IKEA

A new desk seemed a very good idea, especially as it had attached shelves and was just the right size to replace the cluttered arrangement in my study.  And it was offered to me free via freecycle so I brought it home. I knew about IKEA and their construction system of little bolts tightened with an allen key. This was going to be a piece of cake.

The previous owner had disassembled it carefully and gave me all the bolts in a neatly sealed bag. He even took some photos of him disassembling it to help me as I came to put it back together.

Now unfortunately there was a delay between collecting said item of Ikea furniture in pieces and the time when I could put it together due to the late collection of a filing cabinet that now belongs in another place.

Said filing cabinet now collected I decided it was time to do the grand assembly and reorder the study. However, during the delay I had cleaned out my email inbox and many old files from freecycle had been deleted. (If you sign up to freecycle then you will get many dozens of emails a day and it is necessary to delete the backlog regularly to keep your computer hard drive from getting clogged.)  And to my horror I found all the photos of the dissasembly process and even the picture of it complete had been lost in the purge.

So what was to have been a simple construction became a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle as I had to work out from first principles what was likely to go where and which bolts to use in which place.

The assembly took much longer than planned but now is thankfully complete. However I have three bolts left over and I cannot see any vacant holes where they might fit. This is indeed a puzzle! Ikea wins.

Of course this whole exercise could be said to be a diversionary activity as I have a sermon to write!

The spirit of Christmas

This poem is very sentimental but it 

seems appropriate for use at

 the nursing home service later this week....
 

The Spirit of Christmas
Anon
 
I have a list of people I know
All written in a book
And every year at Christmastime
I go and take a look
And that is when I realise
That those names are a part
Not of the book they're written in
But of my very heart
For each name stands for someone
Who has crossed my path some time
And in that meeting they've become
A treasured friend of mine
And once you've met some people
The years can not erase
The memory of a pleasant word
Or a friendly face
So when I send a Christmas card
That is addressed to you
It's because you're on that list 
Of folk I'm indebted to
And you are one of many folk who
In times past I've met
And happen to be one of those
I don't want to forget
And whether I have known you for 
Many years or few
In some way you have a part in
Shaping things I do
This, the spirit of Christmas, that
Forever and ever endures
May it leave it richest blessing
In the hearts of you and yours. 

Incarnation

What is missing from our tableau in the stable? ( notes from my talk at the nativity service)

Smell is very important sense. Some smells can take you right back to a particular place or person.

Cycling along in Mallorca on narrow lanes beside villas hidden behind high hedges I started thinking abut swimming lessons at primary school and the old town public baths - I kept getting whiffs of ammonia smell – it was all the swimming pools in the gardens we were passing…those smells took me back

Nativity tableau missing something – smell... reality of being in a stable it was smelly – they don't have scratch and smell Christmas cards thankfully!

Think of the animal smells

The noises the grunts and heavy breathing

Then the birth messy noisy as that often is.. and there would be the natural smells associated with birth that are clinically sanitised these days so that people do not notice them.

We come looking for glory and all we see in the stable is ordinariness mess and smells

Where is the glory? The wonder the magic?

Well the glory is there and is seen in the ordinary as it always is

Wonder is seen in the eyes of the mother of a new born as she looks at the new little person who was so recently hidden inside her very self...

The special people who adorn the nativity sets in their blue robes and crimson - well they are there but much more ordinary than the great artists make them out to be in the classical paintings - they were ordinary working people

Dirty smelly shepherds straight in from their work still smelling of animals and wood smoke and not having washed since coming down off the hills

There were kings or wise men whichever they were – but they too would be dirty, smelly, having been on the road for many months, they might have first century equivalents of aftershave and deodorant but they would sill have an aroma of camels about them!

They thus sum up the meaning of incarnation the holy God the divine coming to earth and being with us as humans – and it has to get down among the reality of the smells and the mess in the midst of life if God really is part of life rather than just pretending.

