Chelley's Teapot

We're going on a prayer hunt...!

2011-10-22T20:01:00.002+01:00

I remember reading to my son when he was little "We're going on a bear hunt" and I'm sure I enjoyed it as much if not more than him! So, having remembered that enjoyment I decided to rewrite it for our Children's message on Sunday... with a bit of journeying of course and finding some 'gifts' along the way.
With all due thanks and credit to author Michael Rosen.

We’re going on a prayer hunt
We’re going to say a big one
God is listening
What a beautiful gift!

Oh Wow! Love! (find heart)
Perfect love for me.
I can’t ignore it
By skipping over it
Ok
God, help me feel it.
(Thankyou thankyou)
(Thankyou thankyou)

We’re going on a prayer hunt
We’re going to say a big one
God is listening
What a beautiful gift!

Oh Wow! Words! (find Bible)
A Bible full for me.
I can’t ignore it.
By skipping over it.
Ok.
God help me read it.
(Listen listen)
(Listen listen)

We’re going on a prayer hunt
We’re going to say a big one
God is listening
What a beautiful gift!

Oh Wow! Church (find candle - ring of people)
A family for me!
I can’t ignore it
By skipping over it
Ok
God help me be part of it
(Brothers sisters)
(Brothers sisters)

We’re going on a prayer hunt
We’re going to say a big one
God is listening
What a beautiful gift!

Oh Wow! Jesus (find a cross)
Forgiveness for me!
I can’t ignore it
By skipping over it
Ok
God help me receive it
(Sorry sorry)
(new me new me)

We went on a prayer hunt
We prayed some big ones
God was listening
What beautiful gifts!
AMEN!

RevGals Friday Five

2011-08-26T10:48:00.007+01:00

I haven't played the Friday Five for ages but with the rain hammering down outside I thought now would be a good time!
Because it's one all about rain...

What do you do on a rainy summers day?
1. At home?
2. In your local area?
3. If you are away on holiday?
4. Name a rainy day read.
5. Is there a piece of music/ a poem/ story that cheers you up?
Bonus: post a rainy day photo!

1. Given my lack of 'domestic-goddessry' I am usually to be found looking out of the window at the washing hanging on the line and getting increasingly soaked; and at the same time thinking "should've got that in yesterday!" As it happens, today as I listen to the rain, I'm feeling rather smug that I have piles of DRY washing indoors because I didn't do my usual trick this time!
2. Well, it does rain a fair bit here in England so I usually just get on with what I have to get on with. Driving around in a car helps quite a bit, though if I am walking then I'm a 'put up your hood' kind of person rather than a 'carry an umbrella' type.
3. If I'm away on holiday then I'm likely to be out in it! Wellies on, waterproofs on, and jumping in puddles like a big kid! I don't let the rain stop my exploring tendencies. It helps to not be a very glamorous type who doesn't care about getting her hair wet and who very rarely wears make-up so no run-off issues!
4. As I'm a reader anyway, the weather doesn't really affect the choice of read - there's usually a pile of books on the go all the time.
5. Well given the subject matter, and also given that I like this song - it has to be "Why does it always rain on me" by Travis! And I've managed to find a very suitable live version... where it's pouring with rain:

Bonus: I don't have a rainy day photo available but perhaps that video counts!

"Third Place"

2011-08-15T16:04:00.005+01:00

I had one of those 'minor revelation' moments today! Having flicked around on the internet for a while I found myself reading some pages for Pastors and came to this article. Now, however behind the times it makes me, I have to say that I'd never come across the 'third place' expression or concept. This says that Home = our first place, Work = our second place, ? = our third place. For many Christians 'church' would be the third place but for ministers home, work and church can become a big mix of one with significant overlapping. And without knowing anything about this 'third place' stuff I think it says something about what makes me struggle at times. I do notice how energised finding 'other spaces' makes me and how peace is much more apparent when I'm not completely taken up with the mix of work and work at home. Unfortunately I don't find myself those spaces anywhere near often enough (or make enough purely home space either to give some definition between 'home' and 'work') and while I love home and work and church I find it hard to switch off from the big task out there.

So this bit of pondering is leading me to a) consider how I redefine my 'home' (and family) space and give myself permission to enjoy and put more effort into it! b) to ask what others (you) do to find a 'third place', if indeed you do. A question not just for ministers but for all. And I'm sure there are others for whom this is a particular challenge, such as mums at home focused on bringing up children? c) to look for that (or those) third places that give life a bit more roundedness and sense of wholeness.

Perhaps for some of us that place needs to be partially a mental division as much as a physical place?

"I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness" (Jesus)

Refreshment and daring to get out of the boat!

2011-08-06T19:26:00.007+01:00

Romans 10: 5-15 & Matthew 14: 22-33 (7.8.11)

‘The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.’

These are the words of invitation in Revelation 22 v17 (repeat), and they’re by no means the only words in the Bible calling us to come to our God to receive all that he has prepared for us!

We reflected last Sunday on that same invitation spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.”

(Is 55:1).

Matthew as he writes his gospel account quotes Jesus saying: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11: 28)

Our faith is a matter of invitation and response – the invitation of God to anyone and everyone to come and walk with him, the invitation of God to be reunited with him, the invitation of God to be refreshed by him, the invitation of God to be forgiven by him, the invitation of God to have life (eternally) with him, the invitation of God to know his love beyond all measure.

“Come!” says God and receive all these things that are freely given, that are there waiting, but that aren’t forced upon us against our will but need to be received with thanksgiving and praise!

David, the great king of Israel, and writer of so many of the Psalms, knew what it was to hear God’s word of invitation and to respond. In perhaps the best loved of the Psalms (Ps 23) he expresses the blessing of response, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want; he makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.” He had come to know what it meant to hear that call of “Come” and to follow (and he could declare these beautiful words even though he was often being pursued by enemies and with his life under threat!).

But how often, even having first taken the step of faith and response to God’s invitation, at some places along the way; do we forget or do we stop listening?

“Come!”

“Whoever is thirsty, let him come.”

“Come to the waters.”

“Come you who are weary and burdened.”

Hear God’s invitation to you afresh today because it’s spoken out of God’s great love for humanity, and for you.

It’s brought right into our human situation by God taking up the human situation, the human ‘being’ of those he created (in the person of Christ) and showing them, and enabling them, to come back to the Father and know life in all its fullness.

You may look back to long ago when you first heard God’s invitation to come to him, and you gave him your response, or you may be hearing it for the first time today and you need to respond. Generally when we receive an invitation we expect to give a response… If you’re invited to a wedding you generally send a reply saying “thank you, I’ll be there” or “sorry I’m not able to come and celebrate with you”. And God’s invitation requires a response too. There’s that first life (and eternity) changing response that brings us into his kingdom, where we turn from darkness to light, where we receive his salvation – that invitation required a response. But there are also those further invitations to those who are saved, who are in the light: to come and be refreshed, to come and be restored, to come and be re-energised, to come and be encouraged, to come and stand under the living waters of the Holy Spirit and be re-filled!

Do you ever find yourself struggling on with the pressures of life, of work, of family, of finance, of your particular circumstances? Do they have the loudest voice? Do they cloud out God’s repeated invitation to you to come to him? Do you take your eyes off the Lord and fix them instead on the storms?

It can be a natural response – it was Peter’s response in the boat on that occasion that Matthew describes for us in the gospel.

Peter that day was being his usual, impetuous, self – but he was also the one who in faith was ready to leap out of the boat!

Jesus had miraculously fed the 5,000 plus people who had been with him, he’d sent the disciples off in the boat to cross the sea of Galilee, and he’d gone up the mountain to pray. So then Jesus is coming to join them, but by this time the disciples are far from land, being battered about by the waves. So Jesus walks to them on the water! Though they’d witnessed and accepted the miraculous provision of food that had happened just before, when they see Jesus walking to them on the lake they’re terrified and think he’s a ghost! But let’s consider closely what happened next…

Jesus spoke to them and reassured them that it was him.

And then Peter speaks out above the rest: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” This is faith – realising that not only can Jesus himself overcome the natural order of things – but that he can transform them for us as well, that he can enable us as well.

And then we again meet invitation and response: Jesus simply says, “Come” and THEN Peter gets out of the boat. It’s really important that we don’t skip past this brief conversation.

Peter does not just receive the assurance that it’s Jesus on the lake and then leaps out of the boat! That would have been presumption and not faith! The reason Peter can have assurance of his ability to do the impossible and unlikely is because he asked, and Jesus has said “Come”. This account doesn’t tell us that if we were ever to be in a boat and leap out of it that we would automatically be able to walk on water because it happened here! If that was the case I’m sure St. Paul would have done so all the times he was shipwrecked and his life was in danger. What it tells us is that faith is about having the belief that Jesus can call us out of the boat and keep us from sinking… whatever that “boat” may be.

This depth of faith was echoed by Paul when he wrote these words to the Christians at Ephesus: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Eph 3: 20,21).

The point is that, like Peter, we trust in the one who CAN do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. But on that day Peter did imagine and ask in faith!

When Peter started to sink, it wasn’t because Jesus wasn’t able to do what Peter asked, it was because Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and instead looked at the circumstances (the waves) surrounding him. And how easy that is to do!

I’ve never asked God to literally help me get out of a boat and walk on water but I have had to trust him for the seemingly impossible. It also occurred to me that some of those big “trust him” times have been because he’s calling me out of the boat – that is out of the safe, comfortable place to the daring and scary place – but the amazing place of faith! Like the first time I had to stand up and give a short address in a church – for me that was like getting out of the boat when Jesus said “Come.”

Is God calling you to do something that seems impossible or at least beyond what seems possible for you at the moment? Is God calling you to serve him in some particular way, or calling you into a particular ministry or role in his church that seems as challenging as getting out of the boat and walking on water? The thing is that he doesn’t drag us out of the boat against our will, he says “Come!” And when he says “Come” we can do so with faith and assurance that it will be ok. Our task is to hear the invitation and to make the response.

Now you may be thinking, “but Peter started to sink!” Yes he did! And even when we keep responding to Jesus’ invitation to come to him we might have times when we feel we’re sinking.

I know that as I faced the challenges of doing things for God that were well beyond my natural comfort zone there were times when I felt I was sinking, and there still are at times.

Peter only started to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the waves – on the challenges, on the situation – and not on God. And that’s usually the reason that we start to sink, to become discouraged, to feel ill-equipped – because we take our eyes off Jesus and look at the challenges instead of the Lord.

But what did Peter do, even then? He called out “Lord, save me” and Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.

God again and again extends his invitation to his people…

“Come!”

“Whoever is thirsty, let him come.”

“Come to the waters.”

“Come you who are weary and burdened.”

“Come, get out of the boat!”

These are the words of God’s invitation to you today, how will you respond?

I’d like to end with some words from a song of worship that echo God’s invitation to you:

All who are thirsty

All who are weak

Come to the fountain

Dip your heart in the stream of life

Let the pain and the sorrow

Be washed away

In the waves of his mercy

As deep cries out to deep

We sing…

Come Lord Jesus, Come!

Brenton Brown
copyright Vineyard Songs 1998

AFTERTHOUGHT.... JUST THOUGHT I'D MENTION THAT THE COLOURS AND FORMAT WENT ALL PECULIAR AS I HAD TO E-MAIL THIS TO MYSELF AND THEN COPY HERE. HOWEVER MANY EFFORTS AT RE-FORMATTING I TRIED THEY ALL IGNORED ME SO THIS IS WHAT WE END UP WITH!

Emerging slowly sermon!

2011-07-30T23:49:00.002+01:00

The beginnings of thoughts...

Isaiah 55: 1-5 & Matthew 14: 13-21 (31.7.11)

‘The Lord says this, “Everyone who thirsts come to the waters”’. I’m sure that we must all be able to recall the feeling of being thirsty? Of the satisfaction from a long, cool drink on a hot day, or even just that first cup of tea or coffee in the morning? Thirst is a sensation that’s essential for life – it tells us to drink. And if we don’t drink then we’re not going to survive for very long.

When I was a little girl, and because of the medical problem I had, I used to dehydrate very quickly. And one Christmas Day when I wasn’t very well at all, the doctor had been called. Apparently (so my mum tells me) I was trying to open Christmas presents while the doctor examined me and was then commanded to drink a giant jug of squash in his presence, and if I didn’t then I was going into hospital – Christmas day or no Christmas day!

It seems that I wasn’t very good at adequately responding to the ‘thirst’ sensation, or at least not adequately enough to compensate for lost fluids!

‘The Lord says this, “Everyone who thirsts come to the waters”’. And here is another sense in which we need to first recognise a thirst and second to come and drink.

Just as our bodies thirst for water or liquid to survive so we also have a need to thirst for God. (This thirst first brings us into relationship with God and once we’re there, keeps us thirsting for more of his presence).

On a hot day you don’t create your own thirst, the conditions create that thirst and you feel it, and in the same way God is even at work creating in people the thirst they need to come to him. He creates the thirst and then he satisfies that thirst!

When Jesus (as we read in John chapter 4) met the Samaritan woman at a well in the middle of the day, when they’d both have been hot, thirsty and aware of the water that was being pulled out of the well, he spoke to her not just of that natural water but of living water – living water that was the gift of God, living water that would well up like a spring and bring eternal life, living water that would leave her never thirsting again. That living water was Jesus himself and the Holy Spirit whom he would send – whom he would pour out, whom he would baptise us with. When we talk about the word ‘baptise’ we mean to drench or soak – just as we do when we baptise children or adults into the church using water – and even though, in our tradition, we baptise at the font I get as much water on them as I can! And in the same way we need to be baptised, drenched, soaked in the living water of the Holy Spirit – not as a one off experience, but as an ongoing soaking in God. Because your God wants to bring you real, wonderful refreshment like a long, cooling drink or a dive into the pool on a boiling summer’s day!

It’s not just in those beautiful words of God through Isaiah that we get this sense of the refreshing waters of God. In Revelation 22 (the very last chapter in the Bible) we hear this part of John’s vision: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”

Another beautiful description of the refreshing water, the life giving water of God. And the thing is that God has these pools of refreshing water for us, but we need to come to the waters and get wet! The image is of the river flowing from the throne of God and flowing so that we might step into its waters and be washed, be refreshed, have our thirst quenched, and receive that spring that wells up to eternal life.

And furthermore, God says through Isaiah, that we’re only truly satisfied when we do come to the waters: When we come to the waters, when we eat of the food that needs no money to buy it, when we labour for the things that truly satisfy.

To be continued...!

LATER ADDITION... MY PEDANTIC, FUSSY SELF DOESN'T LIKE LEAVING SOMETHING UNFINISHED HERE, BUT IT REALLY WOULD BE A RIGHT PALAVAR TRYING TO GET THE REST FROM THE OTHER COMPUTER (AND MAY RESULT IN SIMILAR DISASTERS OF FORMAT AS THE NEXT POST HAS... SO HALF A SERMON IT IS... HOPE YOU MAY BE A 'BIT' BLESSED ANYWAY!)

Queues and minor irritations!

2011-07-20T11:43:00.002+01:00

Background information that might be useful.... I am generally a nice person! Yes, I try and be polite and love people - which is probably a good thing seeing as I'm a vicar and all and it is part of the teaching of the Big Boss and all that. But you know that despite that, the stupidest things can get you (me) riled! Adrian Plass (Christian writer and speaker) once said something along the lines of "I'd be a great Christian if it wasn't for other people" - and I know what he means. But it's not even the big evils that bring that out, it's the stupid irritations... like queue jumpers, or the people who don't do the little handywave thing when you give them the right of way in the car, or cutter-uppers... do you know what I mean? Now I do live in a part of the world where a lot of people are generally more friendly to their own so there can be a fair number of those "you ignorant g*t" moments. But that's no excuse. It just proves that an underlying "niceness" doesn't cut the mustard and that 'loving your neighbour' means loving the ones who irritate the wotsit out of you. I think that how we deal with the little irritations is as much a sign of Big Boss at work in us, as what we say we believe... if not more. So "bless you" people who will irritate me - I will love you as you are my neighbour! (And I will try and grow towards being less irritating myself... might make it by the time I'm an old lady, and with a bit of help!)

Footnote: brilliant blog post by Dave Gorman here - about queues! I have a habit of getting in the 'wrong' queue in a supermarket and watching all the others drift past me, well Dave met that experience in a big way at Los Angeles Airport!

Buttons!

2011-07-20T11:26:00.006+01:00

No, not the pantomime Buttons but the Twitter and Facebook kind. I spent ages last night (once home from a long meeting - just to demonstrate that I was wasting only my sleep time) trying to put nice linky buttons on my blog. Now the sidebar, that was a doddle! Lovely big uncoordinated Twitter thing that shows you the other pointless drivel I'm spouting on Twitter. But I wanted a little set of buttons at the bottom of each post so that on the extremely off chance that someone might be stunned enough with what I've said to 'like' it on Facebook or even retweet it on Twitter, then they could. (This is called high optimism!). If anyone happened to be reading this blog at the time last night then their eyes may have started to swivel with the succession of changing buttons and changing places and hash ups. Because ultimately I got them at the bottom of the posts but only linking into the site as a whole and not to the individual posts. And then the Facebook one started doing its own thing and put back the 'send' element even though I'm pretty sure I didn't include that bit of code. Clearly the only conclusion to be made is that all this is #rocketscience and I am not a rocket scientist. So even if you wanted to link to this post about rocket scientists and buttons, you can't - you get the whole teapot. Defeat!

Afterthought....! The tweet button works... but only if you have the individual post up rather than on the front page... wooo... well I will revel in my moment of success anyway!

Sermon: Wheat and Weeds

2011-07-17T02:28:00.002+01:00

Our gospel reading today is one of Jesus’ ‘kingdom parables’. Jesus gives a set of ideas or illustrations from life, that are to teach his disciples about the kingdom of God. (When Matthew speaks of the kingdom of heaven and Luke of the kingdom of God, they’re talking about the same thing). And when Jesus taught, and the gospel writers passed on his teaching on the kingdom, they weren’t speaking about that far off place where we’ll find ourselves when we die, they’re talking about God’s majestic rule and reign being near, ‘close at hand’ said Jesus. They’re speaking of a kingdom whose presence is being made known here and now, on earth. A kingdom of which we become citizens now by believing in and following Jesus.

So Jesus starts teaching about what this ‘close at hand’ ‘here and now’ kingdom is like. Last week (while I was camped in a field with our youth group for ...!) you reflected on the parable of the sower – a parable about how people hear and receive the message of the kingdom. The seed scattered is the word of God and that seed, Jesus says, is received on what compares to a variety of types of ground – on the path where it is immediately snatched away; on the rocky ground where its root is shallow and though it springs up quickly it soon withers and dies; among the weeds or thorns, where the growth is choked by all the cares of life and other priorities; or on the fertile soil where it takes root and grows up producing a harvest. This is the kind of ground we each can aim to be and pray to be, as well as the kind of ground we pray that we will meet when we go out scattering the seed of God’s word. And that is a part of our call as citizens of the kingdom – to go and scatter the seeds of God’s word wherever and whenever and however we can.

And Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom continues with today’s parable of the wheat and weeds – we’ll come back to that in a moment. But Jesus gives one image after another to get this kingdom message to take root in us – next he speaks of the kingdom as like a mustard seed – the tiniest seed that grows into a tree in which the birds come and perch in its branches – what does he mean? He means it starts off small but ends up substantial indeed. He says the kingdom is like the yeast in bread that as it’s mixed in works through the whole batch of dough – the kingdom spreads through us and it spreads through the world. He says the kingdom is like treasure hidden in a field – that’s of such great value that it’s worth selling all we have to buy the field to get the treasure! And similarly, the kingdom is like a pearl that’s worth everything we have to acquire.

It’s important that as we look at one of these parables today we consider the whole picture that Jesus is giving us, of this kingdom that is close at hand, that is near, that is at our fingertips. Because the reason we can have expectation and hope that God will be at work in us and among us and through us today – is because his kingdom is here, close at hand, near, at your fingertips but not out of reach!

‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, YOUR KINGDOM COME, your will be done, on earth as in heaven’ that’s what we pray when we pray as Jesus taught us to pray. ‘Your kingdom come’ – when we long for healing of body, mind or spirit we’re asking for God’s heavenly kingdom to be present in the here and now, showing up in earthly lives; when we pray for evil to be squashed and repentance to be seen in ours or other’s lives we’re asking for the kingdom to be demonstrated here and now. When we scatter the seed of God’s word we’re asking for people to be added to the kingdom of God that they will know his rule and reign in their lives now and have an eternal inheritance that brings them safely through death and into his wonderful kingdom in all its fullness. It’s all about the kingdom, being a part of the kingdom now and seeing the works of the kingdom around us, close at hand.

So as we zoom in on today’s kingdom parable what does it tell us?

Well, let’s start in the garden… I was visiting my friend’s elderly mum recently and in her garden she has a flower bed that is planted up with lots of plants around a rose that’s in memory of her late husband. And on this particular day D was weeding the flower bed. And it was quite a task as the hot weather plus all the rain had made the weeds go mad! So I got on with helping, but not being the most informed of gardeners, at times I wasn’t sure exactly what was weed and what was flower. So every so often I’d stop and ask to avoid pulling up some precious plant that was supposed to be there because it looked like a weed to me!

And in a sense this is what Jesus was talking about – in the world there is wheat and there are weeds – children of the kingdom and children of evil, and God is letting them grow up alongside and mixed up with one another until the harvest. Unlike my experience in the garden of trying to tell the flowers from the weeds and sometimes getting it wrong and pulling up a flower, God leaves the weeds until the end of times so that the wheat doesn’t get uprooted with them.

Sometimes we Christians get dejected because we see so much evil around us – where is God? Why is he letting the evil flourish? Where is justice when the oppressor still oppresses, and the murderer still murders, and the thief still robs and steals, and the governors can be corrupt, and the abuser continues to abuse… where is God? God is there protecting the wheat by letting the weeds grow in its midst – but the time of the harvest will come and the reaper will reap and the wheat will be placed in the barn and the weeds be burned on the fire. This is the time when the children of righteousness (who have received the gift of righteousness from God) will ‘shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father’ but the children of evil will be uprooted and will receive the fruits of their evil ways and their rejection of life from God.

There are two further things to note about this parable…

1) Jesus died once for ALL upon the cross – the good news is that he has done everything necessary for all – even the worst offender, the worst weed, to come to God in repentance and become righteousness, become wheat, receive forgiveness and life.

You know, sometimes I think God can’t win with us – sometimes we hear this kind of parable and think “how can a loving God let anyone go into the fire?” But I say to you, remember that he came to rescue all of us from the fire – a free gift received through grace by faith and offered to everyone. And then on the other hand we think – “how can God forgive the vilest offender and welcome them into his kingdom?” St. Paul was one of them – a vile murderer – but he received forgiveness and a new start through Christ, and he’s blessed us with his writings. We can’t have it both ways and be outraged (if you are outraged) that there’s potential for not getting into the kingdom but also get outraged that people we think shouldn’t get in, might get in! Quite often what we want to do is throw some right nasty characters onto the fire – the Hitlers, the Mugabes, the abusers, the paedophiles – we’re often happy to hear of the fire of death when we think of them; but then we get outraged again that God’s grace and mercy is so massive that the rescue plan, the cross, is there for absolutely anyone to receive when they come with repentance and remorse.

What’s that all about? It’s about the 2^nd point…. That it’s not for us to be trying to tell the wheat from the weeds! I got it wrong in the flowerbed and couldn’t always tell the flowers from the weeds and we won’t always be able to tell the kingdom wheat from the spiritual weeds – that’s God’s job.

Our job is to receive his grace, his free gift, for ourselves and to get out there chucking the seeds far and wide so that a load of it lands on good, receptive soil and adds to that final harvest for the kingdom.

Last week I was prayer walking around our community with G, one of the elders from... And as we walked we saw the extent of all the new building round here – perhaps much more than you may have seen from (main) Road. And that building work means a lot of new homes, and a lot of new homes means a lot of people moving into our harvest field. As a church we need to be getting ready because we are the workers that God sends into the harvest, we are the ones to go scattering the seeds of the word of God and we are the ones who will need to be ready to love and disciple the ones who come looking for the way into the kingdom.

As citizens of the kingdom of God we need to be praying – pray for the kingdom to come in this place, whether for the present community or the ones who are moving in; pray for good soil as we go out, pray for workers to go into the harvest – that might be as simply as needing more of us to be willing to deliver our literature as the number of homes to deliver to increases significantly. Pray that in this place where God has put each of us there will be a ton of wheat to be harvested when the day comes! And pray that as a church community, our love and nurture can encompass and welcome those whom God wants to add to his kingdom.

Amen.

Something lost to find again

2011-07-11T14:49:00.002+01:00

I have always enjoyed writing. Not necessarily good writing, or words that will hold the attention of others, but writing that allows some expression of all the reflections stuck in my head to be expressed and make room for others, or at least to be processed to some degree! But I've realised that the avenues for that have been significantly neglected of late. Now I'm not saying that these were beautiful tree-lined avenues of aged oak and chestnut - more like streets of graffitied shutters and littered pathways - but they were my avenues. From the simple pen and paper of an old journal, to the musings of life through a blog, to the blank screen as an emerging poem defined some deep perspective on my world. Avenues that have become neglected and that I've only just realised provided me with a real joy and wellbeing. So I'm giving myself permission to allow a bit of time for reflection again - not just action and busy-ness but also reflection and expression. I'm sure that my life and ministry will benefit from that, and from the parallel listening to the reflections of others.

