Bob Warwicker's blog

More sorting and moving yesterday. I couldn’t keep going all of the time.

The readings for this Sunday coming…

Jeremiah / Psalm 1 … trees, water,deserts – I wonder what metaphors are more suited to our economy and climate?

1 Corinthians … A logician might have fun with Paul’s argument – he has made much of Jesus being same as us / different from us – which of those applies in this case? etc. etc.. Can this passage nevertheless challenge us?

a poster from 1999 as found on Wikipedia

Luke… “Blessed are the poor…” Not “the poor in spirit” as in Matthew 5, but “the poor”. And later “Woe to you who are rich…”. So what do you think of that!!

Great yesterday to see my brother, and later nephew, both with subsets of their families, who will be the new stewards of the Dickens and and of the Dictionaries. We did some good catching up.

There are a number of old family photos and Janet and I have many of these – next autumn I hope to get them into digital form so different branches of the next generation can see them (if they want to … big if).

I guess that for both Janet and me over the next few years there will be some ‘passing on’ (transitive) to do.

Over the generations, technology has influenced how this is done.

The development of speech helped us to pass on stories (the way some of the Bible started), painting, carving, writing, printing, film, sound recording, digital media, now much stored in the cloud. And so on.

But the amount of information (and disinformation) can be overwhelming. When the whole world of information is at our fingertips, how do we know what we need to know?

We have to leave the selection in the hands of machines. The machines are very good at the job. The algorithms by which, say, Google photos finds what we’re looking for are brilliant at doing what they are asked to do.

The question is, who decides what these machines are asked to do for us? Is our freedom of choice anything more than an illusion? In advanced capitalist culture, money talks louder and in more ways than we can ever possibly understand.

So much for the diversion – to return to the point – I feel driven to pass some family culture on to the next generation. But it is naive to think that anyone will notice very much, amid the welter of information that is already flowing into their heads.

Abundant dampness,
reservoirs full to the brim:
blessing for the town.

God of truth,
as we read the Bible,
help us see ourselves
as part of its developing story.

The story goes on;
and neither has our understanding
stopped changing.

By your Spirit,
give us the joy of reading
new things in those old pages
and new discoveries in our lives.

Also we moved some bookcases around to try and get the most efficient use of space here … the work goes on!!

Tip run and Oxfam run yesterday, more sorting and moving about. Now at our house for a day off (and a bit more rearranging and moving stuff around). Much encouraged by yesterday’s spam fritter and chips, and Co-op scrounge bin strawberry trifle.

The entrance to the loft here is – like buses, class 14x DMUs, olde pubs with low beams and Stromness AFAIR – designed for small people: I am not small.

The gale unravels
landscapes, flight plans, minds, all gone
random in the wind.

Help us, God,
when we hear your call
to be willing to go,
even before we know exactly
what the plan is.
Give us faith, we pray…

We are making progress – stuff is being sorted, moved to different destinations…

…but it doesn’t feel like that. There’s still a lot of clutter, some of it loved.

My retirement balloon is still buoyant – a reminder of where we’re going.

Sunday’s three readings all mention moments of vision, in different ways. What the Bible is less full of is the bits in between, the bits where it’s harder to see where you’re going, and you are preoccupied with the demands of the day.

If I had a pound for every time someone told me, “we keep plodding along”, I’d have quite a lot of pounds.

Lots done yesterday – I think we can make it: but there’s still loads of stuff to deal with.

From Sunday’s Psalm … “138:6 For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he perceives from far away.”

Yesterday we were still making progress on the sorting. But my part is not going as quick as I’d like: I look at the papers and I keep getting distracted by the past. I think of people’s kindness over the years, and it’s all very well, but not getting me near the end as quickly as I want. The bags are building up, though, ready for the shredding firm.

Soon I am going to start saying goodbye to some electronic geegaws. Not looking forward to that bit.
Luke 5:11 (https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=111) … “When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.” … my italics.

There’s still a lot of stuff – but yesterday was modestly successful – an Oxfam run, a tip run, and various things, including a dishwasher and a washing machine, on the way to the scrapyard. This inevitably involves a compromise. I like to hang on to things until every possibility of repair is exhausted – by me or someone else…. which usually means ‘for ever’, because I don’t get around to it. But this is no longer possible – things have to be got rid of.

The dishwasher went out with the acrid smoke of finality – so no problems there. But the washing machine just refused to turn on one day a few weeks ago. It could be anything needs replacing – a circuit board, a power supply, even just an internal fuse – I just didn’t have the heart to look into it or get someone else to. So it’s on the way to the scrapyard.

I worked in Sheffield before I came here. I’d just like to point out that in Sheffield, the scrapyard is the beginning. All the steel made there (yes, it still is) is recycled.

It’s been a lovely morning for a while here. Looking from near the Co-op in Marsh, I could see the grey crowns of trees further down the hill, their lower halves airbrushed into the gentle fog.

Actually it’s a month of moving. Yesterday, some progress on putting paper in the shredder bags. Today I hope to get my four items somewhere accessible, then ask Kirklees to pick them up.

Here’s next Sunday’s lectionary readings…

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=111

Passing on the Good News;-

There’s elements of this that may surprise you…

It may not be the person you expect who spreads the news – Isaiah claimed to have ‘unclean lips’ – as many of us do to a greater or lesser degree – and Paul asserts “Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim…” – he doesn’t seem too bothered who does it, so long as the message gets through.

Another surprising element is it might go better than we expect, even after a long night of failure – don’t rule it out. In secular life, there comes a time when most people give up (not sure that is quite yet, HTAFC). But in God’s work, although there might be a time to give up on specific activities and do things differently – do not to give up the hope.

And what is the good news anyway? We’ve had two sides of it in the last few weeks – from Luke 4:18, and from what Paul writes today … 1 Corinthians 15:3,4. These two emphases have grown into very different kinds of Christianity. Is that a gap we can straddle?

 

There’s no water here this morning. I take encouragement from the fact that United Utilities’ website is down and that it takes at least a few minutes* for someone to answer the phone: they must be getting the message multiple times**.

I kinda miss it, water.

All those water metaphors in the Bible come to life that bit more when you haven’t got any.

This afternoon is the inaugural service of the Huddersfield Group of churches. It’s not that difficult to leave it alone: nevertheless I shall pray for them.

(* the point at which I gave up)

(**…or they’ve been subjected to a DoS attack)

And if yesterday’s sounds patronising, it’s not about the money for me either: I just believe our future lies in working together.

It’s a beautiful sunny morning and there’s a bit of snow on the ground. We’ve taken a day off sorting in the manse to go to our house and try to make some space for incoming stuff. There’s some snow on the fields and hills but the roads are clear.

Thank you God:
for we find glory in cold,
in the hard weather, the rain,
in days of sun and ease.
Give us grace to praise you
at all times.