1) Bithrite: Jesus

 "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”   Matthew 1:21

Most people around the world do not know the gender of their unborn baby,  Here is a baby who from the outset has a clear prophecy.  This is important because the step-father must understand what is going on. His role is vital.  

Jesus is a name apparently understood in Hebrew and other cultures, to mean healer, or deliverer/rescuer.

What do we need in this present age?  We have threats all around us.  Terrible wars in Ukraine and Palestine.  The threat of sea level rise.  extinction of many fragile plant and bird species. Disease, and nuclear proliferation,  Do we need a rescuer?  

I understand why many looked to Jesus to save them from their immediate crisis. But Jesus offered rescue from more fundamental problems, namely the problem of relationship with the creator, and from that the link to all things.  Sin, or as Francis Spufford put it, HPtFtu, 'the human propensity to fuck things up" is an old and dusty word.  Modern terms might be:- self destruction, evil motivations, harming, hurting, destroying.  As I try to define sin, I understand why the word persists.

PRAYER:  24 more days to Christmas.  We long for your second coming.

Walking to Church

 These are the things I noticed on my walk to church today.

This is a Victorian gaslight near the museum.  It has been restored beautifully.  I wondered if the pole was modeled on a narwhale tusk.

On New Walk. this old tree looks like it is a survivor.  It has large hanging tumours on its branches.

It is the first day that Leicester Cathedral has opened its doors in about a year.  It still looks like it's a building site on the outside.  

My inspection of the new 'Visitors Centre cum Chapterhouse' being constructed.  The jury is still out. 

These bells have been pretty silent for about a year.

The architects picture from the leicester Mercury

Here is an ancient church.  Constructed on the site of a probable pagan shrine.  Anglo Saxon in origin with lots of roman bricks stolen from the Jewry wall and bath house next door.  It is however one of the reasons that the Roman Wall survives to this day, so it has a symbiotic relationship with the past.  Two Roman columns can be seen at the fore of this picture.

Round the back you can see the section of Roman wall (the Jewry Wall).  

Here is the Guru Nanak Gurdwara across the wonderfully named road called "Holy Bones" from St Nicholas

Friars wharf- down by the River Soar

New development of flats

Interesting new houses. 
Very little garden but great riverside views

Looking back on an urban cityscape.

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The Binary Test

Trivial questions where you have to fall on one side, or the other....(A Binary choice)

1) Tea or Coffee?                                                 1 point for Tea, 2 for Coffee

2) Hot climate or or a cool climate?                    1 Hot climate, 2 cool climate

3) Biscuit or cake?                                               2 Biscuit,  1 Cake

4) Cheese scone or Cornish Cream Tea?             2 Cheese Scone, 1 Cream Tea

5) Luxury car or an eco- small car?                     2 Luxury Car, 1 Eco-car

6) Odd numbers or even numbers?                                     2 odd, 1 for even

7) Holiday in the mountains, or by the sea?         1 Mountains, 2 Sea

8) Dog or Cat?                                                      2 Dog, 1 Cat

9) Choose two courses- main plus

     Starter or pudding?                                          2 Starter, 1 Pudding

10) Early morning riser, or enjoy a lie in?            1 Early Morning, 2 Lie in

11) Opera or Play?                                                1 Opera, 2 Play

12) Salted butter or unsalted?                               2 Salted. 1 unsalted

13) Football or Rugby?                                         1 Football, 2 Rugby

14) Dress up or dress down?                                 2 Dress up, 1 dress down

15) Fiction or non-fiction                                      2 Fiction, 1 non-fiction

16) Ancient Architecture vs 

          modern Architecture?                                  2 Ancient, 1 Modern

17) Steak or Fillet of Fish?                                    2 Steak, 1 Fish

18) Cycling or Swimming?                                   1 Cycling 2 Swimming

19) Light Colours or Dark Colours?                      2 light, 1 for Dark

20) Bath or Shower?                                              1 Bath, 2 Shower

Scoring - This is the all terrifying meometer!

If you have scored 20- you are living a dangerously double life to me (don't worry, this is very unlikely).  If you scored 40- we are are the Sprats (Jack Sprat and his wife).

Birthrite (Advent 2023)

Courtesy of Pampers website

An advent series reflecting on names for the baby yet to be born.  This is my preparation to celebrate the birth of a child born in Palestine about 2023 years ago.

Birthrite: For thousands of years Christians have remembered this time as sacred. This is the adoration of the arrival of a helpless baby, a wonderful person in their own right, but also symbolic of the potential all new life brings. 

Birthrite: Or birth right.  another attempt at living the pure and innocent life intended for all of humanity.  This time it was successful.  The first attempt went disastrously wrong in Eden. 

Brithrite: All parents know they must get ready for the birth of a child.  Their Life will change completely.  On the day before the birth, a mother can go out for a meal, watch a film, and relax with friends.  After the birth every consideration is different. 

Birthrite: (Birthright) Though like many who inherit vast wealth, we do not deserve it, we are inheritors of God's kingdom by virtue of this birth.

 Preparation is important.  We are like athletes getting ready for the Paris Olympics.  We can see the date for our race approaching, and our training schedule is in place. Expectation is mounting.