Yesterday I was sharing with an occasional worshipper at church that her daughter had designed our cut out animals and helped design the angels; she enjoyed our attempts at inclusivity, including one angel with a walking stick.

She observed that her church had a paraplegic angel - one who had, somewhere along the lines, lost her legs.  On their tree, in the interests of fairness, the angels take turns to be at the top of the tree and then, year by year, work their  way down to the bottom, before the cycle begins again! (And you all thought I was a bit OCD!)

I really like this idea... the refusal to discard the "broken" angel, the sharing of honour among the whole set (she didn't say how many they had), that the first becomes last and the last, first.  Somehow it speaks deep theological truths.

BPW 151 is a very short piece of responsive liturgy:

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," say the Lord God

"Who is and who was and who is to come, the sovereign Lord of all."

He who gives this testimony speaks: "Yes, I am coming soon!"

Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.

Coming soon is a phrase beloved of the film and TV industries - this or that 'must see' film, series, serial, documentary, drama or whatever it is.  Perhaps, we as Christians have lost sight of the impact of this phrase, as, frankly God's idea of 'soon' is awfully long!

The idea of 'must see' or 'must not miss' is an important one to recapture... this is imply the best news ever, and, on an eternal scale, it's not so far off.

Not a long post today - lots to do (some fun day off stuff and some fun work stuff) but whatever you are doing, remember that 'soon' will become 'now' and, ready or not, the Lord's day will arrive!

No photos this time, but it was a lovely evening.  Lovely mixture of music and readings.  Stealing the show as ever the children's choir from an East Glasgow primary school who treated us to some wonderful, energetic and joyful singing.  Quite a lot of sight-singing for me, but some really good singers made for a worthy adults choir tackling a range of music from Stainer to Spirituals and several point in between.

It's been a long day, and a good one.

Now it's a busy week of fun and festive services.... coffee and carols, familes watchnight, Christmas celebration & lunch... looking forward to it

A lovely morning - a full church, great singing, fabulous readers, interesting material from Christian Aid, a retiring offering that raised £160 (so £320 when doubled by UK government) for Christian Aid appeal, loads of lovely crafts made by the children and nice warm sense of Christmasness.

After some chilling this afternoon, it will be the evening ecumenical lessons and Carols which looks lovely too.

A very lovely Advent 4.

This is advance posted as Sunday 21st will be a gloriously crazy day of carol services, and I might even squeeze in some work in between them.

The last for days of Advent are returning to the designated section of BPW and the little bits of liturgy offered.

BPW 150

Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult,

Let the sea roar and the creatures in it,

Let the fields exult and all that is in them;

Then let all the trees of the forest shout for joy

before the Lord when he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the earth with righteouness

And the peoples in good faith

Isn't this intriguing?  The natural world is commanded to rejoice at the Lord's coming - for plant and animal life this is good news, not the heralding of being wiped out as worthless.  It's almost as if creation that has been "travailing as in birth pangs" now shouts "tetelestai!" it's done, completed, finished - hurrah!  HUmans might be a little anxious as they face judgement for how we have behaved through the ages - but this sounds like good news for Christmas cacti, holly bushes, goldfish and hamsters!!

Because of advance posting and a very busy day, the Advent candle picture will be delayed, so here is some rejoicing holly, a gift in memory of Holly, which seems to capture just a smidgeon of what these words mean...