As Though

2010-10-28T20:13:00.006+01:00

When your faith feels like someone has taken it out of your core and is hammering away at it like a tin box being covered in dents, then carry on as though it's still the firm centre of your being.
When you find it hard to believe that there's a God who has a view on you and a hand in the world, then live as though there is and he does.
When you wonder if the man Jesus really came from heaven and lived on earth and loved with the greatest compassion there is, then live and love as though he did.
When you wonder what the world would be like if this Jesus was wandering in your bit of it now, then respond to the world as though he was.
When you're inspired by the stories you hear of others going the extra mile and doing something quietly transforming, then work as though you're them.
When you hear the call to serve the poor and pray for the broken but wonder what difference it will make, then serve and pray as though they're the most powerful tools in the world.
When you dream of a heaven that is the best of earth but wonder if it's really there, then hope as though it is.
When you trip over massive rocks of repeated mistakes and self-doubt, then get up again and carry on as though they've been dashed to dust.
When you look at the darkness of human actions and evil in the world, then look again as though you were looking at the sun's rays piercing through them.
When you're infuriated by the injustices of the world, then have patience as though a merciful judge were waiting to even the score.
When loosening the grip of the hurt that's been done to you feels like weakness, then let go as though weakness is the greatest strength of all.
When faith seems hard to come by then go on being faithful as though it will make all the difference in the world.
When your faith is shaken by storms then let mine carry you in your faithfulness, and when mine slips you can do the same for me, as though we were meant to carry each other.

(MR 2010)

Doctor Matt

2010-07-07T08:39:00.004+01:00

I have decided to go on record officially as being a great fan of the new Doctor Who!
Last year I was of the mind that the world may actually end when David Tennant stepped out of the role, and yet here we are at the end of Matt Smith's first series and Tardis or no Tardis, I wouldn't go back in time and switch the doctors again. The performances have been brilliant... such detail in expressions and mannerisms, and interesting development of the character. Of course, the writer Stephen Moffat should rightly receive credit for this re-creation... so credit to him where it's due. I even love the bow tie "It's cool!" (of all the quotes of the series that I could have included, I went for the easy to remember one!).
I approve!
(I'm sure there is universal relief at the BBC and with all involved in the production at that declaration).

PENTECOST

2010-05-23T00:39:00.001+01:00

PENTECOST 2010 – ACTS 2: 1-21 & JOHN 14: 8-17, 25-27

Have you ever felt discouraged, afraid, powerless or disillusioned?
If the answer is ‘yes’ then you’re not alone. The disciples of Jesus went through such emotions themselves, as did the prophets before them, and so have many faithful people after them.
When we can’t see what God’s doing or understand what’s happening in life, church or world we become downcast and it’s then that it becomes all too easy to take our eyes off God, to question our faith, or to think that God’s deserted us. But it’s at such times that it becomes all the more necessary to look to God, to pray, to be reminded of God’s faithfulness and that we’re not the only ones to go through such times of discouragement or apparent darkness.
The prophet Elijah became so afraid when his life was under threat and he thought he was the only man of faith left that he ran away in despair and cried out to God, “Take my life Lord!”
The people of Israel despaired when they were taken captive and exiled by the Babylonians and when their captors mocked them and told them to sing their songs of worship now they proclaimed (as we have it in Psalm 137): “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion….How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” For them the presence of the Lord was in the place of the Temple and they were removed from his presence. (Though the prophet Ezekiel found out otherwise when he, one of the exiles, was by the river Chebar and the Lord appeared to him in glory and gave him a word to speak to his disobedient people whether they would listen or not). The Lord was still there!
The disciple Peter was so afraid when he observed the trial of Jesus that he denied knowing him and wept with despair and disappointment at his own lack of courage in the face of persecution.
The writers of the Psalms, the poems and songs of God’s people Israel, often called out “Where are you Lord? How long O Lord must I wait for you?”
After Jesus had died and though he was even then raised from the dead, his disciples locked themselves away in a room because they were afraid of the Jews and it was into that locked room that Jesus appeared among them and spoke out “Peace be with you”. What did they most need in that room of anxiety and fear – the peace that God brings, the peace that Paul described as “beyond understanding” in his letter to the Ephesian Christians later on – peace of mind and heart not due to our circumstances but despite them.
We might not, like Elijah, face the threat of an evil queen like Jezebel trying to kill us for opposing her anti-God regime. We might not face violent persecution for being associated with Jesus like Peter and the early disciples did, though many do face that around the world today. We may not, like the greatest Psalmist King David, face enemy armies fighting the people of God. We may not experience being a minority faith in a society hostile to Christ as the disciples did in the days before they saw the joy of the resurrection of Jesus, though sometimes it seems our society is becoming more hostile to Christianity; we may not be sent into exile to hide away because of our faith; and yet we all face times of discouragement, fear, disempowerment and disillisionment. Do you see that God’s people have faced worse than I pray we will ever face and have come through with a faith like gold that’s been tested as through fire!

Because always God was there! Sometimes they didn’t realise it in the midst of the storm, sometimes their sinfulness and unwillingness to live God-honouring lives closed their ears and eyes to God, sometimes they had to wait and trust, but God in various ways reveals his presence and gives his peace in all of these situations.
It might be that facing the loss and pain of bereavement, worries for family members, concern about money and meeting the demands and needs of each day, sadness at being alone or living with difficult relationships, problems at work or being unable to find work, insecurity around issues of settling in another country, fears about your health or any number of other concerns and burdens cause you to feel that sense of discouragement or lack of peace.

And in the church too we can face concerns: As a church we have costs as you’d expect of any big family with a big home to keep and heat and light and maintain. Our Parish has a Parish Share (that is our allocation from the deanery towards the costs of our clergy, housing, and the training of new ministers) of £... for this year. If we actually gave a parish Share that reflected the number of stipendiary clergy in our Parish the cost to the Team would be a huge amount more than that. And of course we also put money into our mission and ministry here as well – all of this pay out is for God and to God – part of our commitment of discipleship, to enable there to be a church in this place to glorify and serve him. Meeting the costs of being church here and not just meeting them but we pray beyond that – and seeing an abundance that lets us be creative and imaginative and generous is something that I ask you to keep as a focus for your prayers through the coming year. This is one of the things of life that can give the vicar a distinct lack of peace, but in this we’ll pray for God’s abundant blessing to be demonstrated through us and that we will be like Barnabas who generously sold a field and placed the value of it at the disciples’ feet as his offering (none of us may have a field to sell but I pray we’ll think and pray afresh and bring what God prompts us to bring to set before him even if that offering seems so small to us – together we will provide the abundance and God will bless it!).

But where is all this leading then? What we find is that into the midst of our lives – both the holiness and the messyness of them, God has a promise and that promise is that he will pour out his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Comforter, the one who comes alongside to help, the bringer of peace, the encourager.

Just as the risen Jesus came and stood among his disciples and said “Peace be with you” so God’s promise to us is that now Jesus has ascended to heaven his Spirit is being poured out for all people who call on the name of the Lord and they will be saved. We might not always be saved from the calamities of life but he will be alongside us in them, sometimes he will even transform them; but we will be saved from the sin that separates us from God, forgiven and made new. And in that newness we’ll receive life that stretches beyond death and into God’s presence – the hope of what’s still to come, we’ll receive purpose and meaning for life and we’ll receive an equipping and empowering to be part of God’s transforming mission on earth – right where we are.

That was the Holy Spirit, the gift, that God told those early disciples to wait for and the gift that we see poured out on the day of Pentecost, the day we celebrate today with a prayer once again that God will pour out his Spirit on us as individual people and as his church.

Why did God pour out his Spirit on those first, waiting, disciples?
Why does God pour out his Spirit on us, the disciples of today?
The reasons and benefits are numerous and we find them contained in the two readings we’ve heard today…

1. So they could hear God. People from many nations were gathered together and when the Spirit was poured out they each heard the message of Jesus, spoken by the disciples, in their own language. God wants people to hear and understand and sometimes he even gives a gift of ‘tongues’ that the speaker does not understand but the hearer does.

2. So that they might call on the name of the Lord and be saved. Peter, as he spoke to the crowd, quoted the words of the prophet Joel: “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh…” And the result of these outpourings (in prophecies, visions and dreams) would be that people would come to God and be saved.

3. So that they would know the Father. God pours out his Spirit so that we can know him, and know him through Jesus – the one who came to show us the Father and break the barrier of sin and death that stands between us and God. The Spirit helps us to believe and understand the things of God and to know that we are his children.

4. So that they might do the works of Christ and glorify the Father. Our faith is not just a matter of belief in Christ but a matter of action too. Jesus sent out his first disciples to do the things they’d seen him doing – empowered by the Holy Spirit – healing the sick, breaking the powers that bound them, proclaiming the good news of God. None of those things can be done in our own strength but only by God at work through us with the outcome that people are blessed and God receives the glory!

5. So that they might keep his commandments. Jesus summarised all the law of God in two commandments: to love the Lord your God, with heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbour as yourself; but he also taught them to be prayerful, always calling on the Father, to baptise, to teach what he had taught them, to make disciples and to love and serve one another. It is the Holy Spirit poured out that enables us to keep these commandments.

6. So that they would receive peace from God and not be afraid. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
And here we come back to where God meets us in the very real things of our day-to-day lives that I spoke of before. The Spirit is poured out so that we can know God with us – encouraging, comforting, envisioning, helping and empowering us to live for Christ and be at peace with God.

And how amazing it is to see the fruit of the Spirit at work in us and among us – not only in growing in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, but the Spirit is at work when people of different cultures and traditions can stand side by side around God’s table and receive bread and wine, the gifts of God’s presence, together; the Spirit is at work when forgiveness takes the place of bitterness and thoughts of revenge from past and present hurts; the Spirit is at work when great doubts are gradually replaced by growing seeds of faith and hope; the Spirit is at work when acts of love and service are visible in a society of indifference to all but those we call our own; the Spirit is at work when God’s mission of bringing strength to the weak, healing for the sick, binding up the broken and seeking out the lost from God is shared by his people; the Spirit is at work when God is honoured in our words, our actions, our choices and our lives.

COME HOLY SPIRIT!
Amen.

Around the crib...

2009-12-16T16:29:00.002Z

It's quite miraculous that this many days before Christmas Eve I have my 'sermon' (in the form of a story in three parts) for the Christmas Eve crib service! A member of the church gave me a pack of candy sticks (canes) to use at Christmas, so the story has grown around them... At the end the dressed up children will gather around the crib for the blessing and to show us what the picture in the note looked like - along with the others at the 'stable' of course.... you'll see! (I haven't got a sermon for Sunday morning or the Carols by Candlelight yet, but we can't have everything can we!)

I want to tell you about a little boy today and something quite special that happened to him at Christmas time.

Now this little boy lived with his mum and dad and Gran and his two little sisters in a very small house and they didn’t have much money. Sometimes it got very chilly indoors and they had to put on an extra jumper until there were enough pounds to put on the meter key and make the heating come on again. And sometimes his mum had to go out to her second job almost as soon as she came in from her first one so they could pay the bills, while dad was working away from home and Gran looked after them.

When the children at school were talking about all the things they’d like to get for Christmas – X-boxes and DVDs and big toys and vouchers to spend, this little boy felt a bit left out because he knew he wouldn’t get anything like that. He wondered, even though he was only 7 years old, why Christmas was so different for some people to others.

He wondered why some people put lots of lights on their houses that twinkled and sparkled when it started to get dark, and other people didn’t.

He wondered why some people started to get excited when Christmas was coming and smile a lot more and other people had a scowl on their face and got very grumpy or just looked very sad and didn’t really want Christmas to come.

He wondered why some people spent lots and lots of time in the shops and carried huge bags full of things to wrap as presents and other people, like his mum, thought very carefully about the one little gift they could buy for the people they loved the most.

He wondered why some people had great big turkeys with lots of potatoes and vegetables and stuffing and then Christmas pudding at home, and some people who didn’t have anywhere to live went to a special shelter on Christmas day while people they didn’t know kindly made them a lovely dinner before they went back to the cardboard box they lived in on the street (he’d seen that on the television).

Yes, this little boy wondered lots of things about Christmas. He often wondered them while he was sitting by the windowsill with his chin resting on his hands.

And then, one day, about three days before Christmas Eve, while he was sitting in his usual spot, chin on his hands, looking at the people and traffic passing the window, he heard the clonk of something coming through the letterbox and landing on the doormat.

He thought one of his inquisitive little sisters might run and see what had come through – but there was no sound of movement. So he got down from his perch by the window and went to the door where he found a candy stick with a little note tied to it, with his name on.

The little boy picked up the candy stick – and what a delicious looking treat it looked to a little boy who didn’t get many sweets. But when he looked at the note it said, “Don’t eat me!”
“Oh, he thought… and that got him wondering again – why can’t I eat this lovely candy stick?” But something made him realise it was important to do what the note said, so he didn’t eat it. Instead he looked more closely and there was some more writing on the note: “Hold me upwards so the hook is at the top.” (the little boy held the candy stick upwards). “Just like a walking stick is there to hold frail people up and help them along, I am here to hold you up and help you along!” Well what a funny thing for a candy stick to say, he thought.
And then he turned the note over… and there was a picture of a little baby, wrapped in strips of cloth, but instead of lying in a baby’s crib bed, this baby was lying in an animal’s feeding trough with bits of straw poking out from underneath him.
The little boy had an idea he knew who that baby was… they’d talked about a baby who was lying in a feeding trough, in assembly at school.

What a lot of things to wonder about, and as the little boy wasn’t to eat the candy stick he took it into his little bedroom and tucked it under his pillow.

Late that night, well after everyone was in bed asleep, the little boy was lying awake wondering again about that little candy stick with its note. And while he laid there, in the quiet of the night, he thought he heard a noise. It sounded like the clink of the letterbox again and the gentle thud of something hitting the mat. But what could be delivered in the middle of the night?

The little boy quietly slipped out of bed and tiptoed down the stairs, and there on the mat was another candy stick!
This one had a note attached to it as well… and the note said his name again and, “Don’t eat me!” But there was some more writing on this one too… “wave me around like a conductor’s baton and imagine the music being played.” The little boy had a feeling he should do what the note said again, so standing by the front door, in the middle of the night, in his pyjamas, he started to wave the candy stick in the air just as though he was conducting a whole orchestra and as he waved it he could hear the hum of the music. And then he saw that there was some more writing on the note… “Now remember the music you’ve learned about me and sing it.” “About who?” the little boy wondered… and then he turned over the note and there was the same baby… wrapped in cloths… lying in a feeding trough. Perhaps that was who he should sing about?

By this time the little boy was feeling very tired, so he went back up the stairs, tucked the second candy stick under his pillow, climbed into bed and was soon fast asleep. But in his dreams there were lots of songs that night… songs of a star in the sky and bright angels pointing at something in the distance.

When the little boy woke up in the morning, two days before Christmas Eve, he’d nearly forgotten about the candy sticks, but then he felt something bumpy under his pillow and remembered those little surprises and all the things they made him wonder about.

So you’ll guess how very surprised he was when he went downstairs and on the kitchen table was another candy stick! His mum (who was too busy getting ready for work to worry much about it) said she didn’t know how it had got there – it must have come through the letterbox again, but this one had his name on it too.

And “Don’t eat me!” Hmmm, all these lovely candy sticks – “I wonder why I can’t eat them”, thought the little boy?

He looked at the note on the third candy stick… “Hold me downwards so the hook is at the bottom. Remember my name when you see the ‘J’. It is me who will walk with you and help you along.” And on the other side of the note was… the little baby, in the feeding trough, with bits of straw poking out from under him.

Well the little boy remembered what the note on the first candy stick had said… like a walking stick I will help you along. And now this note was telling him who that was, because he knew that the baby on the other side was Jesus… ‘J’ for Jesus.

Well, that gave the little boy a whole load of other things to wonder about! How could the baby on the picture, on the note, help him along… perhaps it was more than just a nice story and perhaps the songs that had started off in his dreams and got him singing, were more than just songs – perhaps they were pointing him to someone very special?

By that time the snow had been falling for a few hours so wrapped in his dad’s thick, old scarf and wearing his Gran’s gloves the little boy went outside and decided to build a snowman.
He made a ball with a handful of snow and then gradually started to roll it around in the snow on the ground so it got bigger and bigger and bigger. Then he left the big ball of snow to be the snowman’s body and started again to make his head. Then he turned around to find some stones under the snow to make some eyes and a mouth. And when he turned back again… what do you think he saw sitting on the snowman’s head? Another candy stick!

“How did that get there?!” he thought and looked quickly up and down the road to see if he could see who might have left it… but there were just busy looking people hurrying along and cars whizzing past in the slush on the roads… how very puzzling!

So he lifted it off the snowman’s head and read the little note: “Don’t eat me!” He wasn’t very surprised to read that now and wondered if he’d ever get to taste a delicious, sugary candy stick?
But, as usual, the note carried on: “look at my stripes – red and white. Life is stripy sometimes – good and bad, difficult and easy, light and dark, happy and sad; but I will walk with you on the red stripes and the white ones.”
And there on the back was that little baby again…

The little boy thought about the words on the note – he’d certainly noticed how stripy things could be and it made him feel good, hopeful, when he thought about there being someone who knew about the things that were bad and difficult, dark and sad in the world and who would be close by then. So he went back into the house, up to his bedroom and put the fourth candy stick under his pillow with the others. Then he went back outside and finished the snowman.

The next day no candy sticks appeared, or the day after that… and then it was Christmas Eve!
Even though the little boy knew that there wouldn’t be lots of presents the next day, he was still excited about Christmas. And he still wondered every so often about the candy sticks under his pillow. He had a feeling inside that something good was happening.

During the morning the little boy played with his sisters, though they could be a bit annoying sometimes – especially when they broke up the lego castle he’d built – but that was little sisters for you. While they were playing near the Christmas tree, the little boy looked at all the sparkling tinsel and decorations they’d put on the tree together the week before. And as he looked at the tree, a glimmer of red and white caught his eye… he went over to the tree and behind a little hanging star… he found another candy stick!

“Don’t eat me!” it said again! And, “Run your finger along my stripe – look at the winding path that goes from one day to the next and follow me along it.” And there again, on the other side, was the little baby.

The little boy wondered what that could mean? Perhaps there was someone making a safe path for him to follow that would show him how to do the right things? Then the little boy thought for a bit about his granddad – he had gone to heaven and they’d all been sad when that happened. But his granddad had once told him that he was following Jesus on a path that would take him to a wonderful place where they’d meet again one day. The little boy hadn’t really understood his granddad then but now he remembered the ‘J’ for Jesus and wondered if the candy stick was pointing him to the same path his granddad had told him about.

As he went upstairs to put the latest candy stick under his pillow, the little boy wondered where they had all come from – who had put the candy sticks through the letterbox, on the kitchen table, on the snowman and the Christmas tree? What a lot to wonder about!

He lifted up his pillow and there were the candy sticks… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with the last one… but then he looked again and saw that there was an extra one! There was his name again… but this time the note said, “Eat me!” The little boy looked again to make sure he hadn’t read it wrong – no, it definitely said, “Eat me!” this time. And the note continued: “Sometimes good gifts come from heaven. Enjoy them and be thankful.” And just to make sure… he turned the note over, and there was the little baby, lying in the feeding trough, with bits of straw poking out from under him.

Well, that little boy didn’t need to be told twice. He didn’t have sweets very often at all, and all those candy sticks had been making his mouth water… so he unwrapped the plastic and put that delicious sweet in his mouth… mmmmm. And in his mind he said, “thank you” as he enjoyed the lovely tastes.

There was a little thought in the back of his mind though, a thought that made him feel a bit sad and a bit guilty at the same time, because his two little sisters weren’t enjoying that lovely sweet, while he was. But he didn’t worry about that for too long!

And then night-time came again, and it was Christmas day! The little boy and his sisters came crashing down the stairs with excitement to see if there was anything under the tree. There were three little stockings laying there with their names on. The little boy put his hand into the stocking, and the first thing he pulled out was… another candy stick!

“Mmmmm, he thought, lovely!” But as he looked at the note he saw that this one said again, “Don’t eat me!” And underneath it also said, “The Christmas gift is a gift of love to be shared – give the rest of the candy sticks away.” Well, that was a difficult thing for a 7 year old boy to think about… but over those few days he’d wondered and learnt a lot of things, and he’d been able to keep those candy sticks under his pillow without eating them so far – and now he knew why.

But before he did anything else, the little boy turned over the note to see the picture on the other side. And there as usual was the little baby, lying in the feeding trough, wrapped in cloths and with bits of straw poking out from under him. But this time there was something else in the picture too – behind the baby was a bright light, an outline of wings and a halo. The little boy knew it was an angel. And underneath the picture this time were some words… “an angel appeared saying, ‘glory to God in the highest.’” And the little boy knew something else as he looked at the picture on the note – he knew that he would always remember the message of each of those candy sticks because they had come from Jesus – God in the highest heaven, and that an angel had been a messenger that Christmas bringing him good news of great joy.

But now there was something else to do. The little boy took the last candy stick and went up to his bedroom, but instead of tucking it with the others under his pillow, he took them all out. Then he went back downstairs to his mum, his dad (who was home for Christmas), his Gran, and his two sisters and gave each of them a candy stick. “Here’s a present from Jesus” he told each of them – “because he loves you” – and the little boy told them all about the upwards hook and the downwards hook, about the conductor’s baton and the music, about the stripes and the path to follow, about saying thank you for God’s gifts and about why he was sharing his candy sticks with them all. Then he looked down and saw that he had one candy stick left. “Who can I give this one to?” he thought. And then a thought popped into his mind… next door but one was an elderly man, a bit of a grumpy man, a man who told the children off if their football went on his garden, a man who didn’t have many visitors and was lonely; and the little boy knew that that’s who he should give his last candy stick to. So that Christmas morning, with his Gran, the little boy knocked at the neighbour’s house and holding out the candy stick with ALL the notes attached, he said, “Happy Christmas!”

A bit more 'About'...

2009-10-12T12:40:00.005+01:00

Here's my RevGalBlogPals 'Meet and Greet' interview that popped up on the RevGals site recently...

1. Where do you blog?
At http://chelleysteapot.blogspot.com. This is my revgals connected blog which was started during my curacy and was a bit neglected over the last few months, but I'm getting going again (slowly!)! I also blog... in an even more neglectful way... at http://wibsite.com/chelley.

2. What are your favorite non-revgal blog pal blogs?
Hmmm... wow, this is where I try and remember what will seem really obvious when I've finished this! From a Christian perspective I've enjoyed www.reallivepreacher.com and http://elizaphanian.blogspot.com.... and lots more, but my blog reading has been a bit sparse lately too. My mission will be to go out there and get inspired again! From other interests I'm afraid I have to confess to a bit of a geeky interest in London (best city in the world, though I am biased!) and London Underground of all things! So, http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com, http://geofftech.co.uk/iblog (a Londoner now Stateside) and http://london-underground.blogspot.com are particular favourites!

3. What gives you joy?
Being inspired, the laughter of young children, beautiful countryside, satisfaction in even the small things of ministry, sunsets and sunrises, early mornings, birdsong, being a mum, music, time to be immersed in a good book, the thought of what's to come, sharing God...

4. What is your favorite sound?
Waves, birdsong, children's laughter, the voices of loved ones, violins, God's 'voice'... those echoes of the things that bring me joy!

5. What do you hope to hear once you enter the pearly gates?
I expect this will be the truly predictable answer, but I really would love to hear "well done good and faithful servant!" You see I'm not very good at thinking 'well done' but though I live in the knowledge of God's love, I'm rather too good at imagining him as a rather disappointed parent who notices my shortcomings, lazy times and lack of inspiration as much as I do! I was reminded recently of the times of discovery a long way back in my journey when the sense of being a loved, precious child was at the forefront of my walk and has been a bit overlooked in the years of ministry... replaced almost with one who expects more of me than I can produce. And yet, how well He knows me! Phew!

6. You have up to 15 words, what would you put on your tombstone?
Hmmm... "I told you so" would be the tongue in cheek answer (referring to what comes next rather than what sent me off!).Perhaps simply "she loved God and she loved us".

7. Write the first sentence of your own great American novel.
Can I have a British one please? I've looked at the screen for a while and come up blank, so I'd better not rely on producing fiction as an alternative career... but if I could come up with something like Jane Austen's wonderful "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." (Pride and Prejudice) then I'd be more than a little chuffed!

8. What color do you prefer your pen?
Blue. I don't know why! Should I have a profound reason for that choice... I think my writing looks nicer in blue! And now I come to think of it I do generally rather like blue, it is after all one of the colours of Spurs! (Tottenham Hotspur - North London football club and the greatest team of all!).

9. What magazines do you subscribe too?
None at the moment. But if I was choosing to subscribe from the magazines I like to read every so often (when finances allow) then I'd go for the BBC History Magazine, Country Living (despite living in an Industrial, built up part of England, just east of London!), Country Walking, or Period Living and Traditional Homes!

10. What is something you want to achieve in this decade?
Seeing people who's lives are lived near, and touch mine, grow in faith, purpose, love and hope and helping them along the way (as they often help me). Not only those who have been 'given' me to care for in the church and parish but to be someone who is a blessing wherever! (That's not meant to sound pious!). And aside from that, I'd love to fill my thoughts with things that inspire me, give me ideas, bring me closer to God... and if it's not being greedy - England winning the World Cup would be great! Though not really my achievement that one!

11. Why are you cool?
Because the window's open next to me.

12. What is one of your favorite memories?
Well, going back to what I said in number 5... the day when TeenSon (now 18) was about 4 years old and we were walking along the alleyway behind our then home to get to the Supermarket at the other end. He was skipping along happily ahead of me and I remember watching him with such a feeling of love and joy, and all of a sudden I 'heard' a voice say "that's just how I feel about you" - it almost stopped me in my tracks... God could feel that level of love and delight over me, and it had a profound affect! I need to remember it more often!

13. Anything else you've always wanted to be asked?
"Would you come and preach at our church?" (I might be an inspirer then!)
"Would you pray with me?" (Because it's a sign of openness to God)
"Would you like a cup of tea?"

