On the eve of the annual celebration of mush and slush, for which restaurant and flower prices are hiked, aka St Valentines day, Baptist Times new Sweep offers two links, one tongue in cheek, one serious...

At Stuff Christians Like a forty question (too many, I got fed up)  quiz to see how your church measures up in caring for singles.  As the crazy cat lady (Q17/18) I found it made me smile, and made me sigh, and made me realise that despite some serious research I did a decade ago, I have done too little to tackle these less lovely elements of the Noah's Ark (two by two) that is the church.

More serious is Inspire which shows that, of people signed up with a Christian dating agency, two-thirds would rather be single than marry someone who didn't share their faith.  It (a) fails to note that most single Christians will not be signed up with them and (b) seems to me to perpetuate the myth that singleness is the second-base option for those who fail to find a Christian soul mate.  Clearly, imo, if someone signs up with a faith-based dating agency, their preference is someone who shares their faith, so the sample is hardly unbiased.

Presumably, then, were Jesus here now, he would have to get a cat and babysit, and his singleness be seen as less desirable than the possibility of one day marrying Martha of Bethany...  [if that offends/is blasphemous, I apologise]

One of the things that happens all too often, yet never ceases to amaze and beguile me, is that way that two services of worship, prepared completely independently, on seemingly unrelated themes, have overlaps and connections beyond the trivial.  Worshipping with people who have a substantial repertoire of hymns and songs, very often there will be one item that occurs both morning and evening.  With themes that sound utterly unrelated, the same Bible passages will be selected.  With diverse theological understandings, the same thought processes and ideas emerge.  How can it be so?

It has to a mystery, a mysterion, a movement of God-in-us that stirs up a whisper, a hint, of something that fits this context, this group of hearers, at this time.  And it is somehow something mighty, something bigger and deeper and wider and, and... um, more than just co-incidence (occurrence close in time)... I am forced to conclude that somehow or other, this is God at work.

I know I've blogged thoughts on this before but it never ceases to intrigue me that it happens and happens again and happens again, again.

Mighty and mysterious

In the highest height

God from everlasting

Very light from light:

One with God the Father

And the Spirit blessed

Love, in love etenral,

Rest in perfect rest.

(We did not sing this yesterday... but it'd be curious if someone reading did!)