Author: bob

You can’t really see it on this picture, but today’s walk in the early morning felt like walking through a watercolour painting that had been left in a steamy bathroom for too long. Subtly misty. It began to look less fascinating as full daylight arrived, the cloud becoming confined to the tops.

Also, good news: tomorrow is the darkest evening of the year. From then onwards, sunset is getting later. Hooray!

This Omicron variant is troubling. It spreads fast, but we won’t know whether or not it’s relatively harmless until it’s too late to take precautions. The Conservative right want to wait and see before taking precautions. The problem seems to be that (a) they have no understanding of how exponential growth works, or (b) when they were children their parents always got them out of trouble when they made mistakes, or (c) they don’t really care about anybody.

I’m glad to see that the government has taken at least some action. And I’ll always try to do the right thing – but it’s unsettling that I’ll be getting no moral support from the current government – who don’t seem to have any commitment to being careful themselves.

Besides which, I’ve always felt uneasy about being part of an economy which is so heavily biased towards services. We consume loads of stuff – can we not also make more things?

Faithful God,
lead us we pray through these times.
Give us strength to take hard decisions.
Help us to live with this virus.
Help us to get climate change under control.
Help us deal with war and poverty and family violence.
Give us more love;-
for people,
for the planet,
for justice,
for mercy.
And may this love
be in our speaking and in our doing,
and not just in our heads.

Here’s a tiny bit from the prophet Zephaniah in Sunday’s Lectionary…“And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.” Who are the lame and the outcast? Maybe it is the whole, small, beleaguered nation. Maybe it could also be individual people. Does it matter? Maybe not, because I can believe that God cares about the outsiders and those who are weak in whatever context.

Today was a day of cumulonimbus capillatus incus. Except maybe the capillatus incus bits were often more like candyfloss hair (non-pink of course) than anvils. Also they didn’t go very high – it was freezing quite near the ground. So just cumulonimbus capillatus maybe.

Fair weather for a trip to Huddersfield today. However, driving home into the afternoon sun was hard work for a spell. There’s no pleasing me, it seems!

From Sunday’s Lectionary, “…And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” May it be so.

In Sunday’s Lectionary, we read in Isaiah, “12:2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.” I wonder what that means. For me, it doesn’t exclude relying on other people for help.

Also, it has been raining all morning here.

Living God, we pray for our government.
Give them wisdom and courage,
a passion for justice
and a love of mercy.

In next Sunday’s lectionary, the writer of Luke’s gospel tells us about John the Baptist. The passage starts, “John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?…” and ends, “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.” In between, John itemises the people who are going to have to change their ways.

But how is this criticism and pain good news? I’ll hazard a couple of tentative answers.

• One is that for the individuals involved, there is the possibility of repentance and changing their ways and being at peace with themselves and God.
• Another is that for everyone, there is the possibility that things could be different, the world could be better.
• Another is that maybe many of the listeners were poor people who had been shafted by tax collectors, or oppressed people who had been mistreated by the Roman army, and so on. They would have heard John’s words as unambiguously Good News.

Also great to see last night’s Match Of The Day on TV, and the pundits’ discussion on punctuation.

In next Sunday’s Lectionary, there is this advice for the Philippians…“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.” Glad the rejoicing is moderated by gentleness. Aggressive rejoicing is painful to hear, in political or sporting contexts, and no doubt others too.

Also, is Dominic Raab setting himself to be the new Prime Minister? Is Mr Johnson going to abdicate?

… A reddish-brown light in the clouds opposite the rising sun – I guess it’s caused by the vertical-ish surfaces of higher clouds lit up by the rising sun.

I used to have dreams about being in a room lit by a single incandescent light bulb, and every time I looked, the filament was dimmer and more brown looking – but oddly, that was when I was younger.

This stone ruin (pictured yesterday) has had several uses – one (when it was intact) as chapel for a monastic community, as a wartime defence and as a setting for this artwork.

Some uses may be more controversial than others, but whatever you say, these stones have not been wasted.