Monthly Archives: January 2006

Father I place into your hands

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It’s been a much busier week than I was expecting – I have a ‘backlog of blogging’ to catch up on! which probably won’t be done until next week, but never mind.

One thing though. Lovelock’s comments induced another bout of doomer pessimism in me, which took a few days to shake off. Inevitable worrying, worrying, worrying, dog with his bone trying to crack the marrow….

And I remembered taking my grandmother’s funeral a few years ago: a lady of profound and long-term faith (a church warden for fifty years!!) and one of the hymns she had chosen for the service was a ‘children’s hymn’ – but it strikes me more and more profoundly as time goes on:

Father, I place into Your hands
The things I cannot do.
Father, I place into Your hands
The things that I’ve been through.
Father, I place into Your hands
The way that I should go,
For I know I always can trust You.

Father, I place into Your hands
My friends and family.
Father, I place into Your hands
The things that trouble me.
Father, I place into Your hands
The person I would be,
For I know I always can trust You.

Father, we love to see Your face,
We love to hear Your voice.
Father, we love to sing Your praise
And in Your name rejoice.
Father, we love to walk with You
And in Your presence rest,
For we know we always can trust You.

Father, I want to be with You
And do the things You do.
Father, I want to speak the words
That You are speaking too.
Father, I want to love the ones
That You will draw to You,
For I know that I am one with You.

The Man comes around

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And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder:
One of the four beasts saying: “Come and see.”
And I saw. And behold, a white horse.

There’s a man goin’ ’round takin’ names.
An’ he decides who to free and who to blame.
Everybody won’t be treated all the same.
There’ll be a golden ladder reaching down.
When the man comes around.

The hairs on your arm will stand up.
At the terror in each sip and in each sup.
Will you partake of that last offered cup,
Or disappear into the potter’s ground?
When the man comes around.

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin’.
Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum.
Voices callin’, voices cryin’.
Some are born an’ some are dyin’.
It’s Alpha’s and Omega’s Kingdom come.

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree.
The virgins are all trimming their wicks.
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree.
It’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Till Armageddon, no Salaam, no Shalom.
Then the father hen will call his chickens home.
The wise men will bow down before the throne.
And at his feet they’ll cast their golden crown.
When the man comes around.

Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still.
Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still.
Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still.
Listen to the words long written down,
When the man comes around.

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin’.
Multitudes are marchin’ to the big kettle drum.
Voices callin’, voices cryin’.
Some are born an’ some are dyin’.
It’s Alpha’s and Omega’s Kingdom come.

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree.
The virgins are all trimming their wicks.
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree.
It’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

In measured hundredweight and penny pound.
When the man comes around.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts,
And I looked and behold: a pale horse.
And his name, that sat on him, was Death.

And Hell followed with him.

Johnny Cash, who I’m also listening to a lot at the moment…

Long day

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OK, end of a long day, enjoying my G+T (the taste for which was one of the byproducts of training in a theological college….) and musing on several things.

The first is that my study is way overdue for a tidy up – might get a chance for that tomorrow.

The second is that I’m seriously knackered – I’ve tried to minimise the number of 4 service Sundays I take, but I couldn’t avoid this one – so 3 HCs this morning (1 sermon), then Evensong tonight (second sermon, written this afternoon!), plus funeral visits etc – January being peak-funeral season – I feel a little stretched.

Third: might post my sermon from tonight (tomorrow, not now). Links in with lots of stuff, but I’m particularly thinking about a former tutor at the moment, and the influence he’s had on me (huge).

Fourth: the reason why I was thinking about that tutor was because of a conversation about Gandhi that has started in ROE-T – that’s RunningOnEmpty-Theology, the yahoo group that I’ve established, please join!!! – and thinking that he really knew what he was doing. In a sense, the direction I’m moving in (see this post) is a ‘reverse Gandhi’ – trying to resist the imperialism of oil culture from within. Not sure what the equivalent of a dhoti would be for an Anglican Rector, but I’ll keep thinking ;o)

Fifth: still want to write more about the books I read. There’s a review of the Cluetrain Manifesto bubbling away, and one or two others. But in the meantime, I’ve put a ‘Bookshelf’ in the side bar – should be there if you scroll down – so you can see the sorts of things I’m reading at the moment. I’ll try and keep it up to date.

Sixth: you’ll also see the ‘CD rack’. Ripping all my CDs onto my hard disk has allowed me to get plugged back in to music – it used to be absolutely central to my life, then other things kicked in, now it’s coming back. I’m particularly enjoying Coldplay at the moment, despite an initial negative reaction, whilst in a car with my friend PB… who should note the whole list 😉

Seventh: I dunno. That’s about enough for one night. Time to veg out in front of the telly.

Sweet dreams!

World War Three, again

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Good article by Niall Ferguson here.

Interesting to observe the issue of Iran climbing up the agenda of the news bulletins. It has higher to go yet. The trouble is that the world needs Iran (its oil and gas) more than Iran needs the world, so sanctions – even if they get applied – will be meaningless and cosmetic, further reinforcing Admadinajad’s beliefs that the West is craven and that Allah will support him in his actions.

I’m more convinced than ever that the situation is fubar, but I’m a bit more optimistic that it won’t lead to WW3, simply because I can see Russia and China benefiting more from sitting on the sidelines (possibly selling arms) while the US (and UK) get bogged down in very serious ground warfare, and while their economies go into meltdown.

So that’s the good news….

The more I ponder it, the more I think an attack on Iran will be the same as the Titanic hitting the iceberg. There will be a big jolt, and then things will stabilise, and the powers that be will reassure everyone that it’s all OK, nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, the ship of oil consumption begins to sink, and all that has been built on top of it will sink with it.

Ironically, it might make all the Peak Oil worrying completely irrelevant – the West shifts on to non-oil based economies (for global warming concerns as well, for example) – and by the time the oil supply situation has stabilised, we’ve moved off and away – and nobody cares that the oil supply has passed its peak. Oil will again be cheap, because nobody will want it.

Well, that’s me trying to be optimistic!!

The Edge

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This was rather good, better than expected, but then I hadn’t realised that it was a David Mamet script, and directed by Lee Tamahori. Largely sustained by a good Hopkins performance, and Baldwin wasn’t too much of a plonker.

Not a masterpiece – too many incongruities and ‘you can’t really expect me to believe that’ moments, especially the bearskin(!) – but a good evening’s relaxation. Recommended if that’s what you’re after.

How to cope with your mother-in-law

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The reading for today’s communion service was Mark 1 29-34, and I got to thinking about what is making Simon’s mother-in-law unwell. I have a suspicion it was what happened a few paragraphs earlier – Jesus comes out of the wilderness and calls Simon to follow him – and Lo! – Simon does just that.

Now if you’re a good mother, and you see your son-in-law go off following some no-good preacher what’s your first thought going to be? Who’s going to look after my daughter and the family!? And in a situation where you have absolutely no separate power of your own, your world faces imminent collapse, and so you withdraw into yourself, you confine yourself to bed with a fever.

Which, of course, just makes things worse. Not only are you as a woman rather dodgy and untouchable, but now you are ill and you have all the social ostracism associated with uncleanliness to cope with. So nobody’s going to come near you and your stuck stewing in unpleasant juices.

What is a good son-in-law to do? There is only one thing to do: bring Jesus into the conversation. Miracle of miracles – Jesus touches the mother-in-law – hey he’s not such a no-good preacher after all – would you like a cup of tea my dear?

That’s the solution to family problems. Bring Jesus into the conversation.

And pray :o)