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Chocolate Teapots for Sunday 18th May

It all seemed to fit together today, we had a bit of a rammy, some noise, some reflection, a couple of disasters, big songs, band led, bad spelling, contemporary images of faith, and quite a relaxed atmosphere were folk just talked out informally. It was a good mix of what worship can be like.

There is of course the argument for a more formal, liturgical close harmony, more poetry and tradition and I'd agree with that too. But maybe that is for next week as we sit uncomfortably with the Trinity. If you thought Pentecost was difficult to describe then welcome to the Godhead. It's not even a biblical concept but something invented 2-3 hundred years later to stop heresy and folk journeying off into the realms and nonsense.

I'm not sure I've ever seen the Trinity as anything more than a roadmap. It's certainly not my experience of God. But then I can't exactly say what my experience of God actually is.

Anyway the passage is Genesis 1:1-2:4. A fabulous, fabulous, fabulous passage. Now how are we going to walk through this? What questions do you want to ask? How does it point us towards the Godhead? What aspects of God does it reveal?

And any images you think might help our weekly reflections? I bet there are a million.

Watcha Spirit

Those questions about the spirit I invited folk to reflect on have lead to some fabulous answers. It is the main theological bit of the service and has become a statement of faith. They really are fabulous and creative. I'm just trying to work out in my mind how best to do it. I think I need 6 readers who are willing to lead this. I wonder about some music in the background and also a rehearsal because we need to get the pauses right. So if anyone is up for it that would be fabulous. Just let me know.

Here's what folk have said. Just brilliant.

In many ways it is difficult to talk about the Spirit of God. We don’t do it very often and when we come to Pentecost, the day we remember and celebrate the energy of God, then we are left with a whole lot of language we can’t quite get to grips with. So instead of asking everyone to repeat what no one fully understands, listen to this statement of faith, which is a way of telling the world what we believe, but the images have come from people in this congregation and others, in response to a few questions. A great variety of folk who all have different pictures of the Spirit, to can be added to our own thoughts of the Spirit.

If the Spirit was a colour what colour would it be?...

1 a light peaty gold
6 purple, of course
2 blinding white light

5 colourless
3 the colour of laughter
4 Sometimes she is yellow illuminating what we couldn't see before. Sometimes she is green and weaves in and out of the trees. Sometimes she is blue and dances around me, until my feet and my body moves and I feel part of her. Sometimes she is purple and commands my awe, then I just sit at her feet.

If she made a sound what sound would that be?...

3 so silent she can't be heard, so loud I can't make out the words, so gentle it's like singing a lullaby, so rousing I have to get up and move, so inspiring I have to tell people
4 the noisiest form of silence ever
2 the gurgle of pouring liquid
5 silent as night
1 the sound of spring
6 the Blackbird preparing for the new day - while it is still dark

If the Spirit was a famous person she would be...

1 not nearly as mystical and alluring
6 Dawn French
2 Robin Hood
5 Richard Branson (with NO money)
3 Martin Luther King - stirred up to change the world
4 the spirit does not believe in the cult of personality

If I was to woo the Spirit I know she'd like me to sing...

3 at the top of my voice

4 'You're the inspiration' by Chicago
2 The Lord is my shepherd (Vicar of Dibley tune)
5 Blister in the Sun by Bruce Lash
1 she’d like me to make sure that everyone else has reason to sing
6 she’d like me to sing to her all the time

Her favourite band is...

1 Take That
6 the Abbotsford Band (!)

2 the Byrds
5 U2
3 African drummers
4 the one which arcs across the sky to say "THANK YOU!" for sun and rain

The bit of the Bible that really gets her going is...

3 the Sermon on the Mount

4 Jesus tearing up the Temple
2 Luke warm churches
5 Genesis...then Exodus and so on
1 Easter Saturday, when all is quiet and sad. Excited at what is changing. Thrilled from what is yet to come.
6 Ecclesiastes 3:1- There is a time for everything

She gets angry and restless and a wee bit dangerous when...