Breathing life into the Teapot

2009-08-30T11:41:00.003+01:00

Fortunately teapots are not prone to disintigration when long neglected! This little teapot is still ready for a brew... and it's good to bank on the familiar things of life - like a nice cup of tea - when all around is uncertain, unfamiliar of just challenging! Of course those three elements of life aren't necessarily negative ones: some of the uncertain, unfamiliar and challenging aspects of my own life are also exciting and stretching. TeenSon will be off to university in about a month's time, a special someone has found a place in my life over the last few months (the biggest surprise), vicaring still provides amazing delights and challenges that every day feel beyond me, but are fortunately not beyond God. And as my fortnight's holiday draws to a close (though not quite yet) my thoughts will turn again to how I meet the challenge of being the assistant shepherd to God's sheep in this place. The clamouring voices and demands line up to be heard - my own (usually suggesting a lack of many things), my mum's (look after yourself and home too), SS (Special Someone) and TS deserving quality of time and attention, the people of church and community to be loved and served and taught and prayed for... and in all that clamouring - the most important voice of all to strain towards... His still, small voice that makes sense of all others. I'll just put the kettle on and have a listen while the tea brews...

Time flies...

2009-02-17T21:46:00.002Z

I can't believe I haven't blogged anything round here since last November!!

Well, that's sorted that out for a while then.

Blogland

2008-11-16T14:06:00.014Z

I'm always delighted when all of you faithful reader(s?) come here and spend a few moments at this Teapot, which I'm rather fond of really, even if it was just because your Google search for "medieval teapot spouts with chipped handles" decided to divert you to the random thoughts of me. But now you're here, please STOP! And before you click NEXT or BACK have you considered clicking one of the links on the right to some excellent, excellent blogs... have you looked... they're great... Neil (exeter life - you may have thought you wanted to visit the Grand Canyon or Paris or Africa, but what about Exeter then?) and er, Neil (random stuff and quite a lot about films and poker) and DG (London, er it's hard to summarise the wonders of the Diamond Geezer blog - but we do get an annual update on smug marrieds verses singledom too!) and Geoff (USA from London and tube trains - and he's a Spurs supporter) and Kathryn (adventures of a vicar) and Annie (London underground's finest) and Russell (where to get a decent plate of egg, bacon, chips and beans) AND JAG'S ROUTE 79 LONDON BLOG (I nearly missed that one!) and the others, and then there's more of ME (you'll have to visit to see what that one's all about)! Yes I have another blog - one that's part of the wonderful world of Wib. I'm not quite sure how I came to have another blog when it's already a challenge to say anything worth reading on this one. I think it was to be part of the online wib community started by Dave Walker of Cartoon Church fame? They're a lovely lot over there too - perhaps you'd like to drop in for a little visit. I'm sure if you ask nicely they'll put the kettle on.
And, well, that's all I have to say at the moment - there's really no other purpose to this post than to blatantly* point at my other blog in the hope that you might go there and then be vaguely interested and make insightful comments. And to encourage clicking of links so that when I check my stats there's something to look at. Oh, and so I could use the "It looked like a profound thought was brewing... but it didn't" label - that's quite a tough one you know.

*I can never spell blatent... blatant.... (there's a dictionary behind me, but if I look it up then this comment will be rather pointless won't it!)

Just as I said I would...

2008-11-12T10:33:00.004Z

Have Times (yesterday's), have tea (today's), have Aero (won't last 'til tomorrow) and as promised I will now endeavour to find something less random about which I can speak of here.

I only got as far as the first few pages yesterday but what struck me was the brave 13 year old girl, Hannah, who has had to defend, and fight to protect, her decision to reject a heart transplant for the heart problems she has as a result of Leukaemia treatment she's undergone from the age of 5.

She has been made aware that the drugs she would need so her body would not reject the new heart could bring about a recurrence of the Leukaemia; so an already risky operation could prove even more uncertain in this case.
But the situation took an even more appalling turn when child protection officers got involved, as the Times article says:
"In an interview with Sky News she described how she had made her case to a child protection officer after Herefordshire Primary Care Trust tried to have her removed from her parents’ care on the ground that they were “preventing treatment”."
Is it not horrific enough to watch your daughter go through years of treatment for a life-threatening illness, to then find that this treatment has so damaged her heart that a heart transplant is the only course of treatment for that condition, but that operation could result in a return of the Leukaemia; and THEN to have officials threaten to take your daughter into care because their opinion on the way forward differs to that of your daughter? I find it hard to imagine how a care order under those circumstances would be of any benefit to a girl who would then be forced into having a heart transplant. Perhaps it wouldn't have gone that far?

Now, I'm not so naive to believe that every family with children who are being treated for serious illnesses are perfect specimens of togetherness, or that child protection issues don't occur in families with sick children. I know that they do, having had a friend who worked as chaplain in a children's hospital, but there's no indication of those kind of issues being present here, just a difference of opinion between officials and parents. And that's what makes me angry. Not only is our society so pointed towards medical intervention at all costs that the suggestion of choosing to reject that intervention at some stage is seen as foolishness; but our society is also so driven by 'child protection' that it allows so-called experts and strangers to take huge decisions away from parents. This I find an alarming development, and a development that still doesn't seem to be able to protect the most vulnerable children. There is surely a difference between families who need the help and intervention of social services (and I know some wonderful social workers) to protect children obviously at risk and families for whom suffering and circumstances require such difficult decisions to be made.

Perhaps I am oversimplifying what perhaps boils down to where those social services draw the line of appropriate intervention? I'm sure they see families that can't be bothered to get treatment for their children, or families whose religious sensibilities seem completely innappropriate (rejection of blood transfusions for example). Perhaps I'm just outraged because my 'line of intervention' accepts that sometimes we need to be able to live the life we've got left as best we can and with our loved ones - even if we're only 13 years old.

Whatever my opinion, or anyone else's for that matter, my thoughts and my prayers are with Hannah and her family.

Nonsense

2008-11-11T13:04:00.002Z

Before I say what I am about to say... I would just like to remind you that in the header of this blog are the words: "random thoughts posted in a tea break". I thought it would be timely to remind you of this statement before I proceed to post what I'm about to post.

I should probably also admit at this pre-posting point that I don't actually, currently have a cup of tea, so it cannot technically be said that I'm on a tea break, but as I'm on a week's holiday, perhaps that could count?

So, now that's all out in the open, I thought I'd just mention that I'm cooking chips and that when they're ready I'm going to pour sweet and sour sauce (the good stuff from the Chinese take-away) all over them.
Yes, that's all I have to say, but I promise that when I've eaten them I'll go and read The Times, that I bought in the Co-op this morning, and therefore try and have something a bit more profound or enlightened to say tomorrow.

The Weird and Wonderful World of Blog Commenting!

2008-09-27T01:38:00.004+01:00

Earlier this evening I wandered to Diamond Geezer's excellent blog and read this post about the changes in the way people tend to read and comment on blogs now (well specifically of course, Diamond Geezer's blog), in comparison to a couple of years ago. (He was reflecting that less people seem to comment on blogs than they used to?). So of course I got there and wanted to post a comment. Now, one of the key factors in blog commenting is having something interesting to say - which I generally don't, but I added my two' pennorth anyway. Job done, all very interesting, so from there I went off and visited another of my favourite blogs (along with Diamond Geezer it's listed in my blog roll). I scrolled back to the last post I'd read there to catch up. As it happens, I'd actually posted a comment on that post when I was there (after a while of humming and haa-ing to decide if I was brave enough what with established commenting community and a lot of people with worthwhile things to say). So then I had a look to see what else had been said - and my comment was gone! Now that again had not been the most riveting of comments - just a brief response to a rather dramatic something said in the post - but vanished it had into the black hole of the web world. And with it vanished my courage to step out in the 'popular' places and speak, and risk being ridiculous (another couple of points raised in response to DG's post).
It's funny how the virtual world can take you back into the real one. I find myself these days in a job that requires a lot of speaking, and much of that in front of big groups of people - but I remember clearly the days when I wouldn't open my mouth, even in a small group, or do anything that drew attention to myself. But as that changed I took small steps forward in finding my voice, but it wouldn't take much in the early days to strip away the courage. And in a funny way this little journey through the comments has reminded me of how far I've come, and how easy it is to lose confidence - virtual world or 'real' one!

Grrrrr

2008-08-29T11:00:00.002+01:00

While I used to love spam fritters when I was at primary school, I don't appreciate the kind of spam that has been appearing every so often in my blog comments! Now I don't get that many comments so when an e-mail appears that says someone's commented I'm rather chuffed - but of the last few comments left, several have been spam - and not the good old fritters!
The one I've just deleted from somewhere back in the depths of the Teapot managed to fit in more links than a gold chain, and there was me thinking only the big blogs with lots of comments were targeted. So for the time being it's comment moderation for my moderate number of comments!

Bad Blogging!

2008-08-26T14:09:00.005+01:00

I haven't posted the same thing on both my blogs before, but having got a bit out of the blogging habit, and being undecided about which blog to post my first-for-a-while random thoughts on, I've gone for both as a kick-start back! So apologies if you've read this somewhere before!

I'm currently on a fortnight's holiday and to-ing and fro-ing about a bit. A good part of the bank holiday weekend was spent in Cromer having a very relaxed time at a friend's flat and enjoying the pace of Norfolk life (until the car journey home when my London-style driving is slightly at odds with the meandering Norfolk kind!).Over the last week I've thought of various things I'd quite like to blog about, but without the motivation to actually blog them... for instance the closure of Walthamstow dog track. I join the distraught crowd who wanted it to stay. I'd been hoping to get there for the last Saturday night but unfortunately couldn't make it. I can't imagine the North Circular without the glow of the Walthamstow Stadium sign... the place is an institution (in the positive sense of the word!). The following information may bring my parenting into disrepute but when TeenSon was little we used to take him in his buggy, along with a bunch of friends, and spend a fun Saturday night in the 'cheap' side of the dogs. Not a huge gambling risk seeing as our bets were of the '50p to win' on, for example, number 4 - dog chosen because its name had some peculiar appeal or tentative link with something or other! And we spent TS's 14th birthday there too - for the first time ever in the 'posh' side. And now it's gone.
And the other thing that caught my attention (rather delayed) this week was the fact that retired athlete Jonathan Edwards has announced himself an atheist. Now I know all this happened sometime last year - but I managed to miss all that and it was only watching a bit of Olympic commentary with TeenSon the other day that I caught up when he said, "he's not a Christian anymore". I was rather disbelieving I have to admit, until I resorted to the trusty Google and read the interviews. I really was rather shocked, Jonathan Edwards having been such a visible and 'public' Christian. I felt quite sad for him as I read that when he'd retired from athletics he'd discovered quite how much of his identity was wrapped up in the sport and when that was gone other aspects of his identity came into question as well - including the Christian aspect. And it all seemed to unravel for him. Of course, I, along with others, can only speculate on his faith as was and as is now, wondering if this was the first ever real questioning and doubting he'd applied to God, life, the world and all. But I felt sad for him and pray that he'll keep exploring and questioning. Was he someone who thought that having God in your life made everything ok? Faith built on the 'rock' trusts God when the storms are blowing all around, but some seem to acquire a faith that thinks God extinguishes all the storms instead of enabling us to stand through them (and him standing with us in them). One blogger commenting at the time referred to the parable of the sower where the seed sown on rocky ground springs up but because its roots don't go deep, it doesn't survive the heat of the sun and is scorched and withers away - equating to a faith that springs up joyfully at first but when trouble or persecution comes the faith also withers away. (Or the seed sown among weeds which is choked by the cares of the world). Perhaps there's something of this in the experience of Jonathan Edwards... or perhaps not - that's between him and the God he's no longer sure of, but I pray that God will reach out and take hold of him once again.
And now I'm off to do more holiday-type things, like read a bit of Cadfael and fall asleep (well I did get back very late last night!).

Rev Gals Friday Five

2008-08-08T17:09:00.003+01:00

It's a long time since I actually joined in with the RevGalBlogPals Friday Five... but here's one for summer (though here where I am today it's grey and drizzly - not completely unheard of for the UK in August!)

1. What is your sweetest summer memory from childhood? Did it involve watermelon or hand cranked ice cream? Or perhaps a teen summer romance. Which stands out for you?
I don't know about 'sweetest' memory - but I can think of a handful of summer memories from childhood (and isn't it hard to work out sometimes if you remember the actual occassion or feel as though you do because you've heard the stories and seen yourself in the photos!).
There was the holiday in Somerset with the visit to Cheddar Gorge (where I am most familiar with the picture of me and my brother standing by a big cliff!) and that's the year, I think, where a vicious swarm of biting ladybirds chased us off the beach!
And I can remember loving a holiday in the Isle of Wight - mainly remembering Blackgang Chine, that my dad said a very naughty word when someone nearly crashed into us at a crossroads and that I loved it there.
Then there was the only holiday I had abroad with my family - in Ibiza - when I was 17. I do recall there being a nice bloke there, but it was also not long before I was diagnosed with Coeliac disease and the symptoms were very problematic - highs and lows!
But most familiar are the many daytrips to the seaside at Walton-on-the-Naze with the occassional stay at the Martello caravan park there too. Lots of memories of the beach, the pier, crabbing, the 'front'... and then later taking TeenSon too for day trips with my dad, from when he was a toddler - very happy memories.

2. Describe your all time favorite piece of summer clothing. The one thing you could put on in the summer that would seem to insure a cooler, more excellent day.
Hmmm... that one's hard for me as I'm more of a winter person. I much prefer winter clothes and could easily give you a list of the snuggly jumpers, big boots and comfy clothes I love in the chillier season. I struggle a bit with what to wear in summer - preferring to keep my legs covered and sticking with jeans even when I get too hot. But I suppose 'comfy' is the key word again so I unglamorously wear baggy t-shirts and baggy, cotton trousers!

3. What summer food fills your mouth with delight and whose flavor stays happily with you long after eaten?
Strawberries and ice-cream spring straight to mind or a nice refreshing ice lolly if it gets really warm (not the chocolatey ones though - the fruity ones!)

4. Tell us about the summer vacation or holiday that holds your dearest memory.
Well, it was actually a winter holiday until we arrived and then it was a summer one! (We left the UK in December = winter and arrived in South Africa where it was their summer!). That was in 2002 when we went to stay with friends and spent Christmas with them in the north of the country. It was wonderful for many reasons: seeing the very dear friends we'd missed so much since they moved away, being in Africa which held a certain magic for me, the long weekend we spent on a game reserve where I saw my beloved elephants up close and in their natural habitat, spending Christmas in shorts and sunshine, being there with people who lived there rather than on the tourist trail and having a feel for day to day life - first on the farm plot where we house-sat for a week or so and then back in the small town where our friends lived. Awesome!

5. Have you had any experience(s) this summer that has drawn you closer to God or perhaps shown you His wonder in a new way?
Not this summer specifically - we're just approaching though the first anniversary of moving to where we live now so the whole year has been full of changes, challenges, blessings and wonderings about what God is doing in my life, in my church... and whether I'm doing alright!
Yesterday evening though, a very involved member of my church, as we left a meeting, said "we're so glad to have you here as our vicar - lots of people think that but they don't say it!" That was a real blessing when I've wondered with God how I've been received here.

Bonus question: When it is really hot, humid and uncomfortable, what do you do to refresh and renew body and spirit?

Cold water or my little face spritz spray; and for the spirit trying to remember to always look to heaven and pray, pray, pray!

Well, it was good to look back... but I can also look forward as in just over a week I've got my two weeks off. Though I probably won't go away I'm looking forward to the rest and refreshment.

Almost a year in...

2008-08-04T14:48:00.002+01:00

It is fast approaching one year since we moved here - new home, new parish, new church, new people, new college for TeenSon... I can't quite believe how time's flown by actually, it's been a bit of a whirl in some senses and as I think back it's hard to remember what my hopes and expectations were for this first year? I suspect they weren't actually that richly defined, but along the lines of 'get to know the people[in my church and beyond], walk alongside them with God, see how things work here, pray quite a lot and see what God seems to want'? I don't have one of those tales of supersonic-church-growth or doubled income (though who knows what time and God will bring here?) but I do have a love of these people I share a lot of life and ministry with. And for me that's one of the joys of ministry - I enjoy less the pressure of producing measurable results - some (pressures) that come from beyond me and some from within. 'For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven... a time to sow and a time to reap.' (Ecclesiastes 3) This I don't have trouble believing, but fending off the niggling doubt that I won't create anything reapable as well as trying to convince others to be patient is another story!
God can do great things, I just hope he'll do them in us, and that I won't get in the way! It's all too easy to find the discouragements under every stone when the real challenge is keeping eyes fixed on God and trusting him.

Exeter Blog

2008-06-29T23:27:00.002+01:00

I have never been to Exeter but to slightly compensate for that character flaw I'm posting a link to Neil's new blog.... HERE .... brought to you - surprise surprise - from Exeter! I haven't been down to that neck of the British woods for a long time and am trying to remember how near I've ever managed to get to Exeter... hang on, I have a handy map here somewhere.... Ah, it would have to be Minehead I reckon, followed by bits of Cornwall! Still at least if I do get down there I'll now know which pubs to go to and which street to particularly look where I'm walking!

Teapot Ramblings

2008-06-29T21:17:00.004+01:00

Well on this Sunday evening here I am wandering back to the dear old Teapot. For those of you who come here through some totally unconnected-to-church-and-Christian-things route then be assured that I am fully intending to post something other than sermons... most often in the past it has proved to be something not quite so eternally significant (not that my sermons are eternally significant, but hopefully the God they point to!) - like the London train system, Cadfael books and VW Camper Vans (what a bizarre collection of interests I have!). But your patience is appreciated when on a Saturday night I hang around here with the RevGals, going through what-I'm-offering-tomorrow-angst and hoping that someone will come and post glowing encouragements about what I'm planning to hit my congregation with the next morning! Of course this is the real world and it doesn't work that way - for one thing I suspect God's been trying to teach me for many years to depend on him for encouragement and look to him for confidence - but I'm better at being convinced of his worth than mine in his service. Isn't it funny how you can have such a desire to get across to the wonderful bunch of people that meet with you Sunday by Sunday as church, that THEY are of such value and worth to God, that he loves them and can see all they are and all they can be - but at the same time you can feel completely inadequate to the task because you all too easily forget it yourself! Now if only God had managed to find the blogspot comments box and pop in... Anyway, perhaps while this is resembling something more like a mini sermon and before I move back to trains or other momentous topics I will just add at least that I hope (and pray) that when I tell them of this love and worth and value that they hear it because I'm privileged to serve such wonderful people who deserve to really know this deep down and with all of their being!
It's quite good actually to stop on one of the rollercoaster days when the coaster is dipping downwards and discouragements outweigh perceived achievements, when the music was a bit stodgy and the numbers were low and the sermon seemed dull... that Jesus was still in it!
"The Lord is here!" "His Spirit is with us!" how amazing was that... and not being a mind reader I now have to leave it all with God and pray that he'll stick close to his people (sometimes through me or others) and keep hold of them as they journey on through the week.

Now, as for those trains....

Oh Yes, it's another Saturday Night Sermon!

2008-06-28T19:11:00.003+01:00

Late addition... this is without the Sunday morning amendments and tweaks which turned the sermon into something resembling one that would make your 'hearts burn within you' (as some disciples said on a famous road as Jesus opened the Scriptures to them!) - oh what, this isn't a dream...

Sermon - 29.6.08 – Acts 12: 1-11 & Matthew 16: 13-19

I’d like to continue that theme of prayer for a bit longer…

Recently I’ve been reading again from Ezra and Nehemiah – two books in the Old Testament - and Nehemiah is a wonderful example of a man of prayer. In Ezra and Nehemiah we find the people of God returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. The Temple was the place of worship and sacrifice for the Jewish people, as well as the place where it was believed God had his dwelling on earth – where heaven and earth meet. (As they certainly did in Jerusalem when Jesus was there!).
In Ezra the people return from exile to rebuild the Temple, and in Nehemiah we find this man of God calling out to the Lord because the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed leaving it unprotected and bringing shame on God’s people. He prays from his heart to God for Jerusalem and for the opportunity to be allowed to leave his job as the king’s cupbearer for a time and go back to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And he also prays what we sometimes call ‘arrow’ prayers – shooting up a spontaneous prayer to God as he speaks to the king and seeks his goodwill.

And the thing that struck me afresh as I read Nehemiah was regarding how he expressed what God had lead him to do. In chapter 2 we hear Nehemiah’s words: “I had not told anyone what my God had put on my heart to do for Jerusalem.” He had a definite sense that God had put it on his heart to do this thing; and you see, God does that – he did it then and he still does it today. He lays on the hearts of his people an urge to do something for him, a particular need, a particular place, a particular task – and then we respond. That response needs to come first as prayer. Just as Nehemiah turned first to prayer – speaking back to God that new desire of his heart. Often it takes a long time for that thing to actually come into being, but our task is to walk with that burden, keep praying and listening and responding at the right time. And of course it’s as we pray earnestly that we learn to discern something that God has lain on our hearts from our own rush of ideas. And if you’re sitting here this morning thinking, “well that wouldn’t be me… I’m not knowledgeable enough, or good enough, or holy enough, or loving enough, or spiritual enough…” then think again, because God makes us all those things, not ourselves, and he can and does speak to any and all of his people.

You may remember back to the recent visit we had of V and S from the orphanage in India? V spoke of how that ministry was started and it began with his father seeing two children rummaging around in a dustbin for food, and from that sight God laid on his heart the desire to do something. And from that beginning, over much time, with much prayer, much generosity and much effort the expanding ministry of that place came about. God laid it on V’s father’s heart and from there he prayed. I expect many of those early prayers were something like, “what do I do Lord?”

Of course, one of the roles of your vicar is to be praying and asking God what he wants us to do and be in this place, and I'm committed to seeking God for these things. But often God puts somrthing on YOUR heart – sometimes about something he specifically wants you to do – sometimes in the church but not always – perhaps in your neighbourhood, perhaps in your place of work, perhaps in your lifestyle, and sometimes it’s about something for the church to pray into being. And that’s what I’m here for too – to talk with you, pray with you and discern with you what is from God.

Don’t be discouraged if the first response of the vicar to your suggestions is ‘go and pray earnestly for a time about that – as will I’ because first we need to patiently wait on God and we also need to be humble to test what we sense is from God. And also, we need to consider prayerfully the resources – people, time and money, to do what we hope for and dream of. We can come up with many of our own ideas and if we try and bring them all into being ourselves we’ll probably expend much time and energy, but not necessarily in the most kingdom affirming ways. So when a burden is laid on our hearts from God, He will provide all that’s needed – and most often he’ll expect us to be a big part of the provision. Does he want you to be involved with making it happen? Does he want you to give generously towards it, does he want you to keep praying for it? If we want to really be a church that lives out the things we’ve affirmed as our purpose: to worship God, to lead people to Christ, to grow in our faith, to build a loving Christian community and to serve a world in need, then we each need to make that happen with our time, our commitment, our money, our prayers, ourselves offered to God. It can be a challenging lifestyle but there’s none better as we live out this life of love and faith, following Christ as Lord!

What wonderful examples we have before us of the people of God through the ages and how God interacted with them. We’ve revisited Nehemiah, and today is the day in the church when we particularly remember Peter and Paul and we can take hope and inspiration from seeing how their lives of faith worked out and what God did in and through them. We have the privilege of seeing the whole story –
watching Paul change from murderer of the Christians to making Christ known as a great missionary and church planter, and watching Peter turn from the bumbling fisherman who was always getting things wrong (just read through one of the gospels again with it in mind to revisit the Jesus and Peter story!), to becoming the leader of God’s church, the one who stood up and spoke on the day of Pentecost – the one whom Jesus called ‘the rock on whom I will build my church.’ And Peter (as we also heard in our gospel reading) was the first to affirm the truth of who Jesus is – recognising him not only as a good teacher or as one of the prophets of old, but as the Messiah – the anointed one from God who would usher in God’s kingdom. Even so, and even having declared, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” he probably didn’t have the whole picture at that stage – it was only after the resurrection that the followers fully realised all that Jesus had been telling them about himself – but Peter did know that Jesus was ‘the One’, the one whom God said was coming!

Let’s be re-inspired today as we look at what God has done and promises still to do. Let’s be a people who take prayer seriously just as the early church did when they prayed earnestly for Peter’s release from prison, and just as Nehemiah did when God laid that burden for Jerusalem on his heart.
Let’s rediscover the way God changed Peter and enabled him to do amazing things for him by revisiting those accounts in the gospels and trusting that God can also take us on an amazing voyage of discovery, faith and service.
Let’s be a people ready to respond with patience, prayer and then action when God lays his burdens for a needy world on our hearts.
Even here in (N) – within these walls and many more outside are young people who need the security and guidance of the Lord God in their lives, are people who are lonely, or sick or bereaved or broken-hearted, are many elderly folk with no-one to look after them, or just chat to, or sort out their garden, or drive them to the hospital, are people who are worried sick about debt or bound up in a spend, spend, spend culture, are people who carry burdens of deep shame and horrendous self image because they don’t know that God loves them and offers forgiveness and cleansing through the shed blood of Christ.

These are the things God wants us to care about as he cares, and to pray earnestly about – saying, “Here am I, send me!” Or if you can’t yet pray that prayer, then pray, “Lord, help me to want to pray that prayer and be willing for you to send me.”

Let's pray...

"Let the children come to me and do not hinder them."

2008-06-28T16:57:00.002+01:00

29.6.08 – Children’s Talk – Acts 12: 1-11

Sign for each person involved as the story unfolds…

Let’s see (again) what was happening in that Bible story…

Peter had been arrested for being one of Jesus’ followers [we have a lot to say thank you to God for here, because we are safe and free to follow Jesus and talk about him]

But Peter was put in prison by Herod.

There were 4 squads of 4 soldiers guarding Peter (16 soldiers one sign – 4 watches) and Peter was bound with two chains. Herod wasn’t leaving anything to chance!

The next day (after the Jewish festival) Herod was going to deal with Peter – he was in great danger.
But while Peter was asleep an angel appeared (angels are God’s messengers).

The angel got Peter ready to leave: “fasten your belt, put on your sandals, wrap your cloak around you, follow me.”

