boombangabang

Just something that made me think last night.

We held our evening communion service in the midst of fireworks exploding all around the neighbourhood last night. There are folk where the reality of Christian faith, I guess, is juts that. Communion in the midst of the sound of battle. This is my body boombang This is my blood bangbang.

Made me feel very safe and secure in Croxley Green's warm sanctuary.

And that made me think as well- too safe, too secure not too Christ-like. In reality whether the booms or the bangs are literal or metaphorical, we live in amongst them. The question is what difference it makes to be practising communion amongst the noise.

That's what I am thinking about today- communion in the midst of it all... God still in the maelstrom. Still.... Still...

And by the way the baby has still not come. It may be vindaloo for tea!

How much to 'pay'?

Good weekend I thought. Although I am having to come to terms with the fact that the rugby semi final was far more enthralling than the the football qualifier, even if I have a deep conviction in preference for the round ball.

Just wanted to re-iterate one thing I said in the service yesterday. I spent most of the weekend listening to the new Radiohead album after downloading it last week. I love it- especially 'All I need'. Boom boom bass-cello and a reference to 'reeds' in a love song, nice....

What has been making me think is more the bold move of 'unmarketing' it by offering it online for whatever people wanted to pay. An invitation to radical fair trade- if you want to take it up.

It is in a sense an act of grace. Something for free, if that's what you choose. But to me to respond with nothing is not to respond. Not to be involved properly- not to relate.

We come to church to express our worship to God. It is a response to the free offer of life that we find in Jesus Christ. You can come for free and watch and go again. But to really be involved there is a need to respond; to put something in the blank space of what we will give back. You.

I paid £5 for Radiohead. A bargain and maybe a bit stingy- that's me!!

Been watching this rugby world cup mallarky. Quite entertaining for a load of men with the wrong shaped ball. The commentator (common 'tato? no doubt in a sports jacket) has been speaking a lot about the return of the 'up-and-under' as a tactic. For the uninitiated this seems to involved kicking the ball as high as possible into the air and running forward as fast as you can in order to intimidate some poor fella on the opposing side, whose task it is to catch the ball and avoid serious injury- possibly.

I really have been trying to stand in that man's boots- staring at a ball dropping from the clouds, hoping not to drop it, whilst at the same time aware of the drum of the opposition's boots hurtling towards me, wondering what next...

Sometimes life is a bit like that. Brings a new complexion to the phrase, 'They also serve who only stand and wait'

summer hibernation
bizarre vocation
leaves are turning
blogger's stirring

sun goes up, sun comes down
something's stirring herearound

shhh...shhh. on the way

where's wally and lent

do you know this man?

my son and i- not to mention uncle mark and nic- have been spending much of the last week looking for him in the land of the fighting dwarves, a strange sylvan venue and most tricky of all in the world of the wallies. for this is indeed wally and his whole raison(iprefersultanas)d'etre is to play hide and seek in the pages of his books. and it is extremely difficult to find him tucked away amongst hundreds of distracting other figures.

tomorrow is the beginning of lent and if it weren't for the fact that i cannot drink at the moment because of some medication(nothingseriousdon'tworry), i would be about to give up alcohol. i did give it up once as a student although my fast lasted less than 24 hours. found inexplicably in an oxford hostelry on ash wednesday evening, a friend offered me a drink. to which all too proudly i said 'an orange juice please'. my friend, who by the way was very tall and gentle, asked me why i did not want a beer. to which i replied 'i have given up alcohol for lent'. to which ('towhoo' - special edit for owls) he replied 'thats a bit silly, isn't it?' and becasue i respected his judgement that was that and my self denial ended abruptly in the murky depths of marston's pedigree.

before moving on i did give up alcohol successfully last year, so there.

the reason for my trouble in oxford was i did not really think about why i was doing it at all. what was the point? what is the point?

loads of people give up stuff for lent to prove their self control and to be fitter for a little while...but that- good as it may be- is not the point. it seems to me that lent is not about proving that we are in control. indeed if anything it is about quite the opposite.

and that's where wally comes in. one of the reasons it is hard to find god these days is much the same as the reason it is hard to find wally. there are too many other figures and too much other stuff in the way. the more stuff we have the more he becomes like the woodpecker- lesser spotted. it would be easier to find wally if the page was cleared somewhat and it is easier to find god when we clear away some of the distractions. hence lent is about erasing dwarves in order to see wally or something similar.

jerry myer tells us that god says 'you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart'. a 40 day season to go looking for and finding god- and, if you give up a spot of telly, time to indulge in a few more 'where's wally' books too.

Making the dash to a new place

hope this finds you not too exhausted having made the dash from dogscrapbook.

hyphens are all about joining things together; about the belief that words are better together than apart. i think the whole of this blogging stuff should be based on the supposition that people joined together- albeit virtually- are better than left apart.

a game to begin the new site. a list of words made up from other words...some starters

a bun dance

screw tin ears

got any others?

01 February 2007

Have you noticed that the words weekend and weakened are very similar...Hmmmm

29 January 2007

the turning of the tide

been thinking about 'managing change' these days...tricky old business it seems. i can hear gandalf in the two towers- gandalf the shiny white not the old grey- coming back and saying 'i come to you at the turning of the tide'. to which aragorn, gimli and legolas say, 'yeah well, we actually liked things the way they were. we prefer grey; this new cloak is altogether too bright'.i got to thinking that the turning of the tide is an interesting picture of the way things often do progress to change. the shift itself may be barely perceptible through the continuing ebb and flow of the waves. a change might be happening but half the time the water seems to be going in the same way as it always has; at least for some moments. but this is the way the tide chooses to change. this is the effect of gravity; this is what it is to be earthed.it's funny how the sound of the waves is one of the most comforting sounds i know- at least when the sea is relatively calm. back and forth and changing direction at the same time. a tricky old business...

24 January 2007

in need of a pacemaker
summer 1980 on a smelly farm in axminster. sitting in the lounge next to plastic tableclothed B+B dining space watching a race from moscow. ovett and coe...and the winner was coe, i think.i remember this period of athletics. there was ovett and coe rivals in olympics and world champions and then there were world record attempts. and in these there was a pacemaker- some poor soul whose job it was to run until their lungs collapsed so that more illustious athletes trailing in their wake might complete the race and break the record. there was a point in the commentary when a voice would observe in passing, 'the pacemaker has dropped out'.pacemakers were there for a reason, to make people run fast enough. sometimes i feel like my pacemaker has dropped out - the result is just as dangerous, but mine was there to slow things down not speed things up...sometimes everything seems too fast and all around is the blur of express train windows...
this is from where- speeding trainlife- i am returning to think about the whole idea of sabbath. godspaceandtime- room to manoeuvre and to catch the breath- room to do more than pass through but to appreciate- room to remember what is important- room to re-direct...not so much a pause in the journey but a part of it...a stop along the way...the place from which to start rather than the space into which to collapse exhausted.
Jesus was a good pacemaker..he started from stopping and provoked people to think again about what was important. He made people more intentional because he reminded them of who they were and pointed out the importance of certain things like love and God and hope and sharingspaceandtimewithotherpeople
mary and martha- luke 10.38-41- mmmmm know i need to do some marthaing today but not before i have maryed...