Author: bob

The local newsagent is changing hands. Out of curiosity, I looked briefly at the TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employees) regulations. It seems that the new employer can change a contract of employment for reasons that include ‘economic’. This seems to me to give them carte blanche to do whatever they like. I believe there has to be some kind of consultation, but if workers aren’t represented by a union, I assume this takes the form of ‘take it or leave it’. It just seems pointless having these regulations: am I missing something?

Speaking of which, how do we move from ‘the widow’s mite’ (Sunday’s lectionary) to the widow’s might? … or ‘sense of agency’ at the very least.

The Trail this morning is graced by a plethora of chromatic* leaves…

• * Thank you to the Kashmir, Sheffield, for this phrase. I believe there were to be roadworks. I wonder what became of it.

‘Virtue signalling’ is not a particularly useful phrase – it’s frequently used as an insult, often relating to people who really are doing the right thing and where there’s no other way to do it – for instance people who wear masks in confined public spaces because they don’t want to give a potentially fatal disease to someone else. Machismo posturing is no less virtue signalling than mask-wearing – it’s just a kind of ‘virtue’ borrowed from a dark and destructive philosophy.

So perhaps it’s too easy to say Jesus condemns virtue signalling when he says this – “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” – in next Sunday’s lectionary reading from Mark. He is saying something important though. Never mind how much respect you or someone else has: just doing the right thing is what is important.

Please pray for the people of Calderdale,
Cockermouth, river deltas in southern USA, Bangladesh
and other places prone to flooding,
low-lying islands; and everyone who fears
the next rains, the next high tide.

Please pray for people who fear
losing their livelihoods through drought,
warming of the seas,
climate change.

Please pray for people, and industries,
so wedded to fossil fuels
that they cannot see any other way forward.

Please pray for all those who long to see
the earth being a good place to live
for generations to come,
but don’t know how to make a difference.

Please pray for all people,
for all the earth:

O God, set us free from this mess.

In tomorrow’s Lectionary, the writer wants the readers of this letter to be able to worship the living God. The living God would have been known from the Hebrew scriptures as the one who led the people to freedom, who went ahead of them in their harsh desert years … and so on. God is not to be frozen into structures, physical or institutional, but is on the move. God is alive.

Meanwhile, it is raining here. It had a beginning. We are past the middle. And the end will be in an hour or two. Rain will fall, regardless of climate change. But there will be more, more often, sometimes in devastating amounts.

Speaking of which, our wolf-in-donkey’s-clothing of a PM is more intelligent than we can possibly imagine. There are two universes which inhabit that colossal brain of his, one where we are acting urgently to combat climate change, and the other in which we are cutting air passenger duty for short-haul flights (precisely the type of journey that can often be made by train). Let the good times, and the landslips, roll!

From Sunday’s Lectionary – “When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.” (Mark 12:34) – and who would have the chutzpah to say that? – The One in whom God is made flesh. You or I wouldn’t have the nerve to say that to an archbishop, for instance – or would we? Should we be able to ‘speak truth to power’ – if we know what it is?

Also, coffee with toothpaste tastes like thyme or oregano or some such. And ISTR tea and cheese taste like blackberries.

I though I saw a line of leaves here, as if formed for a reason. It was of course completely random – but it’s testimony to my need to see patterns in things … even when the patterns aren’t really there.

Still, where would the human race be if we hadn’t searched for patterns and sometimes found them – in physics, epidemiology and so on?

In Sunday’s Lectionary, Jesus begins by quoting Deuteronomy 6…
“12:29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;
12:30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
12:31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”” (Mark 12)
This sounds vague enough to have loopholes and variations in interpretation. But much as it does indeed need interpreting, it turns out to be really challenging. Can we really in all circumstances love God with so much passion and energy? Can we really in all circumstances want everything for our fellow human being that we would want for ourselves?

Some clocky work the last day or two – helping attach a clock mechanism to a tree section Janet has, and exploring the feasibility of having and date/time display on an old broken phone for D.

Next Sunday’s lectionary includes the beginning of the Ruth story – this is a great human story – and it seems the boundaries of the people of God are not quite as fixed as some of the Bible authors thought.

Sometimes the old sayings hold true (they don’t when the weather comes from a less common direction). In this case the red morning sky was followed by (mildly) unpleasant weather…

Went to a good service today, about Bartimaeus (today’s lectionary gospel reading).