Month: July 2021

I like rain as part of a varied diet of weather. Maybe we’ve got used to the changes of the weather. There are probably people out there who have seen the evidence and know the answer to this – but I have an impression (no more) that part of climate change for the UK is an increasing tendency for weather patterns to get stuck (although having said that, the most notorious bit of stuckness in my lifetime was way back in the winter of 1962/63).

If my vague impression were true, then we might be in for more long spells of wet or dry, which would not be good news for farmers or anybody really.

Everyone has some kind of inheritance; maybe and maybe not money, but also biological inheritance, cultural inheritance, memories of the way our father or mother or auntie or grandparent did things, or said things, things that have filtered through into our lives. Some people’s inheritance is quite meagre, though; one thinks, “what have I got, what history am I part of?”

Inheritance is a big deal in Judaism. In Sunday’s Lectionary, the writer of the letter to the Ephesians says that inheritance is a big deal for Christians too – not in the traditional way, but through Christ and the community of his people. Disinherited and disenfranchised people, the outsiders and people on the margins, can be something now, in Christ.

In next Sunday’s Lectionary, there are stories about David and about John the Baptist. They both annoyed powerful people as a consequence of their faith (it’s two powerful daughters in the stories, but if the politics of the Holy Land was anything like current Westminster politics, there may be some blame management going on here).

What do we do when our faith brings us into conflict with the rich and powerful? Maybe we sometimes lack even the imagination to see where God is leading us, and such conflicts don’t come up very much. May God give us guidance and strength.

The government is ‘consulting’ on its plans for charging people in their early to mid 60’s for prescriptions. I looked up how much it was (it was £6 or £7 the last time I had to pay). It is now £9.35 per item. I wonder if anyone in government has any conception of just how much money £9.35 is.

In a few months, E10 car fuel will be available. This is both good and bad;- good, because it means we burn a fraction less fossil fuel, replacing it with fuel from a plant source; and bad because the resources given to growing this fuel crop could have been used to feed human beings. So it’s hard to know what to choose. As a binary choice, this stinks. But maybe there are other options. A different mode of transport – or a car fuelled by electricity from renewable sources for instance. I’m reminded of Jesus weighing in to the old controversy about whether to worship God in Jerusalem or on the Mountain, by saying worship in spirit and truth.

God help us with difficult choices-
may we be wise,
may we have the imagination
to see things a different way.
May we be inspired by your spirit.
Be with us as we struggle
with what to do next.

When water is actually blue, it becomes a news item. Look downwards on most areas of water, and most of what you see is the darkness at the bottom. (I’m guessing that Google Maps colours in large bodies of water with blue for clarity). Some waters bring down pale blue stuff from higher up, especially coming from glaciers that are wearing away the rock. Our local reservoirs look as dark as peat – or darker- on Google. If the water is shallow enough, you might see a colour more similar to its bed.

But when you look at a slanty angle, you see better reflections – and if the sky is blue the water might look bluer. Memories of blue waters are likely also to be memories of blue sky and fair weather.

Myself, I quite like the sea, that greyish whooshing mass in constant motion under the grey windy sky. It’s all part of God’s creation.

The same sun that blesses us,
and makes the plants grow,
also bears down on Canada
with suffocating heat.
The same rain that the dry lands
cry out for,
also brings boulders
tumbling down the riverbed
and crashing into houses.
Living God, in your complicated
and beautiful world,
help us be gentle
with the Goldilocks
atmosphere,
and understand it more.