauty of nature,
for quiet, cold mornings,
buffeting winds,
refreshing rain.

God-in-Christ, we thank and praise you
for you great love,
perceived through a curtain of tears,
in the echo of a promise,
in the rush of joy
and abundant life.

God the Spirit, we praise and thank you,
Holy Entrepreneur,
seeing opportunities,
making chance meetings,
bringing us together with one another
and with you.

Wonderful God,
we worship you,
now and always.

A bit further this morning, starting just after six. I got as far as Tinsel School Wood and logged three more prayers for the Prayers for Places webpage. It was cloudy with a chilly northeaster at first, but it looks better outside, now I am inside. There were more dog-walkers than I expected first thing, doing the circuit of Bottoms.

It seems the knack of a successful leader is to find somebody to blame when things go wrong – because there are always mistakes, even in the best-regulated set-ups.

I believe it’s God who gives us natural resources. I also believe it’s God who gives us the abilities and energy to make use of those resources, and the abilities to educate one another in these things. So…

We thank you God, for..
water,
electricity,
gas,
sewerage,
the post,
bin collections,
telephones,
broadband,
and for the people who work to provide them.

A clear frosty morning today, with the beginnings of clouds drifting in from the direction of Liverpool Bay. Lawns were sparkly and our car was crusty. It won’t last very long: the sun has already been up for an hour or two, and will climb high into the sky.

From the Lectionary, (1 Peter 3:13-14a) “Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed.”
The writer seems to be thinking on his feet. Nobody will harm you, but even if they do…
What is it to suffer for doing right? Is it to be a whistleblower? Is it to go to your vital work loyally, even if you are underprotected? Is it simply to be honest in walks of life where honesty doesn’t pay? Is it to do civil disobedience, or to take up arms when there’s no alternative? Is it to keep faith? Maybe there are people out there who have their own experiences to share.
And there’s the reverse, what is it to profit by doing wrong, to succeed by lying, or by being careless of other people’s needs, or by leaving justice behind in the rearview mirror of your turbocharged egotism?

God strengthen us
to do what is right,
because it’s hard sometimes,
confusing, and against the grain.
Let our minds be like the mind of Christ.
And may he be with us always,
a friend, a guide, a supporter, a helper.