Hmm, so which picture should I have as my blog picture?

For now it's a rather ham-fisted composite of four photos, made with very basic software, reflecting how I have looked over the last month or so.  Granted one was taken before I left Dibley, but most of my photos are 'formal' so hair tied back and I wanted one of the few with it loose.

They're all me and they're all not me - no one of them captures more than a moment in time, and maybe that's the point.

Until I decide on something else, or get a better composite, this will have to do.

My penultimate service on the Bible will, I think, involve a series of shorter explorations picking up a few ideas around context (textual, sitz im leben and our own), proof-texting and the handling of tricky passages, all done under the heading of 'doilies and confetti.'

But here's the tricky bit - how I talk about proof-texting without, er, proof-texting?  I have a nice little intra-Biblical illustration, James contra Paul on use of a verse from Genesis, but then isn't that a proof-text approach to criticise proof-texts...?  Oh it's tricky!  But fun.  Tricky and fun is good.

I am working on my reflection for Sunday's service.  It won't be a full blown sermon because I haven't allowed enough time for one, preferring instead to hear scripture read in many different, unfamiliar languages by some of the folk who are part of the diverse community at the Gathering Place - we will have Twi, Yoruba and Swahili for certain and hopefully Korean as well as Canadian French.  That's exciting.

Checking Bible Society information reveals that there are more than 4000 languages yet to have any part of the Bible translated into them, that whilst 1 in 6 people worldwide cannot read, audio-Bibles are available in less than 3% of languages, braille Bibles are only available in 'major' languages and as for sign language, that is only just beginning in the UK (don't know about other countries).  Add to that the numerous nations where Bible reading/owning is a crime.

Now look at the set text - the Nazareth manifesto (Luke 4:16ff) and start linking that to Jesus as the incarnate Word, the church as the Body of Christ, so the word enfleshed in our own day, and see where that takes you...