Neil Brighton rightly posts in appreciation of the hard work of the people who are directly employed by BUGB.  Reading his words has prompted me to very briefly express my own appreciation of them and of those in the BUS.  The BUS has had a year of immense change: the head of ministries and the head of mission returned to pastoral ministry, a new finance director, a new youth coordinator, a new mission adviser and a new BMS-BUS joint appointment were made, the Union moved to new offices, and several tough issues were faced with courage. 

For my own part, both Unions have continued to be very supportive both through the latter stages of my medical treatment, and in the various challenges the year has brought.  I love both 'my' Unions very much... they may annoy me sometimes, but overall I am SO glad I'm a Baptist and not any other flavour of Christian!

Happy Christmas BMS, BUS and BUGB, may God bless you with love and hope for 2012

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