Such is the title for the Women's World Day of Prayer for which I have to preach on Friday.  I am not over enamoured with the material I've been supplied with which seems too simplistic to me.  I have a bit of an idea rumbling around my brain, but I'm not sure whether it will work with a group of mainly older women , so I thought I'd dump it here instead!

One of the best things I was every taught in respect of preaching was based on a Barth idea of

WORD

Word

word

Where WORD refers to Christ, the Logos, the word-made-flesh; Word is the Bible, the scriptures; word is the thing the preacher speaks, shares, tells forth.

So how about a parallel for wisdom?

WISDOM

Wisdom

wisdom

Where WISDOM refers to the Holy Spirit, Sophia, the Wisdom-of-God; Wisdom is again the Bible, the scriptures, the inspired account of faith; wisdom is the thing that arises in humans as they acquire new understanding.

The two stories I have to work with - Job and Luke's Mary & Martha seem to me to represent three situations in which God's Sophia brings wisdom...

For Job there is a new perspective on questions of suffering, not answers but an awareness that God has not abandoned him.  I have to admit I don't find Job easy to work with because he has a happy ending and real people in real situations very often don't.  But even so, I think I can say God's Sophia can transform our views from within suffering, not to fatalistic acceptance but to the assurance of God-with-us.

For Mary there is excitement and desire to be at Jesus' feet.  Something prompts her to do this, because we don't actually know that she was a dreamer or a lazy little sister!  Something about God's Sophia moving us to new encounters and new possibilities.

For Martha there is just daily routine made worse by all these blokes arriving!  She questions Jesus (brave woman!) and is prompted to think again about her priorities.  From the Johannine accounts it is clear that her perspective does move on.  Even the everyday can be transformed by God's Sophia.

And this, I think, is where I want to go with these women - that no matter what life is like, God's Wisdom brings new Understanding - new ideas, new perspectives, new hope, new practices, new dreams, new attitudes.  We might not get the answers we long for, but God who is present as Spirit can and does offer hope and a future.

Does that make any sense?  Is it total heresy?  Who thought of it before me?  And will the good ladies of the church south of Leicester get it?

... a view on hermeneutics.

For a bit of fun try out a hermeneutics quiz here and discover whether you are 'conservative' 'moderate' or 'progressive.'

With a score of 72 I am apparently progressive.  Is this good, bad or indifferent?  That probably depends on what you are!  According to this article all three approaches are useful and none is inherently better or worse, just different.  I think I'm happy enough to be a self-aware, self-critical, progressive in this respect - better that than a foot stamping anything! 

Thanks to Maggie Dawn on whose blog I found this quiz

This morning I was giving my office one of its occasional blitzes - as ever prompted by the fact that it was so awfully untidy I could no longer work in it!  There are, because I've seen them, ministers' offices that are of adequate size to house their contents and which do not double as store rooms for those items of church property that no one else will store; mine is not one of them!  The advantage of the occasional blitz - which today included turning out some of the drawers - is that there are always lost treasures waiting to be rediscovered.

Today I found these two, from late 2003...

Even as we seem to be dying

in weakness

in fear

overwhelmed by all the forces against us,

there are moments when we know

that we will never be determined

by any of that.

      

There is a God

who says to us

weep strongly,

be strongly afraid,

care strongly,

choose life strongly in faith

and I will live strongly

in all of that.

  

There is a God

Who moves from hill to mountain top,

who stands high in the depths of the pit,

who gasps free of the waters of drowning

and plants the cross-shaped tree

on the very shaking ground on which we stand

as though our trembling earth is like a rock.

  

There is a God

who steps free

of the binding chains around our souls

and calls us in a voice

which always knows our name,

who always feels our pain,

who lifts our feet

as though our life

stands cupped in a saving hand

and cherished forever in a life-filled place.

from Dorothy McRae-Mcmahon, Liturgies for the Journey of life, p124; sent to me in 2003 by Jo H

 

 

Some days we struggle, other days we soar, but there's not a day when we're not held securely in his everlasting arms

 

From a card, not sure who from (I only have the front now!), probably Rachel J or Anne P c. 2003

 

 

If life is tough, then receive the gift these words offer

If life is good, then why not keep them in your own rainy day collection?

