So today, I'm getting ahead start on sermon prep for Sunday coming.  I have some ideas, and a rough trajectory in mind, but now it's time to read commentaries and start the mulling.

Walter Brueggemann on the psalms - one of my favourites with his threefold schema of orientation, disorientation and reorientation.  Among the books I have is a pocket-sized one called 'Spirituality of the Psalms' and it's just wonderful.  I am tempted to quote a large chunk of it in Sunday's sermon because it says so eloquently more than I oculd ever say.  If I don't go with quoting, I'll almost certainly put it on a handout, it's just so good.

The Word Biblical Commentary Volume 21 and a focus on the psalm that will form the centre of my sermon.  Not shrinking from the cursing with which the psalm closes, the writer, Leslie C Allen, quotes a novel by P D James (and as I read the citation, I recalled using this in a sermon a couple of years or so ago).  I've been looking for something new to read for a while, so have ordered, not the book mentioned, but the first in the series of which it is part.

And then is the annoying ear-worm that goes with this psalm and having been a child/adolesecent in the 1970s... Boney M have a lot to answer for!!

So now, into mull mode proper.  An extended quotation to scan or transcribe.  And, with God's help, a sermon will come out at the other end.

Last week was a day trip to Selly Oak by train - and I was entertained by the unicorn-shaped hole made by the train manager during a ticket inspection.  So much nicer than the scribble with a black pen that is so often the case.

Trains continue to be a theme this week and beyond...

Tomorrow it's a day trip to Ormskirk to meet the NAM I am mentoring for BUGB.  Whilst I will sneak a quick lunch with a friend, it is basically work all day - my laptop will accompany me and my hope is to make good use of the journey.

Wednesday is 'quieter' only local Glasgow trains, but four meetings/appointments so quite a busy day.

Thursday and Friday it's destination Airbles (Motherwell) for the Baptist Assembly, where, this year, I have somehow agreed to staff the stand for Operation Agri during the 'breaks'.  I am looking forward to catching up with folk, learning what the Union is up to, and celebrating God's goodness.

Then a weekend 'at home' before I head off to Bangor next Monday for a five day silent retreat in Wales.  A retreat - not a holiday as some folk are wont to call it.  For sure, I take annual leave to do it, but it's very intentional and 'churchy'.  Inevitably there will be service prep to be done in the train, and I come back to a full on weekend of Bible study and services.

Were that not enough, the next week is a very long day-trip to Birmingham for the BMS Catalyst Live event - a glorious miscellany of theology, spirituality and sharing.  I think given I will leave home a little after 3 a.m. that day, sleeping rather than working seems a good diea for the outbound journey.

Don't misunderstand, I love being part of wider Baptist life, and feel that, overall, it is good for my own folk that I do so.  It's just a challenge sometimes, when everything seems to land at once, trying to fit everything in that I want - as well as need - to do. Hence, today is not fully 'off' as I've decided to spread the load a little.

Still, if I get more unicorn stamps on my tickets, I will be one happy bunny!!

Depending how things are going I may or may not catch Radio 4 'Sunday Worship' before leaving for church.  This morning I was keen to listen because I knew that it would be something a little different, and something very special.

Richard Littledale is a Baptist minister, roughly my age, who wife died last year after living with cancer for seven years.  Courageously, Richard has shared his story of grief through social media and on 'Thought for the Day'.  Today's broadcast was tender, profound, courageous, honest and generally awesome.

If you read this within a few weeks of me posting, you should be able to find the recording here...

It included this poem, with the music of Enrico Moriconi's 'Gabriel's Oboe' in the background...

Sightseers into Pilgrims    by Evangeline Paterson

I used to think --
loving life so greatly --
that to die would be
like leaving a party
before the end.

Now I know that the party
is really happening
somewhere else;
that the light and the music --
escaping in snatches
to make the pulse beat
and the tempo quicken --
come from a long way
away.

And I know too
that when I get there
the music will never
end.

Another wonderful afternoon, with five Iranian and three British adults, plus a couple of children and two cats!

"To live is Christ, to die is gain" - always a tricky verse, but, wow, what a wonderful conversation it prompted.  As well as some exploration of who can be/is saved, we thought about what it means to live in the light of this verse and the surrounding passage, which seemed to boil down to:

Be the you God made you to be

Live every day as if Jesus might come back - so live the way he showed us

What heaven is (is like), is a mystery

There was a lot more, and some was quite taxing, and, it was really wonderful.  Thank you W and G who are working with me to deliver this, and who bring such great insights to our conversations.

This afternoon I will join others to facilitate our Drop In group.  Since the start of September, numbers have been quite low, and a few folk who travel in long distances have, wisely, realised that it'stime for them to stop coming.  We are carefully thinking through what the implications are, whilst carrying on meeting week by week.

This week I'm on the 'epilogue', which has gently been transformed since A, M and I took over responsiblity.  What I have planned for today is an exploration of differences between the gospels, using one of the few stories shared by all four - the feeding of the multitude.  Whether that's what will end up happening, I know not, but it matters less, because what we are experiencing is growth of a different sort...

The last couple of weeks, attendances have been very small, more facilitators than participants.  However, we have had some amazing conversations that would never have arisen even a few months ago.  Last week we shared our conversion/faith stories and I was blown away by the story told by one of the participants, something he would never have shared in a bigger group.

As winter draws on, we may need to make some tough decisions - but in the meantime, God is blessing us with deeper, more open, honest and meaningful conversations.  This, too, is growth.