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Chocolate Teapots for 6th January 2008

Well, we ought to be singing Christmas carols all the way through today and right up to next Sunday which is better known in the liturgical trade as Epiphany. It's the time we remember the travelers/Magi/wise ones arriving at Jesus' hoose. But if you read your bible at all you'll notice it isn't the stable they arrive at but a 'house' and it's probably somewhere up to 2 years after Jesus was born because the story of the slaughter of the innocents (which, by the way, has no historical evidence) tells us children up to 2 years were on the list.

Anyway, that is all by the way. I quite like the word 'Epiphany'. We keep trying to explain it but it really stands on its own. Epiphany: the moment the lightbulb goes on. Epiphany: the Aha. Epiphany: when sense comes all over you. Epiphany: when when you see everything as clear as day for that fleeting second. A great word.

However, I'm not into singing carols so late after Christmas and nor am I into talking of the magi so long after the day, so what to do this coming Sunday? The Gospel passage is the visit of the 'wise men'. So we could read that and do something about the meaning of Epiphany. Alternatively we could go with some other passage. Isaiah 60:1-6 is one of the other offerings for the week and is slightly better. It mentions gold and frankincense but also mentions light to the nations too. Maybe there is stuff there about epiphanies, revelations, a-ha moments. 'Look around you and see what is happening'. That's quite good. Go and find the epiphanies. Go and wrestle with the search. Step out on the journey. Don't think it will arrive where you are. It's you who has to move, not the light. (but unpresbyterian if you ask me. I've been in this pew for that last 50 years and I'm not going to move now, not ever for the light of God')

Basically the theme is 'Get off your camel and seek the light.'

So what hymns and words and symbols and thoughts and ideas and images and music and sermon titles? Hey, just answer that last one: if you were to give a title to an epiphany sermon, what would it be?

A wee gift

Here's a true joy. A fabulous reflection on the world, the people we share this planet with, and in a romantic moment, I feel in some was have an handle on the planet that I long to have. In reality it's always different, but just spend some time here...

Songtime

So what do you wish to sing as the years goes out? We've done a lot over the last week and really we ought to be singing Christmas Carols right up to Jan 6th but let's not.

I'm not really talking only hymns here. There are a wheen of other songs we could sing that would be appropriate for this time of year. What do you suggest?

When it is darkest

Maybe the darkest time is just after birth when you still don't quite believe it and other have already forgotten.

It is a blue time of year

O God

A time between time

O God

Christmas seems to be over

The new year nearly upon us

It is a blue time of year

Talk now of incarnation

Proclaim now your promise being fulfilled

When we feel like it least

But need it most

Of Christ among us

It is a thin time of year

O God

The light, the hope, the energy

O God

We’re waiting for the new start

While tired from this year’s ending

It is a thin time of year

Live now as God one of us

Walk into the thinness of the time

And proclaim your riches of justice

When our belief is tired

Used up in the birthing of light

Reclaim incarnation

For the sake of the poor

Reclaim Emmanuel

For the sake of the lonely

Reclaim Christmas

For the sake of the hopeful

Reclaim the stable

For the sake of homeless

Reclaim the promise

For the marginalised

Reclaim the truth

For the believer

It is a bare time of year

O God

The promise, the light, the birth

O God

For those who are left on this side of Incarnation

Who have proclaimed its truth

but are called now to believe it

In a world that seems not to have changed

Except inside

Be born

in us

So be it

The Nativity Story (PC version)

I was talking to some colleagues today and we had a laugh and a cringe because I heard today that a new storybook for children wasn't allowed to have a dragon that breathes fire because fire is dangerous.

So we wondered about the Nativity. It's been done before but I wondered if the good people of this blog may lend their imagination to a politically correct retelling of the Nativity Play. Just add the next bit as your imagination and health and safety allows.

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother Mary...

Wednesday already

Time slips away but there is always time to ask Santa for something. What would you ask for?

I might use some (anonymously) in the watchnight service.

Tower power

WE lit the tower and it really does look good. I think it looks better than I imagined so we've got our work cut out to reduces that carbon and we've got our break-even of 50 folk changing one light bulb each on the eco-covenant. But there's a whole lot more folk who could do that too. My daughter changed the last two bulbs over to eco-bulbs in her room today and is proud of it!

It was a great atmosphere tonight. Lots of very positive comments about the tower and a fantastic supper afterwards. We really know how to eat well.

So if anyone has any photos of the tower, then we'd love to post them here. Do send them to us and we'll post as many as possible.

Thanks for a good night with lots of people and a good and happy time together.

And change that bulb NOW and we'll give you another free when we get them.

Hint for Sunday

Based on Isaiah 35:1-10

The desert will rejoice
and we long for that day

flowers will bloom in the wilderness
and we believe one day they shall

burning sand will become a lake
and we say ‘Amen’ to that

and dry land will be filled with springs
we trust that it shall be

Advent longs for a new world
for the birth of God to save us

We gather in the hopes of the prophets
and the good news of God
and as God’s people
our faith has too long been in the wilderness

this is what we are waiting for
in Bali where climate change is negotiated
in occupied Bethlehem where Jesus was born
in our belief that makes a new world possible

For Lent

Yes, Lent, the time after Christmas and Epiphany but frighteningly begins the second week in February. This is proof that time folds in on itself.

Anyway, on one of the email discussion groups I'm on for sermons and worship there is a guy called Paul Mullen who I think has just about the right entrance level for being honest with the Bible and faith. I've often found lots of chords being struck when I read his insights. The congregation he is with at the moment use adverts to open themselves up to the community and one they are using this Christmas is exactly where I think we are. We are certainly trying to be more honest with our faith through Living the Questions, bible introductions on a Sunday morning and the Christmas cards everyone will have received and has gone through the doors of almost half the parish, that we can't always take things at face value and we accept the book we use called the Bible has been used to harm people as much as heal them. Maybe during Lent we can use this advert idea as an honest way to step into resurrection.

And let me be the first to offer you a happy Easter.

A little light maths

A few of us on the eco-team have been doing some cerebral fitness and tried to workout how much evergy we can off-set when we light the tower. I thought it would be good if you joined in too. Do help out with the maths and suggestions.

We've been told the tower will use 90kWh of power when it is lit (did you see it this evening?). If it is lit for an average of 8 hours a day 365 days a year then it uses 253 kWh (90x8x365)

The sanctuary has 52 bulbs and are on at least 2 hours a week thus using low energy bulbs would save us something like 650 kWh (Instead of 150W bulbs we use now, we could us 30W energy efficient bulbs which would give us the same brightness)

So we've already reduced the carbon footprint by quite a bit more than 2 times (is that right)?

If we get 50 folk to change one high use bulb like living room or hall or kitchen with an energy efficient one and imagine it is lit 365 hours a year (1 hour a day which is possibly quite conservative) then that's something like a saving of 900kWh which means that's reducing the energy footprint by a further 4 times. Correct?

If all that is true then by what percentage or proportion are we reducing our energy use?

Bet you never realised Christianity could be so exciting.