This morning I preached my sermon that set alongside each other Luke 4: 1 - 13 and John 2: 1 - 11.  I was intrigued to explore the interplay between abstinence and abundance.  I'm not sure that the sermon ever quite got itself honed enough to do the job, but it was fun to try, and it certainly raised some interesting questions as I revisited the beginnings of all four gospels.

Mark, generally deemed the oldest gospel, starts with Jesus' baptism, then devotes a whole two sentences to the temptation of Jesus, without any elaboration whatsoever on what they may have been.  He then moves into a series of exorcisms and healings.

Matthew begins with a genealogy a birth story, and a Baptism before giving an expanded account of Jesus temptations.  He then moves fairly quickly into the extended teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, pausing briefly for a few disciples to be called.

Luke, having outlined his intentions, has an alternative birth story, and an account of the Baptism followed by an alternative genealogy, before his account of the temptations, in a different order from Matthew, before moving into the start of Jesus' ministry with the Nazareth manifesto.  Luke alone hints at temptation as a recurrent factor in Jesus' life.

Clearly, these three writers consider it important to describe a Jesus who is vulnerable to temptation, maybe as much as anyone else.  This seems to be concerned with demonstrating his humanity.

John seems totally uninterested in any of this.  After his poetic prologue and an account of John the Baptist which hints  at Jesus being baptised (though never says so), we find some disciples choosing to go with him (sent by John and/or sitting under trees being told by friends, contra synoptic accounts) and then we have the 'fist sign', the wedding at Cana.  This story, rich in symbolism and layers in meaning, speaks of exuberance rather than temperance, abundance not abstinence, and so paints a very different picture.  Religiously important water jars used as containers for ludicrous quantities of fine wine (120-180 gallons) - is Jesus some kind of a lush then?  Face saved for a bridegroom who faced social embarrassment and shame if the wine ran out.  This seems as far from the temptations as it is possible to be!

In my sermon, I suggested that the temptations seemed to operate in in three spheres, the personal and materialistic (bread from stones), the 'worldly' and corrupt (bowing to the devil/Satan/evil) and the religious (supernatural conjuring tricks as signs of power).  I suggested that the same three spheres could be detected in the Cana story - religious ritual (both the wedding itself, and the water jars symbolising purification), societal attitudes (the risk of shame and disgrace if the wine ran out, with ongoing consequences for the bridegroom (who clearly couldn't organise the proverbial...), and personal, material (the physical thirst of the guests, their desire for a good time).

Maybe I was overstretching the connections, but I was left pondering where the middle ground is that avoids us being so fearful of sin that we become boring, self-righteous prigs at one extreme, and so centred on the immeasurable, inexhaustible love, grace and mercy of God that we become laissez faire or licentious at the other.  Where is the middle ground that holds together creatively the reality of temptation and the freedom to rejoice and celebrate?

No proper answer, but we ended our service by pushing back some of the chairs and a number of adults and children sharing in a simple circle dance while we sang Sydney Carter's 'Lord of the Dance' set to a Shaker folk tune.  I think we got that bit right anyway!!

The news is, there is no snow.  Glasgow is basking in glorious winter sunshine.  Social media seem to be swamped with photos of snow (mostly very idyllic it has to be said) and people smugly recording how they are tucked up safe and warm watching trashy TV.

Firstly then, the light and funny:

The 'ticker' says

ENGLAND AND WALES EVACUATE ALL MAJOR CITIES

Mass panic as snow falls, many people don't know what to do

PRIME MINISTER ASKS SCOTTISH PEOPLE'S ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO

My advice: move to Glasgow!

Secondly the more serious.  In areas affected by snow there will be people who ill or in need of medical treatment and unable to get out, there are people whose employment is essential to the continued infrastructure of national life (e.g. the utilities, hospitals, supermarkets, etc.).  There are rough sleepers who may freeze to death, there are people vulnerably housed or with very low incomes at risk of hypothermia.  And so on, and so forth. 

