Seeker

Today is the Feast of the Ascension, also called Ascension Day.  It always falls on the Thursday of the 6th week of the Easter season, 10 days before Pentecost Sunday. Like Easter it is a move-able feast which is one reason why it is so often forgotten and lacks the commercial reminders that alert people to the date of Easter Sunday. And there are no associations with chocolate for Ascension Day. Ascension Day marks the last of the resurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples. So it could be seen as an ending. But as with most endings it also marks a beginning. Ascension Day celebrates not the absence of Jesus but his presence, no longer confined to time, space or a particular locality of ancient Palestine. Jesus is present and potentially available by his Holy Spirit to all people everywhere. My favourite Ascension account is the end of Luke's gospel: "Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. while he was...

6 January is the Feast of the Epiphany which starts the Epiphany season which follows the 12 days of Christmas which ended yesterday. The celebration on 6th January focuses on the story in Matthew's Gospel of strange outsiders from the east, the magi, people obsessed by study and interpretation of the movements of planets and stars. They followed the direction of a new star, expecting to find a new special king. What they found was a toddler with his parents, in an ordinary house in Bethlehem, on what was presumably for Mary, Joseph and their son Jesus, an ordinary day. And they were overwhelmed with joy. Something wonderful was revealed to those mysterious strangers that the locals didn't see. They experienced an 'epiphany', a moment of revelation. They glimpsed the glory of God in the face of the child Jesus. You can read the story in Matthew's gospel here and you might notice that unlike most nativity plays there are no camels, no kings, no stable and the nu...

Have you packed away your Christmas decorations or are you someone who likes to leave them until at least the end of today, the Feast of Epiphany? I took ours down this afternoon, so the house is gradually returning to its normal look. I've posted several times in the past for today's feast on this blog. If you want to take a look you can find links on my Epiphany page .  I wasn't planning to do another post today, but then I came across a story I hadn't heard before. It's about the 'Fourth Wise Man'. Traditionally there were 3 wise men, perhaps only thought of as 3 because they brought 3 expensive gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. The story of the visit of the magi (or wise men) to the child Jesus is only told in Matthew's Gospel and doesn't state a number. There could have been 2, 3, 4 or many more who sought the 'new-born king'. In the story I came across today, the 4th wise man set out but never got to Bethlehem with the others...

Happy New Year to you all, whether you have just stumbled on this blog or are one of my regular readers. There's something odd about New Year's Day. It's a new beginning, but if you live where 1st January is a public holiday and you partied last night, then it's more like a day of recovery than a new start. And this year it's immediately followed by a weekend so many people's new start at work won't be until Monday. If you are in Scotland the new work year start will be Tuesday as you have another Bank Holiday on Monday. Well, Hogmanay is exhausting isn't it? What is different about today compared with yesterday? It is only a date on a calendar, a date when we have reached approximately the same position in earth's journey round the sun as we were in this time last year. Wait a minute, doesn't that happen every day? What's new is we have to start getting used to writing 2016 not 2015 and those of us who are old wonder how ...

5th November seemed such an exciting day when I was a primary school age child. In the few days before 'Bonfire Night' there would be the making of the 'Guy' and the building of the bonfire on which to burn this effigy of Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators of the 'Gunpowder Plot'. At school we usually painted Bonfire Night pictures. At home there would be a box of fireworks bought by my father in readiness for dangerous fun in the garden after dark, when rockets were precariously balanced in milk bottles ready for launching into the night sky. Usually the weather was cold and often wet but it all seemed worth it and surprisingly, but thankfully none of the family suffered burns. Like most pet dogs, the dog hated it. For more of this see 'Please to Remember the 5th of November'.  The remainder of this post is adapted from what I posted last year. In childhood I learned the simplified and Protestant-biased version of the 'Gunpowder Plot' ...

The Halloween celebrations of my childhood seem so innocent in retrospect, as indeed they were.  For a start they were very low-key.  Bobbing for apples in a bucket of water without using hands was about as dangerous as it got at the Sunday School party on 31 October. Well, I suppose a child could have been drowned if there had been someone there of such evil intent or if the supervision had been lax. Passing round a paper bag containing 'eyeballs' to feel in the dark was as scary as it got. And when the light was turned on and the eyeballs revealed to be grapes gave reassuring relief. One year at a friend's house I remember   carving lanterns from swedes (turnips for some of you), standing those outside the door, then running around inside house covered in an old sheet as a group of children pretended to be 'ghosts' to frighten each other. There was much more laughter than fear. The Irish/American custom of 'trick or treat' was completely absent a...

"Please to remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot!" So begins the rhyme I used to chant as a child around this time of year as excitement grew in preparation for 'Bonfire Night' or 'Guy Fawkes Day' or 'Fireworks Day' - take your pick as to what you call it. The bonfire pile was built, a 'guy' created out of old sacking stuffed with straw, fireworks bought and stored in a tin box. In my childhood, it was usually a family fun night in our garden or a neighbour's garden. Rockets were precariously balanced in empty milk bottles, ready to be fired into the night sky, providing the bottle didn't fall over. Catherine wheels were pinned to a fence, ready for their fiery rotation. I liked Roman Candles best - beautiful changing colours without too much scary noise. Bangers I found terrifying - and still do. We children were allowed to hold sparklers, but only while wearing gloves. The dog was shut up in the kitchen, whe...

Only a few more hours left of 2012. I haven't done a reflection on the past year. I haven't done a blog review. I haven't decided on a New Year Resolution or two. Does that matter? Not a bit. I also don't plan to stay up until midnight. In fact I expect the New Year to creep in quietly while I am asleep. Does it matter if I miss the fireworks, or the parties or the watch-night services? Not a bit. A few days ago I met a friend who said something along the lines of, 'with the economic forecast as it is how can we welcome the start of 2013'. My off the cuff reply was, 'I suppose the same way as we welcome every new day throughout the year'. I'm still wondering what I meant. How would you interpret that? Image Credit: John Haslam on Flickr, CC License

photo from commons.wikimedia.org 'Autokuh' by Rolf Hahn This last Monday before Lent is a day for dressing up, having fun and letting your hair down. We've forgotten that in the UK, where it's a normal working day.  Today is 'Rosenmontag' in German speaking countries. It could mean Rose Monday, but some people think the name is a corruption of 'Rasenmontag', from 'rasen' - to race or dash along. Another way to put it is - this is Mad Monday. In Germany, especially the Rhineland, today is the highlight of the pre-Lent 'Karneval' season (which started in November). Many cities have big carnival parades today, often making fun of public figures. This float (from 2006) in Cologne has a motor-cow with a politician milking the motorist. . Although most of the traditions for this Monday have died out in the UK it does have a variety of old names in English: Shrove Monday, Collop Monday, Merry Monday, Nickanan Night , Peasen or Hall Mo...