Yesterday one of my tasks was to work on the liturgy for my final Dibley service - during which we will declare our belief that our time together is complete and release each other from the covenant we made nearly six years ago.  It took a while to find the right word to describe what it is we are declaring, but in the end 'complete' seemed the best, and today as I was mulling it over the Greek 'tetalestai' floated into my conscious.  Fulfilled, completed, accomplished, done, finished...

In my experience we aren't so good at endings, at least liturgically: we make a right song and dance over inductions (which is good, I like it and am looking forward eagerly to my next one!) but leaving tends to avoid any acknowledgement of the commitments that are now being un-done.  Once it happens, I will post my words and you can see what you think.  Thanks to Jim's comment on my previous post, I think I now have the last line sorted.

Good job we don't have a Dibley Supper Club really!

Pre-prandial

This bit is written before I go to do my pick ups, because suddenly I find myself dreading this last lunch, with its farewells and inevitable gifts ("Do you know if they have Boots the Chemist in Scotland?"(!)) and the dear, sweet, wrinklies being sad at my departure.  I'll be sad too, because they are dear and sweet.  I will miss the man with one leg, the women on their zimmers and walking sticks, the couple who won't talk to anyone and always moan, the person who complains about draughts and the couple who have been married for 70 years.

Each one will be given a fridge magnet with a paraphrase of Lamentations 3:22 - 24 "God's wonderful love never ends - each morning it is as fresh as a daisy."  I hope they can trust this promise is for them.

After lunch I will type part 2, then I'll post...

Post-Prandial

So, all wrinklies safely home in time for bingo or a nap or a nap during bingo and all was, in the words of Julian, well, and indeed all manner of things shall be well.  I was humbled by the generosity of the gift (which came in the form of those brown and purple stirling gift vouchers you can use in any shop), the flowers, chocolates and card, and by the good wishes offered by various folk.  A hug from the man with one leg, a handshake from a volunteer driver, endless wishes of 'good luck' and the assurance that if I had a free 'first Wednesday' any time they could fit me in.  But actually the greater gift is the confidence that the club is in safe hands, that the next 'Songs of Praise' is in hand, the Christmas dinner booked and a future venue secure.  A good job jobbed I reckon.

I will miss them all, especially next month when I sit down to my piece and cheese (I'm learning...) and recall them, tucking into their lunch, laughing, grumbling, and generally enjoying fellowship, but it is time to move on, and I do so with gratitude.

Posting is likely to be sporadic for the next month or so due to the nature of clearing, packing, ending, moving, beginning and sorting internet connections near D+300.  I will probably post  the various 'lasts' if only as a way of 'anchoring' the memories of them, but probably not a lot else.

Today is my penultimate preach at Dibley, the last 'normal' service, and a day that is manic in extremis - an away evening preach, lunch with my musicians and a 50th birthday party all on one day.  Hopefully the stress will offset the calories!

If it is quiet around here I haven't got bored with blogging just extra busy with other stuff.

Today I spent my day off sorting out my paper for submission to the university.  It is not the greatest essay I've ever written, but then its learning outcomes and title were not the most inspiring either.  Trying to correlate two very different sets of comments on the draft meant it took most of this week to sort it out - even if it doesn't look that different for 20 hours input, apart from being nicely comb-bound.

Anyway, the bank holiday meant that it had to be posted today to be sure it would arrive by the deadline which is Tuesday, so slave away I duly did and got to the post office at 4:10 p.m. - fifty minutes before the post goes, phew.  I asked for first class recorded (what the univeristy insist on) only to be told that they could not guarantee it would arrive on Tuesday unless I paid for speical delivery.  Hurumph.

Once upon a time first class meant same day delivery, so I'm told, and even as a child it was next day.  Then it was next day as a target and two days.  Now - oh well, when we feel like delivering it we will.

I'm not blaming the post office or even the employees of Royal Mail but there's nothing very first class about 'probably in two days, three over a bank holiday'.  Mutter, mutter, mutter.

My only consolation is it is cheaper than driving up to Manchester on Tuesday - although that would have given mer three more days to get it right.  Still, the electronic submission today means I really beat the dealine by three days anyway not that I'm paranoid about being late or anything... much!

Yesterday I finally got round to preparing Sunday's Ephesians 6 sermon, as part of which I am using some parallels with the clothing and equipment the builders next door use.  It doesn't quite match up but it does a good-enough job.

As I re-read a commentary the passage, the commentator suggested the list was in the order a soldier would put on/pick up the items - notably observing that once he was holding the shield, he'd have to put on the helmet before he picked up the sword or he wouldn't have a hand free so to do.  Hmm, I thought, I'd put on the helmet before I picked up the shield, so I'm not sure it quite works.  And then I pondered the attributes in the listed order - truth, righteousness, readiness of the gospel of peace (not the gospel as sometimes is said), faith, salvation, word of God.  Is this the order in which the average church would list them? I'm not convinced it is.  So is there a danger of reading far too much into the minutiae of the metaphor and missing the point - I'm sure there is!

All of this made me wonder, though, how the metaphor was created.  Did the writer have a set of attributes and then match them up to items of armour (and if so how did he get the number of items to match up) or was it done the other way round?  How significant are the parallels with priestly attire, of which commentators make much, and do they inform the order?

It has made we wonder how I would go about generating a metaphor for aspects of faith or discipleship: which I would include, what parallels I might employ and why.  This very familiar passage did not drop out of the sky fully formed but began as the (albeit God-inspired) ponderings of a real person writing for real readers.

So, what might it mean to speak of the 'toolbelt' of truth (the truth shall set you (hands) free) or the 'hi-viz jacket' of righteousness (unmissable, reflective stripes of Gods glory perhaps), the 'hard-hat' of salvation etc.?  What is gained and lost by changing the metaphor?  Is a building site a more helpful metaphor than a battle field?  Or just a different one?  The 'cosmic battle' theme that runs through Ephesians doesn't neatly parallel one of building a Kingdom of peace, so I don't think it is that simple... but I will still try to focus my folk to a constructive 'building' approach rather than a defensive 'battle' approach.