So this is what we did at church this morning...

We listened to the whole of Hebrews 11, the catalogue of faithful people.

Then we looked up a few verses about five of them - Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David - that revealed their flawed natures.  Well, 'we' is really the congregation who were invited to look up the verses and ask themselves (roughly)

• what was flawed about this person?
• why do you think this incident might have been included in the Bible record?
• what glimpses of the nature of God do we see?
• how might this speak to us about our own lives?

People were amazing!  They gathered in small groups and spent their allocated five minutes in deep discussion.

The thrust of the sermon was that even the heroes of faith were flawed, that sometimes the Bible can act as a mirror in which we see our own reflection, that it is a 'holy, human story' and that above all God is a God of second and third and fourth and .... chances - God never gives up.

Quite a few people commented favourably about the experience, so maybe I'll do it again some time!

Just as exciting I have some volunteers to read the Bible in all sorts of unusual languages next week.  Yay!

Almost every Sunday of the year is a 'special' Sunday, so each and every church has to make decisions about which of the umpteen it chooses to keep.  Back in the summer, we decided that Health-care Sunday was one we would mark during evening worship this autumn.  It seemed a good idea at the time, and as is the way of things, the more so now.

In our church we have several people who work in health care and many others who are grateful recipients of the benefits of the NHS.  It is good to remember those who work in the complex world of health care, seeking to bring thier faith in Jesus to life as they engage with people whose lives are affected by the realities of a disordered world.  We have medical students doing electives in very tough and challenging placements, an A&E nurse and an A&E consultant who tend people suddenly taken ill, patches up those who've over indulged or fallen victim to passing joggers (!), we have an internationally renowned oncologist (handy), we have several retired nurses, we have close links with a dentist, and I've undoubtedly forgotten or missed others.  We can't imagine the kind of things these folk face each day, and I suspect if we did our hair would curl.  More widely my friends include pharmacists, physios and medical physicists, a few healthcare hospital/hospice chaplains and not a few home care assistants.

From the lowliest cleaner mopping up body fluids to the chief exec of the health board we depend on those who expend their energies in caring for our welfare.  It seems good to pause this one day to pray for them.

More info can be found here

Living in Scotland and just round the corner from a branch of Sainsbury's means I can sample the wonder of the Purple Majesty potatoes which have been in the news recently.

It was a weird moment when I bit into the first chunk - all my reflexes were anticipating the taste of beetroot because the shiny purple vegetable was shouting 'beetroot' to my memory.  And of course it tasted just the same as a Maris Piper or a Cara to my untrained palate.  But it was an odd moment, eyes, mouth and memory in tension!

They are great potatoes, once you've overcome the surprise of their purpleness, cook easily and taste good.  They are also allegedly higher in antioxidants so better for 'people like me' than ordinary white ones.

Of course the metaphors and parallels are easy to spot...  I think what struck me was that even though I knew this was a potato and I knew it would taste like a potato I could not shake the expectation that it would taste like a beetroot - it is one thing to be aware of and understand prejudice and presupposition, it is another to actively overcome it even when we really want to.

Not quite sure what comments a purple-mash topped cottage pie might generate, but it's interesting to imagine!  However the idea of Lancashire hotpot with red cabbage and purple potatoes is appealing...

I think that's a line from a song by the Pet Shop Boys but my knowledge of all things musical is very limited.  And anyway it's not relevant to what I'm going to write about, just the machinations of my muddled mind.

At the moment one of my tasks is preparing to submit my reearch work for an MPhil - I decided to 'exit' the doctoral programme on health grounds and assumed, rather naively, that the task to tidy up and submit my work would be minimal, afterall, everything had already been submitted and judged adequate along the way.  Alas, no.  It seems that it has to be re-worked from a portfolio of discrete items into a single contiguous thesis, hardly the work of five minutes.  I think I can find a way to do it that will minimise the level of re-writing - and I'm secretly quite pleased with my idea - but I am waiting conformation that this approach is OK and will not exceed the word count blah blah blah.

Meantime I started looking at the first of the papers yesterday - it is so B-O-R-I-N-G I cannot believe I wrote such a dull (and frankly not so great) paper.  So today when I did a quick blog review it was a relief to find the person who supervised and mark it posting on boring writing (here), and by a little following of links to discover that he even told other people that academic writing is meant to be boring (here).  So, I will do some overhauling of my ultra-boring paper but clearly it mustn't become jolly or the academy won't like it....

Today I have other less boring things to think about, but over the next weeks I will be being boring and turning my sow's ear into a pigskin purse fit for the boring eyes of the academy.

I love it when I get glimpses that the things going through my brain just might be in tune with what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.  I had one of those moments this morning when my Baptist Times hit the door mat - the second week running where I've found helpful connections.

The front page headline says "Youth need friends not rules" and goes on to report on the BUGB Younger Leaders' Forum (YLF) meeting in sunny Northampton...

" A diet of 'Bible stories and rules to follow' is not preparing youngsters to deal adequately with the dilemmas of the real world and that's why so many are leaving the church."

Citing Chris Eddison, from Yorkshire it says 'Many people I spoke to said church had not prepared them for the real world... They needed help in coming to moral choices rather than being told what the answer is.  They'd heard the stories and the rules but felt there was a lack of preparation for their personal faith.'

The YLF delegates felt that church should be a 'flexible place which accepts everyone for who they are and has a commitment to focusing on Jesus and preparing followers of Jesus.'  This could be a place 'which looks to develop "real" faith in young people which they continually question, apply and grow within' and/or a place which 'belongs within its community and whose community belongs in it.'

We do well to listen to what these younger people are asking of us...

• acceptance of them just as they are
• freedom to question what we say
• equipping as disciples not instruction as clones
• authenticity and relevance

The things that perplex us middle-aged people just aren't issues for so many young people today - and we all know how many young people whose faith seemed certain and left the church, and sadly often also abandoned Jesus, because of the rules we imposed.  I find myself wondering how Jesus might have felt as he listened to these Younger Leaders with their hopes and fears, honesty and struggle.

And I find myself wondering about our churches - are we encouraging people to be missionary disciples of Jesus or driving them away because they can't or won't be rule-bound Baptists?  Hmm.

Thank you BT for making me think.