It's been a busy day, and now I am bunking the evening service after morning worship and two lots of visiting.  All of it has been good, but I am tired, and need to rest (yes, I am FINALLY learning :-) )

After some serious wrangling, this morning's sermon came together pretty well, and seemed to engage people - just as well as it ended up being a tad on the long side.  A sermon - or more properly reflection - on reading the Bible, on the place for diversity of interpretation and difference of opinion, on the inherently partial and contextual nature of Bible reading, a bit of a plea for more group Bible study and some cheeky references to assorted bits of popular theology.

I chose the hymns carefully, with one exception coming from dissenting traditions, and expressing ideas that seem important.  So we had Caryl Micklem's "Give to me, Lord, a thankful heart", Bonhoeffer's "By Gracious Powers", George Rawson's "We Limit not the truth of God", Doddridge's "great God we sing your guiding hand" and Sydney Carter's "One more step"... but not in that order!

All in all, it seems to have been a good day.  And, just in case anyone is daft enough to read it, here is the first bit of the sermon, before it morphed into pure prose...

Before the beginning, God:

Before Wisdom,

Before the Word.

In the beginning, into chaos, darkness and void

God's Wisdom came forth from the mouth of God

God's Word announced, "let there be light…"

God's Spirit hovering over the yet formless creation

God's Christ proclaiming eternal truth before time began

The Word became flesh and lived among us

The Word:

The source of all life, bearing light into the continuing chaos, darkness and emptiness of creation

The inextinguishable Light, penetrating, dispersing, absorbing the darkness

Bringing enlightenment and lightness, order, meaning and purpose

Scripture is rich in metaphor and symbol, human writers inspired by the very wisdom of which they speak employ inadequate human words to express mystery beyond comprehension, sometimes in parable and prose, sometimes in poetry and prophecy; always attuned to listen for the word of the God, always aspiring to express the inexpressible, to fathom the unfathomable and to share the story of the God who is love..

The Bible:

A library of wonder

A treasure trove of stories

A window into things beyond

Sometimes viewed as an example of ancient literature

To be dissected and analysed

Critiqued and commented upon

An interesting but ultimately largely irrelevant enterprise

Oftentimes reduced to little more than a text book

A rule book

An instruction manual for those heaven-bound

(Who has not heard the contrived, late C20 'acronym' Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)

Among believers, a sacred text,

Exalted above all others

Used, misused, abused

Deemed infallible by some

Source of proof-text to prohibit or permit

Silences employed inconsistently

To prohibit "that which scripture does not explicitly permit" or

To permit "that which scripture does not explicitly prohibit"

Or any variant upon this theme

Other believers recognise

Internal errors (incorrect references to Hebrew scriptures from the New Testament)

Discrepancies, inconsistencies and contradictions

Seeking not for detailed rules and precise instructions

But searching for principles and patterns

So many ways to approach it

So many alternative readings and understandings

None intrinsically definitive

Even if some are clearly wrong-headed

Most, if not all, sincere

In their quest for truth and light

The Bible is a wonderful, complicated, easily ridiculed, and aggressively critiqued set of writings…

And yet…

And yet for half the world's population this quirky, bewildering, frustrating collection of ancient religious writing continues to be regarded as a source of truth; that contained within it is something that will help dispel the darkness, and order the chaos.  That here may be found wise words, helpful principles, comforting and encouraging thoughts.  That there is still "more light and truth" to be released from this book of books which enables us to seek the word of God as, guided by God's wisdom, we read, reflect, study, discuss its contents.

Having 'lurked' on the Cats' Home website and seen how quickly house-cats are snapped up, when I spotted a Mum and Daughter pair today, I knew I had to act... so I have sent them a message via their email thingy and plan to phone them in the morning if they haven't replied.

At present their given names translate from Greek and Polish to "Wisdom" and "Stranger" which makes for an interesting combination!  If I am lucky enough to be chosen by these cats, we will discuss names... can't have one that shares a name with my niece and another that sounds like a thug!!

I came across a New Year blessing, which I have adapted slightly and will be using on Sunday; it seems quite appropriate to share:

May God make our year a happy one!

Not by shielding us from all sorrows and pain, but by strengthening us to bear it, as it comes;

Not by making our path easy, but by making us sturdy to travel any path;

Not by taking hardships from us,  but by taking fear from our hearts;

Not by granting us unbroken sunshine,  but by keeping our faces bright, even in the shadows;

Not by making your life always pleasant, but by showing us when people and their causes need us most, and by making us eager to be there to help.

May God’s love, peace, hope and joy sustain us for the year ahead.

Amen

Origin unknown, adapted to 1st person plural language

31st December, the last day of the year.  A day to pause, be it only fleeting to look back over the year that's gone and remind myself how blessed I have been.

It has been a year of extremes - the good bits so much better than I might have imagined, the not good bits so much harder and more painful than I would have anticipated.  Personally, locally, nationally and globally a year crammed with events and experiences - too many to name, too many to reflect upon.

A year ago I was frantically trying to get my conference paper finished to go to New Zealand - and what a great adventure that was.  A year ago (+/- a day or two) I was visiting the friend whose funeral I will conduct in just over a week, admiring her new house, hearing her plans for the garden.  A year ago I had spent part of the Christmas period visting in hospital two church folk, who were in the same ward as the one I have been visiting this year.  A year ago I had the Commonwealth Games to look forward to and the Referrendum to try to get my head around.  A year ago I was planing a holiday in Finland and hearing of young folk planning weddings. And so it goes on.

As the year draws to its close, I have very few regrets, and those I do are probably becuase I am too hard on myself.  It has been, for me, a good year.  Tinged with the sadness of losing friends and losing Holly Cat, shot through with moments of near uncontainable happiness, challenging, rewarding, demanding... and in all of it the awareness that life is precious and wonderful, the sense that, In God's good time, all will be well.

However your year has been, I wish you the blessing of health, hope and happiness for 2015.  Go well, and may God go with you.

I often wonder what it is that makes something on social media 'trend' or go 'viral'.  This year it was something done by a group of women aged under 45 who were undergoing chemotherapy, and for a laugh posted photos of themselves with "chemobrows" for Chrismas... antlers drawn on, ribbons stuck on, holly leaves... you name it they did it.  And somehow or other it tripped that hidden switch and went wild.

31st December 2010 was my final dose of chemo, and I had no eyebrows, in fact four years on I still have very sparse eyebrows rather than the lush ones I had enjoyed for 47 years.

So, in celebration of being four years further along the road, and in the spirit of seasonal nuttiness, I present you with Catriona's Christmas-and-New-Year Chemo-plus-4yrs-brow

#christmaschemobrow