We can delight in the beuaty of nature.

We can have our fun. 

Maybe we also need to bear in mind that there is a dark side to the white stuff...

Last autumn I changed my working pattern in response to some of the new initiatives we were establishing at church.  It was absolutely the right thing to do, but I have never really felt comfortable with the change... as a 'morning person' I seemed to end up with a lot of late starts which don't really suit me, and never really got to sit down with the Bible passages for Sunday until at least Wednesday afternoon and sometimes Thursday.  It has felt as if I have been chasing my tail, running hard to stand still, and never really achieving what I hope for... even the to do' list approach which usually serves me well has failed to get things done.

So now I have spent a month standing back and observing myself (clever, huh) with a view to establishing, or re-establishing, rhythms and routines that will work for me.  This does mean potentially working one very long day (I really hate 'split shifts' and they never work for me anyway) and it does necessitate me making better use of 'cloud' storage for documents so that I can make better use of the time where I work from home one morning a week, but already it feels better, and, I feel better.

I am fortunate to be able to determine, by and large, my own work patterns, and appreciate the privileges that arise from not having fixed hours.  My hope is that I will end up more energised and more effective, rather than the recent experience of "aaargh it's Friday and the first draft of the sermon is so not where I want it to go..."

This Sunday the lectionary departs from Luke and dips into John; indeed it leapfrogs the start of Luke 4, deferring it until Lent 1 (for fairly obvious reasons).  Because I'm awkward, I am setting the two readings alongside each other (not least because in Lent I am not following the lectionary at all) and seeing where that might take us. 

Here is a little question for you to ponder: why do you think that John has no 'temptation' story in his gospel?  And what does your answer to that question suggest for your own discipleship?

On Monday evening at the Bible study, I invited people to recall, if they could, examples in their own experience of encountering cultural differences that had caused shock, bewilderment or upset.  As a flippant example, I noted that on the Tube in London no-one speaks to anyone (such conversations as do take place tend to be in very hushed tones) and how shock and confusion can be engendered when some unsuspecting tourist tries to start a conversation.  I noted, too, that in a self-service cafe, we would never think of going and sitting at a table where other people were already sat, and how shocking and confusing it would be if someone did (I have known it happen very occasionally in very busy, small cafes, usually leading to everyone wolfing down their food and leaving!).

We didn't have too much success, but one person shared an example she had experienced whereby a Japanese person arrived for a meeting with her bearing a beautifully wrapped gift.  She duly opened the parcel and expressed her thanks, then noticed a look of utter horror on the face of the giver... it transpired that in Japanese culture the norm was to acknowledge receipt of the gift with a bow, and then set it aside to open later in private.  The communal aspect of gift opening that (most) Brits enjoy is not after all universal.

Yesterday I had lunch with a German student who has been worshipping with us for the last few months whilst she has been on an exchange programme.  She has been staying with an oriental family who have a very strict 'shoes off' policy and provide a large pair of slippers for guests to wear.  This she had found bewildering when she arrived, since most Germans like most Brits, wear shoes indoors.  As we chatted she asked me if I could help her understand a text message she had received from a friend of hers, which said "sorry hun...."  What, she asked did 'hun' mean?  AH, I said, it is the way some people writ 'honey' in short when they are using it as friendly term... then I froze... calling a German 'hun'.... She told me she had googled the word and discovered the (correct, phew) description of a hun as a nomadic warrior people... but how easily she could have heard it as a derogatory allusion to her nationality...

The story of Jesus' encounter with a woman at Jacob's Well is so familiar we no longer grasp the impact of what was going on.  Perhpas these little encounters with cultures that confuse us, our won ability to inadvertently cause offence or hurt, help remind us that there are always lessons to learn about cultural boundaries...

"Hey hun, can you give me a drink of water...."

"Who are you calling a Hun?  We don't talk to you lot, never mind share mugs..."