The incarnation God became flesh and dwelt among us is only real when we can get round the amazing idea that the one who made the heavens and the earth came to earth and appeared in this very humble ordinary beginning.

If we think of the smells then we earth the story in the real world.

This wasn’t what many people expected and many people since have really struggled – look at the jewelled and gilded cathedrals people have made to worship this birth. Its so difficult for us to accept the ways of God who does big things in unexpected places and with unexpected people. What is God doing in you and me today? are we looking in the wrong places to see god at work or should we just look close to home in the ordinary things and places around us?

The word we use for all this is incarnation. God becoming flesh and becoming one of us.

So Jesus came to a world of smell and working people and ordinariness. This is a crucial theological fact for me about the Christmas story. That Jesus is found in our lives mixing in the ordinary events that we get involved in. There are people who say keep religion out of politics but they are really saying Jesus has no place here in this or that part of life.

Incarnation is about God, and thus the church, his body, being alongside people when they are hurting most, as many are doing right now. It is about being the voice of the voiceless, the loyal and courageous opposition to wrong-headed ideas and the equally loyal and courageous supporter for right-headed ideas, wherever the ideas come from. It is about refusing to limit work to those who come looking for spiritual help, because we know that the God who was incarnate in Jesus went about inaugurating the kingdom, which was and is a reality whether or not people acknowledge it.

You can see people fighting against the idea of incarnation when councils, despite all the mockery about political correctness, still try to ban Christmas - and a vote for a winterfest with no room for God no room for Jesus . . .

There was no room at the inn. The incarnation shows that Jesus came anyway! The incarnation shows a Jesus who will always come to be with us, bringing in himself the fullness of God. The message of Christmas is that Incarnation happened then and as a result Jesus cannot be kept out of life. And wherever we go, in whatever dark and seemingly Godless corners of the world He is with us! And that is something great to celebrate!

TIMEKEEPING

I wear a wristwatch. I rely on it all the time. Yesterday I realised something was wrong when I got on to the railway platform, and found the train I had expected to be just in time for had left five minutes previously. I had to get a later train. And all today it has continued to lose time.
A watch that does not keep time is worse than useless. It confuses. I know people who keep their watch permanently on the wrong time so that they are always early for an appointment. That is OK but when a battery is tired it just keeps loosing time and you never know how much it will be out!
I have found an old wind up watch to wear until I get a new battery but I don't know if it keeps good time or not! It is probably worse to have a working watch that you have no idea if it can keep time than one that you know is wrong!
Now that all phones and other devices have accurate time keepers built in will wristwatches become obsolete - or just be a piece of fashion jewellery and, like sundials, no longer be used for their designed purpose. Now sundials.... there is an idea. I could wear a small sundial on my wrist and would be able to know the time at least once or twice a week if the sun shone that often!

Dark chocolate

In praise of dark chocolate

I like chocolate and now I have read an article that encourages me to eat more of it - for the good of my health! It sounded so convincing I wondered if I should go down to the surgery and ask my doctor for a supply on prescription (fair trade of course!)

The article promised that dark chocolate (and only dark chocolate with over 60% cocoa solids) can boost your brain while protecting your heart from disease, your mind from depression, your body from cancer and keep your brain agile, countering the effects of aging. It can also help keep both your blood pressure and bad cholesterol level low!

The chemistry was beyond me but apparently dark chocolate contains theobromine, magnesium, epicatechin, monoamine oxidase inhibitors which allow the levels of serotonin and dopamine in the brain to remain higher for longer and it is rich in flavonols (antioxidents that attack free radicals. In fact it is a much more powerful antioxidant than the fruits and vegetables or even green tea noted for these properties.) It is also rich in phenylethylamine which activates neurotransmitters in your brain.

Those chemical names mean little to me but there are several peer reviewed papers that describe the various ways that darkchocolate helps your health. All this applies only to the dark stuff - if you are a dairy milk fan this does not apply!

I have read enough. I am convinced and I know what will be on my shopping list next time I go in a sweet shop!