A lot of work by some wonderful people and a wonderful evening for those of us who partook...

Now I'm tired and ready to make lots of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Then back to church for children's vigil (and we gave ourselves permission to skip the grown-up one afterwards!)

At church we have a sign up that says 'welcome' in, I think, fourteen languages, spoken by members of our congregation or by people who live in the vicinity.  Last Sunday we had a complaint - I think in jest - that we had not included the Scots word (not that anyone seemed to know what it was!).

Now it seems to me that the jury us out, even in Scotland, as to whether Scots is a language in its own right or a dialect.  Suffice to say opinions are hotly contested and I tend to keep my distance!

In a moment of flippancy, I suggested we make an alternative poster with dialect words for welcome (or hello anyway) from around the UK.  Anyone want to profer their vairants?

Wotcha - Northampton (origins 'what cheer' so I'm told)

Ay up - Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire

Hiya - North West England

Oh, and we also thought of

You'll have had your tea - Edinburgh

(Eat up) You're at your auntie's - Glasgow/Lanarkshire (and my mother!)

Today's readings:

Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35

For those of us steeped in Christian tradition, these are all very well known passages - the institution of the Passover, the Institution of the Lord's Supper, the mandate to wash feet, even the psalm gives us words often used in communion services.  The danger is because we know them so well, they are rendered impotent.

This morning at 7:30 my home phone rang - oh no, I thought, what tragedy has occurred?  None, it transpired, it was a friend calling to thank me for their Easter card and reasonably sure that at that time I'd be contactable...  This friend of mine is, I reckon, a sympathetic agnostic, certainly not a church-goer and not steeped in churchianity.  He has another friend who is a non-stipendiary vicar (and half time butcher!) who had evidently been telling him about his Maundy Thursday evening service of foot washing.  My friend was intrigued but bewildered, the whole raisson d'etre of the ritual was unknown to him.  So followed a short conversation about what it is meant to symbolise and why it is done, and even the Latin root of 'maundy' from mandatum.

It gave me pause, cut through some of my knee jerk cynicism about the tokenism of foot-washing as I have seen it in C of E and RC contexts - squeaky clean feet in spotless socks, proffered to receive a trickle of warm water and a pat with a fluffy towel - and to recall what it is all meant to show, the greatest being the least, the 'priest' becoming the 'servant'.

So, I wonder, for each of us busy preparing, leading or attending services today, who will interrupt our complacency, our familiarity, our cynicism, and draw us back to what it's all about?

Lord, in my busyness of making Easter for others

Bring into my consciousness once more what it is I am doing

And why

And turn my attention from creating to being re-created by you

Servant God, kneeling at my feet

Gently wiping away the dirt and dust of another year

Slow me down

If only for the time it takes to think these thoughts

Allowing you to cleanse and refresh me.

Maundy Thursday, Holy Thursday, Thursday of Holy Week, whatever you choose to label it, it sees the Easter activity step up a gear as the inescapable race to, and through, Calvary reaches its climax.

Yesterday I had a hair-cut - poor hairdresser, snipping off the curls and taming the waves, trying to fulfil his professional desires on a customer who really does not 'do' hairdressing, who just wants a quick trim and a low maintenance result!  This morning of course the hair reverts to its wavy state, the smooth lines are lost and normality returns... some things don't change.  The idea was to be smarter for Easter - oh well!

This morning I paused for a bacon buttie and a coffee in the place opposite church... a brief pause before the onslaught of wonderful and demanding activity that will fill the next few days.

So... lunchtime reflection number four, they have been brilliant, thank you A & W for your contributions, and to all who have attended - never less than twelve.  The Passover Seder - the church fridge is groaning with Mediterranean delights and ritual foods.

Tomorrow our 'Children's Vigil' to which we are anticipating around a dozen small people coming with their grown-ups and then, if energy holds up, off to a three hour vigil at one of our neighbouring churches.

Saturday - the emptiness of Holy Saturday will be quite real after the busy days before it, yet there will still be stuff to be done.

Sunday, has a running order of three services that goes something like this:

Bacon and communion

Beach BBQ and no communion

Soup and communion

Suffice to say Monday will be zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

I think I have to start with an apology - yesterday's post was rubbish - done in a rush and with a sense of getting something up rather than nothing.  The only saving grace is exactly that - the grace of God who will somehow bring some meaning to someone through the words I quoted.  So today, which is a no less crazy day (and I've already realised I left something at home I need... what a good job there are oodles of charity shops round the corner) I have decided to post earlier and then concentrate on some service prep - Sunday is not so far off and I have not one word prepared!

Today's readings:

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 70
Hebrews 12:1-3
John 13:21-32

All are short, and most are very familiar.

The Isaiah speaks of scourging, and we read that in the light of Jesus trial before Pilate, failing to notice that the Isaiah has a victim found innocent, whose accusers disappear... something that, for me, seems to hint more towards the parenthesised accounts of grace at the start of John 8.  Jesus was, so we believe, innocent, clearly his accusers believed otherwise, for these were not bad people, but religiously orthodox, 'sound' conservatives who heard and saw blasphemy and insurrection.  Declared innocent by God does not mean humans will concur.

Psalm 70 ought to disquiet us - it begins a prayer for enemies to be confused and defeated.  Yet it shifts mood very quickly, and ends with a prayer many of us can echo: "I am weak and poor; come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid!"

Hebrews gives us the Great Cloud of Witnesses and the call to fix our eyes upon Jesus, whilst John has Judas committing to a path of betrayal.

I wonder which, if any of these resonates for you today?  It's no secret I am one of those who want to rehabilitate Judas, recognising in myself to make such enormous and drastic choices, yet still hoping God might forgive and welcome me.  It's no secret that I squirm at some of the psalmists' writings that call for God to smite the enemy or avenger.  I think it is maybe the verse from Psalm that stand out for me today:

I am weak and poor; come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid!

Today, Lord, I am busy and preoccupied:

Come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid

Today, Lord, I am conscious of my potential to betray you:

Come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid

Today, Lord, I know I skip over scripture without really reading it

Come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid

Today, Lord, I wonder what others will make of what I say or write or do

Come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid

Today, Lord, there are people for whom I am anxious

Come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid

Today, Lord, there are people about whom I am anxious

Come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid

Today, Lord, there are people who will test my capacity for grace

Come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid

Today, Lord, there are people who will show grace to me

Come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid

Today, Lord, there seems so much to do, and I fear fouling up

Come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid

Today, Lord, I so want to get it right...

Come to me quickly, O God. You are my saviour and my LORD - hurry to my aid

Today, Lord, someone will read this searching for encouragement

Come to them quickly, O God. You are their saviour and their LORD - hurry to their aid

Today, Lord, someone will read this longing for hope

Come to them quickly, O God. You are their saviour and their LORD - hurry to their aid

Today, Lord, someone will read this in need of your peace

Come to them quickly, O God. You are their saviour and their LORD - hurry to their aid

Today, Lord, someone will read this who is angry

Come to them quickly, O God. You are their saviour and their LORD - hurry to their aid

Today, Lord, someone will read this who mourns

Come to them quickly, O God. You are their saviour and their LORD - hurry to their aid

Today, Lord, someone will read this who is crying

Come to them quickly, O God. You are their saviour and their LORD - hurry to their aid

Today, Lord, someone will read this who feels empty

Come to them quickly, O God. You are their saviour and their LORD - hurry to their aid

Today, Lord, we come to you as we are

Come to us quickly, O God. You are our saviour and our LORD - hurry to our aid