If it sounds like alternative lyrics to the children's action song, well, it possibly could be.

Way back at the start of October, on my first Sunday at the Gathering Place we, or rather the children, planted some hyacinth bulbs and pondered the parable, from Mark, of the farmer who plants the seeds and then gets on with life whilst it grows.  And so we have got on with life for the last four months, and the Sunday school have loyally tended the bulbs as they grew, at first in a dark cupboard and then on a high shelf where they wouldn't get knocked over. Last Sunday the room where the children meet was filled with the heady scent of hyacinths in full bloom and three enormous purple heads of flowers were a delight to behold.  With further flowers on the way, the hyacinths were moved to the main room and now everyone can enjoy the sight and smell of these wonderful flowers.  Somewhere in there is a 1 Corinthians 3:6 moment: I bought the bulbs, the children tended them but it is God who gave the hyacinths their beauty and scent.

Also in the main room is a corner known as the Snug where we display craft work produced by the children and young people.  As part of their work relating to TLM they had heard the story of the ten lepers cleansed by Jesus, of whom one returned to say thank you.  They had cut out and decorated giant letters to spell out THANK YOU and each letter was decorated with words and pictures of things they were grateful to God for.  Among the more obvious candidates I spotted 'toes', 'legs' and 'nervous system.'  I am pretty sure that some of the inspiration for this was their learning about leprosy which can damage these parts of the body.  Nevertheless, it was for me a moment of 'wow' as the little ones led my thoughts to gratitude for the tiniest and most overlooked/taken for granted aspects of my own body.  On Sunday we begin our stewardship series looking at our talents/gifts/skills and will be using my favourite 'body of Christ' passages from Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12.  In the past when I have preached on these passages I have commented on the importance of big toes and opposable thumbs as well as armpits, finger nails and diverse bodily orifices (always guaranteed to get a few quizzical looks!  But surely these are among the 'treat with special honour' bits?).

It is always good to spot how things connect, how the belief that God is alive and active (about which we thought last week) is glimpsed in these odd moments of 'synchronicity' or 'God-incidence' or 'serendipity' or whatever language your prefer.

So, altogether now.... 'hyacinths and legs and toes....'

A good, three-point alliterative post title.  Someone, somewhere would be pleased.

Posting 'late' today because I have been busy doing stuff, notably eating porridge and praying with our local Presbyterians.

The C of S church with whom we share our evening services has just started a once a month prayer breakfast and I was invited to go along.  For £1 you could have a big bowl of porridge (made by someone from Florida!!!) or a bacon buttie and as much tea or coffee as you wanted.  Then at 8:30 we shared in a simple act of guided prayer.  After that was the C of S "fraternal" (spit!) to which I am invited, and am beginning to discover more of the weird and wonderful nature of this tradition.  Oh, I am so glad I'm a Baptist!!!!!

Eleven of us shared breakfast and prayers.  And we were a motley crew.  Mostly retired people or ministers, we included someone off to Berkshire to protest outside somewhere I have worked and with whom, despite her initial defensiveness, I had an interesting conversation.

I was reminded of various things - such as the porridge/cornflakes graces:

Lord, make us not like porridge:
Sticky and hard to stir.
Make us like cornflakes:
Easy to stir and ready to serve.

and

Lord, make us to be, not like cornflakes:

Noisy, superficial, and cold;

But like porridge:

Sturdy, warm, and comforting.

Well, in my own fence sitting fashion, "both/and" actually

A good start to the day,and something I will look forward to again next 'First Tuesday' and will be encouraging others to consider attending.  But now I really must do what I'm paid for...

Yesterday was, among other things, World Leprosy Day and we had been counting our blessings during the previous week using the TLM prayer sheet as guidance. The extent of our blessings is self evident in that we raised over £500 in response.  How great is the love and decadent generosity of our God that we should have so much, and how encouraging that we can respond with our own generosity of giving.  Blessings given from blessings received.

I'm still mildly amused that TLM "charged" me £3 for not having any pets whilst those with pets "paid" £1 per animal (good job no-one keeps stick insects!) and to discover just who is the self-confessed 'Imelda' of our church (evidently owning about 18 pairs of shoes).  It was fun and it was thought-provoking, which seems a good balance to me.

Does anyone, honestly, understand Colossians 1:24?  Last night's joint service took the form of an interactive Bible study looking at the first chapter of this letter and one of the avenues of exploration was this problematic verse:

Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. (NIV)

Undoubtedly scholars spend hours pondering nuances of Greek, preachers offer their own hypotheses or, more likely, just skip over it (which I have to confess would be a strong temptation) but what does it reallly mean?  Does anyone, other the author (another debated topic), actually know what it means?  Answers in plain English on a postcard to the usual address....

There is a really horrid expression 'normal for Norfolk' which is used derogatively to describe people who are not exactly over-endowed with intellect.  The was a similar expression in Dibley and I recall preaching an alternative interpretation as part of a challenge to a general underlying negativity I experienced in my early days.  But, there are underlying norms everywhere, and it can take a while to discover them, as I am beginning to realise when my assumptions/presuppositions don't match those of others.

One big difference in this corner of River City is that most church people have email (about 75% according to the directory) whereas in Dibley most did not (about 25%).  Inevitably each of these impacts how information is communicated and what people expect.  In each each case, it also raises questions about inclusion and exclusion and about what is communicated by what medium.  At one church I worked with (neither of the above) one Deacon had information sent to her son's email address, about which I was always unhappy, but it was the only way she could be kept in the loop as everything was done by email.  When I first went to Dibley I used to hand deliver copies of any emails to the two non-email deacons, and everything for general consumption was done on paper.

I guess what I am being reminded is that "Normal for Anytown Baptist Church" is not the same as normal for any Baptist church in any aspect, whether administrative, worship or whatever.  It keeps me on my toes anyway!