This coming Sunday is, for those who follow the liturgical year, All Saints, and, as I said to our Musical Director last week in repsonse to his question we are "sort of" doing that theme this year.

So, here's a prayer I just found whilst hunting for ideas...

Eternal God

You have always taken men and women

Of every nation, age and colour

and made them saints;

like them, transformed,

Like them, baptized in Jesus' name,

take us to share your glory.

from "A NewZealand Prayer Book" cited in "The Book of a Thousand Prayers" compiled by Angela Ashwin

Once upon a time I wrote an essay in which I explored, among other things, the function of Sunday School as either didache (teaching) or kerygma (preaching), whether it is primarily informative or transformative.

The last two Sundays my sermons have definitely been way more didactic than kerygmatic, but have hopefully given people something to ponder futher.

It remains, I think, one of the challenges and mysteries of homiletics (sermonising) whether it is meant to educate and inform or to inspire and transform; the extent to which it is human endeavour and the extent to which it is divine revelation.  And of course, at its best it is probably all of these things.  And at it's worst it is either unsubstantiated opinion or erudite theory.

This morning someone said to me that their brain was hurting a bit from the sermon - a lot of didactic stuff around predicated 'ego eimi' sayings in the 4th gospel, but that they had found a nugget to take away in what I offered at the end as a possible way of hearing the 'I am the way. the truth and the life' saying that is inclusive rather than exclusive...

As a born worrier, I do worry that I have nothing to say, or that if I have something to say it is either too facile or too complicated... I have enjoyed researching the 'signs' and 'sayings', discovered and rediscovered some interesting stuff... and I hope that somewhere in amongst it was something helpful in glimpsing a little more of the nature of God through this mysterious and complex text that we know as the Gospel according to John.

This morning I've been starting to get my head into gear to plan our Remembrance Sunday service.  This will be about the fifteenth successive year that I've conducted this service - well, at least the twelfth anyway.  It's an important service to get "right", whatever that means, and I suspect I made a rod for my own back eons ago when I tried to find new and interesting 'angles' each year.

From 'just war' to pacifism, from poetry to symbols, with themes of sacrifice and focus on the sayings from the cross, we have explored all sorts of ideas and avenues, remembered and reflected. 

Perhaps then, it's not such a surprise that this year I sat down with a sense of dread to begin to plan.  It's a lot easier now, with easy internet searches, to find ideas and play with possibilities.  So, after half a morning watching video clips and reading British Legion, Poppy Scotland and Peace Pledge Union websites, I think I have the bones of something that will hopefully do whatever it is needed to do.

Part of the planning has involved ordering poppy seeds - red and white - so I just hope the suppliers are trustworthy and not selling me something dodgy!!

It's my own silly fault - last week I made the mistake of noting that this week was quiet, a largely empty diary and time to fit in some tasks that need a bit more time to do them justice.

Bad move... the evil dwarves (or whatever they are) that lurk in the recesses of reality heard my use of the Q-word and 'bam' I've just spent I don't know how much time - certainly the equivalent of a full working day - sorting out my new email account which wasn't working due to assorted glitches, some mine, some theirs.

So, now it is close to lunchtime on Thursday and the first draft of the sermon is only half written.  The one good thing, I guess, is that when I was searching for images for my PowerPoint early this morning, I found one that had a bit of a 'hmm' factor about it... so at least that's been mulling away in the background.

Maybe it's time for an early lunch break and then some serious sermonising!  Oh, and don't say the 'Q' word!

There is a TV ad campaign for a certain internet provider that uses spoon whittling as the occupation of choice for those who don't employ their services.  A few weeks back said ISP, having a few years ago bought the one I've used hassle free for 16 years, told me it was stopping my service and I'd need to transfer to their branded provision.  This seemed easy enough as they assured me I could keep my old email address.

Then today, with no warning, my email stopped working - I can still get webmail, so can pick up messages via a very creaky old facility, but no way of getting messages onto my computer.

Once upon a time, the ISP that was bought out (twice) had lovely people at the end of phones in Sheffield to whom I could speak with a very short wait.  Now, with a minimum wait time of thirty minutes to speak to a real person, I opted for the 'live chat' method where a pseudonymous (?) person worked out that they'd muffed my transfer and not set up a new email on their server, and yes, my old email address was now webmail only, they'd misled me (inavertently I assume, let's be gracious here).

So, now I am in the midst of a four hour wait for them to activate my new email address and it is strangely quiet here!

For those who have emailed me today on my old clickety-whir address, I will get your messages... and once the new address is active I'll let you know so that you can switch over.

In the meantime, I might go and whittle a few spoons whilst seeking the last bit of inspriation for my sermon.