Peter thought he was seeing things or dreaming it but when the angel got him away and left, Peter realised the Lord had rescued him!

Now, did you notice what was happening somewhere else while all that was going on?

While Peter was arrested and in prison the church (give out notes to all: Part of the praying church) was PRAYING EARNESTLY FOR HIM (‘earnestly’ means very seriously, they prayed hard!).

See the amazing thing is that though God is mighty and powerful he uses the prayers of his people alongside him to get things done. Like this time – the church was praying and Peter was rescued by God – and when he turned up at the house where they were, the Christians didn’t believe it could really be him – even though that’s what they were praying for!

Sometimes it’s hard to pray and we wonder why God sometimes seems to answer and sometimes doesn’t. Those early Christians had the same problem. Not long before, James had also been taken by Herod, and he was killed – surely the church was praying for him too? Our lesson is to learn to trust God whether he seems to say YES or NO or WAIT. And to make sure we keep on praying so God can do amazing things through us too. All of you are important because you can be God’s pray-ers. You just need to start by talking to God and asking him to help where people need help. We pray a lot of prayers together in church so every time we’re altogether listen to how we pray and learn to pray too. And each prayer is everybody’s not just the person saying it because when we say ‘Amen’ it means ‘let it be so’ – we agree!

Changing Trains

2008-06-08T22:13:00.005+01:00

Towards the end of last summer we moved house. And along with the house move came the church and work and school to college moves. Obviously these are significant changes and for a while we were homesick, but now where we are feels like home and the people here are our familiar friends. But it wasn't just these obvious changes that caused a wrench - I also went into mourning for the passing of Liverpool Street Station!
Those of you who've been hanging around this Teapot for long enough may recall me talking a couple of years ago (3rd June 2006), with great affection for Liverpool Street station:

"Well, I'll begin with a confession... I love Liverpool Street Station! I have lived all my life somewhere or other on the Liverpool Street line - and am currently the furthest south on the line that I've been (the farthest away being when we lived in Cambridge for a couple of years)."

So when it came to moving to the Fenchurch Street line - well - I really couldn't get to grips with that for a while! I'd come to know 'my' station like the back of my hand, I had my favourite place to sit and watch the world go by and had an affection for the little bit of London in which it sat. I had my familiar tube routes in and out - and then it all changed. As it happens Fenchurch Street is only 5 minutes on foot from Liverpool Street so nestled fairly close by in the city. It can nowhere near compare in architectral appeal or bustle, and no tube station - well really! Those were a few of my first thoughts, and they remain, but now of course we're used to wandering round the corner to Tower Hill for the Underground, it's nice not to have to pay 20 pennies to spend a penny or fight the crowds to get to the few platforms. And the surrounding streets soon become familiar, I've even got a replacement favoured coffee shop for that world-going-by-view. And then there's the South Bank which I had given hardly a passing thought to in that previous life. Isn't it funny that in London a station only 5 minutes away can seem like another world? But it is becoming a part of my world, and I'm rather fond of it. The plain little Fenchurch Street station will never replace Liverpool Street in my affections... but I'm managing to create a whole realm of new ones!

Not a Miserable Park Keeper!

2008-06-07T21:46:00.004+01:00

Well, so much for promising some trivialities about my twin joys of tea and Camper Vans... here's another sermon!
It's my offering for tomorrow which is an all-age baptism service where the guests will probably outnumber the regular congregation. It's turned into 'not a children's talk' but I am planning to have some print-outs of feet with space for a name and 'follow me' for the younger children to be filling in... or something like that! Anyway, here it is (comments gratefully received):

Sunday 8th June 2008 – ‘Follow Me!’
Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26

I’m reading a book at the moment called, ‘Fat, 40 & Fired’ by an Englishman in Australia called Nigel Marsh, who, as the title suggests has turned forty, put on a bit of weight and been made redundant but he calls the resulting year, ‘The year I lost my job and found my life.’
He goes on an intriguing journey of challenging himself and rediscovering the things he most loves in life – not least his wife and four children. Of all the bits of the book I could quote to you this morning it’s a few lines that come up as he speaks of their new home city of Sydney that I want to read you:

“The love affair started on our very first visit to the country, when we came to look for a house before my job started. We were walking in the Botanical Gardens behind the Opera House when we came across a sign: ‘Please do walk on the grass’. I did a double-take and looked closer. Sure enough, the council had erected a sign saying, ‘Please do walk on the grass’. Underneath, in smaller letters, the writing continued: ‘And talk to the plants and hug the trees. It’s your park, it’s here for you to enjoy. Have fun.’ I was stunned and have never really been the same since.”[1]

And as I read that I thought – ‘that’s how God wants us to see the world’ – walking on the grass, enjoying what’s out there, living life to the full, as Jesus put it. But how often when God, or perhaps even more – his church is mentioned in the media is it more likely to be as a miserable old park keeper, chasing the children away from where they’re having fun; rather than the one that says, ‘walk on the grass, enjoy the plants and the trees, I made them’?

If you haven’t yet realised it, then understand today, that God isn’t the miserable old park keeper, but the source of all that brings deep satisfaction and delight in this life – the one who put all that beauty out there for us. Yes, of course, he has given us some guidelines and boundaries that enable us to live alongside one another in safety and respect and most of all love. We’re well aware of the need to give our children guidelines and boundaries, it’s the job of any responsible parent, so why not God? To take the picture another step on – no-one could enjoy the park if a few came along having a chain saw party and cut all the trees down because that’s what they really felt like doing, or even if they shouted from the rooftops that it was their right!

And in both of our Bible readings today there’s a call from this God to us. In the Old Testament reading from Hosea the call is: ‘Come, let us return to the Lord; he will heal us, he will bind us up, he will revive us, he will raise us up to live before him.’ Because ultimately, God – the Lord – wants us to walk through life with him and on into eternal life – what we call heaven. He wants you to walk through life with him, understanding him to be the one who heals you, binds up your wounds, revives you and raises you to be with him. But there are really hard words intermingled there too. These were addressed to the people who had experienced God’s presence and special blessing but who had turned away from him, had done evil and as a result had experienced what’s spoken of too – being torn and struck down. Sometimes only hardship causes us stubborn humans to turn back to God and cry out to him. All the way through the Old Testament there are examples of the people turning away from God and living evil lives opposed to how God has called them to live. (And his rules aren’t there to spoil our fun, but to ensure it doesn’t get perverted – and they’re summarised as ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and love your neighbour as yourself’. How we treat each other and how we treat God, really matters.)

But in those times of hardship, when the people cry out to God he responds according to his nature and character – not as the miserable old park keeper but as the one who heals, binds up, revives and restores.

That’s what God’s like.
And what he’s like has been made even clearer for us in the life and death of Jesus; because Jesus is what we call ‘God incarnate’ – God having taken on human form to live among us and ultimately to die in our place so that we can go through death into life – and that life’s the unspoilt one, the unseparated from God one.

And so, having heard that call in the Old Testament, ‘Come, let us return to the Lord’; we now go to our second reading from the New Testament to hear Jesus’s words: ‘Follow me.’

‘Come let us return to the Lord’ and ‘Follow me’; is that what God is saying to you today, whether you’re as young as (N) being baptised this morning or as old as… some of the old vicars on that board?!

Jesus said those words, ‘follow me’ to Matthew who was certainly not an approved follower or dinner guest for Jesus to hang around with according to the religious people of the day.

But that’s the point, Jesus came to call all us ‘sinners’ all us who mess things up and need a new start to follow him. The church is full of people who’ve heard that welcome invitation and responded to it, not full of people who are so good in their own right that they have no need of God – far from it!

So Jesus was God on earth who we often call ‘the Son’, then dead on a cross, then alive again through the power of God and seated with him in heaven; is also by the same nature the one who heals us, binds up our wounds, revives us and raises us up. We saw a couple of examples of just that further on in the gospel reading where Jesus restored to life the daughter of the leader of the Synagogue and healed the woman who reached out to him and touched his cloak.

‘Follow me’ – two simple little words, but what do they mean – what do they require of us?

Well, in any game of ‘follow-the-leader’ the followers need to do the same as the leader, and in the church we follow-the-leader. The call is to be like Jesus and to reflect his compassion, his service, his life that ignored the social conventions to hang around with the ‘right kind of people’ but instead spend time with the ones who needed him.

It means that in our lives he is Lord, he is king, he is the boss and we offer ourselves so that we become people who get involved and heal, bind up and revive in God’s name.
It means offering him all we are, getting involved and being willing to share what we’ve been given – our time, our energy, our talents, our money – not just living for ourselves, but for others. In this church we do that by supporting projects overseas such as the Ebenezer Children’s Home in India and Mother Mercy (Orphanage) in Kenya; by being on the BarNBus team on Wednesday nights that’s in the car park for the teenagers of our community; by caring and praying for one another; by trying to make God’s love known in the way we act and speak wherever we are through the week; by looking out for the weak and vulnerable in our community; by giving to the work of the church – the more we give the more we can make a difference; by working with the children both in and out of the church in the children’s group and youth group and holiday club. There's even the potential for such things as local sports teams, hosting debt counsellors, serving in the community forums, standing up for the voiceless and challenging prejudice if we start to get creative. The more we are willing to follow and offer ourselves the more we can do for the people God has placed us among. The next ‘in Touch’ will be out very soon which will contain more ideas for getting involved.

And even when we decide we want to live this life we still get it wrong and we still need help – and God gives it – what he calls us to do he enables us to do because when we do set off following him he gives us a gift; and that gift is his Holy Spirit – God living in our hearts helping us to be Christ-like and do the things he did.

In the baptism in a few minutes we’ll be praying for (N) and his parents and godparents as they make promises on his behalf to help him grow up as a follower of Jesus. And one of the things we do is to give (N) a lighted candle that represents the light of Jesus in the world. And as we do that we say ‘shine as a light in the world, to the glory of God the Father.’ That’s what it means to respond to the call ‘follow me’, both for (N) as he grows up, and for all of us – to shine as a Christ-light in the world.
Think seriously about how you answer that call today.

You may be here as a visitor today having never heard that call before; you may be here having been a churchgoer for many years but have never responded ‘yes’ to that call; you may have been a faithful, following Christian a long time who’s being challenged to think afresh about what you offer back to God; you may be a young person who’s grown up in the church but has never said ‘ok Lord’ for yourself?

Jesus says ‘follow me’ – we each have to decide how to respond and whether we’re going to ‘walk on the grass’ and live life to the full!

Amen.

[1] Nigel Marsh, 'Fat, 40 & Fired', p76 (Piatkus Books Ltd 2006)

Spirit... Blow those cobwebs away!

2008-05-10T18:25:00.004+01:00

While I am very hopeful to get some more ramble about cups of tea, VW Camper Vans, my cat and other daily life trivialities on this 'Teapot', today you get another 'sermon'! It's actually my Pentecost talk for tomorrow, and is an attempt to address all ages in church with the great news of Jesus Christ with us all, all the time, through the Holy Spirit...

And by the way, I added some personal testimony just after the Tom Wright quote... but I won't bother to add that here... unless it's specifically requested ;)

Oh, and another little aside... when I actually preached it and we reached the 'creating the sound of the rushing wind' bit - it was rather amusing as half the 'whistlers' sounded like they were wolf whistling and a couple of the 'blowing through your hands' people blew raspberries - not quite, I suspect, what the original day of Pentecost would have sounded like!

Sunday 11.5.08 – Pentecost (All age)

There was once a glove. It was quite a nice glove really. It had everything a glove needs – a thumb, fingers, a hole in one end… but there was something missing, because this glove was empty, it had no hand! The glove was still a glove, but it had been made to be moulded by a hand and it felt rather useless and purposeless without one! And then one day along came a hand and it filled the glove. It gave the glove movement and brought it to life. It enabled the glove to be what it was made to be – it gave it purpose and usefulness – it filled it!
And as Christians we’re a bit like that glove. We need the Holy Spirit to come and fill us, like the hand filled the glove. Without the filling of the Holy Spirit we’re a bit like a glove with no hand – empty, powerless and lacking energy. But like the glove, when we’re full, we’re full of movement and life, usefulness, power and purpose.
And that’s what today’s about – looking back at when the Holy Spirit first came and filled God’s people. AND it’s about asking him to fill us with his power and purpose and LIFE – just as he did with those first apostles.
And do you know, God does it in all kinds of ways! On that Pentecost day, long ago, when the people were all gathered together for what was a bit like the Harvest Festival – God’s Spirit came and filled them. And it was dramatic!
Did you notice what Luke, who wrote it all down said it was LIKE? He said it was LIKE the rush of a violent wind. Think for a moment how that might have felt and how it would have sounded as that rushing wind of God’s Spirit came rushing through the room where they were…
What do you think they felt? Fear, excitement. wonder perhaps?
I wonder if we can create something like the sound of a rushing wind…
One group – “whoosh” getting louder
One group – rising and falling whistling noise
One group – blowing loudly between hands
And they wouldn’t have only heard that noise, they would have felt it too.

And then Luke tells us, it was like tongues of fire – have you seen a fire when the individual flames, like tongues, lick upwards (wave your tongues of fire) and then the tongues of fire rested on them (rest the flames on your head).
They didn’t get their hair set alight because it was a spiritual event that gave very physical impressions which enabled those apostles to describe what they experienced.
We can’t properly recreate that event, but we can imagine the drama of it AND we can see what happened as a result of it… they were all filled with the Spirit and they started to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.

It wasn’t just God’s party trick.
He did it for a reason – so that the people of many nations would hear his message in their own language (I know that some people would appreciate that happening here sometimes!). And once God had got their attention, Peter stood up and explained it all to them – especially that God would pour out his Spirit on all people – men and women, young and old.

But you know, when the Spirit’s present, it’s not always dramatic like that. Sometimes, instead, it’s LIKE a gentle dove (hold up your doves). Remember when Jesus was baptised and the Spirit came and rested on him LIKE a dove. Gentle!
Or it’s like a still, small voice – that’s how the prophet Elijah experienced the Spirit of God – Quiet! (All whisper “Shhh”.)

What we need to remember is that FIRST - ALL these ways of experiencing the presence of God’s Spirit are as valuable and effective as each other – we’re all different and God works in all kinds of mysterious ways his wonders to perform – as we often sing here!
The important thing is that we appreciate the diversity of experience. There are those who will experience God’s Spirit dramatically – a reminder of how powerful and life-transforming God can be.
And there are those who experience God’s Spirit in a quiet, steady, almost unnoticeable way. Delight in what God is doing around you, as well as in you, without envy of what he’s doing in someone else!

And SECOND, remember that God longs to give the Spirit to ALL people, if we will just ask.
In Luke’s gospel, chapter 11, verse 13, Jesus says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Remember the before-getting-out-of-bed prayer of my old vicar I told some of you about last week…? “Morning Lord, please fill me with your Holy Spirit again today.” Let’s remember that prayer and keep praying it, at all times and in all places!

Why is all this so important then? Hear the words of Bishop Tom Wright [1] on the matter…“What the Spirit will do when he comes is anybody’s guess. Be prepared for wind and fire, for some fairly drastic spring-cleaning of the dusty and cold rooms of your life. We should not doubt that God will give his Spirit to all who seek him, and that the form and direction that any particular Spirit-led life will take will be (assuming obedience and faith) the one that will enable that person, in their own way, to bring glory to God.”
Just as the glove needed the hand to fill it, so we need the Spirit to fill us, so that ultimately we’ll come to a much deeper knowledge of God, of his love for us and his purposes in our lives, and so that Jesus will be seen in, and made known through, us.
Amen.

[1] Tom Wright - Acts for Everyone, Part 1. Page 24/25

Revisiting...

2008-03-16T19:38:00.003Z

I found this, started a couple of weeks ago, sitting on the 'edit' pile of the Teapot - waiting for something to happen!:

There are some days when I love being a priest; when it feels like I'm doing the thing I was created to do; when both the 'duty and the joy' are a privilege. But on other days I ponder towards God, "what on earth were you thinking when you nudged me in this direction?" You see, I'm not a very dynamic sort of person, I don't have great plans and big ideas (in fact I'm a detail person for whom the 'big picture' often seems discouraging and daunting!). Now despite all that, I do know that God has given me gifts and talents, but some days I just don't want the responsibility.

And then I carried on with some specifics which I've deleted, but which indicate what a balancing act so many aspects of life (and here, ministry) are. The need for something tangible to assess held against the fact that so much pastoring/shepherding happens behind closed doors - in secret - those private conversations that may make a difference to someone but don't necessarily put more 'bums on seats' or pounds in the koffers. The fact that God at work in a particular place may be small scale, held against the fact that when he's at work the church grows? That dilemma of whether to look for human success criteria, or wait for the 'well done good and faithful servant' - assuming here that they're not the same.

It's interesting to read the biographies of Christians whose lives have had significance and an impact on the church in some way - and forget all the challenges which are skimmed over in two paragraphs on page 82. And to wonder, "what does God want to do through me?" And then you look at a bunch of His people in the Bible and see that they made a hash of things - but God still used them. 'Success' through plans and 'doing it right' or success by sticking it out and trusting that God will do it!
See-saws all the way, but I know which side I prefer!

Sunday thoughts

2008-02-23T23:51:00.003Z

John 4: 5-30, 42
The woman at the well: Living water

The value of water

A few years ago, sometime in the late 90’s, I took my then youth group to Soul Survivor – a Christian Bible and worship week that took place down in Somerset. It was the kind of week you camped at and they would set up in various fields taps for drinking and washing water and toilets – for obvious reasons!

If you imagine the site with the huge meeting tents in the middle, then the campsite areas radiated out. And this particular year me and the group were camped on one of the furthest fields. It also happened that this particular year there was something of a heatwave (I know that some of you who originate from Africa might be slightly cynical about the likelihood of an English heatwave, but it does happen once in a blue moon!).

And it also happened that this particular year the organisers were having a bit of trouble with the water supply system, so it came about that those of us camped furthest away found ourselves very warm, very thirsty and with a trickle or no water for a good deal of the week. Now I don’t even remotely pretend that this could compare in any way with situations around the world where people are struggling to find a clean water supply and have to walk miles and miles to find any water at all – but it did make me stop and think and appreciate the luxury we enjoy here of turning on a tap and having an abundant supply of fresh, clean, water – and if we go away having done nothing else this morning, let’s praise and thank God for this and pray for those who are without such riches. But actually, I know that there is even more for which we can thank God this morning…

The need for water in any place, not least in a hot place, is essential for life and in this morning’s Gospel reading we find Jesus sitting by a well, resting wearily from his journey and thirsty for water to drink. The well by which Jesus sat was the well that, we read in Genesis, Jacob – son of Isaac, son of Abraham – had found in Samaria and which had been named after him. Now here we are, hundreds of years later, with Jesus sitting by this same well.

The unusual nature of the conversation

A Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw water and Jesus asks her for a drink. That must have proved quite a shock for the woman for a number of reasons.
1) She was a Samaritan. A Jew would not usually have spoken to a Samaritan – Samaritans were considered outsiders and second class citizens, at least in religious terms, by Jews.
2) She was a woman. A Jewish man would not have spoken to a lone, unchaperoned woman.
3) She was of disreputable character – having had five husbands and now the man she lived with was not her husband!

On all three counts Jesus breaks the usual conventions and expectations and treats her with respect – and that’s something to take notice of. How often Jesus was accused of meeting with and eating with sinners and outsiders, the unclean and unacceptable. Is that an accusation that can be thrown at his church too?

The request is turned around

So, he’s asked her for a drink of water, and she’s well aware of the unlikelihood of Jesus speaking to her – Samaritan, woman, adulterer! But Jesus then turns the question around, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “give me a drink” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

She still thinks Jesus is talking about ordinary, physical water and asks him where she can get ‘this living water’. But Jesus is talking about something more awesome, something that is a spring of water gushing up to eternal life, something which quenches the thirst for God and brings life. Just as physical water is essential to keep us alive, so this living water is essential for eternal life and abundant life with God. And this living water is the Holy Spirit, the gift of God that will be poured out.

The surprising response from Jesus – sin addressed

Jesus often seems to give unlikely responses to the things people say to him and ask him about… and this situation is no exception. The woman has asked where she can find this living water so Jesus says, ‘go and call your husband and come back.’ Eh!

“I don’t have a husband” comes the response. “No” says Jesus, “you’re right – you’ve had five husbands and the man you have now is not your husband!”

He knows her, he knows all about her, before she finds this living water the sinful parts of her lifestyle are out in the open BEFORE JESUS.

He hasn’t shouted her sin from the rooftops, it’s still just the two of them speaking and it’s only the woman who a bit later goes off, saying “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did!”

We know that bringing sin into the light is healthy for our spiritual lives, so we can receive from God all that he has for us - so we repent of our sin (that is actually turn away from it), we confess it and receive God’s forgiveness.
It’s as we read in 1 John: “when we confess our sins God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.”

True worshippers

So, Jesus has demonstrated himself to be someone special – a man of God – and so the woman changes the subject to places of worship. The Samaritans worshipped God on the mountain, the Jews worshipped God in the Temple in Jerusalem but Jesus tells her that the time is coming when the true worshippers will not worship in one specific place, but they’ll worship in Spirit and in truth.

That’s us! That time has come, we are those worshippers who through the gift of the Holy Spirit can worship God in truth, can worship God anywhere and everywhere. The gift of God has already been poured out for us; God with us; God in us; the Spirit of God here in this place. And don’t we remember and acknowledge that as we go through this time of worship together: at the peace we’re reminded that Jesus said, ‘where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.’ At the beginning of the Eucharistic prayer don’t we proclaim, “the Lord is here, his Spirit is with us!” Because that’s truth, and we worship in Spirit and in truth. God is with us – isn’t it right then that we turn away from our sin and confess it because we’re in the presence of the holy God.

The gift of God – the living water

This is the living water that Jesus was speaking of, this is the water that gushes up to eternal life, this is the gift of God that Jesus promised his people, this is the amazing discovery we have made in Jesus, this is what we have to offer and to share with the world out there, this is the life-giving presence of God who comforts us in our sufferings, who heals us or strengthens us in our sicknesses, who gives us the hope to endure (just as Paul was saying in that letter to the Romans), who opens the door to eternal life with God. People need the living water that Jesus promised.

Have you drunk of the living water?

Today I hope that every one of us in here has drunk of this living water – but if you haven’t, then will you today? Will you say to God today, the words of that last verse in the gospel reading… “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’ You can change the ‘we’ to ‘I’ and come and drink of the water that gushes up to eternal life.

The invitation: Come and See

And finally, what did the Samaritan woman do after she’d found this living water?

She went out to the people and said ‘Come and see…’

She had a testimony straight away… “come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” That’s what Jesus did for her.

What will happen if we do the same, “come and see…”
Come and see the one who helped me in my grief
Come and see the one who placed me in a family when I was lonely
Come and see the one who heard my prayer and gave me strength
Come and see the one who healed me
Come and see the one who gives us joy even in suffering
Come and see the one who loves the poor and the outsider

There’s so much for the people out there to come and see, because Jesus is God, the source of life, his Spirit the living water. And it only takes a little courage, and even that the Spirit can help us with! to do what Peter bid us do… “always have an answer prepared to give the reason for the hope that you have.” Or – “come and see.”

Let’s take a few moments of quiet before God as we give ourselves space to respond to him, perhaps as you silently say that last verse to him; perhaps as you ask him to remind you of what he has done for you, and just so we can ask him to pour out once again this gift of living water.

Amen.

Life to the full

2008-01-25T11:42:00.000Z

Back in November I started a thread on the Ship of Fools discussion boards about what Jesus meant when he said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." A few days ago I added this, which I've posted here, on my own little Teapot webspace, because as I've reflected on it, I've found that these things give me a helpful framework and reminder of what is important, and I thought I'd keep them where they can be an easy reminder of what I'm aiming for:

"I was walking down the street the other day and I passed a family* and as I looked at them this whole discussion came back to my mind. There was something in their appearance and expressions that seemed hollow and though I of course don't know their circumstances at all, it prompted me to imagine. (Imagine both the hollowness of some lives - though maybe not theirs - and the things that might bring the fullness we've been talking about). So, thinking of such a family, as well as the things that I feel make life satisfying, and what we've come up with already here's my suggestions for what might bring about "fullness of life"...
People - to love, spend time with, care for and be loved by (unloneliness!)
Food - sufficient to fuel our bodies as well as to enjoy in itself as we enjoy the tastes of the fruits of the earth and the fellowship that's possible as we eat with others (Jesus seemed to do plenty of fellowshipping and educating over meals).
And shelter.
Love - overlaps with the people aspect of course, but that deep sense of being loved and accepted, by God and by others.
Beauty - Opportunity to enjoy beauty, whether that's the beauty of a sunset or mountainrange or perfect plan of a new bridge, or a painting (each to their own!). Eyes open to creativity.
Creativity - opportunties to be creative, whether in the arts or building, work or play, growing things, learning, or in messy stuff with children, or parenting, or writing, or making practical things (each to their own again).
Achievement - that feeling of a sense of achievement at tiny or huge things, in work and free-time. Close links between creativity, achievement and contribution?
Fun - times for light-heartedness, companionship, games, sport... just fun!
Contribution - sense of purpose and not living in an isolated bubble.
God - the purpose, acceptance, hope, forgiveness... that comes from being in the relationship with God that (speaking as a Christian) I believe we were made for.
I suppose as I look at that list it gives me a sense of how to be truly human. And I think essentially that fullness of life comes from not only experiencing these things but essentially for being unselfish in enabling others to experience them.
All that from walking past a family on the way home and hoping for them!

*a man, a woman, a child in a buggy and two young children walking with them; appearing worn out, perhaps with low income and no employment, perhaps a difficult relationship... of course these things are imagined as I thought about any family for whom these were the circumstances and what would bring them fullness of life."

Another Year On...

