Pulling legs or grains of truth!

It is Saturday morning!

A good busy week - Thursday a particularly good day - plenty to do, and plenty that went well.  The evening saw a meeting of the Trust which I chair, and which has caused me so many problems while I have been in Ollerton -  this meeting was very very positive.  I hope we can keep this going.  Before that meeting was a highlight - leading Communion in one of our Older People's Residential Homes.  I hadn't been there for over 3 months, and they were so pleased to see me.  Communion was so meaningful, and as I went round the room sharing the bread and wine, and thinking about all I had excperienced since I was last there, I thought how fortunate I was to be a priest.

Yesterday, other than two morning meetings, was a sorting out day.  Progress on tidying my study has been slow, and with the help of Tom, this progressed a little.  Had to get the place looking tidy - Martin and Stef are with us for the weekend, and their Vicarage is always so tidy and orderley.  Martin and Stef, our close freinds from Theological College days, arrived at teatime, and we had a great evening where Mark joined us.

We talked about most subjects, and had a wonderful couple of hours experimenting with music for worship on our iPads. 

Also comment was made about my blog!  I was really on a hiding to nothing, with Sue, Mark, Martin and Stef (who is usually on my side) commenting that what I write  is not the Richard they necessarily see.  I know they were pulling my leg, but I have tried to be as honest as I can in what I write.  So I may put a bit of spin on how things happen, or rather when they happen, but I have not written anything down that hasn't been true.  So it may be a tadge parsonic - is that really surprising seeing what my job is?  

The fact is that I am very concerned that what people read here, is the real Richard, and not Richard just rambling on.  Perhaps I have over-reacted - I usually do.  I love banter, I love having fun, at my expeonse, but I could never bear the thought of being les than authentic - in who I am, in what I say, in what I do, or in what I write.   Pull my leg all you like, I love it, really I do, but see the grain of truth running through it all, just as I see the grain of truth in what people say to me.

Today we are going for a trip and lunch on the Great Central Railway - promises to be a great day.  Still have a sermon to finish though for tomorrow.

Easter Wednesday

On checking when I last blogged, I see it was Friday!  Good Friday!  You can tell I am back at work - hehehehe!   Well I am enjoying it very much. Good to be in a routine, even if I have yet to get back up to full speed (for me). 

Saturday was a day of getting ready, and then in the evening, the Easter Vigil.  45 minutes outside St Paulinus Church, reading chunks of the Old Testament, and then when it was dark, in we went to a relaively warm church, bringing in the first light of Easter - the Light of Christ!  It was very moving, even if I did get a little cross with one of our churchwardens who had upset Caroline!

Easter Day - a great day. And what a great quote I heard on the radio while I was having a bath:
"The resurrected Jesus changes walls into windows"!!!

Good morning service which I put together, led and preached at!  Jim's tie will never be the same again, Caroline's hair looked decidedly purple, and I promise I will not wear those socks again.  Tried to have a rolling theme through the service about why we believe in the resurrection - because people met the risen Christ and told us about it!  My sermon was all about rolling away the stones which block our relationship with Jesus in our lives - idenifying what those stones are, and doing something about it!  I thought I lost my way a bit in the sermon, but many were touched by it!

Then something I haven't done for years on a Sunday - went to the pub for a pint!  With son Daniel, and three grandchildren.  It was wonderful!  Went to a pub by the East Coast Mainline - my Grandson shares my love of railways (he is only 3)

A lovely day was finished with another Communion, which I led, and Caroline preached at.  Went home a happy and enlightened man.

Monday saw the Goodhand family congregate quite early - well the three grandchildren did stay the night with us!  And off we went to The Deep in Hull.  It was packed, packed, packed!  I did very well indeed - you know I don't like queues and crowds, but I took it all in my stride, even managed to amuse our grandchildren, and be nice to everyone.  We all enjoyed it, but I am glad I booked in advance on-line, as the queues were horrendous.  Day finished off with a Chinese takeaway, which saw my only wobbly of the day - having paid for it all, and letting everyone get what they wanted first (like a good grandfather and christian) when I came to get something, there was little left.  But my wobbly didn't last for long - possibly due to the fact that I had got a bit tired, and needed something to eat.

Tuesday again saw Daniel and family come round, to help sort my study.  We also took the dogs for a walk in the morning.  It was also Duncan's 33rd birthday, and he, Fay, Freya and Harrison came round in the afternoon.  It was lovely for us all to be together - even if it was a bit noisey.  Work on tidying the study up was very slow - everyone wanted to see what things were, and why they were there.   More bits went back to Oxford Street (where Daniel lives) than were thrown away, which was the original idea.  Sorry, Louise!  A nice quiet evening, and I fell asleep.  Then right into the early hourse I prepared for the next day - Holy Communion and a service in De Lacey Court (an old people's complex).  Shared some pictures from my Sabbatical.

And so today is Wednesday.  Been quite busy all day, and that has been good.  Busy now trying to pursuade/sorry encourage two people to stand as Churchwarden at St Paulinus.  One of them is being bribed with a curry tonight!
Well that's it for now.
By the way, thank you everyone who has emailed me, telephoned me, or told me face to face the ramblings will  continue.

A good Good Friday

It is late evening on Good Friday, and I have just got back from a curry at the Vhojon in Mansfield -- this is a Good Friday tradition which I have done for many years -- I go  dog-coloured, and I make a point of eating fish.  I always end up having a chat with my friends at the Vhojon, both those who come with me and those who work there, about the Christian faith, and why Good Friday is so important to me.  This year my curate Caroline and her husband came with Mark and me. 

