According to tradition this was what St Francis said about preaching the gospe: use words only if there is no alternativel.  Easier said than done, I suspect.  For all that, I couldn't help feeling it happened last Sunday morning as we listened to a paraphrase of part of Mark's gospel and a small child, overseen by her mother spontaneously began to play quietly with some upturned paper cups on a low table that had been used for an activity taking place a few minutes eaelier.

Here's the paraphrase of Mark 9: 33-37 (wot I wrote, someone else read it)

Jesus and his friends had been walking to a place called Capernaum.  On the way the friends had been squabbling, so when they got inside the house where they were staying, Jesus asked them “what were you squabbling about?”

They all looked at each other and felt very silly, because they’d been squabbling about which one of them was the best and most important – who was ‘first’, top of the list of good disciples.  So they didn’t say anything.

Jesus sat down – I wonder if he was feeling a bit cross or a bit sad about how they were behaving? 

In the house was a little child, so Jesus called her over and sat her on his knee; then he called his friends over.  ‘Look,’ he said, ‘you are all squabbling about who is the best disciple and none of you is!  See this little child, who knows they aren’t big or important?  Who knows there is lots to learn and an exciting world to explore?  That’s what you should be like!  If you want to be first then you have to put yourself last and help other people.  If you welcome little children and unimportant people, then you are also welcoming me and, even welcoming God.’ 

The disciples were ashamed and tried to change the subject...

For me, and maybe only for me, it was a very beautiful moment, a visual sermon that could never have been prepared, a work of the Spirit perhaps.  A little girl in the middle of the grown-up disicples being a little girl, exploring, having fun, learning, being...

Preach the gospel - if necessary use words... but we like words, we like to listen to someone else's thoughts and weigh them up, so, on the whole that's what we do.

Jesus said 'unless you become like little chidlren you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven" - these words are scary not comforting, at least for those of us who, like me, so easily lose contact with our inner children.

The Tour de France is in Yorkshire this Sunday and many churches are doing just what we have planned for the Commonwelth Games - great minds 'n' all that.

... the Coffee Club summer outing was, as ever, good fun despite the rain.  Loch Lomond is always worth a look-see.  Not a lot to post, just suffice to say that among the perks of ministry is time spent relaxing with church folk.

I recall, a long time ago, posting about the Karen Money song "One Golden Day", with its lyrics "I'd give the years away for one golden day."  Back then I found this a discomfitting idea, one to which I wasn't ready to give the assent of an 'amen'.  Nothing has changed in my thinking - I still wouldn't give the years away for any day I've had or could imagine.  Nonetheless, yesterday was pretty 'golden'.

It was a very long day, I was at church for a full twelve hours, and it involved three very different and equally great sections, at least as I experienced them.

In the morning we held our first All Age service of the summer and people engaged really well with the assorted activities - from 'show and tell' of medals, badges and trophies to 'javelin prayers' and all sorts in between.  I felt encouraged and the feedback was mainly very positive.

The afternoon was a C of S event for the local parish grouping, using our premises and open to anyone who wanted to come along.  The turnout was small but the quality of conversation really good as we explored a range of questions related to the values of Integrity, Justice, Wisdom and Compassion - the words inscribed on the mace of the Scottish Parliament.  It troubles me that the whole referrendum seems to be driven by tabloid agendas and/or people's views on current occupants of specific offices... and I think it troubles me more many people claim to be fed up with it already and so are not engaging.  Still, it was a great afternoon giving me plenty to mull over.

Then the evening, and the choral communion created by others from church.  With a combined choir of around 20 people, we were able to sing some lovely pieces (even with most parts split in two!) which combined with thoughtful readings and lovely hymns to make for a gentle and moving experience.

I arrived home 'whacked - in a good way' as I commented elsewhere.  It had been a 'golden day'.

Today's PAYG was very thought-provoking for me, asking the listener to identify what (specficilly) possessions they valued and then, after a suitable pause, whether they thought these might still be the same in five years time.

Like a lot of people, I suspect, I trotted off things like photos, Holly Cat (is she a possession?!), my laptop, etc. 

And in five years time...? Will I actually have even looked at the photos - I have hundreds of unsorted prints in drawers waiting for me to do something with them.  Holly Cat - well I hope she's still brightening my life five years from now, but she'll be quite an old lady if she is.  My laptop - will almost certainly have been replaced, it's already nearly five years old as it is!!

What if I look backwards five years... a print of a painting that I treasured having bought it to mark my ordination got lost in transit north and I've never replaced it, so was it not so precious after all?  It's sometimes only when we no longer have things we realise how much, or how little, they actually meant to us.

Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.  If nothing else, I have learned over the years to hold material things more lightly and to treasure relationships and memories more dearly. 

In five year's time... well no-one can guarantee that, so let's be positive and assume it will happen... in five year's time I will be treasuring the moments shared, the ministry and mission exercised, the grace and love of God... and looking forward to the day, by then only ~18 months into the future (10 year follow up in Scotland), when I get am finally discharged by the hospital as NEDy as it gets!  And I expect all those photos will still be in the same drawer waiting to be sorted!

Where is my treasure?  Not, I hope in things per se, but in the loving and laughing, struggling and achieving that is life in all its fulness.