At D+1 tonight for a joint service.  Pretty poor turnout of my folk but to be honest probably would have been much the same had we been on our own.

It was 'a service in three parts' and it was very effective.

Part 1 beginning with Psalm 131 (weaned child on mother's knee) was about human mothers and was handled with appropriate sensitivity to those who aren't, without demeaning those who are, and had careful acknowledgement of when motherhood is trial rather than joy

Part 2 was about church as mother, picking up on the Ephesians 5 image of the church as feminine and bride of Christ, and spoke of the church birthing new Christians and then nurturing them.  This section culminated in Communion and I was invited to do the thanksgiving prayer - just wished I could have recalled more of the Mother's Shabbat prayer as it would have fitted; in the end I used the opening line (Blessed art Thou, oh Lord, our God, King of the Universe) and then extemporised.

Part 3 was about God as mother, drawing on a couple of beautiful images from Isaiah 49:15 (can a mother forget the baby at her breast) and Isaiah 66:10-13 (As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you) and the lovely Lukan hen and chicks.

It was a very comforting service - or at least I found it so - though I guess some may have found the feminine imagery a bit challenging.

Definitely a good approach to Mothering Sunday/Mother's Day, and it was a good place to be.

Today I was leading some GB Young Leaders' training and this year, because the chaplain has a 6 month old baby, I landed the 'Faith Issues' section.  There were some fascinating discussions and a real sense of the difference the 30 years since I did the equivalent courses (scary!) makes.

With the oldest group, aged 16-18, one of the questions we explored was the concept of a perfect Christian.  According to them it is a person who

• Knows the whole Bible off by heart
• Goes to church
• Prays
• Is kind and supportive to everyone whatever they believe or don't
• Respects other faiths

Oh, and when offered to chance to add some kind of 'super power' one of them said 'can fly.'  I was struck by the very inclusive take on Christianity and other faiths that these girls had, not least as I know that some of the churches they are linked with do not! 

With another group (14-15) we talked about God's characteristics - and they came up with a God who was kind, supportive and 'there for you no matter what'.  Given that some of these couldn't't even find the book of Psalms, never mind understand chapter and verse concepts, there was no risk that this lot were 'perfect' Christians knowing the whole Bible off by heart.  I guess it goes to show how culturally out of touch we churchy folk are when we simply reel off a Bible reference and expect people to find it - as my minister said when I was 15 and trying to learn the books of the Bible by heart for some GB test or other, 'they put the contents page in the front for a reason.'  Over the years I've told lots of girls how to interpret chapter and verse references - but it is not exactly part of every day life anymore.

Perhaps most impressive was the middle group who were invited to ponder an image based around a football pitch and identify where they would place themselves - on the pitch, in the stands watching, on the reserves bench, in the changing room warming up, in the showers cooling off!  One (a Baptist) said she thought she was on the reserve bench, as she was keen to be Baptised and waiting to start her preparation classes; another, (a Methodist) said much the same, she'd been confirmed last year and wanted to get more involved but wasn't quite sure how.  One took great courage - masked by giggles - to say she thought she was an observer in the stands, she didn't go to church all that often, but she was 'quite interested' and 'one day' would get more involved.  Just in case anyone thinks I automatically equate church going with Christian faith, I don't.  But I was impressed by the honesty of these girls and their willingness to engage with the ideas.

It is good to spend time working in this way, with people who still have minds open to new discoveries - albeit with the arrogance of youth mixed in.  I have very fond memories of my own YL training back in the late 70's and early 80's, when we used to spend a weekend at Grendon Hall in Northamptonshire.  And even though in those days you could fail for uniform imperfections, spent hours learning colour drill and had to learn loads of useless facts off by heart, it was undoubtedly significant in my own faith and personal development.

All these years on, I am a far from perfect Christian, still don't know the Bible off by heart (!) but am eternally grateful to the supportive, encouraging God who is always there.  Yup, I think these girls got a lot right today.