Well now, here I am on Thursday doing what I normally do on Tuesday, and writing the blog. That's because Tuesday felt like Monday, and Monday was bit like a Wednesday - and now I don't really know where I am, because the rhythms have got a bit muddleed this week. And so, apologies to those of you who read this regularly (if there are any of you!)
It has been an odd feeling, this muddled week; it's caused by all sorts of things, none of them really important, but it has highlighted the importance of the rhythm and the calendar, in giving a sense of place in the world, and structure to life.
Baptists have not always been very keen on regular rhythms, and the calendar of the church. Dorothy Hazzard, one of the founder members of one of our earliest churches, Broadmead in Bristol, was known for keeping the shop she ran open on Christmas day, because she insisted, all days are the same, and the keeping of "holy days" was a theological practice she rejected.
In her time, there may have been something important in that witness. Now, I am not so sure.
The Christian calendar, moving us from Advent through Christmas, through Lent and Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, contemplation of Jesus' ministry and the life of the Christian church and culminating in remembering the communion of Saints (All Souls day is this Sunday), before leading us back into Advent, is an important way of keeping us in touch with the whole of our Christian story, and the presence of God in every part of our day, week, month and year.
As we move through the season of remembrance and into Advent, why not join us in reflecting on God's presence here and now, and through history, saving, loving and calling.
And next week, I may be on time!
Thursday 29 October 2009
Tuesday 20 October 2009
On technical problems
If, as well as reading this on our website, you also look at the notice sheet that we put up each week, you will know that we have had some "issues" with our notice sheet; all we seemed to be able to do was show old ones! We have now managed, thanks to our wonderful webmaster and the patience of Andrea and Vilem, got things moving again - we think.
But it has been an interesting experience. Quite rightly, people were keen to tell us there was a problem. Unless we were told, we would not have known, and then nothing could have been sorted out. But then we discovered we could not even put up a note saying that we knew there was a problem. And so people felt, having told us and seeing nothing changed, thought that we had not listened, or were not taking it seriously. Which led to some frustration on all sides.
Communicating - especially when communicating isn't working well - is fraught with difficulties. It feels like it shouldn't be. Talking to each other - or writing, or using sempahore or whatever means we have available to us - feels like it ought to be simple, straightforward and natural. We are communicating people. We know what we want to say, the message we want to pass on - and so we do it.
But sometimes, somehow, it doesn't work. The message gets confused, misinterpreted or distorted. Misunderstandings happen, and sometimes hurt is caused, anger provoked - and the consequences seem to run away from us. All we wanted to do was say something - and suddenly we're in a battle and don't quite know how.
When I was a student, I remember a tee-shirt with the slogan
what you think you heard me say is not what I thought I was saying
(it was a big tee-shirt!) It's a phrase I've come back to often when I've realised that what I have said is not what has been heard. It helps to defuse things sometimes.
But this realisation - of the difficulty of making ourselves understood, and of understanding what another says - provokes me to even more praise for Incarnation. For, in many and various ways, God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets, but in these last days, God speaks to us through a person. Now, all we need is grace to understand!
But it has been an interesting experience. Quite rightly, people were keen to tell us there was a problem. Unless we were told, we would not have known, and then nothing could have been sorted out. But then we discovered we could not even put up a note saying that we knew there was a problem. And so people felt, having told us and seeing nothing changed, thought that we had not listened, or were not taking it seriously. Which led to some frustration on all sides.
Communicating - especially when communicating isn't working well - is fraught with difficulties. It feels like it shouldn't be. Talking to each other - or writing, or using sempahore or whatever means we have available to us - feels like it ought to be simple, straightforward and natural. We are communicating people. We know what we want to say, the message we want to pass on - and so we do it.
But sometimes, somehow, it doesn't work. The message gets confused, misinterpreted or distorted. Misunderstandings happen, and sometimes hurt is caused, anger provoked - and the consequences seem to run away from us. All we wanted to do was say something - and suddenly we're in a battle and don't quite know how.
When I was a student, I remember a tee-shirt with the slogan
what you think you heard me say is not what I thought I was saying
(it was a big tee-shirt!) It's a phrase I've come back to often when I've realised that what I have said is not what has been heard. It helps to defuse things sometimes.
But this realisation - of the difficulty of making ourselves understood, and of understanding what another says - provokes me to even more praise for Incarnation. For, in many and various ways, God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets, but in these last days, God speaks to us through a person. Now, all we need is grace to understand!
Monday 5 October 2009
I am doing a lot of travelling at the moment; this week has seen me in Prague, at a consultation to reflect on the future of the International Baptist Seminary, and then Glasgow to take part in the induction of the first woman as sole pastor in a Baptisty church in Scotland - and pretty soon, I am off to share in the plenary session of the World Council of Churches, a meeting that will last for a week.
I will be glad when it all stops and I can stay in one place for more than two days at a time!
But one of the things that has been more and more evident in all the events I have been too is just how small the world is. Not simply because of the ease of travel (which, even if it is boring, is easy, if I am honest!) It's mroe the way there is always somebody who knows somebody. For example, at the consultation, we were told to go and form pairs with somebody we hadn't met. I knew most of those in the room, so I headed towards somebody I thought I had had no contact with - only to have him say, "Ah yes, I know your father".
And the man leading the consultation - brilliantly, and his work has been one of the delights of this week - grew up at the church where Seyan is now pastor.
And at the induction, I met somebody who asked me to take greetings to members here whom they remembered attending there some years ago.
So who knows who I will meet at the WCC meeting, and what links will be uncovered.
It is one of the experiences that make real, for me, what we mean when we talk about being the body of Christ. Physically, the sole of my foot does not often come into contact with my shoulder - seeing that I am no contortionist. But they are both my body. And they are linked through a series of connections. To go to places I don't know and discover people I don't know but with whom I have links, means that the language of the body of Christ is not simply pious talk, but reality.
Our website, and those of you who read this blog, are also part of this; we may not meet (though I know some of us do), but we belong together.
And, with this amount of travelling going on, it is something I am very grateful for!
I will be glad when it all stops and I can stay in one place for more than two days at a time!
But one of the things that has been more and more evident in all the events I have been too is just how small the world is. Not simply because of the ease of travel (which, even if it is boring, is easy, if I am honest!) It's mroe the way there is always somebody who knows somebody. For example, at the consultation, we were told to go and form pairs with somebody we hadn't met. I knew most of those in the room, so I headed towards somebody I thought I had had no contact with - only to have him say, "Ah yes, I know your father".
And the man leading the consultation - brilliantly, and his work has been one of the delights of this week - grew up at the church where Seyan is now pastor.
And at the induction, I met somebody who asked me to take greetings to members here whom they remembered attending there some years ago.
So who knows who I will meet at the WCC meeting, and what links will be uncovered.
It is one of the experiences that make real, for me, what we mean when we talk about being the body of Christ. Physically, the sole of my foot does not often come into contact with my shoulder - seeing that I am no contortionist. But they are both my body. And they are linked through a series of connections. To go to places I don't know and discover people I don't know but with whom I have links, means that the language of the body of Christ is not simply pious talk, but reality.
Our website, and those of you who read this blog, are also part of this; we may not meet (though I know some of us do), but we belong together.
And, with this amount of travelling going on, it is something I am very grateful for!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)