Virtual Methodist

This is to prove that do listen to others... occasionally. A few of my freeloading colleagues (you know who you are) have said that they really like the responsive Psalms I put up under the reading of "A Psalm for Sunday" but that putting them up at 8am on a Sunday morning is too late for them to use them in worship that Sunday, especially when they are based on the lectionary readings, as they often are.  So, to give people a whole week to stumble on them and use them for worship the following Sunday, I am now, when I remember/have time, going to post the relevant responsive Psalm on a Monday morning for readers to use as they wish. Today, ironically, the psalm I've taken from the lectionary this week isn't from the book of Psalms itself but based on the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 12... It is however, effectively a Psalm of Thanksgiving: I will praise you, O Lord: You were rightly angry with me, yet you have averted your anger and come to comfort me. Go...

About halfway through November last year I noticed that various American friends who didn't know each other were posting daily thanksgivings on twitter and facebook... It only took me a few days and a bit of internet surfing to discover that they were all participating in a movement asking for 30 Days of Thanksgiving during November instead of (or as well as) the usual festival of gluttony on the last Thursday in the month. I thought then that it wasn't a bad idea, but that it was a bit late to join in, but it prompted me to engage in 25 Days of Watchfulness throughout in December as a way of observing advent. This year I plan to have another 25 Days of Watchfulness, but that before that I would also observe 30 Days of Thanksgiving here on Virtual Methodist... So, throughout November I'll be posting short blogs that are marks of gratitude to God and to others who are channels of his grace... including this post where I want to put on record my thanks to those who put thi...

A short responsive Psalm used as the call to worship for our Harvest Service this morning: Give thanks to the Lord , for he is good; his love endures for ever. I will give you thanks, for you answered my prayers; you are my salvation and my song. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. You are my God, and I will give thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord , for he is good; his love endures for ever. From Psalm 118 Selah

I was introduced to this short prayer when I had my first family meal with my Scots inlaws many years ago, in Alloway, Ayrshire, the birthplace of the "ploughman poet" Robert Burns. It is known as the "Selkirk Grace" and is often attributed to Burns, but it was apparently in use well before his birth: Some hae meat and canna eat, and some wad eat that want it, but we hae meat and we can eat, and sae the Lord be thankit. So on this Thanksgiving Day, let the Lord be thankit... Today I especially thank God for all my American friends and hope you have a wonderful day of celebration. ps. Both today and yesterday's blog-posts have been sitting in my archive as scheduled posts for the past year, and so were as big a surprise to me when they appeared as they may have been to everyone else given my paucity of posts this year. An interesting addendum to them is, however, that this year as part of our community project we are having our own "Ulster-Sc...

The discipline of a national day of thanksgiving is a worthy one, and an American import that I wouldn't mind us adopting on this side of the Atlantic... so long as it isn't accompanied by the ludicrous overindulgence with which we already mark the birth of Christ. I don't buy the origin myths of this day, but I suppose it adds a little historical colour (or should that be color in this case) to the whole thing... Last year a friend posted the following video by Darrell Scott on facebook, at the time I said, being an outider to the USA and its culture I would be wary of posting such a powerful critique of American society at such a precious, if not sacred time for American citizens... but it is a critique that needs to be heard. Around the same time last year I had been reading Rob Bell's "Jesus Wants To Save Christians" , and when reviewing it I said that many had suggested that he should stick to theology and not get political, meaning "not critici...

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won’t survive the week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world. If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, youare among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. If your parents are still married and alive, you are very rare. If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not. If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them or even touch them ...

Last night the snow came. Suddenly. Unexpectedly. The weather forecast 2 hours previously hadn't predicted it. I left the house and everything was normal but within 2 minutes and a mile from home 2 inches of snow was on the ground and it was blowing in horizontally. Later it took us an hour to make the journey home from Holywood, a trip that would normally take 10 minutes at most. On the way we encountered many cars slipping and sliding on the ungritted roads... particularly 4x4s, confirming my worse suspicions that many people who buy such vehicles for town driving don't really know how to drive them! Even at 11pm there were lots of people out having snowball fights, making snowmen and even a few parents dragging young children along on sleds. This produced an unaccustomed keeness in my wife to plan to go out sledging with the boys at Stormont this morning. Given that, at that moment I was concentrating hard on keeping the car on the road and aching because the cold had got i...