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A Skinny Fairtrade Latte in the Food Court of Life - Page 490

  • Posts and Wires

    For some reason I am reminded of the image of posts and wires as I try to plan our Advent activities for this year...

    If you have a fence, or even for that matter a rail, you need to have one more post that you have wires/rails.  Having looked at people's availablility to particpate in Advent reflections, it emerges that we will have four 'posts' (the four Sundays) and three 'wires' (the intervening weeks). Rather than the usual four mid-week 'pause points' or 'reflections' we will have three, or actually, two lots of three, one day time and one evening.  That feels slightly strange, I am so used to having four, but it also feels like an opoportunity to be grasped.

    It happens that both the Christian Aid material I have been considering for Advent reflections and the Roots recources major on the Isaiah readings for Advent, which is also a refreshlingly different slant.

    The image of a fence is maybe not entirely helpful - as it can be seen as excluding, but it works for me in making sense of the three-and-four-ness of what I am planning!

  • Hope from Despair - Contd.

    Today's PAYG used this passage from The Wisdom of Solomon (part of the aprocrypha) as a basis for thinking, at least in part, about hope and despair.  It seemed to have some resonance with what I have pondering these past few weeks:

    Wisdom 2:23 - 3:9

    for God created us for incorruption,

    and made us in the image of his own eternity,

    but through the devil’s envy death entered the world,

    and those who belong to his company experience it.

     
    But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God
    and no torment will ever touch them.
     
    In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died,
    and their departure was thought to be a disaster,
    and their going from us to be their destruction;
    but they are at peace.
     
    For though in the sight of others they were punished,
    their hope is full of immortality.
     
    Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,
    because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;
    like gold in the furnace he tried them,
    and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them.
     
    In the time of their visitation they will shine forth,
    and will run like sparks through the stubble.
     
    They will govern nations and rule over peoples,
    andthe Lord will reign over them forever.
     
    Those who trust in him will understand truth,
    and the faithful will abide with him in love,
    because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones,
    and he watchesover his elect.
     
    Reading this is a valuable reminder that by ignoring the deuter-canonical and apocryphal books, we miss the scriptural bases for ideas we both accept and reject.
     
    This passage reads somewhat differently in context (it starts half way through a sentence) but even so, as it stands, it is a great assurance of hope.
     

  • Poignant and Thought-provoking

    Two things today in that category.

    A very rare event for me, I was in Starbucks in one of the city centre shopping centres waiting for my coffee as 11 a.m. neared.  Just before the announcement that the two minute silence would begin was sounded throughout the centre, the shop turned off its sound system, the till stilled and no more coffee was made.  One of the barristas quietly wrote on a post note 'moment of silence' and showed to it all in the queue.  There was something poignant in the whole queue standing still and silent, something almost prophetic about it, given that one person left the queue and the shop rather than wait 120 seconds longer.  Starbucks has had a lot of bad press recently, for good reason, but they should be proud of the young barristas in this central Glasgow store who managed the silence with dignity and courtesy (they even apologised that my coffee had stood for 2 mins before being handed to me!!).

    Then I went to watch the film 'Philomena', which was beautifully and tenderly produced, and in which Judy Dench excelled as she always does.  At times very funny, at times dreadfully sad, at times disturbing, at times heartwarming, it was poignant and thought-provoking, and I'm glad I went to see it.  Not many films have audiences tiptoeing out quietly, but this was one, and an especially good one in my opinion.

  • A Hymn for Remembrance

    We sang this hymn yesterday, and I share it again for today...

    What shall we pray for those who died,
    those on whose death our lives relied?
    Silenced by war but not denied,
    God give them peace.

    What shall we pray for those who mourn
    friendships and love, their fruit unborn?
    Though years have passed, hearts still are torn;
    God give them peace.

    What shall we pray for those who live
    tied to the past they can't forgive,
    haunted by terrors they relive?
    God give them peace.

    What shall we pray for those who know
    nothing of war, and cannot show
    grief or regret for friend or foe?
    God give them peace.

    What shall we pray for those who fear
    war, in some guise, may reappear
    looking attractive and sincere?
    God give them peace.

    God give us peace and, more than this
    show us the path where justice is;
    and let us never be remiss
    working for peace that lasts.

    Carnwardric Parish Church (Glasgow) Worship Group
    © Carnwadrick Parish Church and Wild Goose Resource Group

  • Working Through the List?

    In January, I posted a list of things to do in my fiftieth year as follows:

    • Go to the cinema once a month
    • Climb Snowdon
    • Climb Scafell
    • Have afternoon tea at Betty's Harrogate
    • Read a leisure book a month
    • Fly a kite on a beach or headland (ht Tim Presswood)
    • As a concession to all things girlie, the only one I plan to make, have a professional manicure (I have an event in mind for which this might be appropriate)
    • Write and deliver a conference paper at the 'Baptist Doing Theology' conference
    • Learn to play, properly, at least one piano work from among the stuff I already have
    • Raise funds for a local charity in Glasgow which was founded by The Gathering Place and it's 'mother church'
    • Help my kid brother mark his fiftieth next autumn!

    With just over a month left to go, it is quite clear that a number of these aren't going to happen, for all sorts of reasons, but some have been met in spirit if not in fact...

    • Cinema visiting is sporadic, but I have been several times and seen anything from 'Les Miserables' to 'Sunshine on Leith'.  Today I am heading off to see 'Philomena'.
    • Climbing mountains has not happened.  Partly due to difficulties in finding someone to go with, partly because my joints can get very stiff and painful, with the result that I walk ridiculously slowly for a person of my age.  I have, however, enjoyed a number of country walks in Scotland, and still have the prospect of the mountains another time.
    • Afternoon tea in Harrogate didn't happen, but I had afternoon tea in Morecambe with a group of friends, which was every bit as enjoyable (and probably a darned sight cheaper!)
    • Reading for leisure/pleasure has been a big part of this year's endeavours, and I have enjoyed a number of novels from the ridiculously twee to the complex literary.  Combine a Kindle with a train journey, and it's a recipe for happy reading.
    • Kite flying has not happened - still time if I get my act together!
    • Professional manicure - well the event for which I would have done this was cancelled, and I see no real reason to do it just to tick a box.  Maybe one day, if the occasion arises, but not fussed if I don't.  It was only ever there as a sop to girly-ness!
    • The 'Baptists Doing Theology' conference didn't happen, but I have had a paper accepted for the 'International Symposium of Theology, Spirituality and Cancer', so I think that's well and truly acheived.
    • Piano-wise, as part pf my Lent challenge, I learned to play some Bach and played it for our study group.  Alas since then I have hardly touched the piano.
    • This Saturday I will hosting a coffee morning for the charity I chose to support, and hope to raise a useful sum for them.
    • Last week my kid brother turned fifty (yes, he is only 10.5 months younger than me!) and I hope that the financial gift I sent enabled him to celebrate in the way he chose.

    Overall, then, I have made a reasonable attempt at my celebratory challenges.  It has been, and continues to be, a good year overall.  For sure it has had its sad moments and its annoying moments, but for the most part a year well lived.  Lots of exciting things to look forward to in the next year too.  I am, among people, surely blessed.