Bob Warwicker's blog

Some of you are old enough to remember Simon and Garfunkel. And one of their verses goes like this, according to the internet…
“And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said:
“The words of the prophets are
Written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sound of silence.”
…this seems to take its cue from the Hebrew scriptures, for instance as the above website points out, the book of Daniel; and also from one of the Old Testament options in Sunday’s Lectionary, at 1 Kings 19:12. The Lord was not in the noise and fuss, but in the awe-inspiring silence. It’s a bizarre quirk of my lifetime that the ‘silent majority’ is anything but. The real silence is of the disenfranchised poor, women silenced by their husbands, people silenced because of their faith or skin colour.

It’s raining a bit. Not much, but a bit.

Intermittent low clouds today, one or two showers about, and the woodlands above the valley steaming

From next Sunday’s Lectionary, when Joseph’s brothers plot against him, they start by saying ‘Here comes this dreamer’. They say it to each other. It is the kind of trash talk that’s familiar from many eyewitness accounts of gang assaults and murders. For people who’ve been killed for being black, or for being unlike their assailants in other ways, trash talk maybe the last words they ever hear. Jesus, too, had endured many insults in the last hours of his life. Why do I say, “here comes this dreamer” is an insult (it wasn’t actually directed at him)? It’s because of the plans they start to make immediately afterwards. You can tell that “here comes this dreamer” is no compliment. And the things that people say to one another within the group are as dangerous to the victim as the things said to their face. The sly internet insults, the drink-enhanced slagging off in the pub – these things all increase prejudice and aggression. And yes, “here comes this dreamer” is quite often an insult today. In effect it’s something quite often said by the cynical type of church member about a younger and more idealistic member of a church. But Biblical prophecies about people ‘dreaming dreams’ are prophecies of hope, not despair.

Living God,
give us dreamers of dreams, we pray,
and give them strength
to live through the insults.

Clouds, some sunshine, some showers, but the mix not quite right for morning rainbows.

Waiting to see how much space there’s going to be before resuming church: so next week probably. Also, we’re about a mile away from the intervention zone, and the other half of our bubble is in it.

Now the sun is becoming a bit more prevalent.

Living God, let your light shine
in our lives,
in the life of our world,
in our relationships with one another,
and with our planet.
Make the way clear to us all.

Dull for this morning’s walk back at home, still muggy from yesterday, small flecks of rain, and tantalising glimpses of sunshine to the east and to the west.

I wonder what I’d think if the government announced a ban on indoor gatherings just a few hours before Christmas. Time for a faith representative on SAGE or some such body, who can do some anticipating.

We all get it wrong sometimes. The difference seems to be between those who blame others for their mistakes and those who own up.

Creator, have mercy,
Christ, have mercy,
Spirit, have mercy;
One God, have mercy.

More walking today, getting towards the Megawatt Valley area. We didn’t go so far this morning, wanting to make an early end because of Friday traffic and the expected heat. Drax power station is an increasingly visible presence on the horizon, and there was some construction activity along our route as people were working on an embankment section of the power station branch. According to Wikipedia, biomass goes in that way and gypsum and ash for construction come out. I’ve often seen the biomass trains in various parts of the network, with their smart new wagons. The route from Port of Liverpool to Drax seems particularly bizarre, zigzagging (to avoid heavily-used passenger lines presumably). When I lived in Huddersfield, sometimes when I walked back down from the Co-op in the mornings I could see Drax’s pyrocumulus in the sky in the distance way beyond the end of the road.

It’s a dominant feature of the landscape, just as our need for energy is a dominant feature of our lives. Drax have done many things to reduce carbon dioxide (and sulphur oxides) emissions – but there are limits to what is achievable when burning stuff. I sometimes speculate what world politics would be like without the west’s addiction to the hydrocarbons that we use to fuel domestic heating, some power stations and road transport.

Creator God,
when it comes to energy,
it can be hard to know what the right thing is,
and hard to do even what we know is right.
Guide us and strengthen us, we pray,
to do what is right for the world.

Walking today on the watercourse-riven flat lands south of Snaith. Every route that ought to be straightforward takes an unexpected turn to cross a river or canal. The weather is not hot today, and will be tomorrow. But even today was a thirsty experience. Tomorrow is shorter, but we’ll need plenty of water nevertheless.

As for the lectionary, striving with God… Would you do it? Maybe sometimes you have to.

Creator God, we thank you for the sun,
that beautiful, bright, warm, generous
part of creation.
And God protect us
from too much of a good thing.

From the lectionary… Isaiah 55:1 “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

How strange to imagine a generosity-based society, inspired by a belief in a generous God. Well, maybe it starts with the example set by those of us who claim to belong to God. We believe in Jesus, who talked about, lived and died love.

Good walk today in the flat lands north of Doncaster.

Bring me sunshine
and some rain,
keep me laughing
through the pain.
Let the land bear its crops
by your grace from up above…
…you know the rest,
my loving, laughing God.

Pleasant walking by the riverside and on old railways. A slightly hoped-for pub was boarded up. Largely dry today, with a brisk wind that was more helpful than not.

Thank you God for winds,
helpful and adverse,
quiet and noisy.
Thank you God that we are alive
to live through the ups and downs
of our times.

Pleasant walk today on the transpennine trail in the Barnsley Rotherham Doncaster area. Weather better than expected though not brilliant.

We thank you God for everyone who has the wit to turn previously unwanted ground into a place of beauty and enjoyment.

Remake us too into a people of love and laughter.

Hymn quote of the week…
“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.”
…by William Cowper, who struggled with depression.

For me, it was good to see those clouds as they kissed the hills. They had recently been over me and now they were moving away and the sun was coming out.