2008-01-02T12:32:00.000Z

I thought it would be interesting (for me if not anyone else) to look back at the first posts of 2007 on my blogs and see what I was thinking and resolving at the start of the year just ended. And I have to say, I did find it interesting! Over at 'Chelley of the Shire' which even in its name points to one of the big changes of 2007 - seeing as I'm not now living in the Shire to which that referred - I was turning over a phrase in my mind. And actually this phrase has stayed with me through the year as something of a (hoped for) summary of my Christian life: "to live with reference to God; that is, God made known in the person of Jesus Christ." More of that here.
And here at the Teapot it seems I had been reading '84 Charing Cross Road' by Helene Hanff and had resolved to be an improved letter writer in 2007 - something I'm afraid I have rather failed at... at least resolutions can be carried over!
But strangely enough as we begin this new year I am again reading a book by Helene Hanff: 'Apple of my eye' - a book about New York, by a New Yorker; and very interesting I'm finding it too. I picked up this book in a little secondhand bookshop in Cromer during the half term break and have only just got round to reading it. And perhaps this book too points to one of my resolutions - to go on a voyage of discovery! I'm enjoying finding out interesting bits about NY - not least because I love detail, maps, history and studying people (though the book hasn't provided me with the maps, I had to use the net for those). I think I'll be attempting to read (and write) more, to delve into the diverse range of books I have tucked away that have been bought with delight but sadly neglected... books on medieval history, on poetry, collections of letters, crime fiction, maps... and so the list goes on.
I still seem to hold onto the dreams of being the person I see in my mind's eye - hopefully a not too unrealistic dream, with God's help? And yet at the end of each year I seem no nearer to reaching that goal, but as long as I've made steps in the right direction, remembered what's important, been a blessing here and there - then perhaps my year has been ok - resolutions or not!

Friday Five

2007-12-07T18:31:00.000Z

I think this may be the first time I've joined in the RevGalBlogPals 'Friday Five'. This week's is on Preparation Preparation...

1. You have a busy week, pushing out all time for preparing worship/ Sunday School lessons/ being ready for an important meeting (or whatever equivalent your profession demands)- how do you cope?
I squeeze in some time to prepare - either by staying up late or getting up very early, or both!

2. You have unexpected visitors, and need to provide them with a meal- what do you do?
I've usually got some chicken in the freezer and potatoes in the cupboard so I could usually manage jacket potatoes and a big pot of chicken and whatever else I've got to go in it! Or a meal from whatever else I did have - and if there's absolutely nothing, then I'd nip round the shop and grab something. I'm a bit of a dull cook, but this wouldn't faze me particularly!

Three discussion topics:
3. Thinking along the lines of this weeks advent theme; repentance is an important but often neglected aspect of advent preparations.....
I suspect I also neglect this aspect and focus on eager expectation and preparations/looking afresh at our spiritual life (which I suppose should draw in repentance then). But I leave the serious repentance season for Lent!

4. Some of the best experiences in life occur when you simply go with the flow.....
Possibly, can't think of any off the top of my head though!

5. Details are everything, attention to the small things enables a plan to roll forward smoothly...
Well, yes, I am a detail person so I tend to cover details as an automatic really. Having said that though, I still manage to frustrate the whatsit out of myself by not being prepared and organised enough!

Bonus if you dare- how well prepared are you for Christmas this year?
Hahahahaha! Does that answer the question? Though it does depend on which aspect of Christmas you look at - work (as in church) wise, I've been thinking and planning ahead and am getting the services sorted out. Homewise I end up charging around at the last minute and not sending out the cards. I'm trying harder this year (which I say I'll do every year) and have at least bought a few things today.

Some days...

2007-12-05T09:12:00.000Z

Some days I wish I was a beach hut attendant or a postman or a gardener
(yes, ha ha if you've seem mine)
or worked in a bookshop or the library
or was childminding again
or was a long distance lorry driver
or a hilltop hermit
or doing what I do but 60 years ago
and in the country
where I could plod around the village like an Agatha Christie vicar
and not seem to worry so much about structures and visions
and could drink lots of cups of tea
(er, well some things don't change)
and frown a bit when the old ladies start gossiping
(though I suppose if I was an Agatha Christie vicar
I might need to worry about murderous neighbours...)
and I suppose I wish I could have a glimpse ahead
to see if I did any good
and if the days when it's a bit of a struggle
are only pages 43 to 45 in the biography someone writes about me one day
where the huge struggles seem to pass very quickly in the big scheme of things
And some days I wish my default was 'that was ok'
and not 'I am a failure'
or the assumption that someone else would be so much better
because I know that God sees in me
what I often miss
but that doesn't stop me worrying
that I am killing his church
running low on imagination
or forgetting that God
can do so much with or without
my feeble efforts
and yet he lets me share the journey.
Some days I have to remind myself
to put the right shoes on in the morning
not try and put His on by mistake
but pick up my faithful old boots
and keep plodding
keep seeing
the beauty of the autumn colours
keep smiling
at the thought of the people who share this ride
keep laughing
at the humour of humanness
keep believing
that God is at work
keep trusting that all will be well
just because he says so.

...and another!

2007-11-24T22:50:00.000Z

Well, apologies that another sermon is appearing and there have been no random snippets of pointless reflection over a cuppa since the last one. Still, all praise and thanks to God for any RevGals who wander by with their wise words and valued comments again!

Sunday November 25th – Christ the King
Colossians 1: 11-20
Luke 23: 33-43

Jackie Pullinger – got on a boat and waited for God to tell her when to get off – dedicated her life to living and working in the dark streets of the lost city of Hong Kong – saw God transform lives of crime and drug addiction.

Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, rebuilding each other’s homes after the destruction and violence of the genocide. I have a video I’ve watched over and over again of Christians working together amidst ongoing hatred and suffering.

A double decker bus called ‘BarNBus’ – a group of people sitting out on the bus just to be around for, listen to and chat with young people who might wander over.

The church home group who offered what they could to pay the monthly mortgage payment of a member who’d been made redundant, until that person could find more work.

Why have I told you about these things this morning? Because they are examples and demonstrations of the kingdom of God being close at hand, being here and now and of people living according to the ways and values of that kingdom.

We know that we don’t see all the fullness of God’s kingdom in front of us yet, but we musn’t be mistaken into thinking that it’s just way off into the future – only to be seen when Jesus returns or when we die and enter his presence.

And we’re thinking of these things today because we’re remembering ‘Christ the King’. Next week is Advent Sunday when our readings start to turn our thoughts towards preparing for the coming of the Lord – that first coming – born in the earthiness of the animals’ habitation when there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn; but also his second coming, when Jesus will return in glory. Let’s make sure we give the Advent preparations their due time and attention and not leap straight into Christmas – as the shops and streets around us are doing.

[Take the opportunity to come along here on December 1st for our time of focus on Advent and how to spiritually prepare for the Christmas season. It’s just from 10 – 1 and will provide examples and opportunities of types of prayer because we will only be a strong and Christ-centred church when we take seriously our spiritual lives and commit to becoming a people of prayer, both individually and together. And I have to state that the day won’t be scary but will just give tasters and ideas for making sure this advent we don’t just join in with the shopping frenzy, but think about the really valuable preparations of the season.]

So, this last Sunday before Advent we’re reminded of the end of Jesus’ earthly journey and witness again that conversation between Jesus and the man – the criminal – being crucified next to him. This man refused to join in the mockery of the soldiers and the scoffers and the man on the other side of Jesus; instead, having rebuked the other, he said to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And to that he heard the reply, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus’ reply completely blows out of the water the assertions of those who try and proclaim Jesus only a ‘good man’ or a ‘wise teacher.’ Jesus was so much more than either of these – he was, and is, as Paul in our Colossians reading declares, ‘the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation in whom all things in heaven and on earth were created. He is before all things, in him all things hold together. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.’
These might be concepts that our weak minds struggle to get to grips with – the fullness of God in human form – but God made man, dwelling among us, is the heart of our faith, and of course the heart of the Christmas message that it’s our job to continue to proclaim as the season approaches.

Don’t let anyone tell you, or convince you that Jesus was just a very good man, an inspiring teacher, a wise prophet – he was of course, and still is, all these things, but he’s most significantly the Son of God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. These aren’t arrogant claims we spout off, but his own revelation.

And today we remember Christ the King! That criminal dying beside him saw the truth and made a simple request, ‘Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.’ And the thing is, Jesus could say ‘yes, today you’ll be with me in paradise’ because he knew and because he was drawing near to death on that cross; and when it happened the gate of heaven would be opened for us to follow him. Not because he was a good man or a wise teacher, but because he was God’s Son – the one man who could break down sin and death and the barrier between humanity and God.

And what of the kingdom of our King? How often we pray together “your kingdom come your will be done” when we pray the Lord’s prayer, but how much expectation of seeing that kingdom before our very eyes, do we actually have?

We will ONE DAY see the kingdom in all its fullness, but it is real and it’s real now!
“The kingdom is present wherever people pray the way Jesus taught us to pray. The kingdom is present wherever Jesus nurtures certain behaviours and lifestyles that we call the fruit of the Spirit. The kingdom is present wherever people pour water over the heads of babies or take bread and wine to their lips all simply because Jesus told us that this is the way we are to act in remembrance of him.”[1]

The kingdom is present whenever a believer refuses to cut corners on their taxes, when this woman brings light into an elderly neighbour’s darkness by sitting with them, listening and sharing words of peace, or when that man gives up his Saturday to coach a football team for youngsters. The kingdom is present whenever a young person stops binge drinking along with the crowd for the sake of Jesus, or whenever someone stops in the street not only to buy a ‘Big Issue’ but to pause and chat and ask ‘how are you?’

The kingdom is present when one of us stops to pray for another and we witness the peace and presence and even the healing power of God here and now. That’s living in the kingdom. And I want to encourage you to do these things today because we’re called to be the people of God’s kingdom – not just in the future, but in the here and now. Christ is our king and it’s for us to show each other and the world out there what his kingdom is like – and give them a foretaste of heaven!

And ‘the world out there’ is not a huge sweeping ‘everything’ that seems too overwhelming to change, but it’s the people who fill your office to whom you can show honesty, integrity and patience and for whom you can pray.

It’s the people who live next door to you who you can bless with your prayers and graciousness, even when they curse you with their loud music or their badly behaved children.
It’s everyone you come into contact with in your ordinary, every, day. It’s going the extra mile because Jesus is our king.

I just want you to look around you for a moment – look at the people sitting behind you and next to you and in front of you – at the other end of the church – WE are God’s church, WE are the ones he has in this place who can demonstrate God’s kingdom in [our location], WE are God’s hands and feet and voice. WE are the ones who need to live as our king would have us live – loving one another, welcoming the visitor and the stranger, praying with commitment and conviction for God to be at work here, listening to one another and those who cross our paths, sharing the hope God’s given us with anyone who asks why we go to church, rolling up our sleeves to cook for our community when they turn out for lunch here, giving our time to nurture the faith of our children and young people and offering what we can – in time, in money, in energies to the Lord because it will be more worth it than we can possibly imagine.

Let’s give thanks to God for one another for where these things are already happening but let’s each ask God to prod us into action to be a part of the demonstration of his kingdom and keep our ears, our eyes and our hearts open so we can respond.

Amen.

[1] from “http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/thisWeek/index.php”

And so appears another one...

2007-11-03T17:54:00.000Z

For those of you who wander by here every so often and wonder why sermons seem to randomly appear for no good reason, I suppose I could give a word of explanation...
Somewhere off in the land of t'internet are a bunch of lovely RevGals. On Saturdays as we slog our way through sermonising we share thoughts, encourage one another and sometimes read and comment on the results... hence the occassional postings.
Oh, and if you're a revgal wandering through, "Hello, thanks" and a little wave to you! So, here we go again...

Sunday 4th November 2007
Luke 6: 20-31

I find there’s something quite appealing about this gospel passage. I think it may be because I’ve always had something of a rebellious nature and Jesus’ teaching here is just perfect for rebelliousness (I’d like to think that nowadays mine is a godly rebelliousness, that in some tiny way lives up to the things Jesus is speaking of – going against the grain of how the world likes to do things)!

It crossed my mind (rather briefly you’ll be relieved to know) to present you with a human visual aid to illustrate the whole of the passage – a headstand in the middle of the church; because Jesus here is basically turning most of our approaches to life, and our expectations on their heads. But I’ll spare you – and myself -that and just say it instead – Jesus here is turning our human standards and assumptions upside down, on their heads, up the right way!

As Jesus begins to make these statements he looks up and addresses his disciples….. Jesus was stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. Many people were gathered, but Jesus then looks up at his disciples and speaks directly to them… and even that gives us a sense of the few being addressed among the many, called to lead lives that may not make sense to those who surround us.

“Blessed are you who are poor, blessed are you who are hungry now, blessed are you who weep now, blessed are you when people hate and exclude you because of me…” These are certainly not states that the world, that is society around them, and around us, would consider blessed at all – in fact I’m sure the world would consider these states more of a curse.
Jesus isn’t here blessing poverty and starvation in themselves, mourning or hatred in themselves, after all in Revelation we hear that these things will all pass away in the new heaven and the new earth.

If we think about those disciples who were listening… to become Jesus’ followers they had already recognised their spiritual poverty and need of God, as well as possibly given up much physically to follow him. They might sometimes have been physically hungry, though Jesus had provided for them with the loaves and fish, but they would have been spiritually hungry (and Matthew’s gospel has the addition ‘blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness’), perhaps they had wept over the things that God must surely weep over as he looks upon his world, and we know that they were often persecuted and in time killed for their faith in Jesus. I think there is both a physical and a spiritual element to Jesus’ ‘bless-eds’.

And doesn’t that just turn on it’s head the things that we’re presented with all around us that are supposedly of value in the world… we must aspire to be rich and create our own security with homes and possessions, we must be happy and full up with all the things we enjoy, otherwise we’re seen as failures. Aren’t those the things that we are told to see as valuable, the things to aspire to? Earn as much as you can, get as much as you can, have as much fun as you can…. I know a lot of people who would say that these are the things they aspire to, but Jesus goes as far as saying “woe” or “alas” to the people whose lives are full of seeking after these things: “Woe to you who are full now, woe to you who are laughing now, woe to you when all speak well of you.” Jesus wasn’t saying that as a threat, but as an indicator that the kingdom is a very different shape and those who live only according to selfish values are not living in the ways of the kingdom.

He’s turned life right on it’s head… the lives of the people of God are to be different. Be poor enough in spirit to put your security in God, not depending on what we can build around ourselves, on possessions or money, but depending on God, weeping over the things God must weep over, and recognising that when we exhibit these kinds of values then we may be ridiculed and considered fools. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world are still killed for these things, but Jesus says “great is their reward in heaven” when they’ve had to endure this on earth.

I don’t want us to miss the verses after the blessings and woes…. Again Jesus turns upside down our usual reactions and priorities. When we consider our enemies what is our reaction towards them, what are we inclined to do? Well, Jesus says love them. When we consider those who curse us, what are we inclined to do…? Jesus says bless them, and he continues in the same way with other scenarios that make us recognise how different the values of the kingdom of God are, to those we may well have been taught in the world.

All of this stuff goes against the grain – but it’s meant to. We have moved from darkness to light and the life in the light of Jesus is very different, has other values, is turned upside down from the old life of darkness.

It sometimes takes a long time for the Holy Spirit to be writing a new set of values on our hearts that will in turn produce godliness in us, but as we read and re-read these words of Jesus, as we worship God together, as we pray and meet with God, the message hits home a little bit more and a little bit more and he opens our eyes and changes us.

Being financially rich and having material possessions doesn’t make you a valuable person, but being God’s does, and we’re often secure enough here in our society that sometimes it’s hard to depend on God, when it’s so easy to depend on a regular income – whether that’s a wage, a pension or a state benefit, a sturdy roof over our heads, and all that we have. Some of you though may have had very challenging experiences in your lives and really known God’s faithfulness in the midst of those challenging times.

I found the times in my life when material things or human securities, were under threat, or not to be taken for granted, were the times when I learnt most to depend on God. Even when [teenson] was a baby and the 3 of us lived in one room in a hostel for 6 months waiting for a council house, and a few years later when I was a single mum working as a childminder, trying to pay a mortgage and there was little if anything left over…. we were still rich in comparison to millions in the world. So let’s be generous with what we have and recognise that though we have much our greatest need is to depend on our utterly dependable God.

We can either go after comfortable lives in the here and now, go after human approval and status, do what makes life as easy and profitable as we can make it. Or we can go after the ways of the kingdom where we may look foolish to others, where we may go without for the sake of a stranger, where we may be ridiculed or worse for not going with the crowd.

The first is the way that brought the word ‘woe’ or ‘alas’ to Jesus lips: you will be hungry, you will mourn and weep because this way doesn’t satisfy for long.

The second is the way of blessing – yours is the kingdom of God, said Jesus; you will be filled, you will laugh, your reward is great in heaven – but it takes time, it takes effort, it takes generosity, it takes sacrifice, it takes compassion – but it’s more worth it than you can possibly imagine.

We are the people of God and we’re called to live the upside down lives of the kingdom (only upside down to the world around us – the right way up to God of course!). Give your time to the people the world says don’t deserve it, work for the good of others when there’s nothing in it for you, give some of your money away even if it means going without, love the people the world looks down on and despises because these are the ways of Christ. And keep praying that the Holy Spirit will grow the ways of the kingdom in each of us, and in us as a church.

Amen.

As random as it gets...

2007-10-29T20:17:00.000Z

I have decided that my biggest problem with this blog is that I want it to do too many things (of course, by too many things, I don't mean that I want it to do all the housework, write a couple of sermons and clean TeenSon's disgusting rugby boots because that would just be silly) but I do expect a bit too much of it at times! I'd like to think that I'm a bit like St. Paul in being a little bit able to be "all things to all people" (not that I could really carry off being a political advisor to the Prime Minister or being a tank fixer in the Army, just to be clear that I can't manage ALL things to ALL people - and come to think of it, I don't expect St. Paul really could either when you look at it that way...) er, where was I? Oh yes - the blog.
Do you know... I've got bored with that train of thought so I think I'll just go and get a cup of tea. Oh. That's about all I said this blog would manage anyway.

Something to Ponder?

2007-10-27T20:39:00.000+01:00

Sunday 28th October 2007
Luke 18: 9-14

When Cardinal Basil Hume, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England, was told that he had terminal cancer, his first thought was, ‘If only I could start all over again, I would be a much better monk, a much better abbot, a much better bishop.’ But then he reflected and he said, ‘Then I thought, how much better if I can come before God when I die, not to say, “Thank you that I was such a good monk, good abbot, good bishop,” but rather, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” For if I come empty-handed, then I will be ready to receive God’s gift. God be merciful to me a sinner.’ *

How many of us share those same first thoughts as Basil Hume… I know I do at times, “if only I’d been a better mum, a more daring Christian, a better vicar and so on.” And yet we as Christians, like Basil Hume, need to come round to a different way of thinking - so that my aim isn’t to stand before God and say, “thank you that I was a good mum, a daring Christian, a good vicar” but “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Think about how you express your Christian life, what you do in the church, perhaps how you pray for God’s people, your acts of service and beware of the danger of coming before God with these things as badges of righteousness. God delights when we serve him well, BUT it’s not these things that make us right and just and safe with him, it is his mercy when we recognise our need of him.

It’s not that God doesn’t want me to be the best mum, the best, Christian and the best Vicar I can be, and you to express your life and faith in the best way you can, but it’s that most importantly we come to recognise that our righteousness comes from a humility before God and receiving his welcome, his forgiveness, and his righteousness. And then our response is to be and do the best we can before him.

Jesus is pretty clear about this in the parable he told, and Luke very generously gives us a one sentence introduction to the parable, stating the reasons Jesus told this story – firstly to challenge those who trusted in themselves for righteousness and secondly to challenge those who regarded others with contempt.

And so we’re introduced to the Pharisee and the Tax collector.
The poor old Pharisee gets such a pounding doesn’t he!

It could even be disturbingly amusing to think that we might read this parable with a sense of, ‘well at least I’m not like that Pharisee,’ when thinking that makes us just like him! And this was a respectable man, a religious man, a man who followed the disciplines of faith – he prayed, he tithed, he fasted – BUT he looked to his own actions to be right with God and not to God’s mercy; as well as looking contemptuously at the other man.

And then there’s the tax-collector. Tax collectors were far from popular folk in Jesus’ day. They were either considered dishonest – becoming rich from their excessive tax takings (think of Zaccheus, the tax collector, who having encountered Jesus, promised to pay back much of what he had stolen) - or they were thought of by the Jewish people as colluding with the Roman occupiers – not very popular all round!

So the man of God stood praying, and noticing the tax collector, he expressed to God his sense of gratitude that he wasn’t like the other man.

Who is it that we might sometimes catch ourselves looking down upon? Who is it that we might hold up against our own standing with God and declare less worthy than ourselves? Do we sometimes hold the things we do before God and expect those things to open the door to heaven and to God when it is Jesus, dying on the cross with our sins laid upon himself, who has opened that door?

‘Be merciful to me a sinner’ was the man’s prayer and that needs to become or remain our prayer – and not only that, our attitude of heart too. And THEN, knowing the freedom of God’s forgiveness, the joy of receiving his mercy – we can go out into the world and serve in grateful response, we can work in his church in grateful response, but we must never lose sight of God’s free gift of grace.

Luke is very generous in his communication of Jesus’ teaching here – for those of us who like simple statements there’s his brief summary: “Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.”

And for those of us that like the storytelling or visual form of teaching there’s the story itself, illustrating the same thing but giving a specific example that would have immediately communicated to those first hearers and readers what Jesus was getting at.

Who might we today exchange for the Pharisee and the tax collector so that this story challenges us as it would have back then? The stereotypes would probably shock, as I imagine they did when Jesus first made his point. Because the people’s expectation would have been that the Pharisee was the ‘good’ man and the tax collector the ‘bad’ man. And that’s just the point – it’s God’s mercy that leads to righteousness and not what we do. So I’m not going to insert an alternative Pharisee and tax collector for us – but just a reminder to guard ourselves from being like the Pharisee and heeding the warning, ‘do not trust in yourself for righteousness or regard others with contempt.’

But, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner.’

Amen.

*taken from 'Spicing up your Speaking' - Simon Coupland

Unlabelable?

2007-10-03T22:30:00.000+01:00

I decided a while ago that I fancied adding 'labels' (or tags or whatever they're called) to this little Teapot blog, but I didn't get round to it. I often have thoughts like that, that I don't get round to. For example, about 10 minutes ago I realised I was getting rather chilly and there was a bit of a draught so I thought I'd get up and put the heating back on - but then I didn't. I also decided some time ago that I fancied being a bit of an intellectual but nothing's come of that yet either (I'd probably been reading 'Adrian Mole' again - he wanted to be an intellectual too). Anyway, it's time for action and when I've decided what labels I can possibly put to the posts around here, then I'll do it...

So far my list contains:

Sermons - quite pleased with
Sermons - rubbish
Putting the kettle on
God - inspired
God - random
God - hopefully not heretical
VW Camper vans - I want one
TeenSon
The Cat
The Rabbit
Weeds
Childhood

Not very inspiring - better go and stick the heating on and ponder some more...

Journeying with Jonah

2007-09-08T13:28:00.000+01:00

Family Baptism Service (and me going back to leave!) – 9.9.07
Jonah 3

Reading and thinking through the story of Jonah again for this morning, I remembered a service I was involved in a good number of years ago that was also based around Jonah and his encounters with God.

That service was back at the church I originally came from and it was the 20’s group’s turn to lead the Family Service. (20’s group was not surprisingly a church group for people in their twenties who met together to socialise as well as share in things of faith together, like prayer and Bible study).
I can remember the planning meeting when we were deciding what to do and I remember that a sketch, as well as readings, prayers and songs were going to be involved. And I refused point blank to do any of the things that involved standing up in front of the congregation, let alone reading or saying anything! I was quite happy to spend hours creating a load of giant signs that accompanied Jonah through the sketch, and I was eventually persuaded to actually stand and hold them up – though I still refused to utter a word and managed to hold the signs right in front of my face so I couldn’t be seen.

And somehow God has brought me on a rather exciting journey from thinking about Jonah that day, to thinking about Jonah on this day – and quite a lot’s changed in between! Because that’s what God does when we decide to welcome him into our journey through life (I don’t mean he turns us all into vicars!) but he comes alongside and shows us what we’re capable of – and more to the point, what he’s capable of!

Today the families of N, N and N are inviting God to come and be a part of their journeys through life as they’re baptised into God’s family a bit later in the service; and their parents and godparents will promise to help and encourage them on the way.

And it’s not just me – moving from ---- to ---- ; and these children – beginning their journey through baptism; who are journeying today – we all are – some perhaps walking confidently and familiarly with God, some stumbling a bit on the way but held by him all the same and others yet to welcome him alongside them.

And if we look at good old Jonah this morning we see another rather messy, but somehow reassuring journey with God…

We heard one part of the story read to us, but let’s just go back to the beginning and see what had happened before that…

Volunteer to be God (hold sign: “Go to Nineveh”)
Volunteer to be Jonah (hold signs: “No Lord!” and “Yes Lord!”)
One more volunteer (hold pictures of map, ship and fish)

(That’s one good use for all the used packing boxes anyway!)

One day God spoke to Jonah and said, Go to Nineveh. God had seen the wickedness of the people there and wanted to send Jonah to speak out against it.

But Jonah wasn’t very enthusiastic… No Lord! And he ran away in the opposite direction (map: Jonah… Nineveh)

Jonah found a ship sailing to Tarshish – the other way – so he paid his fare and went aboard. (ship).

But the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and there was a fierce storm (rock the ship). Everyone on the ship was very frightened, though not Jonah who had gone below deck and was fast asleep.
Soon the captain came to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call out to your God to help us!”

The sailors asked Jonah who he was and where he’d come from, so Jonah told them, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
And Jonah told them that he was running away from the Lord.

By now the sea was getting rougher and rougher and they asked Jonah what they should do to make the sea calm down…

So Jonah told them to throw him into the sea! They didn’t want to do that, but they cried out to God and then took Jonah and threw him overboard!

