The Reluctant Ordained » bible

Last Sunday…

stubiedoo — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:36:17 +0000

Dutifully looking up the readings for my last Sunday in the current parish, (Luke 13: 31-35) I was astonished to read the short passage – how apt for one leaving… The I noticed I was in John, not Luke. Uncanny though, how appropriate some of the words from John were!!

Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.”

On a related subject, this came in the post!

Just Gardening

stubiedoo — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:20:55 +0000

I was gardening. Just that. Strimming the overgrown grass, revealing the flowers that had been planted along the labyrinth path in the churchyard. It always had a queer sort of fascination with the locals, seeing someone tending something new, something unexpected and many would stop and chat, poking good humoured fun or questioning why. On this particular occasion, I was supposed to be sat in the ‘vestry’ waiting for baptism applicants and the like, but the grass really did need cutting. So I was just gardening. I say ‘just gardening’ because some might suspect the old Chaplaincy method of ‘lurking with intent’, but I was definitely just gardening, I was even dressed as a gardener so there would be no confusion. As I strimmed and plucked blown-in rubbish from the path, an image from John’s Gospel came to mind. Mary Magdalene by the empty tomb. She does not find Jesus laid out there. She turns and speaks to who she supposes to be the gardener. Mary is searching for someone, for her Lord, friend and companion. Jesus does not stand up and say ‘here I am’ but waits quietly, gardening, one presumes. She is weeping. Concerned, he asks her what is wrong, and she asks if he knows where he is laid. The gardener calls her by name, and she recognises Jesus.
I think I’ll continue gardening, ‘without intent’ and if someone happens by and asks those searching questions, then I can point them in the right direction.

Any fool can make things complicated

stubiedoo — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:37:07 +0000

E.F. Schumacher said that:

“Any fool can make things complicated, but it requires a genius to make things simple.”

Satish Kumar quoted this in Resurgence Then went on to say that

“Simplicity requires less ego and more imagination, less complication and more creativity, less glamour and more gratitude, less attention to appearance and more attention to essence.”

On the basis on E. F. Schumacher’s thinking there have I guess been a very small number of geniuses in the world of religion, George Fox perhaps, a Desert Father or two, oh and of course our dear Lord Jesus! Looking forward to next Sunday’s Gospel reading, John 10: 11-18 and indeed the Genesis reading, a good dose of simplicity would suit all around!

Liverpool Nativity

stubiedoo — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 08:46:47 +0000

Arrived home just in time for the Liverpool Nativity at 8pm last night on BBC3, (if you missed it it is on again next sunday on BBC1) Easter 2006 saw the Manchester Passion denounced as blasphemous, yet probably did more than any other easter story-telling to interest people in that story. So was the Liverpool Nativity the same? Well, no, although I didn’t think the Manchester Passion was blasphemous, so who am I to judge. It seems, (from a quick glance at papers) that the nativity of our Lord once again was one of humility and desperate poverty, marked only by the devastating honesty of the performance and singing crowds. It will be marked as one of the great moments of biblical story telling i’m sure, but no denouncing crowds, except for the usual suspects we come to expect from the secularists. Is the nativity one of those stories so deeply woven into our being that it marks us? Any re-telling of it leaving us nodding in agreement then getting on with life?

No doubt about it though, it was good, real and honestly portrayed, with quite a political edge which may, if it sinks in, rock the boats of those in power. One baby, one life and a whole new world!

Bruderhof

stubiedoo — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 17:19:25 +0000

I’m sure there have been loads of these around for a while, but this one ( http://dailydig.bruderhof.org ) is really worthwhile. A little gem in your inbox each morning. Today’s ‘Dig’ was this…

Think what the world could look like if we took care of the poor even half as well as we do our bibles!

Far from making me guilty about not giving enough money to charity or supporting enough worthy causes, or even checking the Make Poverty History website often enough, (there’s got to be a link to that here somewhere… ) ) I looked at my Bible in shame and though about getting it re-covered. Not quite the message of the quote, but perhaps (I would hope) I have priorities slightly straighter than those the quote is aimed at!

Well we are on the move. 16th of August we will be in Cardiff starting the next big journey