Someone alerted me to this in the press today... twenty people (19 women, 1 man) who have had breast cancer raising money through a fashion show.  Unfortunately it's the day I'll be with a hundred other people climbing Ben Nevis for the same cause.  Slightly bad planning, but then I'm happier in my boots and a fleece than I would ever be in heels and high couture; I guess the converse is true.  Just would have been nice to go and watch it.

Today I collected my new glasses from the optician - for some reason it took them three weeks to get them, and even at that they had to be hunted for when I arrived.  Ah well.

For the first time, I have varifocals.  The reading prescripton is the smallest they can do as it was 'up to me' whether I continued to peer over the top of my specs to read tiny print, a trick I've developed over the last year, or gave in and admitted my eyes were changing.  Over the years I've been told that because I am so myopic I have lasted longer than average with good close vision... I am also told that the drugs I have had over the last year or so can all affect eyesight, so I am choosing to blame that rather than my age!

Anyway, I am now learning to see out of these new glasses. The distance prescription is unchanged from last year so that's fine, but I am having to teach myself to look through, rather than over, the glasses to read tiny print on food labels... all very entertaining.

So far so good...

News reached me today of another of my Dibley folk who has died.  Although she had reached a good age, it is still a sad day when someone passes through the door of eternity.

This woman had not had an easy life.  She had worked hard to support her husband and to bring up a family.  She was a very proud grandmother, often showing me photos of this or that one's latest achievements.  She could be stern, but underneath she was a caring person who lacked confidence.

During the first year I was there, we decided to make some new banners for the church.  In an attempt at something or other, we decided to meet at the same time as the knitting group, at the other end of the same large room, hoping that the knitters might join in the banner-making.  A few of them did, including this woman, who confided in me that she wasn't very good at knitting and was usually relegated to sewing up.

The banners were based on the John 15 vine image, and each person chose a leaf to decorate as she saw fit.  Some were embroidered; some had sequins.  Some were elaborate; some were simple.  I cannot recall what the leaf or leaves this woman sewed looked like, but we incorporated them, with the others, into the banners that, to this day, are hung for worship.

I like to think that maybe she gained just a little bit of self esteem when she saw her leaves.  I like to hope that she knew I cared.

Hers was not an easy life, had she been born a generation later it might have been very different.  Loyal to the end, and loved by her family, now she enjoys the promises in which she put her hope.

KC RIP

Way back, when I first started to study theology, we used to complain every time the tutors used long theological terms, because we didn't know what they meant.  One wise tutor (who used one heck of a lot of long words) told us that soon they would be tripping off our tongues, and we would realise it was the little words that were problematic... words like 'sin' or 'god' each of which is shorthand for enormous theological concepts.  He was, of course, correct, I do now use big words without thinking about and devote a lot of time and energy to the little ones.

The same, it seems, is true of reading the Bible, it's the little words, and even the punctuation marks, that demand time and attention.  I have over the years blogged various of these, asking for insights from people who really understand (sometimes succesfully, sometimes not).

Once it was the comma in "the voice of one crying, in the desert prepare a way" or "the voice of one crying in the desert, prepare a way"

Last week it was the use of 'gar' (because/for) as the last word of Mark's gospel

This week it is the " 'oi de" (lit. 'the but') in the closing verses of Matthew.

I hope I'm not so busy with the little things that I miss the big stuff, but I suspect that we gloss over the little details to our detriment.

Today's PAYG told the story from Acts where Gamaliel counselled his fellow religious leaders not to get involved in trying to suppress the new Jesus-movement, noting that other movements had come and gone, sometimes attracting a substantial short term following.  If this is of God, he observed, we won't be able to stop it.  Two thousand years on, we would assert his wisdom.

But it did make me stop and think (not in the way PAYG guided, it rarely is!).  What new (or newer) movements or developments within Christianity cause bother to those in authority?  For example, would the ordination of women or the Toronto blessing (to pick two diverse ideas) pass Gamaliel's test?

I am struck that some parts of the church perceive other parts as sliding into heresy or apostasy because of new developments - be they setting up in pubs or cafes, affirming same sex relationships, exercising charismatic gifts, singing with guitars/organs/not singing at all, political involvement, non-violent protest, green issues, Fairtrade or a whole host of other weird and wonderful combinations and permutations.  What will the test of time reveal about any of these?  If we could fast forward a century or two, which of these 'new things' would survive, and which would not?

I am also intrigued by the correlation of longevity with divine approval - is it really that simple?  Is there not also a place for the 'krisis' and the 'karios' - the 'aha' moments, the paradigm shifts, the 'change or die'?  Is it not the case that some long-lived praxis eventually proves sinful - slavery being the obvious and overworked example.

I think Gamaliel spoke good sense.  I would argue that his test proved correct.  But, we have to beware of simplistically and narrowly applying it.  Not all that is fleeting is bad, not all that lasts is good.  As the writer of Ecclesiastes said, to every time there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.

If this is of God, then nothing we do or say will stop it... whenever something in church life challenges us, I suspect we do well to remind oursleves of this.