Bob Warwicker's blog

So here it is: I am retired. It doesn’t feel any different from yesterday: the same mountain of sorting-out faces us today that faced us yesterday. Progress is being made, but it still feels slow in comparison to the scale of the task.

There’s a thin layer of snow outside, and shuttling across the Pennines to our house this February isn’t a very enticing prospect.

Here’s a bit from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 11 VV11-13…

“Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for* a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit* to those who ask him!’”

…that’s all very well, but what if your child asks for a snake or a scorpion? Would you finance a drug habit?

What about MP’s trapped between two different ideas of their duty – to carry out the will of the people, or to do what’s in the national interest? If they ever feel parental towards their constituents (it’s questionable whether they should), do they feel they’ve been asked to provide a scorpion?

I finish work in a week, and we move in the course of the month to come. We’ll be spending a lot of time downsizing, so these blogs may not happen very often at first.

The readings for Sunday week are at the Vanderbilt lectionary site.

Some first impressions of these…

Jeremiah 1:6: “I am only a boy…” A very normal reaction to what may prove to be the call of God. I am 66 and I still often feel that “I am only a boy” when it comes to God-stuff. How would women react in such a case? Maybe the feeling of smallness is made worse by being treated as second class citizens. Or maybe not. The first time we read about Miriam in Exodus (15:20) she’s just getting on with it, unlike Moses who hummed and ha’ed.

1 Corinthians 13: Familiar to many people because it’s often used when people get married. It’s Paul’s great piece of praise for self-giving love. But it needed some grit to make this pearl grow. It had to be written because some of the Christians in Corinth had been so much up themselves.

Luke 4:21-30: Jesus has just read the bit about good news to the poor, and the year of the Lord’s favour, but it turns ugly quickly. He offends the people of his hometown – and he could’ve avoided it if he’d wanted to conduct a charm offensive. Are Jesus’ followers too ‘nice’ sometimes?

This is where you will find Bob Warwicker’s blog of the events, adventures and Lectionary readings of retirement, beginning in 2019. The sky is grey, and rain falls in small damp rations: normal summertime. The technology works, at least.