Richard's Ramblings

Rev Michelle Cullen is much more organised than I am. For example, she has sent me the names and contact details of all of the folk who will look after the services at Mossman and Port Douglas in a couple of weeks’ time, so that I can let them know what are my scripture readings and theme.  (Because, if you didn’t know, Michelle and I are swapping pulpits for that Sunday, 11 August, each of us having been on Retreat at Cardwell in the week leading up to it,, she south to KUC, me north to  her preaching-hang-outs). Normally, as our musos will tell you with accompanying eye-rolls, I don’t even know what I’m preaching on the following Sunday, leave alone in two weeks, but I thought that I’d better not let the Mossman/Port Douglas side down,  and I discovered that Hebrews 11 is the set epistle, you know, “ … by faith so-and-so did such-and-such … “ (Come on, look it up ). Now it happens that a tad over eleven years ago, I became a citizen of this absolutely gorgeous country of Australia

Three things happened within a short space of time this week. I learned that a friend has been hospitalised, a wise old Anglican priest who told me when I was appointed to my first parish, “Just love ‘em” (he wasn’t so old then, obviously). That pointed me to 1 John 4 vv7 - 21 (“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God”  -  but read the whole passage). And then Leisa sent me a link to our beloved Garrison Keillor  -  http://www.garrisonkeillor.com/running-into-stan-on-sunday/   -  “To change the world, you must start out by loving it”. Kirwan Uniting sisters and brothers, this blog is read by folk who aren’t familiar with our services, so I’m going to tell them about one of our weird (not really weird, it’s very lovely) practices.  The first Sunday (just over a year ago now) I turned up at a KUC service, after the benediction, everyone suddenly stood up in a circle and held hands. I thought, uh uh, they’re going to do the hokey cokey. But they sang, I can’t rem

I’ve joined a gym. After all, I need to get fit and stay fit for Leisa and you all. I had a look at Jetts over the road from the manse, but a) it’s a bit pricey, and b) it’s full of young supermen and wonderwomen, dressed in designer-gym-gear, and who seem to be heaving kiloton weights without breaking a sweat or getting a manicured eyelash out of place. By contrast, Aitkenvale PCYC has special (read “cheap”) prices for old geezers, and the predominant dress code is op shop. There is a problem, in that I haven’t got the foggiest how any of their groovy exercise machines work. A spiritual “gym” can be intimidating, too.  Paul tells Timothy (2 Timothy 2:15)  “   Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth”. But many of us see the spiritual giants about the place, and think that we can never attain their level of theological knowledge or personal holiness of life, and we’re put off any spi

I shout at my computer. Perhaps you do, too. It’s usually when I’m trying to fill in a badly designed online form on an unresponsive site. Of course, the computer doesn’t hear me (well, it does nowadays with Siri and Alexa, but one hopes that they don’t let on). More to the point, the unhelpful airline or government site doesn’t hear me, and they’re the folk who should be getting their digital systems right. At home (Cedar Creek home for a few more weeks), Yannie (pronounced Yarnie, you’ll meet her soon), our German Shepherd, comes straight over to me while I’m screaming into the cyber-void and nuzzles my elbow to say, in her non-verbal doggie lingo, “It’s alright, not worth getting worked up about, I love you even if Coles Flybuys (or whoever) doesn’t.” The compiler of Proverbs (15:1) tells us that a soft answer turns away wrath. Perhaps nuzzling our neighbour’s or a loved one’s or a workmate’s or a fellow church member’s elbow wouldn’t be a good idea, but we can let them