This post comes with a health-warning... I am not pointing at any one or any church, I am not making any points about anyone or anything... Indeed, au contraire, there are lots of people I know who quietly and privately undertake vital little tasks that make my life a lot easier.

It's a little thing I remember seeing many years ago and which popped up when I was researching some ideas for Sunday's service.  So I am sharing it out of nostalgia as much as anything, and to perhaps to remind myself not to get so grumpy sometimes!!

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was a job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.  Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. 

Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. 

Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Somebody wouldn’t do it. 

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Last night I attended a service where the reflection used metaphors of a plumb line and a measure to reflect on the need to align our lives with God's law/teaching and then subverted itself with the image of a heart to signify the central tenet of love.  Very simple, very straight forward and somehow quite helpful.

Grace is about that... about love over-ruling legal minutiae when the intent is right.

Compassion is that which allows a person to recognise the need to exercise grace.

Today I encountered compassionate officialdom, grace in the ordinary, and a reminder that God's love will ultimately overcome any and every challenge.

Thanks be to God who is in all and who can use even fallible, stressy me as a medium for incarnating grace.

I vaguely remember a somewhat cheesy worship song that had a refrain along the lines of  "seventy times seventy times seventy times seven..." an extension of the Biblical mandate designed to capture its intent: times without number.

This morning we focussed our thoughts on part of the story of the apostle Peter and his stumbling, bumbling discipleship.

As much as anything I was preaching to myself... the need to kind to oneself, to forgive oneself, to believe that God never gives up on us or runs out of forgiveness for us.

I had some lovely positive feedback from many people that was really enouraging, and some conversations during the week had helped me think through more clearly some of the needs of others.

Lots of fun, and very grateful to those who are involved with various aspects of making it happen.

Tired in a good way.  Looking forward to week three and a focus on Stephen.

This afternoon I spent an hour that was pure privilege, in the company of people I'd never met before, gathered around a hospital bed.  To be allowed into the lives of people you know is privilege enough, this, then, was maybe privilege tenfold.

To see people freed, if for a moment, from fear, dread and sadness...

To play a tiny part in the making of memories that will last forever...

To witness the healing of hurts and the transformation from empty ending to hopeful completion...

To be allowed in...

To be handed fizzy grape juice, to be kissed and thanked for - what? - being a person with two inches of white plastic at her throat...

This goes beyond ordinary privilege

This puts into perspective niggles and annoyances

This is pure blessing

And, yes, this is mine to name and to share glady.

Much of this week I have been away, accompanying someone to deliver very precious archive material to the Angus library at Regents Park College and being treated to a couple of days enjoying the city.

You can't go to Oxford and not vist either the OUP shop or Blackwells, so we did both.

And I got this amazing bargain... 75% off on a book with the eye-watering cover price of £69!  But for £17.25 it was a bargain.  I first encountered Adele Reinhartz when doing my under grad essay on anti-semitism and the gospel of John (note 'and' not 'in') so I am looking forward to reading this one.

I also bought a little book called Theologygrams which is a publication of the best of this website.  Something that can make me chuckle and make me think has got to be worth buying.  Some of the cartoons might yet find their way into church stuff...