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Shopping on line..... do it for us and use www.easyfundraising.org
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Wednesday, 13 July 2011
All Aboard!!
, 
Outside St Colman's Church on Yell we have a great zip wire, I just cannot resist chilling out on it!!
Lerwick is going to feel a very different sort of place next week when the Tall Ships arrive. Most people are getting excited about the spectacle and there is certainly plenty going on. Many roads are closed or converted into one way systems. A Park and ride facility is operating from both ends of the town. We will not know what has hit us. it is expecetd 5000 visitors are arriving just to witness this event in these northern isles.
I will post some pictures when things start happening.
I am looking forward to a holiday south soon, and will be around Cambridge in the first two weeks of August, just in case anybody wants to buy me a decent pint (or two!)
Outside St Colman's Church on Yell we have a great zip wire, I just cannot resist chilling out on it!!
Lerwick is going to feel a very different sort of place next week when the Tall Ships arrive. Most people are getting excited about the spectacle and there is certainly plenty going on. Many roads are closed or converted into one way systems. A Park and ride facility is operating from both ends of the town. We will not know what has hit us. it is expecetd 5000 visitors are arriving just to witness this event in these northern isles.
I will post some pictures when things start happening.
I am looking forward to a holiday south soon, and will be around Cambridge in the first two weeks of August, just in case anybody wants to buy me a decent pint (or two!)
Sermon from Sunday
Lerwick July 10th 2011
John Godfrey Saxe's ( 1816-1887) version of the famous Indian legend,
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approach'd the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, -"Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"
The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he,
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
MORAL.
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
Gibt es Gott?
My neighbour at university, A german lecturer in English constantly asked me this question
Is there God? Who is God? Where is God?
All of us I suspect struggle from time to time with the fact or theory of God, and before I get much further on, don’t get too excited because I am only sharing some of my current thoughts, the struggle continues!
How can God be everywhere? How can God know what we are thinking/doing/feeling? How does God know there are thousands dying in Somalia? Does God know there are thousands dying in Somalia, and if he does why does he do nothing about it? Does God know we read the Bible the other week? The questions could be endless.
Some things I suspect are too big to try and comprehend all at once, even for our advanced knowledge and skill. We cannot run the question through Google and choose the answer we easily like.
Paul may be problematic for many people. He writes in code it seems, or is it that he just rambles! He appears to be a male chavenist too!
But he was a thinker and someone who obviously helped many people understand God a little more. He believed that he learnt more about God by looking at Jesus. His letters are littered by references such as “In Christ we are a new creation” “there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ” and again from today’s epistle, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him”
However you take it Paul was “Jesus centered”.
John Taylor (retired bishop of St Albans and a lovely man to boot!) wrote an important book some years ago now called “The Christlike God” Here he expounds the suggestion that to understand God more we should look at Jesus, there is nothing about God that is not shown in Christ … he suggests. Now however we may take it and where we take this suggestion there seems some mileage as far as I am concerned in doing just that.
As the old hymn goes “turn your eyes upon Jesus”.
Francis of Assisi did this and look where that led him! Mother Theresa did this and see again the change..
Paul did it, perhaps reluctantly at first, but again see what difference it made to his Jewish understanding of God.
Jesus taught his disciples to see God as a someone close and intimate, even as Abba. He helped them to see that God in their midst was more than just keeping law. He taught them about God through stories and actions. He showed them how to love recklessly, by doing it himself. He encourages us today in the same way.
Jesus helped his followers to become full and whole people even when society had spurned them or cut them off. He helped people feel that they mattered and were loved.
Even after he was horribly crucified the effects of this man of Nazareth went on and on.
Whatever this leads us onto is “of God” when we learn more about our own humanity and how we resonate with a living God that is beyond our knowledge.
We can reach out and touch the elephant.
If there were a huge elephant in the room today, what part do you think you would be holding onto?
Friday, 24 June 2011
Another lovely evening
Following a visit to the Bonhoga Gallery tonight where a brilliant new exhibition was unveiled by Janette Kerr called "Extreme Wave Theory" I caught this view over the Inn at Westings... of course I had to pop in for a pint too. (That is a pint too, NOT a pint or two!) Check out Janette's website to see some of her work.
