Thursday, 24 November 2016

OOps It's been a fortnight since I blogged!

OOps It's been a fortnight since I blogged!
Today I was conducting a funeral over at a local crematorium. It was bright sunshine and crisp frost- just perfect for one of the hymns the family had chosen- "I watch The Sunrise lighting the sky,"with the lovely chorus, "For You are always close to me, following all my ways, Lord" Very emotional and moving for the loved ones, but The Lord helped us through it. I don't think there's anything wrong with showing tears when they are genuine, and today I really felt for the husband and daughter who are left without a wife and Mum.
By the grace of God, one of the nephews said to me privately, "Thanks for the service. I appreciated your style!" He could have meant the informal and personal style of the funeral service OR the fact that I try to lighten the mood with a funny moment. I'd been reading Dorothy Paul's autobography recently, so it felt apt , being an east end funeral, to mention the Glesga Fayre , or "That annual fortnight's holiday from the toil of labour, when folks go "doon the watter, or to Millport!"
Kirk Session meeting tonight. Wonder what that will hold?

Friday, 11 November 2016

Best and Worst...

I always think funerals bring out the best and worst of people. The best is the desire to live a better life, as a mourner becomes aware of the brevity of life, and may hear from God an urgent call to " shower the people you love with love" ( words of a James Taylor song) while they are alive!
Bringing out the worst,  happened recently to me when the deceased's Next of Kin hadn't seen his/her relative for thirty years. And the information about his loved one, to be read as their tribute, had been written by the ailing person themselves, who sadly had alzheimer's disease. As a consequence, after the service, an unknown man came up to me and said " hen, ye did a good service, but what you said about Y was utter nonsense!" Apparently there were a number of proverbial "skeletons in the family cupboard," and another version of where the deceased grew up, not on a Wigtownshire farm as I had been told.
Also there was no "purvey" afterwards. ( For any English readers, a "purvey" is the time for refreshment after a funeral service usually held in a home or hotel, where folks can further reminisce about their late relative/friend/colleague. ) This may have been a sign of a family rift, or lack of funds, or both.
So there you go....

Monday, 7 November 2016

Teams-at- Work

What a great day yesterday when the catering, eating, playing,clergy, technical, chatters, music makers, and worship leading folks got together for fellowship at St Enoch's Hogganfield along with St Paul's Provanmill, and St Andrews in the East in Dennistoun. All of us are small congregations but together we swelled !
Theme was "All Saints Day" and we reflected on Hebrews Chapters 11 chunks (heroes and heroines of faith) and a bit of Chapter 12, citing Jesus Himself The Pioneer and Perfecter of our Faith. Those of us IN CHRIST are being cheered on by a grandstand full of those who have fought the good fight and finished their races- our relatives, St Francis of Assisi, Mary Slessor, and many others from every tribe and tongue and nation. what a hooley it's going to be as we all meet up!
One kind person said that I was "infectious." "eh, I said. have I given you measles?" "no," he said. "When you stand up and share God's Word, I just wanna say, yes Dot, yes God, I'll do it!"
All the talented folks shared their talents ( see first sentence)
Food was shared - each church doing a course- great atmosphere.

Then I turned up at a local Sheltered Housing complex, with a gracious Mexican warden, and another wee team sang well known hymns (some with actions- ooh!) and prayed for each other...a drop off of a church member to her home, then I went home, full, not only of food and fun, but of thankfulness too!

Wednesday, 2 November 2016

God is round every corner!

Do some of you remember a golden oldie hymn"God is always near me hearing what I say,
                                                                          Knowing all my thoughts and deeds, all my work & play??"

Used to find these words, not a comfort, but in my imagination and Calvinist psychie, even at aged 5, picturing a scary giant- all- seeing god, like the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk who would stomp on you for the least mistake- terrifying!?
I see a continuity between Old and New Testaments with Jesus as The Lynch Pin. He's hard on sin and the causes of sin but we are His Treasure. ( How He must grieve over the farcical election fiasco in USA just now, and how Middle Eastern folks mouths must be agog with how far The West and "Christians" have fallen, when they laugh at the antics of democratic - I mean in the widest sense, including les Republiciens- leadership) Our Lord hard at the injustices and evil of institutional sin, ( in His days perhaps those Pharisees) within and without our religious edifices...and Yet..such love for people, such longing to see His beautiful character reproduced in us, His Bride...a bride so diverse and different throughout the world, wearing a variety of dresses and intricate cultural accessories but united in preparing to become Christ-like in union with Him.
We get het up about denominations and how we do things better than "them over there.
Grieving God, have mercy on us. Help us to see You round every corner, as I did today. Thank you for connecting me with a real "superhero" working in a quiet backwater. Bless and Grow that person's vision. Bless and enable as well that lady from my past working life, who still remains positive about the dying structures of a crumbling church, and who wishes there were more priority given to pastoral support for those who work within a terminally ill and permanently damaged part of the body.
In the words of the latest recruit to a ministry in Glasgow.."God isn't finished with the Church of Scotland yet." But let's work with  AND FOR, His  LASTING,  Dynamic Creative Spirit Resurrected Life and stop trying to prolong the death, eh???
Words of Jesus (collectively as well as individually) as a Way of Life, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground, it dies alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit." John 12