Day 75 of the End to End in 2019 was through more Robert Burns country arriving at Mauchline, where there is a small Burns museum, by days end. One of my routes was along the River Ayr way, which was lovely: shady woodland, wild flowers and the odd viaduct.
Forward to 2020 and this mornings service on BBC Radio 4 was from members of the Iona Community. The theme was looking to the future hopefully. You can listen to it here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kfwv
The words and music were helpful to me: inclusive, inviting , challenging. A helpful balance of encouragement which is not all about Auld Land Syne and what we miss from the past. One of the phrases that stuck with me was about how the Church needs to reassess its understanding of Jesus mission so that rather than continue to squander our resources on redundant buildings we make the building up of real community our priority. It’s an issue I’ve struggled with in many places during my time in ministry. It’s one of the reasons I found chaplaincy liberating: it wasn’t our building.
One of the things Bambi, or the Mobile Chapel of St Scholastica, represents to me, is the need for people of faith to be on the move. Snails take their homes with them, hermit crabs swap theirs from time to time; these are things we also need to be hopeful about.
(photo: not a hermit crab!)
Past times, Auld Lang Syne, in the song, have a peculiar hold over us, perhaps because we’ve already weathered them. The present seems wobbly enough and the future can seem down right terrifying. But I think of the hermit crab, swapping shells and shuffling on.
(photo: the Crab and Winkle Way is in Kent)
From the remembered bible: We will rise up with wings like eagles, run and not be weary, walk on and not faint.
An alternative translation, crustacean version: We will swap shells like hermit crabs, scuttle on and not be weary, walk sideways and not faint.
God of crab and eagle,
you encourage us to scuttle and scamper:
may we copy crustaceans in our bid to move the world
and create the peaceable kindom.
JAL: 28.06.2020 in Longdendale.