This Sunday, being Low Sunday, my little trot around the endings of the four gospels is focusing on Mark - the one now usually accepted as the oldest - and I will be using all three endings in the order they are listed in the Good News Bible (it fits best with my 'path' I think...).  I decided, out of curiosity, to have a look at some other translations both in real hardback form and online - go play, it's fascinating!  Some use brackets, some don't; some have original + long, some have original, short, long; some have original long, short... Brilliant!  It feeds exactly into my three questions for each week...

Why did the writer choose to end the story the way they did?

What difference would it make if that was the only gospel we had – as would have been the case for most Christians in the first couple of centuries?

What difference does this ending make for our own lives of faith and discipleship?

Given that John (which we used last week) has two endings/editions and Mark has three, we begin to get under the surface very quickly.  Luke and Matthew will be a doddle by comparison!

So here're the extra questions for reading John and Mark...

If you only had the 'first edition' (ends at end of Ch 20 for John; shortest ending for Mark) what difference would it make?

Why do you think the writer stopped where they did in the first edition?

Why do you think the extra material was added?

Have fun - I'm loving it!

Been a nice little break from routine - even if a certain furry alarm clock still expects to be fed at 6 a.m.!

Monday - went to see The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists which as ever with Aardman made me laugh and made me marvel at the details.  I was pleased that the concerns of Lepra and TLM had been addressed (though the old version of the trailer survives on You Tube) to remove a joke at the expense of people afflicted by leprosy (the joke remained but the context was a random 'plague'... has to be said the people on the ship concerned looked like stereoptypical people with leprosy but maybe if you didn't know you wouldn't make the connection).  Great fun.  A grand day out, as the saying goes.

Tuesday - met a friend to eat cup cakes in the place near church, then carefully avoided turning into the street to church and walked home.  Treated the cat to some 'human' tuna, ham and chicken - she is very happy now.  Watched some trash on TV and an interesting documentary about developments in cancer treatment being researched in London.  So a nice chilled kind of a day.

Today - went out to purchase the extra walking gear recommended for my Ben Nevis climb, so an expensive but useful day.  Decided it was time I finally bouhgt a proper boot bag to replace the supermarket carriers I've been using for donkey's years - and at £4.50 it as embarrassingly affordable!  Slightly amused that the cheap head torch I bought today is far better than the expensive one I bought last year... for one thing it actually works!

Back to work tomorrow... still one outstanding day off to reclaim but I think I'll take that next week, otherwise there will be no sermon for Sunday!  That and work my way through a Nevis sized mountain of ironing!!

Easter Sunday 2011                       Easter Sunday 2012

Pictures may not be so great, being cropped from larger shots... but show just how much has changed (appearance-wise) in the last year

Been a crazily busy day... not about to admit how many hours were 'worked' but it was a lot!  And other people worked every bit as hard, if not harder, than I did.

So, just a few of the many photos from today which give a vague flavour of how it felt.  (yes those are real fish on a real barbecue on real sand!)

Lots of visitors and lots of laughter.  Lots of love and lots of little glimspes of God at work.  A lovely day.

I am now about to take a few days off - my day off and the bank holiday substitutes... which means I may well not post on here for a few days.

and Happy Easter to all my readers.

A very quick post... busy celebration day ahead... so a Taize video for you to sing along to!