And the sea grew calm. (ship)

But Jonah didn’t die when he went overboard, as the sailors feared, because God provided a great fish that swallowed Jonah. (fish)

Jonah prayed and prayed to God from inside that fish and after three days it coughed Jonah up onto dry land.

And then God spoke to Jonah again, Go to Nineveh and this time Jonah obeyed God and said Yes Lord!

So off he went, and when he got there he spoke out against their wicked ways, as God had told him. And the people of Nineveh, even the king, listened to God and turned away from their old ways.

And when God saw this he had compassion on them and didn’t overturn their city.

Now you’d think Jonah would have been quite pleased to see the result of the message he’d brought from God, to see all those people turn from evil and turn towards God – but no!

Jonah wasn’t as compassionate as God – he didn’t like the people of Nineveh and he would have preferred to see them receive God’s judgement rather than his compassion. So Jonah went off and sulked outside the city in the blazing sun.

Even though Jonah was being a stroppy little prophet, God caused a shady vine to grow up over him. That pleased Jonah – he was quite happy for God to be good to him, but not happy for him to show mercy to the Ninevites. So when God allowed the vine to die, Jonah started complaining again…
God wanted Jonah to realise that he loved to show mercy and compassion to all people and not just the people of Israel and though wickedness would bring judgement, repentence would lead to God responding in mercy and compassion.

That’s the God we’re here to worship today; that’s the God we journey through life with who later made himself known through his son Jesus. That’s the God who is patient with us, just as he was patient with Jonah – waiting to hear our ‘Yes Lord’ and wanting us to understand that his compassion and mercy is available for everyone and not just the people we like or want to receive it!

And so today, think about your own journey.
Which part of Jonah’s story most reflected where you are… are you saying ‘No Lord!’ or ‘Yes Lord!’? Is it time to say yes again, and follow where he leads you – knowing that though life can be full of challenges and full of sorrows as well as joys – God is full of compassion and mercy and can be trusted.

That’s one of the things Jonah learnt, and that’s one of the things that I will hold onto as I continue my own exciting, daunting, rewarding and challenging journey with God.

Let’s pray:

Lord, you said to Jonah “Go to Nineveh”;
what are you saying to each of us this morning?
Whatever the question for our own journey with you,
may we, like Jonah, grow in our trust of you
and come to answer with that “Yes Lord!”
And help us Lord to delight when we see your
compassion and mercy evident in the world.
Amen.

Procrastination...

2007-09-03T21:06:00.001+01:00

There are lots of things I should be doing...

I am not doing any of them...

I am just sitting here faffing around on the internet...

Dave's excellent cartoon couldn't be more accurate...

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

And now I must walk away... This reminds me of the old kids TV programme 'Why Don't You...?' which used to urge us viewers to 'go and do something less boring instead.' Though unpacking more boxes is definitely not less boring than Dave's excellent cartoons.

Yes, I'm going...

Expanding my mind...

2007-09-02T20:43:00.000+01:00

Right, my reading list now consists of Freud, Plato's Republic and the Roman historians Tacitus and Seutonius - from the comments here; plus Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy, Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples and Sophie's World (which I've read and thought was excellent) - suggested by a shipmate. The fact that I only have Plato's Republic on my bookshelf* (though I've never read it) means it's quite likely I'll start with that one - but it also means I'll get on with joining the local library here sooner rather than later. It also seems fairly likely that anything I don't understand in any of the first selection of tomes will be directed in question form to the relevant blog of the suggestors! ;-)

*Well it would be on the bookshelf if it wasn't still in one of the boxes!

Changes

2007-08-25T18:10:00.000+01:00

Well, I don't think it'll be too hard to decide where to start on my catch-up reading plan (see previous post)... thanks Ivonne for the only comment - I'll start with your suggestion then! (Perhaps any latecomers would like to consider the question while I'm studying a bit of Freud anyway).

So, I have made it to my (our) new home - though it feels more like a house with a load of boxes everywhere than home at the moment - though the home aspect is increasing daily. We're at that rather strange point in time where most people here are relative strangers, I haven't started work again at this end (though I'm very glad to have a break), TeenSon is waiting to hear if he has a place at the 6th form college and I keep walking into the downstairs loo instead of the kitchen because the doors are unsurprisingly in different places to our old house!

As I sit here pondering a bit, it feels like only yesterday when we moved to OldTown for the beginning of my curacy (trainee vicar post), when everyone there was a stranger and the thought of beginning life as a new minister was pretty daunting. Now they're the ones we've come to love and have said goodbye to, ministry has been a challenge and a delight over the last three years, and there are now new challenges ahead. So it's good to remember as I sit here waiting that God has watched over, guided and equipped me (us) all the way... and will do so again. Hmm... if he can guide my path through that lot you'd think guiding me to the kitchen instead of the downstairs loo would be a doddle!

Playing Catch-Up

2007-08-09T19:07:00.000+01:00

I didn't work very hard when I was at school, I was probably a bit of an unnoticeable - quite nice, not too naughty, not a high achiever, mildly disruptive and minimally rebellious. I believe most of the staff (who knew who I was) thought I was harmless enough but wouldn't really make much of myself - and in fact years later it was quite a surprise to my old headmistress to be told that I'd just moved to Cambridge to train to be a Vicar, "Isn't it amazing what the Holy Spirit can do!" she said. I don't disagree, and happily give God the credit - though I was slightly disgruntled at the time to have it put in those terms.
I had unsurprisingly left school with very little in the way of qualifications having drifted through one year of sixth form with the only significant achievement being an ability to type by the end of that year. That meant at least that I could get a job in an office, which I did. So the years passed and as they turned I travelled my road from office to parent to childminder and alongside that served in the church until I came to the day when I went off to theological college.
So I had two years to study and read and learn and write essays (which they often had to drag out of me) but I loved it, loved the time set aside for these things and of course that essential gem, 'theological reflection'. And of course I met many different people, some of whom had been to university and were gathering degrees, and others like me for whom this was the first real experience of any form of academic endeavour, at all, or at least for many years; and since then I've been fascinated by the academic experience and knowledge, the quantity and quality of books read and the ease of opinion and expression of those with a richer educational background.
Now don't get me wrong, I have always loved reading and have surrounded myself with books and value the experience of my own life and the riches of faith that have grown through very different experiences; but now I want to play catch-up a bit - gather information - read the books people took for granted during A' levels and first degrees - and form opinions on current theological discussion, literary masterpieces, government policies, bits of history and random parts of the Old Testament - to pluck a few strands from thin air!
So where shall I start? What literary classic/ websites/ journals/ theological tomes/ newspapers/ writers... would you recommend?
Then when I've put the kettle on, prayed for an outpouring of self-discipline and focus and turned off the DVD with "Miss Marple" on - I can get started!

Pop!

2007-08-06T19:28:00.000+01:00

Someone from the removal company delivered all my boxes and packing materials this morning... including a GIANT roll of bubble wrap! I suspect that by the time I move in just over two weeks there will be significantly less bubbles on the roll of bubble wrap.

Simplify

2007-08-03T08:09:00.000+01:00

I am moving in just over two weeks and am determined to have a decent clear out before I go and get rid of a lot of the clutter I have gathered (even since the last move). So there will be trips to the charity shop and trips to the tip/recycling centre (many!).
I am a huge fan of camping - I love to go off to some scenic and quiet campsite and live the simple life in a tent. I especially savour that moment very early in the morning of crawling outside and boiling the kettle for that morning cuppa on my beloved camping stove, enjoying the peace and the view and being outdoors.
Hmm, so how is it that I love the simplicity of camping but at home I seem to have slight* 'cluttering' tendencies?
I picked up the classic 'Celebration of Discipline' by Richard Foster again yesterday and read through the chapters on simplicity - the outward life of simplicity leading from an inner attitude: "The inner reality is not a reality until there is an outward expression. To experience the liberating spirit of simplicity will affect how we live."
Well, I'm setting to work on my outward expression now so I expect I'll see how healthy the inner reality is so far!

*If my mum were reading this she may quibble with the word 'slight' here!

2007-07-26T21:34:00.000+01:00

Oh dear... this is what things have come to round here...*

There once was a teapot called "Chelley's,"
that was random but much-loved like wellies.**
It was rarely profound
though had dreams to astound
but 'twas as likely as me seen on your tellies.

*I would promise that normal service will soon be resumed, but I don't think that'd help much!
**You have to have some appreciation of wellington boots to get the full benefit of this limerick. Fortunately I am very fond of my wellington boots which are white with big green leaves on and come from Millets, one of my favourite shops in the whole universe.

Monday Morning

2007-07-16T07:50:00.000+01:00

Well it's Monday morning once again and I'm sitting here with a cup of tea in my beloved (but slightly chipped) Spurs mug*. TeenSon bought me a lovely new Spurs mug (at my request) for my birthday but I can't bring myself to say goodbye to the old faithful one yet!
Anyway, I was having a drift through the visitors to the Teapot and one led me back to my other blog and a little rhyme I posted back in March. It seems just as apt today as it did on the day I wrote it - I'm still tackling the 'chaos and mess', especially with a removal man coming round today to tally up how many boxes I'll need and send a quote!

It's Monday morn
and I'm sitting with tea,
the radio's on and I'm thinking with glee...
that though I get ratty
when I can't change the world,
yesterday brought blessing
for one I upheld.

I wonder what God thinks
when I'm carried away,
with Razorlight singing
and chocolate; he'd say?
"It might not be worship,
in wonder and praise
but that stuff does bring joy
to most of your days!"

I do get quite knackered
but I musn't say that!
My mum doesn't like it
and would give me a slap;
I drive myself potty
with chaos and mess,
preferring things sorted
and then I don't stress.
But I've never quite managed
to be all I could be...
perhaps I will look back
and see what God sees?
Recognition of good things,
pleased with my days?
But it might take a long time
knowing me and my ways!

*I'm not sitting in the Spurs mug of course, the tea is in the Spurs mug!

Maps, Maps and More Maps

2007-06-25T22:22:00.000+01:00

This evening I was thinking about maps... again!
I love maps - I could spend hours looking at a map, in fact there have been occassions when me and my dad have spread a map out on the floor and examined it in minute detail together. And there's the travel writing stuff I love - I've just been re-reading Bill Bryson's 'Notes from a Big Country' but I can't just read the book - oh no, I have to read the book with a giant atlas in tow so I can follow all the places he goes on the map!
When I visit a new place I can't fix it properly in my mind until I've seen it on the map - once I can picture the roads from a map, I can find my way around with no trouble. If I go for a walk in the middle of nowhere, I come home and look at where I've been on an Ordnance Survey map (though I probably had one with me anyway). All this, according to 'dinnerladies' is not normal - I should apparently like headboards and not maps! Dolly declared, in her great wisdom, that "women can't fold maps and men just can't get excited about headboards!*" Hmmm, well I can fold a map and I'm afraid that the co-ordination of household accessories and soft furnishings just leaves me cold. Still a long way away from being Proverbs 31 woman!!

*Better re-watch that just to check on the accuracy of the quote!

Aims and Ambitions

2007-05-30T16:29:00.000+01:00

Dear dear, what a poor neglected Teapot this has been recently! I'm sure that the cause of this is not from a lack of random thoughts - but more likely because I've been working very hard and have been too tired to do much sharing of said random thoughts and general observations. (I have of course worked hard throughout the life of the Teapot but usually managed to blog as well!).

I have got the week off this week and have ambitions of getting all my household tasks up-to-date, the study sorted out, my new plants potted up, some inspirational reading done, a National Trust place or two visited, my puzzle of Waterloo station finished, letters written and my batteries recharged... this may be a slightly ambitious list given the previously mentioned tiredness. Ho hum.

Still, while I'm here I'll add one of my current thoughts... I have always held some hopes that I might make a little difference with my life and taking funerals regularly has a lot to answer for in respect of increasing this hope. You spend time with families and friends hearing about the life of their loved one and then trying to do justice to sharing some of their memories and impressions. Sometimes the person you're learning about is a real inspiration - has made the most of their years and touched other people with their life; and sometimes there seems not so much for families to say - but perhaps many things in these cases have been hidden in the past, unseen by later generations, or are just simply hidden? Either way, it adds to my "It's a Wonderful Life" dream that wonders about and hopes to touch the lives of others and be a blessing... though I'm so often aware that priorities need regular check-ups to stay on the right track. And it's not just funerals that inspire me to reach for the person I'd most like to be - I've also been inspired this last week or so by the story of Beatrix Potter - though I'm not sure what I think about Beatrix being played by Bridget Jones... hmmm!

Faith

2007-05-19T21:53:00.000+01:00

My thoughts for Sunday... (the pre-preach continually amended version - which changed a bit more in the proclaiming!)

Easter 7 – Sunday 20th May 2007
John 17: 20-end
Acts 16: 16-34

How often these days do we hear about ‘the decline in church attendance’ and other such statements from the prophets of doom who seem to delight in proclaiming a newly emerging godlessness in our society. It’s a fairly regular phenomenon though I’m not interested in bandying statistics around this morning. I was interested though in comparing these “shocking modern habits” (in inverted commas!) with a sermon I read recently by 17th century clergyman Jonathan Swift – probably most famous as the author of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. In his sermon Swift was addressing some fairly serious church issues of his day, “first” he says, “men’s absence from the service of the church, and secondly their misbehaviour when they are here.” In elaborating on the issue of absence, Swift speaks of the trivial excuses given to excuse attendance at the public worship of God – some having their affairs ’so oddly contrived as to be always unluckily prevented by business; with some it is a great mark of wit and deep understanding to stay at home on Sundays; and others again discover strange fits of laziness, that seize them, particularly on that day, and confine them to their beds. Others are absent out of mere contempt of religion and lastly there are not a few who look upon it as a day of rest, and therefore claim the privilege of their cattle to use the day for eating, drinking and sleeping after the toil and labour of the week.’
Issues not so far removed from our own modern communities it seems to me – though perhaps with less cattle and more car cleaning in evidence today!

And Swift also had a bee in his bonnet about the way people conducted themselves in church back in the 1600’s, mentioning that some continued in a perpetual whisper of conversation often involving the slating of a neighbour, minds wandering in idle, worldly or vicious thoughts (I’m not sure how he recognised that one from the front!), some being determined to ridicule whatever they heard and the worst misbehaviour says Swift, is of those who come to church to sleep!

These concerns, particularly those relating to church attendance, are not that far removed from our own concerns and prayers today.

Concerns that people would come to know the amazing gift of Christ and come and meet in worship and fellowship as part of his church; that even among the faithful there would be a new commitment to the church as the body of Christ; and that we would be able to communicate to many who have no background of being in church what’s expected while we’re here.
(It doesn’t hurt for longstanding churchgoers to reassess every so often whether what they expect in church is what they think is important or what God thinks is important either!).

In every generation there will be challenges in and for the church – it was so in the times of the earliest churches – we only need read Paul’s letters to the church in Corinth to see that; it was so in the 17th century church of Jonathan Swift and it is so now. What is essential is that we don’t get discouraged about the task of sharing and living out our faith, or start to feel that God is not at work in his church or the world any longer. Perhaps our prayer needs to be ‘Lord increase our faith’?

In our comfortable western Christianity, there can so often be lethargy about our faith. We’re so often able to create for ourselves a comparatively rich and secure environment that makes us forgetful of our dependence on God and that can lead us, when things start to prove testing, to question and doubt him because of our discomfort rather than turn to him, depend and rely on him.

If we turn to our reading from Acts and look into the situation of Paul and Silas, we certainly don’t see lethargy of faith there!
It could be said that Paul and Silas had had a pretty bad day! We find them in Philippi. They had started out by going to the place of prayer, had found themselves provoked into casting out a spirit of divination from a slave-girl there, in the name of Jesus. Having angered her owners by this sudden loss of their income, they found themselves dragged into the marketplace, accused before the authorities, attacked, stripped, beaten with rods, severely flogged, thrown in prison, and their feet fastened in stocks.

These men, with their companions, had been travelling from place to place, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ – declaring his death and resurrection for all humankind and the new life promised in his name; but now they’re imprisoned and the feet that had travelled to spread good news were instead fastened in the stocks.

Imagine that. How would you feel? What would you be saying? What would you say to God?

Jesus said there would be suffering and persecution for those who follow in the way of the cross, and yet as soon as it hits us many assume that God has abandoned them, or that their belief in him was wrong in the first place. But Jesus said, “I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.”
And despite what has happened to them here we find Paul and Silas, at midnight, praying and singing hymns to God.

Paul and Silas had plenty of things they could have complained about; if they’d focused on the circumstances in which they found themselves it could have led them to fear and despair – and who would blame them? They might have complained to God that despite all they’d done for him this is what happens to them. But they didn’t.

They lifted their eyes from the situation immediately before them and fixed them on God.

I remember a book I used to have – I can’t remember the title, or the author, or what the book was about – the only thing I remember is a full page cartoon kind of drawing that was in there somewhere near the beginning – and that cartoon drawing has stayed with me. It was a picture of a mountain with a little person standing in front of it trying to look beyond and the caption said something like, “when you have a problem, don’t look at the mountain look at the mountain-maker.” And it was saying that when we fix our eyes on the problem or the situation before us then it’s so hard to see God because all we see is the problem – the mountain. But if we look to God (the creator of the other kind of mountains) instead the perspective changes, we can see beyond and around, we can keep hold of hope, we look to the one who rescues and helps us.

We can read on in Acts and see the amazing thing that happened after to Paul and Silas. But of course when they were there – suffering the pain of their beatings and the humiliation of being in the stocks they weren’t to know what was to come. And yet they trusted God, they lifted their eyes to him – they prayed and they worshipped. Their faith was not dependent on their circumstances, or the outcome – it was dependent on the nature of their God.

They had come to know the fuller picture of God breaking into the human situation in the person of Jesus Christ; they knew his teaching, they knew his love, they knew his suffering and death, they knew the defeat of sin when Jesus died on the cross, they knew that the resurrection meant that he lived again; they knew that though sometimes God broke in and miracles happened they were still to follow the way of the cross; they knew that one day Jesus would return and God would make all things new; they knew of the promise of eternal life with God. And on that day as they sang hymns of worship to God their faith gave them strength and hope. This was no blind faith, but a faith based on one they knew would keep hold of them through life and death.

There did prove to be a miraculous outcome that day (as well as that miracle of faith in suffering) as the prison was shaken, the doors opened and then in the resulting belief and baptism of the jailer and his household; but Paul and Silas would have trusted Christ even unto and through death.

And therein lies our challenge – to grow in the same faith that was expressed by Paul and Silas that day; to choose to worship God and give thanks whatever our circumstances (in all circumstances rather than for all circumstances). Remember too the words of the Psalmist in his call to “praise the Lord and forget not all his benefits.”
When we come to the baptism in a few minutes we will begin by hearing the words ‘faith is the gift of God to his people’. And so let’s be praying that God will increase this gift in each one of us; and pray for one another, love one another – often in practical ways; encourage and support one another and remind one another of God’s faithfulness. At times we will be the one who reminds, and at other times we will be the one who is reminded of these things – this is part of our purpose in being God’s church.

And how do we address the concerns of the church of our day – the concerns mentioned earlier that have been expressed and felt down the ages?
Again, we seek to grow in this same faith demonstrated by Paul and Silas, a living faith that looks into the face of God and sees things beyond the immediate circumstances of life – and we don’t need to look very far at all to see those; that trusts that even when there is pain and hardship God is at work in the world, God is faithful and God is present. And we make this faith known – in love, in prayer, in worship and in service. That is our task – we leave the rest to God.

And today remembering the baptisms that resulted from the faith of Paul and Silas, let’s pray for the baptism of (N) that this same depth of faith would grow in his life, as well as in our own.

Amen.

The Further Adventures of the Traffic-Island-Bollards!

2007-04-28T23:07:00.000+01:00

Yes, they are still here!
Due to my industrious attempts to make a nice, quiet corner in my garden today I had to try and do something about the 'beloved' bollards. You may remember that the Highways Agency had promised several months ago to come and reclaim their bollards from my garden... but they never turned up. Seeing as I was visiting the local tip today (aka household waste site - fair enough - bollards are not your usual household waste!) I thought I'd ask the nice men in the cardboard skip if they fancied acquiring a couple of bollards? The first response was quite promising... until they realised I didn't mean an innocent little cone - but two of the bloomin' great island bollards! Unfortunately they were not allowed to take them off my hands - but suggested that I stick them in the back of my car and leave them across the road from the waste site as it's on an industrial estate and apparently the kind of people who drive round collecting vandalised bollards drive past fairly often and would see them and take them home! It is a very tempting thought - but as I drove home I was pondering when would be the best time to unload from the back of a Ford Ka two bollards and leave them in the street - probably the middle of the night - but it may turn out to be eyebrow raising footage if it's caught on CCTV! And then I wondered whether I should attach a little note to them saying: "I want to go home!" or "Please take your bollards back!" Hmmm, quite a dilemma... but when we do part company I'll make sure there are pictures!
I broke the news of this latest development to TeenSon when he came home and he was rather put out - he has become quite fond of the bollards and is still hoping I'll let him have one in his bedroom as an unusual table or something!! (I suppose it's similar to when I was a teen and we used to collect road signs for our meeting place - which just reminds me of something else that I'll blog another day!).

BlogWorld!

2007-04-26T19:55:00.000+01:00

I have discovered today that one of my "real life" (TM) friends reads my blog! When I discovered the blogosphere, just over a year ago, I didn't know anyone who blogged (though now I do have one blogging friend too!) and so the virtual and real worlds have felt quite separate for me.
Today I've had a lovely day with GreatFriend - off shopping and out for lunch (the things we do best!) and as we pulled onto my drive after she said she'd been reading the Teapot. It's a good job that I have no aspirations to writing greatness and all that, because she then added, "Yes, it's a good read when I'm feeling fed up and need a good laugh and a bit of your randomness!"**
Well at least the Teapot's sub-heading was accurate anyway: "If you're looking for something deep and profound, you probably won't find it here!"
Oh well, I'm sure one of the many purposes of close friends is to keep us humble - but glad she's been here! :D

**well that's the rough gist anyway!

Bressingham

2007-04-13T11:37:00.000+01:00

I had a lovely day out yesterday, with my mum, at Bressingham steam museum and gardens. It's a place I've been to many times before: with my dad and TeenSon through the years from when TeenSon was a small boy; on my own on a day off for a quiet wander, a sit in the gardens with a good book and time to sit and write in such lovely surroundings; and now with my mum. I was delighted that she also loved my favourite part of all that Bressingham has to offer... the Foggy Bottom garden:There seems to be something for everyone here - though it's a joy for me as I love all of it! The steam museum on this occassion was full of pieces from 'Dad's Army' and 'Only Fools and Horses' as well as the usual steam locomotives, old fire engines, traction engines and bits and pieces from life on the old railways.

Del Boy's three wheeled van!
One of the steam engines

There are wonderful miniature steam railways to ride on so we enjoyed a trip all around the nursery fields on a steam train... taking this picture of the steam driven carousel on the way past (which we also, of course, had to have a go on!).

And last, but by no means least, is the lovely Dell garden...

It's such a great place to visit - especially if like me - you've been brought up by a steam-train fanatic dad, love history and love gardens... wasn't that nice of them to put it all together in one place!

And then it hit me...

2007-04-06T14:06:00.000+01:00

The week leading up to Easter is not really the most convenient time for clergy to lose their voice! Yes, I got through last Sunday's service feeling rather 'under the weather' and have gone downhill from there to the point where I find myself on Good Friday with a pathetic attempt at a voice and energy levels to match! Ho hum, I've been trying to make myself as useful as possible while not actually able to lead anything. VicarBoss (VB) stood in and did my share for Maundy Thursday last night and took my half an hour at the Watch at the Cross earlier today. I am supposed to be preaching at our All-age Easter celebration on Sunday - hopefully he won't have to voice-over my visual aids for that too!
Anyway, at least my reflection and prayers were all prepared for today - though VB decided to go with his own 'here's one I prepared earlier' reflection on Simon of Cyrene. Just so my effort wasn't completely wasted, here's mine. But just before you read it (or not!) I would like to share one little revelation about something. Well, it might not be an actual revelation, but it was pretty revelatory for me anyway. And here it is... Everything I do does not have to be world-changing in itself! This is a very good thing because a lot of the time I feel useless and not able to produce things that are as good/interesting/insightful/valuable as I want them to be. And I've come to realise that I might just have to accept that my abilities may only ever be mediocre, but as long as they're offered to God then he might be able to do something world-changing with them!! That's all... so here's my mediocre reflection on Simon of Cyrene!

They had mocked and beaten him; blindfolded, insulted and accused him. And Jesus – Son of God; Messiah; innocent perfection of mankind – was led away to be crucified.

Perhaps he stumbled under the weight of hatred and betrayal; or perhaps it was the weight of the crossbeam he carried? Whatever the cause, they grabbed at Simon – seized the man from Cyrene, and laid the beam on his back instead.

This man, just entering Jerusalem from the country, was suddenly caught up in the most significant events a man could see. Was he just an unfortunate man in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or was this his gift to the one who was the right man, in the right place at the right time? Did he know the privilege of walking behind Jesus, carrying a mere splinter of his burden, on the day when God would restore humanity, defeat death, open the gate of heaven?

Was Simon humiliated, angry and ashamed or humbled and honoured as he served the servant amid the baying of the crowd and the wailing of Jesus’ friends; as he felt the weight of the wood on which would hang the Lord? What response did he make as he carried a cross? Which response do we make as we carry our cross?

And so Simon stumbled in the path of the Lord – and yet his path was also very different. Jesus trod a unique path, a lonely path, a tortured path, a loving path, a dying path.
Simon bore the weight of the crossbeam, but Jesus would bear the weight of human sin – all sin, my sin, your sin.

I wonder what Simon might have made of the words uttered some other, earlier day by Jesus… “If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow me.”
Was this Simon’s cross, to carry the cross of the Lord?
He had been given no choice – the cross had been laid on him.

