Monday thoughts and a sermon
Good day yesterday, Sunday, only two services and both were encouraging and energising (which can't always be said about Sunday worship services!) A simple Holy Communion from the book of Common Prayer (1662) to start my day and a contemporary language Parish Communion for our mid-morning service, two Churches not far apart so no rushing about trying to get there on time, both well attended and both with a feeling of worship and friendship and prayer. Like one of the parishioners said about another event a little while ago 'it's like we turned up and God made sure he was there too'!
I preached on the Old Testament reading which I had preached on before, it felt right to use some material which I had used previously again, which rarely happens. I'll put that sermon at the end of this post with a link to the full text at New Kid Deep Stuff.
Today has been spent mainly in the company of the Rural Dean, who was undertaking the Archdeacon's visitation (ie check up) on his behalf. The formalities all went well, thanks to very organised Churchwardens at the Church we went to, and afterwards the Rural Dean and I spent a couple of hours chatting, having lunch, and generally putting the world to rights. It was a very enjoyable opportunity to spend some time in reflection on my time here, and to have a good natter...
I went into Cambridge this afternoon to visit a Parishioner, it takes some time to get into the hospital, walk to the ward (the place is like a small town) and get out again, but these visits are important and I am glad I went. That took up much of the afternoon and since returning I have done the mundane tasks of the day like cooking some supper, making phone calls and sitting down to blog!
So here's that sermon I was telling you about....
Proper 13 (2008) Year A RCL Principal
Wrestling with Angels
When I was younger – in my early Teens, I think, there was never anything on TV on Saturday’s apart from Grandstand or ‘Dickie Davies’ world of Sport.’ As someone who didn’t appreciate spectator sports, this used to leave me frustrated and annoyed! There was one thing that grabbed my attention, though, (and considering it was 25 years ago now, it must really have grabbed my attention!) and that was the Saturday Afternoon ITV wrestling! This was in the days of ‘Big Daddy’ and ‘Giant Haystacks’ – it mainly involved huge men grunting a lot, running around a ring and jumping on each other!
But it was the sense of theatre, the make-believe aspect of it that really caught my attention. I was naïve enough to think that they might really be fighting – my illusions have since been shattered! But apart from that aspect of the make believe there was a sense of unreality about it – it seemed to be a game, not real, something that didn’t really hurt, despite the moans and groans on the TV. Of course, I now know that none of it was real, and the US wrestlers have taken the whole theatrical aspect of wresting to extremes with ‘WWF’ and ‘WCW’ (ask my nephew if you want to know what that stands for). But wrestling, at least any wrestling outside of the Olympics, has connotations of falsehood, unreality about it. [more]
I preached on the Old Testament reading which I had preached on before, it felt right to use some material which I had used previously again, which rarely happens. I'll put that sermon at the end of this post with a link to the full text at New Kid Deep Stuff.
Today has been spent mainly in the company of the Rural Dean, who was undertaking the Archdeacon's visitation (ie check up) on his behalf. The formalities all went well, thanks to very organised Churchwardens at the Church we went to, and afterwards the Rural Dean and I spent a couple of hours chatting, having lunch, and generally putting the world to rights. It was a very enjoyable opportunity to spend some time in reflection on my time here, and to have a good natter...
I went into Cambridge this afternoon to visit a Parishioner, it takes some time to get into the hospital, walk to the ward (the place is like a small town) and get out again, but these visits are important and I am glad I went. That took up much of the afternoon and since returning I have done the mundane tasks of the day like cooking some supper, making phone calls and sitting down to blog!
So here's that sermon I was telling you about....
Proper 13 (2008) Year A RCL Principal
Wrestling with Angels
When I was younger – in my early Teens, I think, there was never anything on TV on Saturday’s apart from Grandstand or ‘Dickie Davies’ world of Sport.’ As someone who didn’t appreciate spectator sports, this used to leave me frustrated and annoyed! There was one thing that grabbed my attention, though, (and considering it was 25 years ago now, it must really have grabbed my attention!) and that was the Saturday Afternoon ITV wrestling! This was in the days of ‘Big Daddy’ and ‘Giant Haystacks’ – it mainly involved huge men grunting a lot, running around a ring and jumping on each other!
But it was the sense of theatre, the make-believe aspect of it that really caught my attention. I was naïve enough to think that they might really be fighting – my illusions have since been shattered! But apart from that aspect of the make believe there was a sense of unreality about it – it seemed to be a game, not real, something that didn’t really hurt, despite the moans and groans on the TV. Of course, I now know that none of it was real, and the US wrestlers have taken the whole theatrical aspect of wresting to extremes with ‘WWF’ and ‘WCW’ (ask my nephew if you want to know what that stands for). But wrestling, at least any wrestling outside of the Olympics, has connotations of falsehood, unreality about it. [more]
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