I think I have now decided the basic format for my WPCU sermon this coming Sunday.

I will start with some optical illusions - you know the kind of thing, five legged elephants, impossible staircases and the Channel 4 self-trails (with the sound turned down - the ones I found on line are all for programmes that would make my wrinklies' hair curl (actually, that would save on hairdresser's bills....)).  I will do the scary bit of questioning how much our unity is an illusion - looks real but isn't really, or is a fleeting glimpse when the angle is right.

Then I'll move on to the Romans link of labour pains and groaning!  Hence, hopeful travail - unity is hard work (maybe with expletives but not on a Sunday in Dibley!) but it is based on a hope - not just wishful thinking but Christian hope in Christ.

And so to the John (which loops back to Ezekiel of course) and Christ the Good Shepherd.  Shepherding is a mucky job - sheep fall down ravines, ewes struggle in labour, orphan lambs need tending, rams fight for dominance - but the good shepherd gives his/her all for the flock in its many pastures/folds.

Need to avoid tweeness but also need to leave a sense of Christocentric hope that we can labour from illusion to reality.  Should be interesting to write and deliver!