1 people use their voices to block her path, building fear around the invitation to party
6 Men subverting women in the church - or anywhere else
2 She gets angry and restless and a wee bit dangerous when… you least expect it
5 when I say I can't afford it
3 when we’re not
4 when lips move but hearts don’t

This is the spirit and we…

3 love her
4 praise her
2 are disturbed by her
5 questions her
1 know her
6 follow her

not here, but into all the world.

General Assembly

The General Assembly is coming up next week and the week after. They've changed it so it starts mid week and ends midweek. Yesterday I read through nearly all the deliverances so see what ideas the church had. Now it is a day later I can't remember one of them. There are a few 'instructions' for Session to read through stuff. Better remember to do that.

But in truth, and it really is the truth, while this assembly doesn't have any headline grabbing ideas like the last few years, the Church is settling in to a new reality of what is it to have paid ministers. At the moment when a minister is inducted to a charge, if it is on unrestricted tenure (like I am). nothing can move him or her short of heresy (boy we're close to that sometimes) or scandal but nothing else. So there is quite a bit of looking as ways to structure things so ministers can be moved. There's even the suggestion of putting us all on contracts and come under employment law. There' also the thought of having Presbytery being responsible for the call rather than congregations. And various other permutations.

It's interesting the church is talking like this again. We were having the same conversations when I was planning convenor of the Presbytery under Flexible Tenure. So we weren't so far off the mark 6 years ago. Doesn't take long to come back round to the same ideas.

But the report that has the most life is, the Commission on Structure and Change ie Church Without Walls and after the National Gathering, then that shouldn't be a surprise. Ideas of an alternative Presbytery Structure (we've had that conversation before too) are there, finding creative way to allow new blood into the structures, and even look at the Article Declaratory which is formalises the duty of the church to 'bring the ordinances of religion to the people in every parish of Scotland through a territorial ministry' is we don't have the ministers or finance, or won't have soon, to serve the whole of Scotland. So what happens now.

I can't believe I've just blogged about the General Assembly. Watch this space for the results.

Needing help for Sunday

Complete this questionnaire.

The colour of the Spirit...
The sound she makes...
If the Spirit was a famous person she/he/it would be...
If I was to woo the Spirit I know she'd like me to sing...
Her favourite band is...
The bit of the Bible that really gets her going is...
She gets angry and restless and a wee bit dangerous when...

I'd be really grateful if you could reply to me here with suggestions. All confidential. But it would make a huge difference to Sunday if as many could. It can be as quirky or serious as you wish. Names and addresses will be withheld.

Chocolate Teapots for Sunday 10th May

So there was this day, in the morning sometime, after all the party people had gone to bed and before they got up again that heaven decided, as heaven can only do, to have her own party to rival all other parties. All the party people were in bed getting ready for the next evening. It was all the workers, the lonely, the hungry and the searchers who were out and about.

hey were minding their own business when out of nowhere came a great explosion of fireworks. There were Catherine Wheels (before St Catherine's death gave anyone the idea of spinning flames), sky rockets (before NASA, Sputnik or Arianne), sparklers before Guy Fox had that idea we'd all like to do sometime with the Houses of Parliament). It was the middle of the day but there was flame and wind and noise and just one big party.

But it wasn't the kind of party where everyone sits round the walls but they started talking and blethering and even shouting, confused by all the language that was going on. Not bad language (it is the Bible after all) but just lots of it. The Party Energy had given voice to folk, deep down inside themselves, words they never knew, colours they had never seen, sounds they had never heard, songs they had never sung. It was a bit of a riot. Clearly heaven wasn't Presbyerian at this time.

And we've been living in the echo of that party ever since. It's been kind of infectious, dangerous and addictive, haunting us for thousands of years, and every so often you are allowed to let go again. This is Pentecost. This is the Spirit. This is now.

So what would you like at Sunday's party? If it's wild enough you might just be God's latest witness to the work of the Spirit.