It is Saturday morning again and while it feels like I have spent every waking hour thinking about the sermon this week, I have yet to put one word on paper. I am going out in half an hour to Soup and Sandwiches at the Church to raise money for a school in Kenya and will be away for two hours or so. I feel I have to talk about the whole question of Scott Rennie and the call to Queen's Cross and the response and the Assembly......but it is oh so difficult to find the right words. Maybe I am trying too hard.
Both the Acts passage and the verses from John 15 are so right for this week......one of those moments lies before the Church of Scotland and it is so important to the life of the nation that we do the right thing and that we are seen to be in fact the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. One of the greatest influences on my life was the work of Martin Buber. For me his I-Thou concept says clearly how we are to approach each other. If someone is a thou to my I, I cannot help but love them. Of course Buber says that God is I to our thou. 'This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you' How can we exclude anyone, how can we not sit and talk and share until we come to understand each other? We are called to call each other by our names and to know each other intimately and if we do that we cannot talk in the abstract, about 'these homosexuals' or 'these fundamentalists'.
The message of the Bible, the Gospel is so simple, God loves us and wishes to be in conversation with us, God loves us gave us His Son who lived, died and rose again that we might have life and His Son commands us to love one another just the way that he loved us. Simple - it is we who make it difficult.
I am not sure just what I will say tomorrow morning but I hope that there are many prayers being said for all ministers in the Church of Scotland this weekend and for the General Assembly next week. Especially for those whose lives have been hurt the most in these past weeks, for Scott Rennie and his family, for the folk at Queen's Cross and the Presbytery of Aberdeen, some of whom are my friends - John and Maureen. I would pray also for those who have made the complaint, and for those who struggle with scripture

Elaine

It is Saturday 9th May and I think I have managed to post a comment on revgalblogpals. I am so excited. I think it will take a little while to get used to this blogging stuff. Not sure yet what I am doing or supposed to do but I have certainly been reading lots of blogs recently. Mostly because of the current situation within the Church of Scotland. I've found it difficult to focus on worship this week because my mind and heart are full of our situation.
It always seems so clear to me what Jesus teaches us and it is in all things to be understanding and compassionate. I find myself becoming more and more progressive in my theology driven there partly by the lack of grace shown by those on the right wing of the church.
'Abide in me and I in you' and if we do then we are involved in an intricate, intimate relationship in Jesus with the whole world. As Desmond Tutu says 'it is not enought to be your brother's keeper, you must be your brother's brother and your sister's sister'.