This morning’s run began (as so often) with a half-expectation that I’d just ratchet it down to a walk partway through. I gave it a firm push at the beginning, and wound up not needing to break (although I did raise my rolling average by a bit, since the day I lost from the ‘roll’ was my recent best time). I don’t enjoy all this running even a tiny bit, but I do appreciate the health benefits.
This morning’s sermon went well, even though in this fraught political environment I made the theme ‘hospitality to strangers’. I realised as I preached that my way of addressing charged topics almost always involves weaving them into a richer context, so that I’m not so much haranguing people to welcome migrants as I’m saying, ‘Since this and that, and in keeping with the other, welcoming strangers fits right in with what Jesus teaches about… (or ‘Paul teaches’ or whomever). I know many preachers want to make their single point inescapably clear, so that they focus on justifying their claim and spelling out the consequences; I’m not that preacher, though, since I find that when I preach to possibly-resistant listeners, it helps keep us on the same side if I underscore the extent to which my proposed reading harmonises with a great deal more that they would agree with. In any case, it seems to have gone down well. (Sermon text below the fold.)
Brendan and Rosie came to St Helen’s this morning, bringing the dear, delightful Edith Wren with them. It will be a great treat to live so conveniently near them — and possibly to catch opportunities to visit with Edith while Rosie and Brendan do tedious adult things.
