Today's verses:

Psalm 40:1,5

Hosea 2:14 - 15

Matthew 13: 31-32, 44

So, we leave Song of Sex Solomon and move on to Hosea... who is busy 'alluring' his unfaithful wife... just who is it that is eros-obsessed?!  The psalm speaks of God's faithful response to the writer's cry, whilst Matthew offers two itty bitty parables.

If a key characteristic of the Kingdom or Heaven/God/Shalom is love, be that agape or philadelphia (cos if JC is to be believed methinks eros is of this world... no marriage in heaven evidently) then maybe I can substitute 'kingdom' with 'love' in the parables and read then afresh?

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.  Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.” ... “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

Love like a mustard seed, then, tiny, dark and seemingly lifeless, buried in the fertile earth of a human heart and left to grow (but that's another parable about active waiting).  Full grown love likened to a shrub big enough to offer shelter, to provide rest for the weary, and, presumably, to feed or to season life itself.

Love like a hidden treasure so valuable a person would sell everything to acquire it?  But, as the song says 'money can't buy me love', so that cannot be right.  Love as the most precious thing, not something that can be bought and sold (like a diamond ring, my friend) but the quality for which kings abandon their thrones (I vaguely recall a book on love that reflected on the abdication of Edward VIII as this depth of love).

Love, God, you are love:

Love wide as the ocean...

Love that will not let me go...

Perfect love, all human loves transcending...

The hymn-writers revel in speaking of it

And its language is so familiar we no longer consider

What love

Means

Is

Does

Costs

Love came down at Christmas...

As this Advent season draws towards its end

As we prepare to expend out energies

In services of worship

In service of others

In family celebration

May love

Priceless

Nurturing

Refreshing

Protecting

Be ours

Amen

A couple more images of me prancing about in a gown...

This one shows something of the vibrant colours on the hood - fully lined with purple, edged in gold, and the cape edged in maroon.  I reckon it's a pretty fine hood!

This one is in the quad behind the Whitworth Hall, the streaks are snow falling rapidly and giving an interesting dappled effect to my outfit!

This one is me with Graham Sparkes, former head of BUGB Faith and Unity, now head of the Partnership for Theological Education, Manchester

Phots (c) GW

OK, so I am stark staring bonkers, you knew that, but this morning I found myself singing to the cat a new song specially for Christmas...

Oh, Holly Cat, all other mogs excelling...

Other suggestions welcome as our repetoire needs to be extended!

EDIT:

Due to comments doing their usual thing (they seem to work with single pargraph replies more often than any other format)

Today's verses:

Psalm 42:8

Song of Songs 7:10 - 13

Philippians 4:12

Well there's the erotic love of S of S as clearly expressed as ever... lots of innuendo at the very least, so I'll not bother pursuing that one.  The psalm speaks quite clearly of God's love, whilst the Philippians verse refers to contentedness.  The psalm extract is lovely... God's love by day, God's singing by night... but it is to the Philippians that I will turn, everso briefly:

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

What is it that enables a perosn to be content during times of hardship?  How can someone rise above being hungry or cold or unwell or whatever physcial, emotional or other hardship they face?  I have a feeling the answer is 'love'.  If we know we are loved, does anything else actually matter so much?

When we were children, money was often in short supply, but we never went short of anything we needed, and we always knew we we loved.  No, we didn't get the holidays or consumer goods that some of our friends had; yes there were sometimes disappointments (and I'm sure my parents were every bit as disappointed as we were, if not more so) but there was always love.

In the Christmas cards I've received this year have been lots of kind messages from friends, some of whom have been moved by the events of the last year and a bit, and the way they have seen my response (never quite sure who this paragon is, but I'll go with it for now...).  Perhaps it is because I am loved that I am able to love; perhpas it because I am loved that I can be content in whatever situation I find myself?  Contentedness is not happiness and neithe ris it fatalism; it is something akin to joy.  Given that love, joy, peace and hope are all parts of the fruit (singular) of the Spirt, small wonder they overlap and intertwine.

In sunshine and showers

Height and depth

In laughter and tears

Life and death

In good times and bad times

Health and pain

God's love,

God's love.

In fullness or emptiness

Poverty or wealth

In working and resting

Empty or full

In all times and everywhere

Boundless and free:

God's love,

God's love

Advance posted from Sunday evening - other things to occupy me today!

The Northumbria Community readings:

Psalm 139:23 - 24

Proverbs 15: 16 - 17

1 Corinthians 13: 1 - 3

Now, it's hardly rocket science or even a theology degree to recognise that 1 Corinthians 13 is the great Pauline hymn to love, so I'm going to opt for the Proverbs reading because it is so much less overworked:

Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great wealth with turmoil. Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred.

I guess it is appropriate to remind ourselves that 'fear of the Lord' means deep respect for' not 'abject terror of the Lord' but it is really the second sentence that strikes me - better a simple meal shared in loving company than a banquet marred by hatred, bitterness, anger, resentment, etc.  The approach of Christmas will see many Britons eating the equivalent of fattened calves, sadly, all too often, in tense and stressful company, where tempers flare, hasty words are spoken and intemperate actions cause harm. Better a cup of instant soup with love and laughter than that!

Two quick thoughts.

Today I am not posting because I am busy preparing food for my celebration birthday dinner, to which I have invited many guests.  The truth is, I am pretty sure they'd all turn up for something far less elaborate than I have planned and that we'd have a good time, because they are all people who love as a way of being.

Secondly, over Christmas we will have many and varied people passing through church and eating meals we have prepared.  Some of these people have very challenging lives, know little love and may live in ways that we wonder or worry about.  But the amazing thing is this: every time I mention the Christmas Day dinner to even the most hard-nosed avowed atheist, their eyes become a little dewy because they detect a hint of love lived out through us.

Beans on toast

Shared with one who loves me

Far better than

Banquets, and toasts

To people who invite from obligation...

A sandwich

And a smile

More satisfying than

Sumptuous spreads

Sulkily shared

Wise words about love

Made manifest in Christ

And remembered

In squares of bread

And sips of wine

Loving Lord

As we meet around tables this Christmas-tide

Whatever we eat or drink

May love be fill us to bursting point... and then some

Amen