Is there sometimes a cross laid upon us? One we have no choice but to bear? One that we try and carry with humility and grace because we obey the words of the Lord? Perhaps there are some days when the humility and grace, or even the desire to follow, to deny self are far away. And yet that’s what this was all about. Without this day, the power of sin and self-centredness, of death and separation from God would not be broken.

Through Lent some of us have had the privilege of hearing the stories and experiences of Christians in circumstances that at times have reached the depths of human experience. Where faith is lived in the dark shadow of the cross and where the only comfort has been the promise of the presence of the Christ who also suffered. But these Christians have shown us that even through persecution and social rejection, through indescribable violence and war, through pain and illness and suffering it is possible to carry the cross lain upon them and see glimpses of light.

Simon accompanied Jesus as he began the journey to the place of the cross, and we accompany Jesus as we remember and reflect on that journey again today; a journey through darkness to shine light into our lives.

Kettle's On...

2007-03-29T09:00:00.000+01:00

I bought myself three CDs yesterday - there's so much good stuff around still!
My little treats were: The View - Hats off to the Buskers; The Bees - Octopus and The Feeling - Twelve Stops and Home.
And wouldn't you know, track number four from The Feeling is "Kettle's On" - might have to become the theme song for the Teapot!

Add-on: I am aware that this is one of the most pointless blog posts in the blogosphere, but just think - if you ever find yourself at a Pub Quiz and are asked to name a track from a Feeling album, this juicy bit of information might give you the point that means triumph! There, not so pointless after all!

An insight into the author's mind...

2007-03-26T12:05:00.000+01:00

Dear faithful reader (or person who has stumbled unfortunately upon these pages),

If I were to pick one sketch of one show that demonstrated the kind of thing that could keep me entertained for hours and give an insight into my sense of humour, then this would be it... I have also been gifted with a son who can do a spot-on impression of Andy (the one in the wheelchair) and the poor lad gets requests from me to 'do it again' at fairly regular intervals! There really is no hope for some people...

Currently I am not eating currants

2007-03-21T07:44:00.000Z

By way of not disappearing off the face of the blog here are a few currents...
I am currently (obviously not in this one, particular moment in time but more generally):

Reading: Biography of Basil Hume by Anthony Howard (still!)
Watching: DVDs of classic old films like 'Goodbye Mr. Chips', 'The African Queen' and 'Blithe Spirit', plus 'Sense and Sensibility' a few times recently and, as ever, bunging on 'Dinnerladies' every time I'm at the kitchen sink!
Wishing: A lot of things... that I didn't provide such chaotic surroundings for TeenSon, that I was more organised, less easily distracted and unfocused, had a beautiful garden (I love gardens), had more confidence in my abilities, that God would just pop round in a more direct sort of manner and tell me if I was doing a reasonable job for him and if I'd made any difference at all... you know, that kind of thing :D**
Thinking: Well, now I'm thinking about the stuff I was wishing!**
Feeling guilty about: Well, some of the stuff I was wishing and thinking... though guilt is only useful when it causes a change in action really.
Regretting: There are some things I've done in my life that are regrettable (a gentle understatment!), but looking back from here they have usually provided some wisdom and all that in hindsight so I wouldn't necessarily want to remove them. Oh and that Spurs didn't beat Chelsea on Monday night!
Wondering: Whether to take up an invitation that has been put before me.
Looking forward to: My week off after Easter.
Reflecting on: Psalms of refreshment (for a work related, leaders morning I'm planning, but also personally) and a song... "All who are thirsty, all who are weak, come to the fountain, dip your heart in the streams of life.." (I'll add the credit when I can find the CD case!!)

**These are not theological statements - I am quite secure in the knowledge that God accepts and loves me just as I am, can stretch me to be even more the person he made me to be and has given me gifts to use, which I do attempt to do... but that doesn't mean I don't still drive myself up the wall at times and wish I was different in a number of ways... God probably feels like this too!

How Time Flies!

2007-03-15T17:41:00.000Z

Well in this little posting lull (having attempted to give up blogging and all things net for Lent, failed impressively, and then not really got going again properly) I seem to have missed my first birthday! Yes... it was indeed a year ago that the Teapot began its life of random reflection over a cup of tea - in fact I wouldn't like to say quite how many cups of tea I've mentioned over the course of this year! Anyway, it was on March 12th 2006 that I made my first post - it only seems like 5 minutes ago - but I'm sure that much has happened in that time. So, in honour of the occassion I'm travelling back in time...

In March 2006 there was...
...the first sign of my VW Camper obsession (and just the other day my mum bought me another one - a money box!).
...a wonderful recording of John Betjeman reciting his 'Diary of a Church Mouse' - one of the Teapot's most Googled posts!
...a Dave Walker original (and so apt!).
...a hint of black eyeliner!
...that street again.
And strangely enough a pair of posts on the same things I went in the garden for today... though one year ago the cat was proving slightly more photogenic (though still pretty unco-operative)and the daffs were out in force!

March 2007 (see what I mean?):

Stand still and smile for the camera!

A little bit of spring has sprung!

And the garden seems to be the same sort of wilderness it was a year ago too!

Where's the figs?

2007-03-10T14:09:00.000Z

Apologies to anyone who's not in the least bit interested in reading a sermon**, but I'm posting this here in the hope that my RevGals might come along and give some helpful (maybe even encouraging!) comments!
**SLIGHTLY AMENDED VERSION!

SUNDAY 11TH MARCH 2007 (LENT 3)
ISAIAH 55: 1-9
LUKE 13: 1-9

It doesn’t take much looking around to see that there is much pain and suffering in our world – sometimes it hits right in the midst of our own lives, and sometimes we just have to switch on the news, or pick up the paper, to see what’s going on both on our doorstep and around the world.
And we see in our gospel reading that the people with Jesus on this particular day also had questions of suffering on their minds…

These people with Jesus brought up the subject of a presumably recent tragedy - the horrendous slaughter of a group of Galileans who had been slain by Pilate’s men as they brought their sacrifices in the Temple. It was awful and shocking, and sadly we’re not immune today to hearing of such awful events. But Jesus knew that behind their thinking about these things lay an assumption that the suffering of these particular Galileans was a direct result of their sin. For the people with Jesus that day, there was an assumption and a belief that people get what they deserve – so they thought that because this had happened, the victims must be worse sinners than other Galileans – they must have done something to deserve it.

But Jesus says, “No I tell you!” This is not the case. We are all sadly aware that bad things happen sometimes to good people. It is not because they are worse sinners… we are all sinners. The world is a fallen place, is a place that suffers the consequences of having turned its back on God, and that is something that we are all called to repent of, as Jesus pointed out to the people with him.

And then, to clarify his point, Jesus reminds them of another situation – a tragedy which resulted in 18 people being killed – and says again: “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you…” It was far too easy for those standing there to assume that the ones who had suffered had deserved it more than they themselves did. But each time Jesus says to them… “No, they were not worse sinners – and yet you all need to repent.”

And while they may be different, we hold our own assumptions today. In our time and culture we seem to believe that we have the right to go on forever! We assume it is our right to have good health and long life and we even sometimes blame the medical profession if that’s not delivered. We look for someone to blame if there’s a tragedy or a disaster, we look for someone to blame if there’s illness. Sometimes of course there is an obvious point of blame, but not always. Sometimes we blame God (even people that don’t believe in God are satisfied to blame him when things go wrong!), sometimes we blame the authorities – lack of funds – sometimes we blame an individual – “if they had only done this or that…” and yet we are often too proud or short-sighted to listen and to understand that the earth is groaning under the fallen-ness of creation, suffering the consequences of a universal turning away from God.

But into this, God has broken in…

And he has broken in because he hasn’t abandoned us, because he loves us, because he wants to make himself known to us… because he is full of mercy.

Jesus is the most visible sign of God breaking into his world – the Son of God come to walk and live among us, to make God known to us and then to lead the way through death – the perfect example of humanity now in heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father.

And Jesus made it simple for us: “Repent and bear fruit.”

He said it to those who were with him that day, and he says it to us, “Repent and bear fruit.”

Think, or turn, back to those verses from Isaiah – words spoken hundreds of years earlier and relevant in their own time, in the time of Jesus and still today…

“Seek the Lord while he may be found,

call upon him while he is near;

let the wicked forsake their way,

and the unrighteous their thoughts;

let them return to the Lord, that he

may have mercy on them,

and to our God, for he will

abundantly pardon.”

This is what our God is like. He wants to have mercy, he wants to abundantly pardon; but however much we assume the right to live forever, we don’t have all the time in the world!

Think about the fig tree in the story Jesus told…

A mature tree that’s stood for three years in the garden – and in that time has not produced a single piece of fruit. And the owner of the garden comes along once more looking for fruit on that fig tree, and still seeing none he says to the gardener, “cut it down then, it’s not a lot of use and is wasting the soil.” But the gardener asks for another year… asks to be given time to dig round it and put manure on it… to see if it will then bear any fruit.

The mercy and patience of the gardener is a reflection of the mercy and patience we also receive… we need to produce the fruit of repentance (and we’ll think about what that is in a moment) but we’re not just left to it… we also have the loving touch of the gardener… tending us, being patient with us, nourishing us.

Time will run out for that fig tree if it doesn’t bear fruit and time will run out for us if we don’t respond to Jesus’ call to repent and bear fruit.

Repentance doesn’t just mean saying sorry to God and other people for the things we do wrong (though that is important) it is actually a turning away from all that separates us from God and a turning back to face God and take notice of him in our lives. We do this by listening to God - most often as we read the Bible, by spending time with him in prayer and worship, and also through action: making amends to those we’ve hurt, helping those in need, striving for peace and justice. And when we do this, when we make that turn towards God, we see a change – we see the fruit.

C and N are going to be baptised in a few minutes, and baptism is one of the most significant steps we can take to respond to God’s mercy and make that turn towards him. And though it’s a very special time for C and N it’s also an opportunity for the rest of us to renew our commitment to God as we profess our faith together.

Many people here may have been baptised as babies or very young children, and if that’s the case be thrilled that you have been brought up as a member of God’s family, but ensure that you also bear the fruit of repentance in your life. Whether you hear and turn to God and are baptised in response, or whether you were brought to God as a baby, then heard as you grew up, or even as an adult, and then turned your face towards him… know that with the tender attention of the gardener, of God at work in your life, fruit will grow.

And what kind of fruit will this be then?

First of all it will be a life that acknowledges, trusts and listens to God; that stretches after good and tries each day to put aside sin and self-centredness; and it is a life that gradually grows what Paul called ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ (that’s the fruit of having God’s Spirit dwell in us): love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. This is the kind of humanity that Jesus demonstrated for us – and don’t ever think it’s a weak kind of humanity – it’s not weak, but it does take humility.

And finally, don’t forget the image of that gardener - working with the fig tree – digging and pruning and adding that manure – doing what is needed for the fig tree to produce fruit. And likewise, God is working with us – tending and nurturing and showing mercy so that we too will bear much fruit.

Amen.

Lent... well yes, hmmm...!

2007-03-08T13:05:00.000Z

So much for that plan - the pile of Lent books is still a good thing, and I managed the 'no blogging' for a little while - but the other 'reduced internet' elements of the plan - yes, well - hopeless! Anyway, I've said enough about that here, so moving on...!

It's nice to be back, but I've got out of the habit, over the last couple of weeks, of using the little segment of my brain that's labelled, "stuff that I might blog about." Just give me a while to stir it into action again and then there'll be the usual random stuff here to keep you occupied while the kettle boils, and maybe even for a bit of your tea break too!

Lent

2007-02-13T16:33:00.000Z

While there's still a week to go until we reach the season of Lent, I've been thinking about how I'm going to observe those days that lead up to Easter. Many people talk about 'what they're giving up for Lent' though in some cases this has lost any root in its traditional purpose... "The three traditional practices to be taken up with renewed vigour during Lent are prayer (justice towards God), fasting (justice towards self), and almsgiving (justice towards neighbour)." (taken from the Wikipedia article). Notice the mention of 'renewed vigour'; spiritual discipline and fasting in order to examine and refine our lives with God, is something that Lent gives us opportunity to be renewed in - not to take no notice of the rest of the year!
So, I was pondering what I'd do for Lent - would I take something up, or give something up, or both? And that lead me to think about my use of time, the things I put a lot of mental energy into, and my prayer and study life and decided that my Lenten fast this year would be from the internet: specifically from blogging and from diligently reading a few websites and blogs as much as, if not more than I read the Bible! The whole point of this is to reprioritize time and effort - to spend time with God, to read and pray, to study the Bible in depth, to write letters, listen to music, reflect and be refreshed - using that time that would have been spent on the net. Of course, these are all things I spend time on anyway, but a reshuffle is in order!
So, with that week to go I'm checking in to wish you a fruitful season, enjoy the pancakes next Tuesday and see you at Easter!

Just had to add a link to Dave Walker's excellent Lent cartoon! Yes, right, I am going now... I won't say another word... yes really...!

Mission Statements

2007-02-12T10:52:00.000Z

The brilliant Diamond Geezer has been blogging today about the necessity of blog mission Statements! Of course mission statements - those 'wonderful' short, sharp summaries of life, are rife (no rhyme intended) but can be useful. Hmmm, though before I get onto the mission statement for the Teapot, I wonder if I have considered carefully my mission statement for the day? Perhaps this: "To work hard, fully live the day and get to nightfall satisfied with my being and doing!" It's alright I suppose (and yes has been totally edited from my original version!), but makes no mention of food preparation, the half term parental taxi-service and trying to tame a wild washing pile and wild house in general, so only mediocre (though I suppose they would come under 'fully living the day', haha). Perhaps I should try my parenting mission statement instead: "To attempt with all reasonable effort not to mess up my son in the task of his upbringing, but to embarass him at all times and in all places, according to the secret rules."* Yes, that's a bit better I suppose. And so to the actual task in hand... a blog mission statement - that short, sharp, gripping statement that summarises all that the Teapot is about. Of course, I have a dream to be a brilliant writer, full of witty, intelligent, informative and spiritually enlightening insights - but you may not have noticed those, so better not go there. I quite fancy being one of those bloggers who has an insightful comment to make on current affairs, the political climate, church life and international intrigues, but I suppose they don't exactly form the bulk of words round here so that won't do. Perhaps I need to think smaller... I've got a cup of tea, I'm rambling some random thoughts, so how about "Random thoughts posted in a Tea Break"? But that's what's been at the top of the Teapot from day one... so a waste of time that was! Perhaps no-one'll notice if I change it though... "Brilliant, insightful and gripping observations on life, politics and contemporary culture by one of the nations foremost writers." Yes, alright, you can stop laughing now - I'll leave it as it is!

*Of course, I'm joking - when I embarass him it's purely accidental!

Tagged to tell you...

2007-02-08T18:03:00.000Z

...5 things you didn't know about me! Yes, this tag has come from Shaz - along with a little hint in the comments of my 'Maureen Lipman' post that I am being too slow in producing said 5 things that you don't know about me! So here you go then...

1. I *love* peeling skin! You know when you've got a bit burnt and the skin starts peeling - well bring it here! I'll happily do mine or anyone else's and the bigger the sheets of skin the better! (This is quite odd really seeing as I'd be pretty squeamish about most other yukky bits of people!).

2. I was a 'casualty kid'. Yes, one of those who had lots of trips to the hospital - but I think I did a particularly good job of the ridiculous... broken elbow from running round a washing line post and running off without letting go first!! Concussion when about 3 years old from falling off a wooden trolley at playgroup onto my head (says a lot doesn't it!), broken wrist from roller skating down a hill backwards... in my defence - it was a very impressive turn at the bottom that lead to the breakage... and there was the few moments of unconciousness at school from getting whacked round the head with a hockey stick - but no casualty visit with that one!

3. I have a very bizarre and varied taste in music - which is one of my greatest loves in life (despite the fact that I don't play anything myself!). I love classical (especially violins which send shivers down my spine), country, indie, rock (bring on those guitars and that fantastic bass!), easy listening, folk, dance, ska, garage, a bit of rap if it's exceptional (it's such as Eminem that allows me to list rap at all)... etc etc! (I nearly went off on a specifics for each category then... but that will make no. 3 too long!).

4. I was once a Venture Scout. I was not a very good Venture Scout - I didn't get any award type things and didn't put a lot of effort in - but from it I got my love of camping and hill walking. These are two of the things I love most in the world and it was at Ventures that I got the bug. To be fair to myself, I did enjoy and put a lot of effort into the 'service' aspect of Ventures and remember all the time we spent at a local house for adults with learning difficulties. I can also remember (blurrily!) the amount of time we spent in the pub (though that crossed over into the 'bunch of friends' aspect - as we were always being told NOT to go in uniform and bring Scouting into disrepute!)

5. I think you probably know by now that I was a bit of a Goth in my youth (and still have a fondness for black eyeliner!) but I suppose I could tell you about the time (when I was 16) when I went to a 'Doctor and the Medics' concert at the good old Hammersmith Palais, with my slightly older cousin. We had left her car at Redbridge tube station and got the tube in the rest of the way. Unfortunately, coming home, the tubes were only running as far as Wanstead, so we hitched a lift with a lorry driver up to Redbridge station. I told my mum this a few years ago and she nearly passed out!

I suppose I could provide a conclusion to all this... If I can end up as clergy then God must have a right good sense of humour! :D

Snow (Hey Oh)...

2007-02-08T08:08:00.000Z

Sorry, how could I miss the opportunity to use a Chilli Peppers classic for the title (which I am of course listening to)!
The garden looks absolutely stunning this morning, but of course my cheap little camera (and 'impressive' photographic skills) couldn't do it justice at all. The photo looks very dark when in fact outside is a big, white, bright glow!
TeenSon is a happy chap this morning due to his school being closed! I got told off earlier for regaling him with tales of 'when I was at school...' Well! I remember having one snow day while I was at secondary school (and I'm sure it used to snow a lot more) - they're such a load of lightweights now... But who am I to spoil the delight of finding out that school is closed!
He also got, "you might be at home on my day off, but... " kind of stuff from me... but well - it's MY much needed selfish space (and mums out there won't be surprised at the number of "muuum"s I've heard already!). I'm so glad I did my shopping online last night... the chocolate should be here soon!

The Day of Judgement...

2007-01-30T17:00:00.000Z

For a very long time people have been telling me I look like Maureen Lipman! Even on the day, in my early twenties, when I was dressed up doing bridesmaid duty for my friend, her dad wandered up to me and said, "Do you know, you look just like Maureen Lipman?" Now, I'm a huge fan of Ms. L - I have a load of her books, I think she's very funny and all that but it does get a bit weird sometimes (and I won't mention the fact that she's a looooot older than me)!
I hadn't thought about it for a while, until a couple of weeks ago when the lady herself came to our humble town to do a talk or audience with or something like that. I wasn't able to go, but a load of people from the church went - and yes, for the next few days, I got a whole load of "Ooh, did you know, you look just like Maureen Lipman!"
So, faithful readers of the Teapot, this is the moment of truth! Above you will see two pictures - me and the Lipster... so, do I really look like her then?

I have decided...

2007-01-25T05:52:00.000Z

...to teach myself Latin! I have these mad moments sometimes! It's been brewing for quite a while and the spur came from two entirely different directions. There's all that Latin we come across in everyday life (well, as long as your everyday life has some awareness of football mottos!). I am a Spurs supporter (have I mentioned that at all!) and so 'Audere est Facere' (To Dare is to Do) has been a part of my conciousness for as long as I can remember (never known how to say it properly... but still). Aside from that though - there are those little Latin phrases that get bandied about, and which go sweeping merrily over my head. Nil desperandum! See, I've learnt something already, and this deficiency will soon be resolved.
And then there's the churchy Latin. I'm pretty familiar with Gloria in Excelsis Deo and the names of various parts of the liturgy, but filling in a few of the gaping holes in my knowledge would be very useful in my line of business!
So, I have bought myself 'The Cambridge Latin Course' Books I and II; as well as 'Amo, Amas, Amat... and all that' which has the delightful sub-title How to become a Latin Lover'. We had quite an amusing moment yesterday though when TeenSon came into the study and saw that book on the desk... 'How to become a Latin Lover' he read, "Eh! What's all that about then!" I did explain and put his disturbed mind at rest!

I am in love...

2007-01-22T18:05:00.000Z

Yes! Today I acquired (by purchase of course, not some other dodgy method) a DAB radio!
And ooh, do I love it. I've always had a thing about radios, and I wouldn't like to say how many old faithful models there are around the house, ranging from my little tranny that travels most places with me to the built-in-to-the-stereo effort. But they have all been usurped (though not abandoned or neglected) by this... my beloved new radio!

Due to my creative imagination (!) I am reminded of 'Toy Story' when poor old Woody was replaced in Andy's affections by Buzz Lightyear. But I learnt from that story and will not allow the old radios to get depressed or be dumped on the top shelf to gather dust! Of course, the new radio had to be called Buzz - even though he doesn't!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

2007-01-16T19:41:00.000Z

I am conducting a social experiment while sitting here with my cup of tea this evening! It is an experiment in the quality of humour in the modern British psyche... Oh, alright then... I'm just watching 'Russell Brand Live' with a view to seeing if he's actually very funny, or if the 'Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2006' was a one off. I watched that a load of times over Christmas and Russell and team mate Noel Fielding had me nearly wetting myself with laughter every time! (What a horrible expression!)

[Short pause while I turn off the DVD so I can actually concentrate on what I'm saying here!]

Well, I've watched a bit of it and I have to say that I think he's a very funny man - but typically for modern comics - he has to go into the realms of totally gross and 'I really don't want to hear about that!!' The fact that the DVD's an 18 means I was expecting no less... but still, if some of these blokes left some things to the imagination I reckon they'd be brilliant.

The good thing about carrying out your own social experiments is that you can write them up however you like... so my easy-one-step conclusion is this: Russell Brand is very rude in his Live Show but very, very funny on the Big Fat Quiz of the year 2006 - as long as you have the sense of humour of a fruitcake, like me!

For those who didn't experience it... here is an excerpt containing such delights as 'pen,' 'West Ham' and the bonus of Sir Ian McKellen reading a bit of Jade Goody's book (!):

And now, on a completely different note... the cat has decided to adopt the washing basket as a bed... think they own the place!

I think I'll start a new little blog tradition here... 'Comment-at-the-end-of-the-post.*' And today the comment-at-the-end-of-the-post will be: "87% of people cannot spell Minnesota... Minessotta, er, Minnesota... Minneesotta... - but I am one of the 13% who can."

*carefully selected from the store of informative, inspirational, observational, remarkeable and fascinating facts in my head**... and nothing whatsoever to do with having to say something here and not finish with a photo - which always wrecks the page for some reason!

**yes, you can stop laughing now.

Call to Mind the Good Things...

2007-01-06T08:18:00.000Z

...and be thankful.

Both pictures by Tony at www.lakelandcam.co.uk.

I am sitting indoors on this Saturday morning, nearing the end of my 'holiday' (back to work on Tuesday). I am at home - though at this moment I would dearly love to be where these pictures were taken! TeenSon stayed at a friend's last night so they could head off for the team coach and be away supporters today (while we are absolutely Spurs supporters No.1, we support a couple of 'local' teams as well - good old Stevenage Boro and Leyton Orient - well I can't let anyone think we've deserted our first love can I?!)
And though I'm a morning person it would have been nice to get as much sleep as I needed as I'm not having to do the early lifts to the football ground (and I even had an early night). But just before seven I was woken by a beeping noise coming from outside the house - sounded like something reversing - but I couldn't see anything by the time I got out of bed in a strop! So here I sit with my second cup of tea (about to get the third), which meant I was at least up at just before eight when a parcel was delivered! Amazon have been as efficient and speedy as ever... yesterday I ordered C.S. Lewis's Collected Letters Vol III Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950-1963 and here it is!
So despite the fact that I'm not sitting in a beautiful little cottage (or even a grotty one with good views and walks on the doorstep!) in the Lake District, I got woken up early by an annoying beep even though I'm on 'holiday', I've had a stinking cold and chesty thing since just after Christmas, and in a couple of days the daily rush-around begins again... despite those trivial little things (and they are trivial) - I have a lot to be thankful for - even the little things like being able to enjoy the photos at LakelandCam and dream of the next time I can be somewhere like that, a contented son having a great day planned (I hope we win!), a great, and inspiring, book to dip in and out of (keeping to that letter-writing theme see!), and so much more... even on a grumpy day when I'd like to do something nice but don't feel well enough, and have enough washing and ironing to keep me going 'til next Christmas! Bah humbug... but thanks be to God!

Dear Visitor...

2007-01-03T21:08:00.000Z

I wanted to start the first post of 2007 by saying thank you to everyone who's read and commented on the Teapot over the course of 2006 (well since March anyway, when I made my first typically random post!).
I've talked a bit about resolutions over here so I won't say any more other than to mention the one that stems from what's to follow!

A fair while ago I came across the Helene Hanff book 84 Charing Cross Road and having a bit of a thing about Charing Cross Road, old books and bookshops and English literary classics, I was interested to find and read it (I blogged the buying of it here!). I'd only dipped in and out, and not got round to reading it properly, when the film was fairly recently shown on television, which I recorded and then of course didn't get round to watching... until this week!
I'm having a few days off so found time to sit and watch the film (more than once!) while of course drinking plentiful cups of tea with accompanying chocolate. The book (and film) record the letters, spanning more than 20 years, between Helene Hanff of New York and the staff of Marks & Co. of Charing Cross Road, London. And it's wonderful! I will probably not surprise you when I say that reading and watching have renewed my resolve to get back to letter-writing. I've always loved writing and receiving snail mail, and until fairly recently managed a fair bit... Even with the delights of blogging, e-mail and all - there's nothing like reading and re-reading a personal, hand-written note or letter. And so, even if it only means a few words on a postcard, one new year resolution for me is to send some letters, keep in touch, say hello and keep enjoying the old fashioned ways!

