God of the Sparrow

A song I'm hoping we can use on Sunday. Seems 'reformed' in reflecting God's majesty and 'wholly otherness'

Towards Reformation

Some time back I was in the church office when the senior minister came through looking for someone to preach on October 26th - as both ministers would be away at a national church professional development event. "Sure - I'll do it" I am still very much a P as the ideas have been simmering away since then but nothing much on paper!

I have found some great resources including bulletin sheet cover, lots about Calvin, and the usual vast array at textweek. It all leaves me wondering about the women whose stories I haven't really found as yet. Like Katharina von Bora (pretty dodgy source I know - but it provided the best stimulus to creative thought). This one's possibly a bit better. I wonder:

What was it really like to marry a man 16 years older than yourself? When you had left the family home at the age of 5 when your mother died. To live with nuns.

How did you learn the ways of love? To parent and to raise a family? To marry a man who gave and gave, yet still expected you to somehow find food in the empty cupboard. And to watch your daughters die. One in infancy and the other only just into her teens - although you wouldn't have any idea what I mean by that. Thirteen would be almost adult in your time I guess.

How precious your Margarethe must have been to you after that. I wonder were you overprotective of this one remaining daughter? Or did you distance your self, fearing that she too would predecease you?

And no mother to talk to about your pain. My heart aches for you.

Then to lose that generous and careless giver of a husband with teenage sons still to raise. Not to mention little Margarethe just 12 years old.

What an amazing woman you must have been. Brewing beer! Buying a farm and doing the best that you could. More than anyone could ask.

So determined to keep your family together. At the cost of your own resilience. And still having to face your own personal financial resources crash. Which forced you to leave your home.

Did you know you were dying in the time after the coach incident? What did you still want to do? What did you say to your surviving children?

Could you see even then that the boys were going to complete their education well and serve their communities?

• Martin sharing his father's passion for theology, but more introverted than extroverted and academic rather than practical.
• Hans ever the diplomat - a successful lawyer advising the court. Funny that is just what his grandfather wanted your Martin to do.
• And Paul a doctor. Was he the apple of your eye? He seemed to have your attention to people and to relationships.
  

Was Margarethe already being courted by her Prussian gent in those last days of yours on earth? You know she won his heart and she has descendants living today so many centuries after you. One blessing is that you did not live to see the death of your remaining daughter before her 40th birthday.

You missed, though, the blessing of boisterous visits from Paul's large family. Six little ones Katharina. They would have loved you and you would have seen with your own eyes the joy of extended family life. But that was not to be.

Katharina I salute you. Woman of faith and free thought. Strong-minded woman giving more than anyone could ask to a passion for truth.

You lost so much in your life.

I wonder - what did you gain?

Day out

A pleasant drive yesterday to the Penrith Regional Gallery. I now know where the community of Emu Plains is (just below Emu Heights). The Emu Plains train leaves from the same platform as mine but I was never sure exactly where it was. But a highlight of the afternoon was the Strictly Samoan exhibitions. Followed by takeaway lunch on the banks of the Nepean river. Aussie Aiga consisted of multiple family portraits in all sorts of settings from very formal to very informal. Another collection of people all tattooed by the same traditional artist (with a video of the tattooing process playing in the gallery). Just the day before I had commented that I was rather homesick for Pacific culture, which is much more evident in NZ than here across the Tasman. So a delight to see an article in Saturday's newspaper about the excellent showcase of Samoan art that Penrith is hosting. Well worth a visit: actual or virtual :-)

Coin toss

Songbird posted the RevGalBlogPals Friday Five this week. And she's a great early bird so thankfully I can complete it before I go to bed - thanks! Lectionary based, this is what she says:

Well, Gals and Pals, this weekend we'll be rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and that has me thinking about coinage.

1) When was the last time you flipped a coin or even saw one flipped in person?
It must be a while ago! I can't remember.
2) Do you have any foreign coins in your house? If so, where are they from?
We have a 'funny money' jar where we stash the coinage we bring back from other places. Of course now living in Aussie our familiar NZ currency is in the jar, along with coins from several Pacific nations, Italy, UK and even some US pennies and dimes. My sister has been much more creative with her jar. It formed an endless stream of rainy day activities when her children were small. They could find all the coins with a 20, or a 5 or whatever on them. Or sort them into the country they came from. Or sort them by size or colour. Or year. Then look up information about the countries, write stories, make rubbings of the coins. Mine just sit in the jar.

