This morning PAYG was using Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 48: 1 - 11 (that's from the middle bit that's not in most proddy Bibles):

Then Elijah arose, a prophet like fire,
   and his word burned like a torch.
 He brought a famine upon them,
   and by his zeal he made them few in number.
 By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens,
   and also three times brought down fire.
 How glorious you were, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
   Whose glory is equal to yours?
 You raised a corpse from death
   and from Hades, by the word of the Most High.
 You sent kings down to destruction,
   and famous men, from their sickbeds.
 You heard rebuke at Sinai
   and judgements of vengeance at Horeb.
 You anointed kings to inflict retribution,
   and prophets to succeed you.
 You were taken up by a whirlwind of fire,
   in a chariot with horses of fire.
 At the appointed time, it is written, you are destined
   to calm the wrath of God before it breaks out in fury,
to turn the hearts of parents to their children,
   and to restore the tribes of Jacob.
 Happy are those who saw you
   and were adorned with your love!
   For we also shall surely live.

(NRSV from Oremus Bible browser online)

An interiguing summary of the long and complex story of a very human and fallible man.  I found encouraging rather than troubling (as PAYG suggested it to be), reminding me that for all my preoccupation with my stumbles and bumbles, mess ups and 'if only' moments, for all the times I get irritable or stressed and wish I didn't, there is a much bigger story that is part of God's story and it's one that is ultimately good news.

As I sit at my desk this morning working my way through a substantial To Do list (making good progress and enjoying ticking things off the list!) there are council workers making speed bumps (which should surely be called slow bumps) outside in the street.  Given the very short stretch of road with 'give way' lines at either end, it's troubling that someone thinks we need speed bumps... and they are nicely located just a few feet from our side entrance, hey ho.

I can't help feeling there is some kind of metaphor there that I ought to be taking note of... the labour of creating things to ensure that others slow down a bit.  I am always struck by the idea that churches slow down for summer (on the grounds that midweek activities take a break) and the contrast that ministers can find themsleves with an increased workload (which was part of the logic last year for taking my sababtical leave during the summer months)

I am enthusiastic and excited about the things planned for this summer which I really hope will prove a good experience for all involved.  But there do need to be some metaphorical speed bumps, I suspect, to prevent me hurtling along without due care and attention.

Thankfully I can't think of a way to work speed bumps into my services, for which everyone will be hugely grateful!!

I was walking back from the Coffee Club today with one of our folk, through the grounds of a set of four hospitals.  It was glorious weather and all around us were people soaking up the sun as they lunched or waited to visit friends and relatives.  As we walked and chatted a young woman caught up with us, commented on the weather then poured out her story to us... having been bereaved twice in as many years she was on her way to visit a relative having inpatient radiotherapy.  Discovering I was a NED seemed to cheer her, she needed some hopeful stories, and this, it seemed, was one.

Usually after Coffee Club I go to church to work but today was headed home to do a Powerpoint straight onto my laptop as this overcomes mis-matches between versions of the software.  Usually I don't end up in conversation with 'random' people but today I did.  Usually it isn't blistering hot in Glasgow either, but today it is.

It was a privilege, however hackneyed the word, to listen to this young woman's story and to wish her and her relative well.  And maybe, just maybe, somewhere in all of that God was adoing of something or other.  Maybe my friend and I were able to bring a little grace or hope to someone in need of both.

This week I am starting to get ready for our summer series of services on a broadly Commonwealth Games theme.  To this end, I purchased a set of bunting that includes the flags of all the assorted nations (and pseudo-nations from a UN nation-state viewpoint), a Commonwealth flag and a Scotland saltire... well actually two saltires because the first was a very pale sky blue.  So far so good, but now I am debating how any or all of this might be 'read' and whether that is or is not helpful in a wider context...

Within our church are folk who are committed to 'Yes Scotland' and others equally committed to 'Better Together' so how will any of them interpret a saltire or, for that matter, a union flag which I have now ordered as a result of my overthinking?  I am really uncomfortable with anything that suggests this congregation takes either view, but at the same time, it seems nuts not to put some bunting and flags as part of the Commonwealth Games welcome.... so I tie myself in intellectual knots.

Is my thinking, I ask myself, skewed by the appropriation of the St George's cross by political extremists to the extent that many English people are embarrassed to use it, well except on the towers of the C of E and the cars of those who go to watch international football?  I'm sure that, in some measure, it is.

Is it because actually I don't really believe in nation states as a primary identity for those who claim to be Christians?  That defining, for sake of argument, Ghanaian Christians over against Zimbabwean Christians is clearly nonsensical and that, theologically anyway, our identity is not defined by where we are born or happen to reside.  I have a suspicion that in some measure it is.

Is it because the whole referendum debate seems to be predicated on setting Holyrood and Westminister as equivalent to Scotland and England, as if Wales, Northern Ireland and other bits of the UK of GB & NI didn't exist? Quite likely.

Is it because I don't want to offend anyone and so risk offending everyone?!  Entirely possible.

So I'd like to have a saltire up as saying 'welcome to Scotland' which, irrespective of 18th September, make total sense in a Commonwealth context.  But I absolutely don't want anyone thinking that a Baptist church is aligning itself with any specific definition of a nation state!  Hence the either/both/neither knots with the saltire and the union flag.

Welcome to my inner world of mental knot-tying... I decided that the saltire will stay... I'm not sure about the union flag... but it doesn't mean that I won't change my mind if it proves problematic or I hear people making assumptions...

In Christ there is neither England nor Scotland, Union or Independence, Holyrood and Westminster...

Now that's a theological mast to which I am happy to nail my colours!

EDIT - I asked my Deacons-by-any-other-name what they thought and we settled on bunting and Commonwealth flag only as the least problematic option!

A couple of weeks back I ordered a set of Commonwealth bunting, a Commonwealth flag and a Saltire ready for our summer services/activites and as a 'welcome' for visitors who might happen our way as a result of some little event taking place down the road.

The various parcels arrived - but the saltire seemed wrong even to my untrained eyes, as it had a sky blue ground rather than the more familiar dark blue.  So I have now ordered another one and hope it's a 'better' colour.  However a bit of research indicates that until 2009, any shade of blue from sky to navy was equally acceptable (and technically I guess still is).  In 2009 the Scottish parliament decided that the correct colour is Pantone 300, or in hexadecimal (according to wikepedia) #0065BD.

Oh, and if your interested, which I'm sure you aren't the ground of the union flag is fractionally darker being Pantone 280!!