Earlier in the evening,  I led a Tenebrae service in St Giles Ollerton, which was very moving.  This morning we had our Churches’ Together services and walk of witness, which I managed -- just!  It started off low key for me, but by the time I'd managed to walk and led the prayers on Co-op corner, I was feeling much more like it, and by the time I was drinking coffee and eating hot cross buns in St Paulinus church, I was totally caught up in proceedings just like I used to be.  Yes it has been a good day,

I am often amazed, and this year is no exception, as to why so many of the church family don't come to anything during Holy Week. And it's not just an Ollerton and Boughton thing, it is every parish I have served in.  We like to take the joy and celebration of Easter Day, seemingly without the struggles and reflections of Holy Week.  If the Holy Week , Good Friday and the resurrection experience are to match human life – most definitely our own lives, then we have to have to take the package as a whole.

I love the hymns of the season, and this year one that I sung hundreds of times through the years, which has really hit home -  "when I survey the wondrous Cross" especially those two lines "Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all".   Where I am at the moment, having just come back from Sabbatical, those words mean a great deal to me.  In the three places that I have visited, in my reflections upon the situation I find myself in, and as I look back at my journey in faith, it is those words "demands my soul my life my all" that really touch my heart as I try to respond to God's love, so amazing so divine!  I realise that this response is still needed from me, particularly as I been able to take a step back to see where I'm going.

I am one of those people who had been a Christian for as long as I can remember. Whilst being brought up in a Christian based family, and other than a few Sundays when I was around five when I went to the Methodist Church with my father, I have never been made to go to church. It was only when I joined the Cubs and had to go on church parade, that I began to realise this wonderful God wanted to take me on a journey. And what a journey!

But it is not a half-hearted journey, and those who know me well know that I do get terribly committed to do things -- Sue sometimes says that I can become obsessive.  Even in my teenage years my parents, and especially a great auntie, warned me of being over religious.  Years and years down my ministry, you can never accuse me of that.

Yesterday, Maundy Thursday, was the moving ceremony of foot washing and holy Communion.  This certainly lived up to its reputation for me, and this time even more so.  Caroline led the service, and my prayers couldn't stop me thinking about Auschwitz and some of what I saw and heard there. As Christians we should be ashamed, but worse than that, today similar prejudices and persecutions still happen all around us.

I am very much reminded of that very famous quote by Pastor Niemoller:

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

I realise I must speak out much more – “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all”.  My response to my recent sabbatical through the eyes of Holy Week and Good Friday.

Each night through holy week we have been sharing a DVD on the BBC production of The Passion, from the year 2008.  I had not seen it before, but it is excellent and I do recommend it to you if you have not seen it.

On Wednesday I had a very good session with the oncologist, and this cheered me up immensely.   I had been feeling a little low, both physically and emotionally, with aches and pains and a uti, but what they said to me was quite encouraging. I have to have a CT scan before the next meeting with them in six weeks’ time, and whilst I'm still not certain things aren't happening inside me, I will at least then know for sure one way or another.  At the end of June Sue and I are planning on going on a cruise again..  I have been able to save up my NatWest pension, so for the second time hopefully there will be a cruise on good old NatWest. But I have to wait for a final clearance from the oncologist.

Tomorrow I have to tidy up my study, and ensure the grass is cut. The excuse that the lawnmower is a way for a service, no longer stands as it is now ready for collection.  I also have to prepare a sermon and a service for Easter Day.  Busy busy!

Lunch with Jesus!

I had lunch with Jesus today!
Yes, really, and we had chicken along with all the trimmings.  What a start to Holy Week.
Well, actually, that is not quite right.  We were having lunch, and my 3 year old grandson noticed a picture I have on the wall of the "Last Supper" by Salvador Dali, and he went up to it, looked at it, and said "Mummy".  And do you know, with squinted eyes, it does look at bit like her.  But it brought a laugh, followed by much discussion about Jesus, and a happy 3 year old who thinks his Mother is the Messiah!
Oh well.

First Sunday back.

Had a great morning at church.  Parish Communion followed by Holy Baptism.  People were quite genuinely pleased to see me back!  I ached alot, but I felt on good form, which got better as the proceedings progresses, and my pain got worse. 

Preached about the temptation of jumping styraight from the celebrations of Palm Sunday to the joy and festivities of Easter Day, without paying any attention to what lies in between - Holy Week, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, with all the suffering, struggles and tragedy that it contains.   Holy Week contains the reality of human existance, and faithwise we ignore it at our peril.   Used parts of my Sabbitcal as good illustrations of getting that message accross.   It all worked very well, but I was just a little worries whether it was a bit heavy, but folks said not, and had gained much from what I had said.

Some good hymns, which I hadn't picked, and one of them really spoke to me in a different way than it had done in the 100s of times I had sung it before -

We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.

It is through our pain and suffering that we are strengthened in our faith, and as we are strengthend, we get close to God.  It was only singing this hymn this morning that I saw the connection with the suffering of Jesus.  It was also very good to have the grandson of one of my Bishop heros in the congregation - I am conducting his marriage in 3 weeks time, and they were there to hear the final reading of the banns.

Went on to do a lovely baptism (lovely because of the people who were there, not because of anything I had done special), and I am always touched by those words which I always use -

XXXXX, today God has touched you with his love, and given you a place among his people.   God promises to be with you in joy and in sorrow, to be your guide in life, and to bring you safely to heaven.

How we soon forget this when the pressures of life crowd in on us, or rather should I say how easy I forget it.  I have put these to quotes on my blog mainly to remind me!

Come home, tired but happy, and 3 of my grandchildren have arrived.  Terrible excited as Sue has caught to mice.

Off to join in.

See you soon.