3) A penny saved is a penny earned, they say. But let's get serious. Is there a special place in heaven for pennies, or do you think they'll find a special place in, well, the other place?
I'm not sure about heaven but these coins have a special place in my memory, and in our faith tradition. The countries I have lived in abandoned the 1c piece long ago (NZ has also abandoned the 5c piece). But the memory lives on. I would have a penny for the Sunday School offering. And heartily sang 'Hear the pennies dropping, listen while they fall, every one for Jesus, He shall have them all' or sometimes my favourite 'Give said the little stream...as it hurried down the hill'. For the rest of the week, with a penny you could buy 6 aniseed balls, 4 of most other lollies, but only one gobstopper. My grandmother has a brooch made out of the tui on the penny. Not quite as elaborate as this one but still a classic cut coin piece. And pennies certainly feature in the traditional Christian stories - one can buy two sparrows, and a widow was commended for giving two of them - all that she had.

4) How much did you get from the tooth fairy when you were a child? and if you have children of your own, do they get coins, or paper money? (I hear there may be some inflation.)
I think we got threepence or sixpence. My children got 50c for the first ones - then started to become aware of market value which was a $1 coin for 'small' ones and $2 coin for molars.

5) Did anyone in your household collect the state quarters? And did anyone in your household manage to sustain the interest required to stick with it?
Suspect this is a geocentric question. Just looked up what it is all about. I would not have the patience to collect 50 quarters over 10 years! Even as a J.

Personality change!

A young member of our family came home excited from school after completing a Myers-Briggs and got her Mum and Dad completing the on-line questionnaire. I'm not who I thought I was! No longer an INFP I've become a 'J' INFJs are quite rare beasts apparently. Less than 1% of the population. And "in fact, sometimes mistaken for extroverts because they appear so outgoing and are so genuinely interested in people." But I'm in good company. With John Calvin, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Nicole Kidman and Nathan the prophet of Israel (where do they come up with these lists???????). It was fun to revisit this. Even in the rather dubious on-line format. And I can of course no longer say "Just what I'd expect of a J - except to myself!

Let me tell you a story ...

As Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee he saw two brothers

Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother

Casting their nets into the sea, for they were fishermen

Jesus said, "Follow me. and I will make you fish for people"

Immediately they left their nets and followed him

Going on from there, Jesus saw two other brothers

James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, sitting in a boat with their father Zebedee

They were mending their nets

Jesus called to them

Immediately they left their nets, and their father, and followed him

Just as a little test I have tried writing out one of the stories our small but keen group learned at a workshop with Pam Faro on Saturday. This woman is amazing. Her website says she "will travel most anywhere to help you experience the power of storytelling!" Based in USA, she's visiting Australia for a Network of Biblical Storytellers conference in Victoria in a couple of weeks. Middle of school holidays was not the ideal time for a workshop, but ten keen participants grew in faith and understanding under her gentle encouraging and skillful guidance.

Developmental snapshots ex libris

Christine invites us to her 25th Poetry Party and over a year of poetic inspiration! She writes

I had no idea when I began these how meaningful they would become to me and to those of you who participate by writing or reading. Thank you for the wonderful creative community that forms around each of these.

I select an image and suggest a title and invite you to respond with your poems, words, reflections, quotes, song lyrics, etc. Leave them in the comments or email me and I’ll add them to the body of the post as they come in along with a link back to your blog if you have one (not required to participate!) I’ll add your contributions all week and then I will draw a name at random on Friday morning from everyone who participates and will send the winner a special prize in honor of my 25th Poetry Party — a signed copy of my new book Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening and Awareness . Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog and encourage others to come join the party!

This week’s theme is simple, I invite you to write a poem celebrating the gift of the written word in your life.

The photos below were taken this past summer in the library at Melk Benedictine Abbey in Austria (to see the library, click on the link in the righthand sidebar that says “The Abbey museum, marble hall, library, church” and then click “Library.”)

From their website: “In the order of importance of the rooms in a Benedictine monastery, the library comes second only to the church” –another reason I love the monastic tradition!

Developmental snapshots

Books from long ago

Grandparents' bay window seat

Christmas afternoon

Aunty Ruth's Bible

Write and draw in my notebook

as I daily read

Box came from city

while I was at school today

Read until dinnertime

D H Lawrence is

required reading for English

Hide it under bed

(what would Mother say?)

Behavioural Science

Grown up now share books with Dad

Discuss not agree

(and that is fine)

Long distance plane trip

Wonder at power of fiction

almost forgotten

Dust coated bookshelves

Emptying parental home

cherish memories

Grandmother's Bible

gift to highland teenage lass

Treasure here and now