Month: January 2021

Pleasant morning today, with some sunshine. Nevertheless, our little, minimal-energy, coloured LEDs will be on until Candlemas.

God of everything,
who emptied yourself in Jesus
for love of the world;
we pray for all who empty themselves for love and service,
especially for all workers in the NHS,
for relatives and friends and grocery-shoppers,
delivery drivers, order pickers and soldiers,
food bank people, emergency services and politicians and many more.
We pray for COVID patients, and for others
whose treatment is interrupted,
and for all who live in fear.
Living God, in the time of emptiness,
give just the one more piece of hope we pray,
to keep on loving.

A short walk before dawn this morning, with the bright snow on either side to guide my path, and everywhere the roar of the Etherow coming down the steps by the dam.

Mercifully, as far as I can tell, it seems the rain has been too long-term to flood Hebden Bridge. But other places are flooded or close.

Please pray for people whose homes or businesses have flooded,
those who fear flooding,
those who are struggling to know what to do for the best
as the floods come in a time of social distancing.

‘1:16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea–for they were fishermen.
1:17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
1:18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.’
(Mark’s Gospel)

Fishing isn’t easy. It’s a dangerous task and sometimes there is no reward at the end of it. And then you’ve got to sell the fish – and markets are subject to all kinds of problems – and they can get messed up by the arrogance of people with ‘bigger fish to fry’.

Neither is evangelism easy. It’s not as if you just go out there and haul in massive nets bulging with tons of the silver darlings. You have to speak out of the truth of what you have discovered about God, and listen to the truth of what your interlocutor has discovered. Sometimes there is no meeting. Sometimes the truth hurts, and you could have been way more successful peddling a lie. I think I’m what they call a ‘critical realist’. There is such a thing as truth, and we approach it, but always being open to changing our minds. The Bible helps – it’s a wonderful repository of people’s experiences of God – but it also takes work.

But there is good news I believe. God loves the world. God cares about people in poverty (although that may sound less like good news to some). God is aching to give us another chance. God has come into our world in that human being Jesus.

God of love,
in a time of conflict and mourning,
we lift up our voices to you.
We ask for healing, for peace.
We ask you to show us again
what your good news means for our generation.

By the words I say,
by the listening I do,
by your love at work in the world,
may a new hope, a new life,
come to people known and unknown.

God of justice and mercy,
God who calls us to walk humbly with you,
we pray for America today,
that healing and hope may come.

I don’t know whether it’s borne out by the words, but my early memories of church left me with an impression of singing hymns about the idyllic days of Jesus and his disciples wandering around Galilee and everyone being happy. But in Sunday’s Lectionary, the Mark reading starts like this… “Now after John was arrested…” Jesus lived in a cruel world, with dangerous political cross-currents. (And Judaea can’t have been so unconnected with Galilee.) If the good news of God and the love of Christ can survive in that world, they can survive anywhere.

It’s raining here quite heavily: I’m not going anywhere. Of course I would if I had to, but I don’t so I shan’t. Please continue to pray for people whose homes and businesses, fields and streets lie in flood-prone areas. Please pray for a beginning to the end of human-caused global climate change.

Janet pointed me to this yesterday. There’s a lot of Christians (in the UK as well as the US) who will gladly categorise those they disagree with, so as to exclude them… “For what I have come to see is exactly the point Jemar Tisby makes, that language like feminist and CRT can quickly become markers of core identity when they are used as tools of exclusion.” (my italics) …and then the label sticks.

No not the late Stephen Hawking’s book, which I have, but have not read all of… I couldn’t really understand it – somehow I was hoping for more equations to anchor the words.

…but next Sunday’s Lectionary. The word ‘time’ appears in all four readings in the English translation. Scholars of Hebrew and Greek will no doubt point out that the English ‘time’ is the translation of several different ideas. And indeed the word does different things in these readings. But it is also a common thread of sorts.

In Jonah 3:1, we read… “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time…” Read the story and you find that God’s message changes. It’s one thing one time, and something else another time. Later on, Jonah has just steeled himself to proclaim Nineveh’s destruction, when God sees hope in Nineveh’s behaviour and decides to spare the city. And Jonah’s not keen on being messed about like this. So? Well, consider it possible that God’s message adapts to the circumstances. The fundamentals are always there – love, justice, mercy – but what God wants to say to the first Christian communities in their world may sound different when targeted at people like us in our world. There are times to say one thing and times to say something else.

Psalm 62:8 “Trust in him at all times, O people…”, the Psalmist goes on to compare faith in God to putting your trust in transient things like wealth. God may speak differently to different circumstances (above), but is always to be trusted.

1 Corinthians 7:29… “I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short…” The appointed time, the pivotal moment is coming. There are turning points in history. Some of the very first Christians had already witnessed this in the life of Jesus, and there was unfinished business. It may look different to us 2000 years later, but there is still unfinished business from the life of Jesus, to be done in the life of Jesus within and among us.

And according to Mark 1:15, Jesus says… “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” The time is fulfilled – this is the moment -and the moment has come with the arrival of Jesus back in Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. And he is calling people to join him (he still is BTW). This is (0,0,0,0).

Walking. I walked in the showers this morning, because the bad news is that the next two mornings look like being properly wet and I probably shan’t go out. Please continue to pray for Calderdale and for settlements in other parts of the warning area and downriver too.

Mild this morning, no ice, no rain, not much wind. Good for walking. So did a longer stroll this morning and felt better for it. Put a face covering on to offset the feeling I’d be out for perhaps a little too long. Came back to ‘go to’ a zoom service, which was helpful. One of high edges above the valley had a white line along it – an old snowdrift.

From today’s Lectionary, we read at 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Shun fornication!” … I seem to remember that generally speaking, fornication shunned me.

Please pray for peace and justice in the USA.

Postscript: Not so good now. Just seen the warning area for next week’s rain and we’re right in the middle. More importantly, it also includes Calderdale. Please pray for Calderdale, for Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Luddendendfoot and all the other settlements in the valley. May they be spared this time.

PPS: Since the expected rain is to be spread out over two days, maybe the upstream places like Hebden Bridge will be OK this time, I’m hoping. Meanwhile, for anyone mystified about why people are still dying in such large numbers and why the virus is still spreading, look here for one of the reasons. Just the kind of attitudes that have been upheld for decades.

Lazy morning so far. Went to newsagent and bakers, came back and we tried to think of Crossword Compiler Names for each other and various other folk.

Still raining. But not icy: hurrah.

Frosty again this morning, so walking probably antisocial, given the chance of damaging a body part and using up hospital resources. Instead I attempted some pastries. Not very successful, but at least not dangerous to eat. The ingredients which should have been doing the delicious dance of togetherness had instead chosen to separate.

From this Sunday’s Lectionary... According to John’s gospel, Jesus comes to Philip and says, “follow me”. He doesn’t tell him, “do what I say”, but “follow me”. Now Jesus calls many people, you and me, to follow him and embark on a shared journey. That’s something to think about. Another thing to think about is what kind of leadership Jesus is showing, by saying “follow me”; it only works if the leader sets an example and shares the journey to which she’s inviting people. How many times have we been told, in effect, “don’t do what we do, do what we say”. We may still do what we’re told, because we know for other reasons that it’s right, but we do it with a heavy heart. Jesus is not that kind of leader – he says “follow me”.

My morning walks have been getting shorter lately – don’t really want to be outside. And this morning I started earlier to avoid other people. It was raining. The front gate was icy. And sure enough, there were some patches on the footway of that dangerous kind of ice you get when supercooled rain falls on wet ground. So back I came, the shortest walk of the lot.