Bible Reading Marathon begins
Friday 24th June at 4.25pm St Magnus Church began to read the bible. It is expected (hoped) to take 75 hours to complete and as it end on Monday 27th we begin a service of Thanksgiving for all the work completed on the restoration of the church building. The Bishop of Aberdeen will be here to conclude the reading and to begin the service. This is the first time such an attempt has been made on Shetland and we have many people taking part from all over the islands. Sir john Scott began by reading Genesis chapter one.
Here are some pictures from the opening moments.
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Sunday after Ascension 2011.(address given in church)
Just try to imagine the scene….?????
It is so hard isn’t it to apply many of the thought processes which we naturally put to the gospel readings to the idea of ascension.
We talked on Thursday how in iconography it is actually quite unusual to see the moment of ascension graphically portrayed, the after effects of it yes, but the moment of it .. no.
It is in more modern Western art that we see some very clumsy and pretty well impossible portrayals put to canvas.
But even to imagine the scene makes me stutter. I am fine thinking of the disciples climbing the mountain (I have climbed many mountains, so I know what that is like)…. I am fine with Jesus speaking with the disciples and telling them that they were now going to be the witnesses to these things (it is natural to listen to a teacher and to learn from them) I am fine seeing the disciples gathered in the “room upstairs” where they found fellowship together and prayed together….
… but the bit in between feels a bit of a blur at the best of times.
On Thursday I spoke about the need to explain to people not versed in the bible and the stories of Jesus what is going on without sounding truly unbelievable, incredible beyond belief, or simply to sound stupid.
One of the clear reasons why this is the case, most especially with the Ascension of Christ is that we actually live in a different world.
For those with the experience of warp drive, vulcans and clingons it is not at all strange to be able to be transported down to the planet below and back again at the touch of a button.
To those used to the clash of Time Lords it is not unusual that a police box from the 1950s should be the vehicle to transport people from one age to another.
To those who see the world built of layer upon layer of existence with a hades below and the highest heaven on the very top rung of existence it would be natural to speak of someone important moving into this new state of existence.
But to us today these concepts may be impossible to comprehend.
Following Thursday evenings questions about Ascension, one person described it as a feeling rather than something that can be explained. I think there is something in this, though we can never know what someone else is feeling it needs to be said.
I asked the question also to Rodney, if he could explain the difference between the Resurrection and Ascension, and though I am not going to ask him today it is still a question worth pondering. In thinking about the question a little more myself I find something of a solution in the world where existence is based on layers, and in this world Jesus Resurrection and ascension is a good way of trying to understand the “enthroning of Jesus” in the highest heaven where you have to literally pass through the heavens (layers of heaven) to get there.
This week I have been meeting with couples who are thinking about or preparing for both marriage and the baptism of children. When it comes to the moment of marriage or the time of baptism, those gathered will feel certain things and hopefully they will feel a sense of God and a sense of fulfilment and blessing. They will feel that something is happening.
They will however not know the details of the journey (completely at least, though those close to the family may know of some details) they will not know what it feels like to the couple or family because they are just witnessing the event. Nevertheless it should be evident that Love is real even if you cannot explain it or put it in a test tube.
The Disciples knew what it was to be Loved by Jesus, they knew what they felt as they loved in Return. They knew what it was, to use the wonderful phrase from 1 Peter, “to cast all your anxiety on Jesus, because he cares for you”. The disciples knew what it was to feel the “authority” of Jesus coursing through their very beings after the crucifixion and they knew that this meant for them that Jesus was very much with them and never would leave them. This same Jesus, to confirm this, is enthroned in the highest heaven. That was enough to know,
That was enough to live by.
The disciples, to come back to earth so to speak, devoted themselves to prayer and fellowship, and this showed to the world what it was to be a “follower of Jesus” even though most others may have just seen the same man “crucified outside the city wall.”
So where does this leave us today?
