This is the opener for Sunday - what one new thing have you learned this week?

I am posting it because people may need time to think about their answer, may even deduce they have not learned anything new this week, but in truth everyone will have encountered something 'new' this week... a new new skill, a new insight, a new piece of information, a new place to go, a new person they have met, something they saw or heard for the first time.

Here are a few of mine...

A documentary gave me new insights into the medical care of Australian aboriginal people in the 21st century.

A chance conversation in a cafe informed me that it may snow in Glasgow this weekend!!!

I learned how to create a calendar using Word

I found a new blog to visit

I found the missing 'something' for my sermon whilst chatting to someone over coffee

I discovered an alternative reading of Haggai 1 (see above post)

So, over to you, readers and Gatherers, one new thing you have learned (in a broad sense) this week.

... yesterday I signed for delivery of a consignment of stones (small pebbles) and paving slabs at church which will be used to help smarten up the area around the front door.  That wasn't in any of the courses I did at minister-school!

Yesterday evening a small group of folk (not me!) met to shovel the stones into place and lay the paving slabs so that they can be topped with tubs of flowers to make the entrance more welcoming.

We have a few other bits of tidying and smartening up in hand, so hopefully this will give a better sense (a) of us being a fellowship that is alive and kicking and (b) that we think church is worth doing well.

This from Steve Holmes is worth a read if you want a different take on the human sexuality debate that is rather rife (I nearly wrote rampant but that might be misconstrued) at the moment.

This Sunday I am preaching with the above heading.  It seemed like a good idea at the time!

Trouble is, whilst there is a lot that could be said, I'm not sure just how helpful any of it is.  On the one hand, I have a majority of folk in my church who are good, clear thinkers, accustomed to wrestling with complex ideas and the apparent discontinuities within a text.  On the other, I have some folk who tend towards Biblicism, the elevation of scripture over that which it reveals, the temptation to quote verses out of context and to ignore those that say something other than what they want to hear.

I think the direction I will take will endeavour to consider

• our attitude to scripture - how we read and interpret it
• our atttitude to so-called secular knowledge such as science, social science, humanties- how we read and interpret that
• the complexity of life today which involves issues and insights that the ancients would never had imagined might arise.
• the contradictions and comprosmises we all live with and the need for continued gorwth towards maturity.

So, for anyone who fancies a bit of homework, or a bit of engagment with their own understanding here's a 'little' exercise for you!

Read the 10 Commandents (Exodus 20:1 - 17) and then ponder the following questions (I am playing advocate to the dark side for this, it doesn't necessarily reflect anything I think)...

• If we are to have no other gods before Yahweh, does that mean polytheism is permissable provided this hierarchy is accepted?
• If images are prohibited, why do so many Christians have homes full of pictures, photographs and ornaments?
• If Sabbath work is prohibited, why are Christians are happy to read the Monday newspaper (printed on a Sunday) and/or to watch 'Songs of Praise'?
• If killing is prohibited, why do some Christians advocate capital punishment, specifically that undertaken by professional executionwers who are in no way related to the 'eye for an eye' limit of ancient times?
• What does it mean to honour one's parents?  And what constitutes a long life?
• Is adultery simply to be undertsood as sexual infidelity or are there other forms of infidelity that breach covenant of marriage?
• Who never told a lie?  Or coveted something someone else had?  If we say we have not done the latter does that demonstrate we have done the former?
• What do we do when we find other passages of scripture that seem to contradict any of the commandments?  Who/what 'trumps' whom/what?

OK, that's more than enough to be going on with.

This time last year, along with countless other people, I was praying for the 33 Chilean miners trapped after a mining accident.  Amazingly all of them were rescued alive and reasonably well.

Only a month later 29 miners died in a disaster in New Zealand, and this week 4 died in Wales.

33 lived, 33 died - I didn't know that until I Googled the information.

It's one of those moments when I don't really know what to say, but somehow feel I ought to acknowledge.

Lots of questions that will never find adequate answers - the 'why'? questions especially.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn.

These words seem to recur in my thinking and writing a lot

Nearly a year on, I wonder how life really is for the Chileans who rejoiced so fulsomely last autumn? Or how those affetced by the New Zealand disaster are rebuilding their lives?  And even now, those in Wales, shocked, numb, bewildered, angry, heartbroken...

To remember, to attempt to come alongside, to commend each and every man, and each and every person who loved him, to God's merciful love... that seems about all that can be done.

Thankfully, depsite events of the last year, mine disasters are rare nowadays, but we must not get complacent or forget that behind every statistic is person.