Yours sincerely
Chelley

Happy Christmas

2006-12-24T13:53:00.000Z

Well, as I said over at my other blog... I hope all who wander by here have a happy and peaceful Christmas and that 2007 brings all that you hope for. I'll be back in the new year - hopefully with something vaguely interesting, inspiring, insightful... nah, why change the habit of a lifetime... Random - it'll be something random!!

Posada

2006-12-23T12:59:00.000Z

Today I welcome Mary and Joseph to the Teapot. They have journeyed from blog to blog through this Advent season. The traditional form of Posada is for figures of Mary and Joseph to journey from one home to another through Advent, until they return to the church from which they set out to be placed in the midst of their nativity home. But they have also made this virtual journey, starting out with Andii, journeying onwards through December, resting with Bob Carlton yesterday and, nearing the end of their journey, they will move on to abbey nous tomorrow.

As Advent, and the blog journey has progressed I have wondered what might be left unsaid by the time Mary and Joseph reached this resting place. That question has sat in the back of my mind each time I have looked at the picture, and my eyes fix upon Mary's hands. Hands resting affectionately and protectively on her swollen belly, hands and eyes fixed in wondering and waiting? Joseph is pressing onwards - concerned with the needs at hand, straining to reach a place of security and safety that proves at first elusive. Mary guards, and loves, the baby within her. And as I keep looking at that image I think of the words of the Psalmist:
"Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!"
Words that may have encouraged the expectant young woman, and words that hold as much meaning for us as we look back to that birth and forward to an awesome return.
And so, as much has already been said, I leave you with these words again...
"Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!"

Well that's a relief...

2006-12-15T16:11:00.000Z

...I'm not a heretic! Though obviously my theology is better than my maths (no surprise there) because while I'm relieved to be 100% 'Chalcedon compliant' I'm rather put out about the other percentages! Still, at least I have less Pelagian tendencies than Craig! (Na-na-na-na-na would be 73% immature and 82% graceless so I won't say that... no, definitely not).
I would also like to add that I'm 97.99% unimpressed with the code that came with this and have had to fiddle with it just to get it to agree to post here at all, and am still fiddling around with it (so you'll know that if this table disappears completely I fiddled a bit too much!)... I might just do my own - one that would suit my 56% perfectionist tendencies. Yes, ok I'll stop now!).

Yep, ditched that messy table, here's a run-of-the-mill list type thing:

You scored as Chalcedon compliant. You are Chalcedon compliant.
Congratulations, you're not a heretic.
You believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man and like us in every respect, apart from sin. Officially approved in 451.

Chalcedon compliant 100%
Modalism 50%
Adoptionist 42%
Pelagianism 42%
Monophysitism 42%
Monarchianism 33%
Apollanarian 25%
Socinianism 17%
Nestorianism 8%
Donatism 8%
Albigensianism 0%
Gnosticism 0%
Arianism 0%
Docetism 0%

Quizfarm.com

(For those of you that may have been following the editing process of this post, I would just like to announce that I GIVE UP! and there will be no evenly spaced list here...grrr!)

Frequently Asked Questions (well, sort of)...

2006-12-14T14:52:00.000Z

Yes, here is where I answer those questions you've been itching to ask... oh alright then - the questions that I dragged out of you because I wanted a 'Frequently Asked Questions' column! Oh, and they've changed the definition of 'frequent' in the dictionary... yes really, you'll just have to believe me - no, don't go and look it up.

How long have you been a vicar/clergy person and what did you do before you became one?

I've been a curate (assistant/in-training type clergyperson) for about two and a half years. Before being ordained, I spent two years at theological college and before that I was a full-time mum and Registered Childminder, oh and for a while I was also employed one day a week by my church as a Pastoral Assistant. I also spent a good deal of time with the young people as I lead the youthwork there, but that was voluntary!

Why do you blog? What's in it for you?

Well, my mind is drawn back to some of my primary school reports, which from the earliest days said things like, "Michelle is inclined to be rather chatty". I don't think that's changed much and I like to have this space to 'chat' and to offload my head full of random thoughts. I also love to write (I am not commenting on the quality - or lack of - of said writing, just that I love to write) and so that's another reason why I value a place to 'creatively' dump words!! (People reading them and commenting on them is something that surprises but delights me!).

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Just the sort of question I'd expect from you Steve. Though how strange that Smudgie should want to know that too (of course, it's nothing to do with her very kindly repeating the questions to make them 'frequent'!). I think you should ask Mr. Bacharach that one! Alternatively try this. :D

Can you justify calling it an UnFAQ column when the correct opposite of frequent is infrequent and not unfrequent?

No, I can't!

Where's my chocolate?

Mmmmmmm... is this it?

This page will eventually fall off the top of the Teapot and then it will feel like my (In)FAQ column, reached by the link in the sidebar. To ask anything else then add a question to the comments.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

2006-12-14T10:57:00.000Z

Another excellent cartoon by Dave!

For the last three days or so, my tree has looked rather bare... I wouldn't like to follow Dave's theme and say what kind of person has 'decorated' it... a naturist... a busy person... a lazy git?
In fact, I put up my nice new artificial tree on Monday - it took ages what with all that fiddly opening out of branches and all... and then getting the lights in the right place. So after that I was rather bored with the whole thing and had to go to a meeting anyway, so that was as far as I got. Tuesday was another hectic day followed by another evening meeting and though yesterday was hectic in the morning, I probably could have finished the tree sometime later on, but haven't - it is still standing there, pathetic and bare.

Just before I go and actually get on with it then... I thought I'd add that you could probably have a whole other set of Christmas tree cartoons that define the kind of person who decorated them, ranging from the richly exotic, minimalistic decor of the well-to-do's to the common-as-muck multi-coloured busy affair. No guesses as to what my tree looks like*... when it's slightly less naked that is!

*It's funny how the attempted upward journey of the working classes that's reflected in other areas of life, can also be seen in the humble Christmas Tree**... over the years, as my family have 'gone up in the world', the parental Christmas Tree has got more co-ordinated and less tacky! Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon? Or maybe it reflects the age of the tree-decorator rather than the class - when the kids have grown the tree calms down?

**Besides, would the educated classes even dream of having an artificial tree anyway?!

Mary and Joseph

2006-12-11T10:51:00.000Z

Mary and Joseph are making their long journey to Bethlehem. The tradition of Posada is for the figures of Mary and Joseph to travel from home to home throughout Advent. This is something we do in our church, though this year I didn't make it onto the journey rota, so I'm very glad to be able to encounter them through the Blog Posada that has been set in motion by Andii at Nouslife, this Advent season.
Mary and Joseph will be coming by here on Saturday 23rd December, before continuing briefly on their way to the place of shelter and birth.

Frequently (Un)Asked Questions or (Un)Frequently Asked Questions

2006-12-11T08:11:00.000Z

I have decided I want a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of this blog. Unfortunately, I am not frequently asked quetions. This is a right pain as far as my plan is concerned, so if you could ask a question about anything you like relating to the Teapot I will pretend that you have asked it frequently and then I can have a lovely FAQ bit in my sidebar and pretend I am quite important and popular. If you could bring yourself to ask it more than once, then I will feel less fake about claiming said question's frequent status and will not in fact be a complete liar. Lying is not allowed in the Ten Commandments (the ones by God, not the very long film - though I think some of the same rules are in there too?).

Ok, in case you were looking for someone to blame then look here (and scroll down a bit!)

Red Hot Nehemiah and the Chilli Peppers

2006-12-10T16:25:00.000Z

"The joy of the Lord is my strength," (Nehemiah 8:10) is certainly a statement that I value and live by... in fact the whole of the book of Nehemiah is pretty awesome! Recognising and looking out for moments of joy is something I've talked about before - first the joy that only comes from being close to God (that's his amazing gift to us), but also the type of joy that comes from the pleasure of stuff that he's enabled in us... a creative people from a Creative God. So, it's becoming something of a regular feature round the Teapot to provide a piece of music or video that I consider a joy, and usually that I've been listening to repeatedly! For the last couple of hours TeenSon and I have been picking out great bass lines from great songs and just delighting in the wonder and joy of music. (We'll do some awesome classical stuff another time...). So today's Teapot Choice is... "Snow (Hey Oh)" by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, embedded here (click twice but not a double-click) for your joy and pleasure. Oh and a bit of air guitar thrown in wouldn't hurt either - though today, like I said, we're going for the bass part... because the joy of the Lord can be expressed in many ways!

100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

2006-11-30T08:48:00.000Z

Yes, you are indeed an observant one... this is the 100th post on the Teapot!
In hindsight I have considered that it might have been rather amusing to blog about the loo rolls as an underimpressive 100th post... but no, that one has the unremarkable position of no.99.
So, in honour of 100 "random thoughts in a tea break" I bring to you some significant hundreds... beginning with Kevin Pietersen's fantastic test cricket Ashes maiden century!! (Er, boys... could we have a few more please?).

"In the fifth and final Test of the Ashes at The Oval on 12 September 2005, Pietersen did not contribute significantly in the first innings. In the second innings, however, with the stakes at their highest (England would regain the Ashes for the first time in 16 years if they could bat the day out) Pietersen scored his maiden Test century with 158, securing the match and the series for England."

...and I have that on DVD... might have another watch later.

And moving on to the Top 100 UK Adverts.
I can't say I was very inmpressed to see those bloomin' irritating Duracell rabbits going "on and on and on..." at number 32; but Maureen Lipman as Beattie with her wonderful 'Ology' is in there at number 14 - one of my all time favourites! And here it is (click twice in the middle, but not a double-click):

Back to sport now for the England footballers who have made it to and beyond 100 caps. No-one's bang on 100 at the moment - but the ones who have topped it are the greats: Peter Shilton (125), Bobby Moore (108), Bobby Charlton (106) and Billy Wright (105). David Beckham was approaching his cap century but looks like he won't be making it now - David Beckham (94).

There are some highly amusing entries on the Top 100 April Fool Hoaxes! Pick a favourite... I am somewhat amused by number 3, among others!

It wouldn't be right to have a top 100s here without considering at least one rundown of the Top 100 UK Bloggers. Glad to see that Dave's made it in at no. 43, Annie at no. 49 and Diamond Geezer at no. 59. Well, at least the one little link from the Teapot added a drop in the ocean to their popularity!!

Then there's the Greatest 100 Kid's Programmes, the Top 100 Books and the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes.
Oh, and if you fancy a bit of shopping, Ebay can find you some "100th" items to buy (but you'll have to search for that one)!

And there you have it - 100 posts on the Teapot and 100 of a few other random type things for your latest tea break! Time to put the kettle on again I think...

Lovely Loo Roll!

2006-11-27T16:23:00.000Z

Ok, so don't tell me there's no variety round here!
A couple of weeks ago I received a thank you gift of a £20 M&S voucher. That was very nice and I decided to spend it on some nice foody bits as a treat (M&S food being beyond my budget generally, and some treats are always appreciated considering the strict gluten-free diet I'm on). So today I trotted off (if you can trot in a car) to the giant M&S near us and picked myself some tasty (GF) pre-prepared salads and potatoes and nice meats, as well as TeenSon's favourite treat. While I was wandering around I remembered we needed some loo rolls and deciding there was no way I was venturing into the packed huge Tesco next door just for loo rolls, decided to get those in M&S too. Well, I was quite pleased with the white ones with cute little shoals of blue fish swimming along, so decided that extravagent loo roll was in order seeing as it was all a treat type thing! (Little things please little minds, as they say!). Anyway, that was me quite satisfied with a bit of 'luxury' shopping, so I headed home.

Now, as I put it all away, another thought struck me. My mum has been asking me for ages what I'd like for Christmas... I'd managed to eventually decide upon some lovely new DMs... admire them here (which I can't wear 'til I've got them back and unwrapped them on Christmas Day!). But I hadn't been able to think of any little bits when asked... so, I thought, hmmm, what about the lovely loo rolls! Feeling rather efficient for a change, I phoned my mum before I forgot again, explained my little shopping trip, and said that it would be lovely if she wanted to get me some more cute blue fishy loo rolls from M&S for Christmas! (You know - something I wouldn't normally buy for myself).

(A little bit of background information at this point... I am a Christian as you have probably picked up already if you've read the Teapot before, the only 'active, church-going' Christian in my immediate family, and I try as best I can to live according to certain considerate values and try not to get too sucked into the consumerism of our time. This is something I just try and do, I don't go on at my family or anything - just explain my actions when invited to).

So, having mentioned the nice loo rolls to my mum, she said to me... "Is it appropriate for you to have posh loo rolls with fish on with all the starving children in Africa!" So there's me thinking I wasn't being too greedy with my simple request to a question I keep getting asked... no laptop, or requests for expensive gear... just loo rolls - and that's what I get :D (my mum is lovely by the way - last year she kept asking what I'd like and I kept saying that a new set of saucepans would be lovely, seeing as mine were about 15 years old and falling apart - and it took me ages to convince her that that's what I really would appreciate!).
Anyway, I did reassure her that I was still doing and giving what I could to those (materially) worse off than me and pointed out that I wouldn't generally throw all my values out of the window by buying extravagent loo roll in future... I think she felt better then!

Teapot Worship...

2006-11-23T18:51:00.000Z

...and by that I don't mean the worship of teapots - but another little sing-along-a-God opportunity on the Teapot!! I've just spent ages trawling around YouTube (as ever!) trying to find a great version of 'This is my desire (Lord I give you my heart)' as it's a song that I love (because of the music as well as for what it expresses). There was of course the Hillsongs version, but if I'm honest (and I actually don't intend to pass inappropriate judgement here) I find that huge, performance type worship a little difficult. It's not the number of people present necessarily - I have been in places packed full to the rafters of people worshipping God - it can be awesome; and it's not the professionalism - I reckon God deserves our best; so actually, perhaps it's something as simple as preferring this one sung with a male voice? (And I'm thankful to them for some of the amazing songs they've written). So anyway, here is Teapot Worship Part Two - Chelley's Favourites!
(No offence to the lad singing, but I prefer to listen and not watch someone - which is why I liked the 'Blessed be your name' video with images of nature and all, but I haven't yet discovered where to find linkable or embedable audio-only's! As ever two clicks in the middle, but not a double-click!)

A Sense of Wonder

2006-11-20T07:19:00.000Z

The conversation in the comments of my last post here reminded me of a sermon I heard - probably about 10 years ago! Now, despite my 'profession', I hardly ever remember sermons - perhaps enough to apply at the time (I'd like to think) what has spoken to me from a message, but not enough to be able to re-tell someone else what was said. But on this particular occassion, which was at a confirmation service, the Bishop who was preaching spoke about the sense of wonder that children have for the world around them - that they can delight in things like puddles and mud, among many other things; and he went on to say that it's so important that adults too should try not to lose their sense of wonder. And I think that the singing-at-the-top-of-your-voice-in-the-car conversation reflects a similar ability - keeping a hold on joy. I think both of these things - maintaining our sense of wonder, and keeping a hold on joy can be worked on by us, but they're also fruit of the Holy Spirit (that is, outcomes of the presence of God's Spirit in our lives) and as such, I reckon he must delight in seeing evidence of them. So, I'm certainly not going to 'grow-up' and stop enjoying myself - even if the result is a bunch of raised eyebrows from other 'sensible' adults!

A Window On My World!

2006-11-17T18:33:00.000Z

I have been pondering again... teabreaks, I find, are good for that! A while ago I bought myself a cheap and cheerful digital camera - partly so I could bung piccies on here whenever I felt like it, and partly because I am impatient and love the instant factor of digital photos. Anyway, this camera of mine also takes videos (albeit silent ones) and so I've been starting to think, "aaahhhh" (yes just like that with the eyebrows raised slightly) what can I video????
Only a few minutes ago, TeenSon and I were prancing around the lounge to the Scissor Sisters classic, "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" - now that is just the kind of thing that there is no chance of me ever videoing, bunging on my YouTube page and embedding here for your extreme amusement, but if you have any other suggestions then please feel free to suggest them! The bollards have been getting a bit bored in the garden, they might like to star in a video...? (Hmmmm... bollard jousting perhaps...?!).

In the meantime, give yourself some Scissor Sisters therapy, bung this on and prance around like an idiot... it's good for the soul! (Same as usual click the middle box twice, but not a double-click):

Soap and Lather (Palavar?)

2006-11-13T10:49:00.000Z

I was laughing with TeenSon the other day about some of the more bizarre outcomes of being brought up in a single parent family (he has given me permission to tell this story). It's been he and me since he was 2 1/2 (though he's always spent lots of time with his dad and they're very close). But anyway, I was remembering with him all those role-modelled things we learn as we grow up, and we got onto the 'learning to shave' one. One day when he was a little boy he said he wanted to shave like a grown-up so we got him a comb (a good alternative razor!) and some bubbly stuff and having filled up the sink I stood there to let him play 'shaving'. Of course I expected him to slather his face in bubbles and start scraping it off with the comb... but no! He rolled up his trousers and started doing his legs (it's hard to type and laugh at the same time you know!). Of course, that's what he'd seen mummy doing, so I stopped him and said that when he was a man he wouldn't have to shave his legs (lucky boy) but he would shave his face. So we bunged a load more bubbles there and I attempted to show him how to shave his chin with a comb! Later on, I made a point of telling daddy that next time the boy was there it might be a good idea to shave together!!
(I won't even start on 'how to pee standing up' - TeenSon said that there are some limits to blog-sharing!)

Pat and Ernie

2006-11-10T02:05:00.000Z

I thought I was a person well able to resist the influence and lure of advertising... but it seems not! While I was listening to Chris Moyles on Radio 1 the other morning (and wow, there is someone who can ramble on even better than me!!) there came an advert for C Beebies! Now, I admit, I haven't watched much C Beebies - we didn't have Freeview in the not-too-distant days when I was a childminder, so our little bits of TV together were usually on BBC1 or BBC2, but I'm sure we'd have watched it if I had it!
Anyway, someone in this advert (I can't remember who) was waxing particularly lyrical about Gary Linekar taking on the very special role as a London Underground tube driver. This delight comes in the form of 'Underground Ernie'! Well they got me! I'm going to have to go and find Ernie now and see if he can in any way compare with Postman Pat, who (as you may or may not know) I think is the best bloke on tele and should win awards... I mean, who else can deliver all the post, rescue a cat, entertain sick children, mend a roof, hold the community together, do the schoolrun, find lost property and humour Granny Dryden all in one day? Underground Ernie has a lot to live up to.
I think it's very healthy to wander off every so often and find our inner child, so I will be parked in front of C Beebies for my teabreak today. Not to worry if you can't manage that... I also discovered you can while away a few minutes playing 'Where's Woolly' on the website... very therapeutic!

It has just occured to me that Ernie has one quality over Pat... Postman Pat has never played for Spurs!

Ah! So That Was It...

2006-11-09T13:36:00.000Z

It has been brought to my attention by Andy from 'Teapots Teapots Teapots' that the thing I was going to blog about the other day, that I completely forgot (here) and so couldn't blog about, was in fact to do with how great his blog 'Teapots Teapots Teapots' is! Isn't it amazing that he remembered and had the decency to remind me... otherwise it could have remained a mystery for ever!

Who Broke the Teapot?

2006-11-09T12:30:00.000Z

Ok, what's going on around here? Yesterday I had the same YouTube video embedded in my blog with no problems at all. Then this morning Blogger was not functioning, and when all returned to 'normal' the Teapot's layout was messed up with the sidebar crashed to the bottom of the page. It wasn't me, I didn't change anything - but I've had to fiddle around with the size on the video to make it fit and get the sidebar back.
Don't get me wrong - I do appreciate having this free net space to call my own, and I know I have no idea quite how much work goes on behind the scenes, but I don't like putting the kettle on and finding the teapot's handle has fallen off... or some such bizarre metaphor!!
Anyone got some Superglue?

Amazing Song

2006-11-08T16:45:00.000Z

I find there are some songs that send a shiver down my spine when I listen to them, and the one below is definitely one of them (click twice in the box to play, but not a double-click!). I love what this song expresses and would hope that I will always be able to make these words my own.
The recording of the song is accompanied by images that reflect what is being sung... moving from images of the beauty of the earth to others reflecting the agony of the crucifixion.

Every blessing you pour out
I'll turn back to praise.
When the darkness closes in Lord,
still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Blessed be Your glorious name.
(Matt Redman)

Awesome!

Blimey!

2006-11-06T20:53:00.000Z

I've just had another visit via a Google search referring to the Temple Curtain. This time I decided to see for myself and toddled off to Google... Having Googled 'Temple Curtain' I was pretty surprised to see that the Blessed Teapot came up as the fourth result! That took me by surprise somewhat - coming after: bright.net, a family Christian website describing itself as "a Christian ministry to spread the gospel," bsw.org - Biblical studies on the web and bible-history.com which directed to a page on the Jewish Temple. Then of course came the Teapot, before such worthy-sounding sites as bibleresourcecenter, orthodoxresearchinstitute and Wikipedia!! How about that then!!
By the way, I haven't provided links to them as I haven't had a look at all the sites. And by the way II - this still isn't the phenomonal post that I forgot from earlier!!

Blogger... What Was It?

2006-11-06T18:12:00.000Z

I thought of something I wanted to blog about today. Unfortunately I didn't write the thought down straight away... this was a very bad move! I remember thinking to myself, "Ooh, what a good idea..." and now it's reeeeeally bugging me what it was.
If I remember then I will of course come back pronto and blog it... but, you know, don't get too excited it was probably something totally random (as usual)!

Well I'm Really Not Sure!

2006-11-05T15:23:00.000Z

Despite the fact that I commented in my last post on how I didn't think 'Animated Analyst' was really me... I am still analysing the results of that personality test!! So yes, I do admit that I have slightly analytical tendencies but the summary for my 'Benevolent Idealist' result did feel more like me. But then I started floating the mouse over that lovely big colour DNA box thing and discovered it has decided I am Slightly Functional. Now is it me, or could another way of saying that be "Ooh, she's verging on disfunctional!"? Because I am suspicious of the possible outcomes, I am not going to carry out a survey among people-who-know-me-well... just in case! And then, there's a tiny little dark slither at the bottom declaring Low Openness. I've got a blog haven't I... I share the innermost reflections of my world, don't I? Ok, well maybe not quite the innermost deepest ones... but I did tell you about my traffic island bollards and that I support Spurs - that's quite open wouldn't you say? And then there's the Very High Extroversion. I'll definitely admit to extrovert tendencies... I do have a habit of thinking out loud (which in some circles is called 'talking to yourself') and I do start to bounce off the walls slightly if I have to work on my own with no conversational interruptions for any length of time... say, ooh, about 5 minutes! But then I also have a significant hibernation point where I need to withdraw into my little introverted place and ignore other humans for a while. My Myers Briggs type cottoned on to this by putting me just into the 'E' but not too far along the seesaw! Very High Extroversion indeed!
I suspect that had there been a nice coloured blob that said 'Very High Attention to Analytical Perfectionist Argumentative Pedantic Detail' then I would have agreed whole-heartedly... well as long as it was a blue square anyway!

Oh, and I still want to know what 'Agency' is?!

Personality

2006-11-03T12:20:00.000Z

Benevolent Idealist

I've done this twice before and both times came out the same (Animated Analyst)... but when I read the accompanying description it didn't sound that much like me! So I've done it again - but this time I did it faster and hopefully with more gut reaction and accuracy!

It still amuses me to come out with 'Very High Femininity'! Only yesterday I was out with a good friend - one of those properly feminine types who has beauty treatments and paints her nails, and who laughs at me clomping around in my DMs and shouting at football matches. Oh well, quite a turn up for the book that!

Oh yes, and can someone tell me what 'Agency' is please?!

Kasabian and Questions

2006-11-02T16:11:00.000Z

I am sitting here listening to the absolutely bloomin' fantastic Kasabian - it's a good job I don't have a webcam for you to watch and hear the delightful phenomenon of me singing and chair dancing along!! Loud is good! I am also stuffing my face with those moreish dried pineapple chunk type thingies - lovely!
Other than that totally, lets face it non-blogworthy piece of information, I really have very little blog inspiration today - so I'm going to take Steve's great suggestion and offer to answer any random questions you might want to throw in my direction via the comments. Virtual truth or dare... er... well, without the dare*! So, over to you!!

*I reserve the right to veto any particularly dodgy type questions!

Me and TeenSon are now air guitaring to 'Shoot the Runner'... awesome!!

Profounder and Profounder!

2006-10-31T23:58:00.000Z

In light of the fact that the last few posts on here have been, well, let's face it, rather pointless - I mean, two blogthings in a row - what's all that about(?); I have decided that it is necessary to make this next post either intellectually stimulating, theologically pioneering, politically revealing or historically enlightening... and perhaps even a combination of all four.

.....I have now been sitting here for more than ten minutes and have realised that I don't know anything stimulating, pioneering, revealing or enlightening - either intellectually, theologically, politically or historically... so instead, here is a picture of my rabbit.

Gracie - the world's best rabbit

I am now going to go and read a very big book so that I might have something interesting to say in future!

Slush Muppet Part Two!

2006-10-31T23:22:00.000Z

In light of my recent slush reflections, when I came across this one I thought it'd be quite interesting/amusing/bizarre! Had my inner cynic got the better of my inner romantic I wondered? Well, it seems not quite...

You Are A Realistic Romantic

It's easy for you to get swept away by romance...
But you've done a pretty good job keeping perspective.
You're still taken in by love poems and sunsets
You just don't fall for every dreamy pick up line!

Are You Romantic or Realistic?

A Post of Intellectual Depth

2006-10-30T18:41:00.000Z

Your Hair Should Be Purple

Intense, thoughtful, and unconventional.
You're always philosophizing and inspiring others with your insights.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

Purple eh... I think it probably has been in the past!
That's about my intellectual level for this evening... what other amazing insights can I find out about myself? : )

Add-on: Intense: Hmmm, I don't like the sound of that; Thoughtful: I hope so; Unconventional: Quite possibly! Philosophizing: Well, that might be stretching it a little - in my dreams! Inspiring: Rolls around on the floor laughing!