Picnic and Chips

Everyone's been asking me "What's it like?". Afterall I haven't written a sermon since Monday. Its really peculiar. Not beholden to any agenda, no to do lists other than the ones I set myself (and of course Lucy's!).

I haven't got round to sitting down and talking to God all that much. I haven't had great bouts of silence and meditation. It probably doesn't help that I'm uncontainably excited now, constantly fidgetting and checking when I can print off my boarding pass.

New word for today: Crackberry - for those of you addicted to playing with your blackberry. No I didn't make that up.

We took our sandwiches to Saltdene and ate them with chips whilst being definitively English. My malware has been exorcised, praise the Lord, and I feel that my system is restoring already.

System needs restoring

Oh silly me, I clicked on the wrong thing and then the system froze and now I'm trying to get it to restore to where life was before I clicked on it. Okay now watch me Not pull a sermon out of that, surely you can do that without me!

I read a book on Leadership that says Life starts when you're over 45 so I've decided to file all my leadership books away and ignore them for a few more years. They're just depressing.

I still need a Saviour: it turns out that it takes more than one click to restore the pc. It might take more than a couple of clicks to restore me: I packed twice today.

Whisky Galore

I spent the morning learning Biblical Hebrew whilst the car was MOTd. Masculine and femine plurals but what kind of language also has a dual plural (an extra plural for pairs and lots).

We bought the ticket for Lucy to fly out in my last week. So there, its done. Pr 13.12 says a Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a longing fulfilled is the tree of life. So here's to seeing Lucy on 7th July in Jerusalem.

Drank more whisky than my friend meditating on the effect on the Israeli psyche of the Yom Kippur War and Aushwitz and of how we treat people. Did you know that the yellow colouring in scottish water comes from the Port stain in the oak casks?

Reading Day 1

I've been holed up in my hideyhole reading.

My favourite quote comes from 1884 The Land and the Book by Rev Thomson as he travelled around the Holy Land - he wrote "Its idle, worse cowardly, to withhold our faith in a Bible miracle until we can find or invent some way in which the thing might have happened without any great miracle after all".

Lily Tomlin joked Forgiveness means giving up all hope of a better past.

Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Michael Baughan says we focus too much about the command and not enough about the question.

I read more than that, packed and did some Hebrew. Yes its nuts.

Guinea Pig

Star has had a happy 6 1/2 years and has been a particularly squeaky gp. Even today she came out of her cage and sniffed around and nibbled a bit and I said No we don't need to take her to the Vet but we went all the same. She had a stroke on the way. So we buried her this evening near a marjoram plant. We said extemporary prayers and sung Praise and glory to the name of Jesus.

I took some grass to the dump and said to a worker there: A couple of weeks ago I came here and bought a chair [Oh yes says He, his face frowning and back broadening, stiffening for some idiot to whine at him] only I didnt have any money and you said not to worry and so here it is. I gave him the pound. His face went from defensive anger to mild humour, Thanks mate.

A Handbag!

Mowing the lawn, I was mulling over what on earth to write about - after all its been a humdrum sort of day: 3 washing loads hung up and a sermon written for 29th August.

Do I talk about the pity-me stories?50 mins to drive 10 miles round M25 yesterday, Someone leaving her handbag up north (Essex), the Guinea Pig being unwell (much better today thank you), I said the wrong thing to two people on the phone (one asked if I was the Rev Hollingsworth who abseiled in a fundraiser and even after I said No, he still pushed me on how I did it). Ho hum.

Or Do I talk about answered prayer - the guinea pig well looked after, the sister who's on the case re Handbag, a wonderful person who has found me a retreat hideyhole. Apparently I've answered someone else's prayer - I phoned her up to say Yes I (we) would run a Following Jesus Course in September.

Eucharisitic in Lawford

"Are you the Bishop of Ethiopia?" This was the opening line from a lovely lady I sat next to. Its a good way to begin a service.

I didn't hear the gospel so much as feel it - the reader had learned it off by heart and whilst saying all the right words she seemed to speak as if she was the widow of Nain and Jesus had healed her son. She had moist eyes as she came to the end and said with a deep quiet joy - This is the Gospel of the Lord!

There's a typo on their liturgy sheet - one too many i's - Eucharisitic - its a new word that I think means to be infected with thanksgiving. Jesus touched lepers and He wasn't infected but rather infused them with His power. Its a good typo.

We sung a Maggi Dawn song - And I'll sing in the darkness and I'll wait without fear - as a Taize chant - wonderful, I will try to get the music and maybe we could learn it ...