Yesterday's service theme was chosen back in September, when we agreed it was important to offer a '(post) Brexit response'.  Of course Brexit Day came and went and no exit happened.  But the theme was good and we kept it.

The truth is, Brexit or no Brexit, we inhabit a 'strange land' in which democracy is creaking and breaking, the future of any union of nations or nation-states is precarious and people of faith are trying to work out how they should be and behave.

As I said yesterday, there's nothing new to say, we all know the The Great Commandment and the maxim that 'faith without deeds is dead'.  Yet something needs to be said.

So here's what we ended up with...

Poets (Psalm 137) - from time immemorial songs and poems have helped people make sense of experience, to lament, to rage, to rejoice and to dream... who are our poets?

Prophets (Isaiah 12) - grumpy people who see the world 'as with the eyes of God' declaim what is wrong and what will happen if things don't change, and dare to dream a brighter future in line with God's new creation... who are our prophets?

Pragmatists (James 2) - practical people who get things done, who ground dreams in reality, who get on with it... who are our pragmatists?

Pastors - recognising that sometimes we just want to be looked after, for someone to say nice things and make us feel better... and the reality that each and all of us has a pastoral role to encourage and support... who might I pastor, who might we pastor? Who are we pastored by?

People of God - and the Teresa of Avila's saying 'Christ has no body now but yours' - we are the Body of Christ, so it's down to us to turn the songs, the dreams, the plans and the care into reality, to live out our prayers, transforming the strange land.