Now and then people ask me if get nervous about preaching, and the answer, for the most part, is not really.  But now and then I do.  Especially if, as is the case this week, it's a passage that has 'haunted' me throughout my ministry... am I just regurgitating my hobby horse (rather odd image!) am I being annoying or is it what God wants me to say?

Time will tell whether I deliver what I've worked on or if I (a) bottle it and do something else or (b) have a flash of inspiration that makes it all come together afresh.

Until then I'll just endure that knotted stomach feeling that all preachers experience once in a while...

The de-cluttering continues if not apace, at least it continues!  An hour of so a day is my target so as not to hurt my arms and because there is more to life that chucking stuff away!

Last night I was sifting through ridiculous numbers of photo enevelopes containing now useless negatives and those failed pictures with no heads, or blurred, or out of focus from the good old days where you had to wait and see if photos had worked, to say nothing of spare postal photo-service envelopes that would now have no purpose whatsoever!

In amongst it all I found a piece of A4 paper folded in half with some words typed on them... it was the church magazine article I'd written following my Baptism in which I made mention of Moses coming off the mountain with a shining face that would fade, and of the Transfiguration and Peter at al having to return to earth after their mountain top encounter.  I had long forgotten ever having written this, but it resonated with, and complemented some of, what I said last Sunday... and actually as I now realise anticipated some of what would be preached in my ordination sermon years later.  Spooky but reassuring, curious and comforting.

So one copy of that (I had three...) has survived the cull and will go back into a drawer with other random items of personal significance.

Holy Spirit timing?  Mysterious ways?  Or the interconnectedness of all things?  I don't know, but it made me smile. 

... in which history was made, as the Church of England (finally) agreed to allow women to become Bishops

... in which some dear friends are grieving a life cut short by a tragic accident

... in which I discovered that refillable laser cartridges aren't really: what a mess!

... in which rain freshened and re-greened the city so that it is lovely ready for the Games

... in which I printed and planned and emailed and pondered

... in which life in all its diversity and fullness arose

Always perspective, always joys and sorrows, always the trivial, trite and tedious, always the profound and wonderful...

Life is a gift to be cherished

... that when I was small I learned lots and lots of Bible stories

... that over the years I have preached on the flaws, frailty and failures of Biblical super heroes

... that when I was still young I learned the vital truth that every hero in Hebrews 11 messed up in some way or other (all broke at least one commandment!)

... that people told me stories, allowed my imagination to develop, and showed me that truth is not the same as fact

... that in a week when humanly speaking getting a service prepared was a bit of a nightmare, God nudged my memory and drew together the threads of almost half a century to make sense of my muddle, to show me new insights, and to mediate grace.

Today has been good, and I am glad.

Steve Taylor's Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's not the one I was looking for to quote in my sermon, but one that somehow always held an appeal at the time.  A bit dated but even so, worth a reprise:

Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
The queen is losing face
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
A national disgrace

It's the middle of the night at the London shrine
Could have been the janitor, could have been divine
Someone said the thermostat never did work
Now we've got the temperature going berserk

Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
The queen is losing face
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
A national disgrace

Celebrities, statesmen, history's elite
They're dripping in the hallways, they're starting to secrete
They're pouring out the pores, they're shrinking on the spot
Someone take a photograph--get 'em while they're hot

Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
The president looks alarmed
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
A general's been disarmed

Feverish at Fleet Street - story of the year
"Get the Facts - House of Wax Photo Souvenir"
"Shameful" Says the Times, "Maybe Done By Vandals"
Panic on Wall Street - put your stock in candles

I thought I heard a ghost say
"Had my hands in my pockets on the Judgment Day
Nobody told me there's fire in the hole
Had the world by the tail but I lost my soul"

Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
A rock and roll hotel
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
They're blending very well

Elvis and the Beatles have seen a better day
Better off to burn out than to melt away
Dylan may be fillin' the puddle they designed
Is it gonna take a miracle to make up his mind?

Athletes on the floor
Meltdown
They're running out the door

Bad boy McEnroe couldn't keep his cool
Now he's with the rest of 'em, wading in the pool
"Howard Hughes - Billionaire" says the written guide
Pity that his assets have all been liquefied

"Celebrity status only got in the way
Had my hands in my pockets on the Judgment Day
You can't take it with you - there's fire in the hole
Had the world by the tail but I lost my soul"

Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
The queen is losing face
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
A national disgrace

Down in the dungeon - the Chamber of Horrors
Look at all the criminals soften to the cores
They're mixing with the head of state floating down the lane
Good, bad, there they go down the same drain

Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
(It really is a pity you know)
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
(A lot of bees gave their all for this)
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's
Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's