Are we the ones gazing up into the sky and being told “don’t get stuck there” “do not cling to this image”
Just as they were when they gazed into the tomb and were told “what are you doing here? He is not here he is risen…. Why look for the living among the dead?”
Or are we the ones filled with all authority under heaven, who are devoted to fellowship and prayer, and are called witnesses (to these things) to the ends of the earth…. Starting in Shetland?
It is so hard isn’t it to apply many of the thought processes which we naturally put to the gospel readings to the idea of ascension.
We talked on Thursday how in iconography it is actually quite unusual to see the moment of ascension graphically portrayed, the after effects of it yes, but the moment of it .. no.
It is in more modern Western art that we see some very clumsy and pretty well impossible portrayals put to canvas.
But even to imagine the scene makes me stutter. I am fine thinking of the disciples climbing the mountain (I have climbed many mountains, so I know what that is like)…. I am fine with Jesus speaking with the disciples and telling them that they were now going to be the witnesses to these things (it is natural to listen to a teacher and to learn from them) I am fine seeing the disciples gathered in the “room upstairs” where they found fellowship together and prayed together….
… but the bit in between feels a bit of a blur at the best of times.
On Thursday I spoke about the need to explain to people not versed in the bible and the stories of Jesus what is going on without sounding truly unbelievable, incredible beyond belief, or simply to sound stupid.
One of the clear reasons why this is the case, most especially with the Ascension of Christ is that we actually live in a different world.
For those with the experience of warp drive, vulcans and clingons it is not at all strange to be able to be transported down to the planet below and back again at the touch of a button.
To those used to the clash of Time Lords it is not unusual that a police box from the 1950s should be the vehicle to transport people from one age to another.
To those who see the world built of layer upon layer of existence with a hades below and the highest heaven on the very top rung of existence it would be natural to speak of someone important moving into this new state of existence.
But to us today these concepts may be impossible to comprehend.
Following Thursday evenings questions about Ascension, one person described it as a feeling rather than something that can be explained. I think there is something in this, though we can never know what someone else is feeling it needs to be said.
I asked the question also to Rodney, if he could explain the difference between the Resurrection and Ascension, and though I am not going to ask him today it is still a question worth pondering. In thinking about the question a little more myself I find something of a solution in the world where existence is based on layers, and in this world Jesus Resurrection and ascension is a good way of trying to understand the “enthroning of Jesus” in the highest heaven where you have to literally pass through the heavens (layers of heaven) to get there.
This week I have been meeting with couples who are thinking about or preparing for both marriage and the baptism of children. When it comes to the moment of marriage or the time of baptism, those gathered will feel certain things and hopefully they will feel a sense of God and a sense of fulfilment and blessing. They will feel that something is happening.
They will however not know the details of the journey (completely at least, though those close to the family may know of some details) they will not know what it feels like to the couple or family because they are just witnessing the event. Nevertheless it should be evident that Love is real even if you cannot explain it or put it in a test tube.
The Disciples knew what it was to be Loved by Jesus, they knew what they felt as they loved in Return. They knew what it was, to use the wonderful phrase from 1 Peter, “to cast all your anxiety on Jesus, because he cares for you”. The disciples knew what it was to feel the “authority” of Jesus coursing through their very beings after the crucifixion and they knew that this meant for them that Jesus was very much with them and never would leave them. This same Jesus, to confirm this, is enthroned in the highest heaven. That was enough to know,
That was enough to live by.
The disciples, to come back to earth so to speak, devoted themselves to prayer and fellowship, and this showed to the world what it was to be a “follower of Jesus” even though most others may have just seen the same man “crucified outside the city wall.”
So where does this leave us today?
Are we the ones gazing up into the sky and being told “don’t get stuck there” “do not cling to this image”
Just as they were when they gazed into the tomb and were told “what are you doing here? He is not here he is risen…. Why look for the living among the dead?”
Or are we the ones filled with all authority under heaven, who are devoted to fellowship and prayer, and are called witnesses (to these things) to the ends of the earth…. Starting in Shetland?
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