This evening we are having a Latin American evening which is a blend of social and fundraiser towards the Operation Agri harvest appeal. My laptop is loaded with Nicaraguan music and a little quiz, and the DVD with information is ready for use. My morning was spent shopping, prep-ing (sp?) food for this evening and baking the 'pastel des tres leches' - a very rich cake type thing:
Containing no less than five eggs, a big tin of evaporated milk, a big tin of condensed milk and a huge pot of whipping cream, it is very much a 'luxury' dessert -so I really hope people enjoy it.
At the moment I'm just relieved to have got it to church in one piece - unlike the four bottles of elderflower presse all in one bag which slipped out of my hand and three of them broke, launching the street in true maritime fashion with a delightful 'crack' and a host of bubbles. Good job M& S is round the corner and there's loads to time to buy more.
Sermonising is so much simpler!!
Someone was smiling on me though, because having emptied my car of its load, and gathered the broken glass from the kerbside, I found a parking space opposite church and had enough change to pay to park their the rest of the day. Sorted. And a few slightly dodgy thank you prayers to boot!!
Today's focus on Psalm 91 seems, on the whole, to have been well received and helpful for those who listened. It is a well-known and easily skimmed psalm but one which, when we read it properly is rich in metaphor and meaning. The subject matter - God's faithfulness in a trying and bewildering world - is not so different from Psalm 90, but its tone is totally different. If Psalm 90 is a 'vertical' (Godward) rant, Psalm 91 is a horizontal (human to human) encouragement. Interesting metaphors - again, God as a place of shelter and safety, and then, as one who releases trapped birds from snares, as a mother bird protecting her young, as a pair of shields, one small (buckler, hand to hand combat) and one large (perhaps like a riot shield). All metaphors that involve risk and possible injury on the part of the protector - the battle-scarred shield, the mother bird unable to fly to safety, the one who risks the wrath of the fowler by freeing the trapped birds... Thus we have a suffering God rather than an impassive one.
We also had a bit of a play with circling prayer - the ancient Celtic caim or compassing prayer which has regained popularity in some parts of the church. The physical tracing of a circle around ourselves and invoking God's protection... not everyone's 'bag of mashings' but I think everyone gave it go. The idea of being surrounded by God's love - above, below, beside, around, within, outside, in joy, in sorrow, is failure, in success - is both simple and profound. I think western protestant non-conformists are a bit wary both of the physicality and the almost charm-like nature of the circling prayer, but perhaps as a result we lose something of the mystery that our forebears enjoyed?
One of the songs we used was Timothy Dudley Smith's 'Safe in the Shadow of the Lord'. Finding a recording of the 'right' tune has proved tricky, but here it is on an organ in Wales! The words then follow
Today I am having a blog tidy/rearrange and removing the Justgiving link, though the donation page will remain 'live' for one more week I think.
I am 'highly diluted' (as my mother would say) to have raised the amazing sum of £1800 for Breast Cancer Care. I have benefited a lot from their work these past two years, through the execllent leaflets provided to NHS GGC, through the online discussion forum (which I have never quite managed to escape as everytime I try, I get another lovely message thanking me for being there... I seem to have become some kind of unofficial virtual chaplain!) and through a couple of specialist events. Along the way I have made some real world friends from Perth (Scotland) to Mozambique, and all stations in between.
The money will be put to good use, of that I have no doubt.
Huge thanks to everyone who sponsored me, came to my coffee morning (and extra huge thanks to those who helped to run it); your generosity will help many, many, fearful women and men find hope and strength to live with, through and, in many cases, beyond breast cancer.
Another 'I never noticed that before' moment about Luke-Acts. I was reading ahead the Roots Advent material which begins Luke as it's Yr 3 of the RCL. The preliminary notes observed that, as well as a deal of parallelism (Jesus & John, Peter & Paul) Luke's narrative is firmly set in the context of Rome... beginning pretty much with the Roman census (we'll not divert into historicity debates) and ending with Paul in Rome. Interesting as 'brackets' or 'bookends' for this narrative.
