Autumn vortex

I was about to delete this picture from my camera when I realised how apt it is as a description of life right now. With autumn well established in this part of the world, church life and ministry moves on at a pace. Often it feels out of control. Sometimes it's like a bumpy ride, hanging on for dear life to the coat tails of the Spirit as she sweeps through, rattling the windows and shaking up the complacent. Occasionally, there's a brief settling and the comfort of scrunching through a carpet of dried leaves. But, always, it's a blurry, unpredictable swirling of energy and emotion that beckons and entices and prompts a grateful response of abandonment knowing, in the midst of the chaos, the steadying breath of God.

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Convenience Food?

Come ye thankful people come
Raise the song of harvest home
All is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin

Preparing the church for Harvest Festival this weekend, someone remarked: " Well...at least when we sing our harvest hymn this year, it will be true. All is safely gathered in this year."
The fields around here are now empty, the great hay bales have been taken away for storage. Some of the fields have even been ploughed for winter planting.
But that comment made me think about how often we "manipulate" times and seasons to fit in with our worship - or how, when we can't manipulate timings (Christmas and Easter, for example) we feel inconvenienced.

Harvest Festival, in particular, is an acknowledgement that God has it covered:
Genesis 8:22
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’

As we give thanks for the gift of Harvest today, we give thanks, too, for a God who will not be manipulated, who will not conform to our expectations or fit into our tidy, ordered lives, even our liturgical lives! We give thanks for a God who calls us out on our organisational skills and reminds us:
"If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you." Luke 17:6
Giving thanks for the Harvest today, God calls us far beyond our sanctuaries, physical and metaphorical, to engage with messier lives until all God's children know the blessing of God's Harvest that does not fit in to our planning schedules but brings abundance for all God's people.

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Divided

A reflection on the gospel: Luke 16:19-31

Only God can judge.
In our heads we know this to be true,
but most of us will have a go nonetheless.
So, in our harshness
are we prepared to ask ourselves:
Have we done all we could?
Did we set out the stall properly?
Did we challenge or cajole?
Did we love and love and love again?
When our neighbour falls
is our first question:
What more could I have done?
Or are we too busy condemning to admit culpability?
Can we share the riches of our table
with those who are used to the dregs
and keep the channels of grace
open to all
in the knowledge that God comes
in the strangest of garbs
and dines with the sinner
and with the saint,
inviting both to find a home
in the incredible welcoming arms of God?

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Skilful sharing

A reflection on the Parable of the dishonest manager (Luke 16:1-13)

The end justifies the means?
Well... not quite.
But we do not have to hang back, we do not have to reject what works,
we can redeem sharp practice
for the sake of the kingdom.
God requires our transferable skills and our cheek:
the things we use in our everyday to see us through.
It is not about rolling over but about stepping up
to clinch a deal for God.
And when folk see
that we are not so heavenly minded to be of earthly use,
when they understand
that we speak a common language then can we all
gather around the one table.

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I know you're busy...

A long, long, time ago, when I was training for ministry, an older minister advised us that we should never let folk know how busy we are. His concern was that if folk perceived us as being very busy, they wouldn't want to bother us with important pastoral issues and our relationship with our communities would be diminished. He maintained that we should be worried if folk approached us, saying:"I know you're busy, but..." That seemed like sound advice and I have tried always to play down the volume and scale of my work. But still, folk approach me saying"I know you're busy..."
And, all this time later, I have come to be suspicious of that advice. Firstly, because it never seems to stop folk lobbing more work my way, no matter how busy or otherwise they perceive me to be. Secondly, because it is more often than not, simply a turn of phrase that folk use as a means of respectful approach. And, thirdly, because it just is. I am busy. Bigger workloads are being placed on fewer people. That's the way it is. Me pretending that it is otherwise serves no good purpose. And I believe that folk often discern that there can be a competence in busyness (though not always). Of course, there is always the danger of becoming too busy. But the fact that others see that we are busy does not diminish our ability to offer effective pastoral support when invited to do so. Nor, in my experience, does it dissuade them form requesting the support that they desire.
So I am going to stop feeling bad when folk approach me, saying:"I know you're busy, but..." Their perception does not make me a bad pastor!

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Arise and dance

As the sun creeps over the hill
the mist dances
unfurling its tendrils
lazily coming to life
Yawning and stretching
then rising up
to magically disappear
making way for the new day
to begin
creating space
for energy to awaken
and join in the dance.
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Make a joyful noise

What a happy sanctuary this morning as we celebrated Jacob's baptism. It was filled with the buzz of children, young and old, at play. Jacob and his older brother, Jackson, were particularly interested in the water in the font. Grace was demonstrated in the playful, splashing water becoming a sacramental element. The love of God made real as promises were made and journeys honoured.
Even the preaching of the word was accompanied by a happy,gurgling, baby who brought a smile to this preacher's face. Reflections on the gospel, from Luke 15, challenged us to retrace our steps to find those elements of our faith that had been mislaid somewhere along the way.
Hopefully, many lost things were found this morning in worship, not least a warm welcome into the family of God, encouragement to continue the journey and the invitation to all to make a joyful noise to the Lord!
For of such is the kingdom of God...

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