Researching for Sunday's sermon, I read the following in a commentary on John 4:

"Jesus came to the fountain as a hunter... He threw a grain before one pigeon that he might catch the whole flock... At the beginning of the conversation he did not make himself known to her, but she first caught sight of a thristy man, then a Jew, then a Rabbi, afterwards a prophet, last of all the Messiah.  She tried to get the better of the thirsty man, she showed dislike of the Jew, she heckled the Rabbi, she was swept off her feet by the prophet, and she adored the Christ."

Ephraem the Syrian cited by J A Findley in The Fourth Gospel and Expository Commentary, London, Epworth, 1956, in turn cited by George R Beasley Murray, Word Commentary John, Waco, Texas, Word Books p66

I think I like it!

So, the Danes have added Marmite to their 'banned substances' list along with Ovaltine, Horlicks and a fair number of breakfast cereals because they contain added vitamins.  What can I say... their loss.

The Guardian online has a nice response here.

Someone remind me just why I agreed to do some post grad research!  Having finally got to the point where I was ready to submit I discovered that I had to set up a special portal on my university account that would magically suck my dissertation into the system.  So far, not so good - the email with the necessary instructions had been sent on the university intenral email system not to my real life email, so I had to hunt it down... to discover I had exactly three days left to submit before the portal closes (is this all sounding very Dr Who to you?  It is to me).

OK, so I set up the magic portal and do the dummy run - simple pimple, peasy squeezy - and decide to do the real thing.  Then find it has (a) the wrong qualification (though I'd be very happy for them to give me the doctorate if only for stickability!) and (b) the wrong supervisors - including one who left over a year ago in fields that I cannot change becuase they are locked by the university.

So, I now have three days for them to sort it, for me to submit it, get the soft copies printed and bound (only 210 pages each!) in the approved fashion at a thesis bindery and delivered to arrive in Manchester on Friday... Yeah right...

Hopefully they'll fix the electronic side tomorrow so I can submit and print.

Hopefully the nice thesis bindery can do a 'same day' job.

Hopefully I can get it expensively posted, guaranteed delivery, to Manchester by Friday.

And if not... well they'll get it when they get it and can like or lump that.

Aaargh!

A couple of things this weekend/week give me pause for thought.

Yesterday, unsurprisingly enough, despite what one American group predicted, wasn't the day of rapture.  This means that the world almost certainly won't end at the end of this year.  It's too easy either to make fun of Harold Camping and his followers or to criticise their selective and misguided reading of scripture.  Something about motes and logs comes to mind.  People gave their money, their time, their energy to this, and must now be feeling very bemused and bewildered.  Rather than our ridicule or scorn they deserve our compassion.

This week the Church of Scotland holds its Assembly which will include the end of a moratorium on discussing the ordination of openly and actively gay ministers.  It doesn't matter where on the spectrum one sits on this matter, the truth is that the C of S is caught bewteen a rock and a hard place with people threatening schism if they don't get their own way.  Not everyone can get their desired outcome, so some creative thinking is needed to avoid a further split in the Body of Christ.  A lot of the attention is centred on one C of S minister, Scott Rennie, whose appointment in 2009 caused great controversy at their Assembly that year.  People who express extreme views - either way - seem oblivious to the fact that this man, his partner, his former wife or his daughter are real people with real feelings, capable of being hurt, not just pawns in someone's theological argument.  Wherever we stand on the human sexuality issue, we do well to pray for Scott and those whose lives intertwine with his, in what must be a traumatic week, and for the C of S as it seeks to discern God's way, not it's own, in moving forward.  Again, words come to mind: judge not, lest you be judged.

If, as the New Testament epistles tell us, the Church (that is, the global community of believers in Jesus) is the Body of Christ, then the fact that these parts are wounded should cause us to remember that if one part suffers the whole suffers.  Someone may respond that elsewhere we are told to amputate the part of the body that causes us to sin, but I would counter that with the words that only the sinless one has permission to cast the first stone, and seems to choose otherwise.

Whatever we may think about either of these topics, we do well to recall our own shortcomings of discipleship and to try to live more humbly, hospitably and peaceably within this battered body of which we are part.

The last of our short series of sermons today brought together some ideas from Amos 5 and Romans 12.

From Amos the famous, 'I hate, I despise your religious feasts' and from Romans some examples of life in the Body of Christ, 'hate what is evil, cling to what is good.'

So if God says, or mioght say, 'I hate your Sunday services, I won't listen to your singing, not interested in your prayers, your drama, your music....' what might make God say 'I love it when...'?

I love it when you show hospitality... opening your doors and your hearts to people who might be very different from you and challenge you.

I love it when you are generous... not just giving to charity collections but sharing the abundance you enjoy

I love it when you show empathy... genuinely rejoicing in others' happiness and supporting them in dark palces without resorting to telling them how bad it was for you.

I love it when you live together peaceably and in harmony... not a wishy-washy evasion of difference or complex issues but an open-hearted learning to live with difference, to change and to be changed.

What does the Lord require of you, this only this, do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God (Micah).

In the end I enjoyed preparing the series, even though it felt hard going at times.  Hopefully we have learn how fear, doubt and hate can, if rightly understood and exercised, be an authentic part of discipleship lived out in faith, hope and love.

Next week some word games for rogation Sunday as I use the title 'beating bounds'.