Advent began slightly early here - and I believe it did in Dibley too, where to my delight they have eagerly continued the practice of lunch time prayers for this season.

It felt slightly odd yesterday morning loading my car with food and slow cookers to take to church for somehting I had, for six years, done in my home.  I was (and am) pleased that this year it is an ecumenical intitiative and that it is taking place in our Gathering Place, it just made me smile that after five years of doing the car run on a Sunday I was now doing it for lunchtime prayers.

And to a degree that same-but-different sense carried through the day.  As I set up the room I founsd myself wondering not 'would anyone come' because several had promised they would but 'would it work.'  After six years with largely the same group of (mainly elderly) folk, it has become a familiar and comfortable routine.  Sure, we varied the style a little bit according to the books I was using, but we all knew what was what.  I had learned how to read silences - companionable, contemplative, agitated, embarrassed - but how I would I do this here?  I had come to know who would do what and when and how.  And I knew that my faithful few loved the space to slow down, to pray, to reflect, to laugh, to cry, to be served, to serve... What if it all went horribly wrong and people hated it?

I had a lovely time preparing the room, trying to create an atmosphere that was welcoming and warm, that allowed us to worship & reflect, to eat & chat.  At the appointed time there were around 18 of us - as many as I've ever had at such a gathering, so I was thrilled, especially as it was a new idea.  People generously engaged in the act of guided meditation and prayer and seemed to appreciate what was offered.  We then had a lovely time of fellowship over soup and bread & cheese, the donations for Christian Aid were a good start and bode well for the remainder of the series.

As lunch drew to a close I was involved in some deep conversations with a cople of students about connecting with the university in a helpful way.  All around I was aware of people busily clearing away, running the dishwasher, folding tables and stacking chairs.  Already I have offers of soup for at least one of the future weeks and a snese that peple are willing to give this thing a go.

I guess what I feel a day on is what Ialready really knew: that this offering of a space amidst the hurly burly of life for a short season is something people value, that ultimately it is 'the same but different' in a new setting and with new people.  It is hard work to organise these spaces, takes a fair amount of time and not a little planning.  But it is always so worthwhile.  I feel, as I inevitably do at such moments, that I am blessed.

How is that almost without fail when it is one of the Baptist ministers doing Radio 2 Pause for Thought in the Sarah Kennedy show that what he (it's always a he) says resonates with what I'm due to preach on this week...?  Most Baptists don't follow the lectionary (I do sometimes and not others) so it isn't simply that we have read the same Scriptures.  Might it be that God is teasing me yet again?  I think it might.

If, perchance, you are in the Glasgow West End tomorrow lunch time and looking for a space to 'be' to pray or to get a free (except for optional donations to Christian Aid) lunch organised by and for Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Catholics and indeed anyone who is passing, then do drop in to my/our 'Gathering Place' at about 12:15 where you will be very welcome.  Indeed, you are welcome any time but especially the next four Thursday lunctimes as we reflect on 'The Miracle of Christmas.'

I wish I could blame this particualr amnesia on a bump on the head but I can't!

I am trying to recall and retrieve a book I read when I was at college, I think broadly Biblical studies, which took a look at how the layering of tradition on top of the Biblical narratives of the nativity, and even the elision of the Matthew and Luke accounts can be read positively rather than negatively.  For example, the popular portrayal of the 'three kings' as one white, one black and one oriental speaks about the inclusivity of the gospel and the 'neither Jew nor Greek'.  Or, as another exmaple, the inclusion of the animals around the manger is not just Victorian kitch but can point more widely to the idea of the new creation, the lion sleeping next to the lamb.  I recall at the time not being entirely convinced by the argument but intrigued by it nonetheless; now I'd quite like to revisit it.

Trouble is I can't recall what the book was called or who wrote it, only that I am fairly certain I read it in the final year I was at college - in which case Sean and Kez if you are reading this mabe you will know what I'm rambling on about.  If anyone thinks they recongnise the book from this mangled recollection please let me know via the comments.

Why does the Bible have such a downer on stiff-necked people?  This morning I have a stiff neck (and shoulders and a fair few bruises all over) and I find myself wondering, albeit flippantly since I know what it really means, about this source of divine displeasure.

I remember being told about some work that the theologian John Hull was doing on the pejorative use of the concept of blindness in the Bible borne out of his own experiences of losing his sight.  I guess we need to be reasonably alert to the way we use metaphors, especially of goodness/badness so that we don't inadvertently either build prejudices against people who, for example, have stiff necks or make then feel as if they are somehow inferior.

Anyhow, stiff-necked or not (in either sense of the word) I am back in the land of work and today met not one soul coming in the other direction... maybe the jogger grapevine has sent out the word to beware relatively early morning walking ministers...?