John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

It Cannot Stop at Soggy Bottoms: Values Beyond Bake Off in an Inhospitable World

... Now poor old church minister Lee Banfield was the first to leave The Great British Bake Off last week after Paul Hollywood said one of his cakes was too dry. He’s been judged and found wanting, he’s been expelled before the first soufflé has had the chance to rise. He’s been told he doesn’t belong in The Great British Bake Off any more and I wonder how he now feels coming back down to earth and - like me - finding that this week’s set bible readings, which we are given to preach on, are all about food preparation and hospitality. ...

- from my cheeky little talk today, It Cannot Stop at Soggy Bottoms: Values Beyond Bake Off in an Inhospitable World. Warning: contains innuendoes.

 

The Re-Creation of the Sunday Girl

... At eighteen you are deep into the process of creating yourself, defining your personality, shaping your future direction. You may not be aware of it but it is a time where the Creator is close to you, close to the heart of that wonderful creative work you are engaged in.

At eighteen you are vulnerable to the spirits which oppresses you, bow you down, stop you becoming the person you were formed to be. You may not be aware of him in the Sunday shopping crowds, or while clicking social media in your room, but Jesus sees you, longs to call you over and say, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment’, to stand you up straight, to complete your creation, to include you in the life of God, life without end.

For the Sunday Girl it can be about so much more than recreation - it can be a day of re-creation. ...

Cue Blondie! My talk today, The Re-Creation of the Sunday Girl.

Writing to get sacked - healing on a sabbath...?

“Any kind of genre, any kind of form, it’s never more interesting than when you’re kind of breaking it in some way, or dismantling it.” - Northampton magus Alan Moore in conversation with Stewart Lee about Lee’s collection of ‘messed around with’ Observer columns, ‘Content Provider’, which with Moore’s forthcoming ‘Jerusalem’ are going to be two wonderful reads this autumn. 
Perhaps improbably, I find so much in what these guys say that unwittingly sheds light on the Jesus-story which I try to illuminate on a weekly basis. Explaining why he decided to subvert the standard columnist form, Lee writes: “The clown theorist Gaulier had once told my friend, the theatre-maker Rob Thirtle, that one should perform comedy as if the next action would result in your death. I decided to write like I was trying to get myself sacked.” 
All this is excellent commentary on every one of those parables of his, and next Sunday’s gospel on what Jesus does a sabbath (Luke 13.10-17).
Moore / Lee conversation clip: http://bit.ly/2aWtOXX
Jerusalem: http://amzn.to/2bkdR33
Content Provider: http://amzn.to/2bnG4Sz

 

Faith is not knowing whether to laugh or cry

"Why did the two old crocks laugh? They laughed because they knew only a fool would believe that a woman with one foot in the grave was soon going to have her other foot in the maternity ward. They laughed because God expected them to believe it anyway. They laughed because God seemed to believe it. They laughed because they half-believed it themselves. They laughed because laughing felt better than crying. They laughed because if by some crazy chance it just happened to come true, they would really have something to laugh about, and in the meanwhile it helped keep them going."

... Fred Buechner quoted in today's tattyfilarious sermon also featuring Ken Dod and Mike Yaconelli, Faith is not knowing whether to laugh or cry.