Embrace the disillusionment and rant on. Reading the songs of ascent in sequence as a journey that started with a rant and moved through disillusionment into praise, then back into disillusionment and back into praise again. If you think you know how spiritual journeys are supposed to go then either these psalms have got it …
Continue reading Psalms of ascent: What a long strange trip it’s been*
Reconciling God's judgement and God's grace God's judgement means that sin will not go unpunished.God's grace means that we do not get what we deserve.God's love means that we are all cared for. How do we reconcile these things? God’s judgement. God's judgement has traditionally been seen in terms of Hell fire, I have no …
Reboot and rebuild - Resist and persist Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield, Sunday 13th September 2020 As far as the Pape household are concerned as our Granddaughter has started school this week I have taken on a new role, of twice a week child collector, taking over from being the full day child minder on Mondays …
The end of the road We are there. We have got to the end of the psalms of ascents. The pilgrims on their journey to Jerusalem have been singing these songs on the way, now they are at their destination, Jerusalem. This may be the last of the psalms of ascents, but it is not …
People are still scared, some are frustrated. How long are these restrictions to our freedom going to go on. I am not being pessimistic here, but there are people with unrealistic expectations, talking about us coming out of the Covid-19 crisis as if it is already happening, we are in the first stage of controlling …
Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield, Sunday 6th September 2020 Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield from Trinity Street. A good week. The extra lockdown restrictions on our side of Kirklees were lifted on Wednesday, which coincided with us looking after our granddaughter for two days. So a visit to the Lindley Children's Bookshop, and then the day after …
Unity not uniformity Politicians like to talk about freedom and unity. Freedom is often the freedom for their supporters to ride roughshod over everyone else,and unity means everybody doing as they tell them to do. Ironically the ones who talk most about freedom are often those whose politics are the most authoritarian. Psalm 133 A …
Global warming is a thing, but the Earth has been a lot warmer in the past. It is thought by some geologists that we are in an interglacial period of an ice age, so it is possible that it will be a lot cooler in the future too when the ice returns, putting us into …
Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield, Sunday 30th August 2020 Events of the week here in the Pape household. Last Monday was the last one where we will be tegularly looking after our granddaughter all day. Today is a Bank Holiday and then she starts school, something she is really looking forward to. Actually we got a …
Promises Straight after a psalm by David we have one about David. As the pilgrims approach Jerusalem they look back at the founding of the Temple by David. Or at least the previous temple. The psalms of ascent were compiled after the Jews had returned from the Babylonian exile, although like the previous psalm, thet …
Making an ass of myself 