Man of conversation

Jesus always has time for conversation. He has animated conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the man born blind, anyone he meets. He will eat, drink and pass time with everyone: prostitutes, the hated tax collectors, religious leaders, lepers. God's word became flesh - not, initially, in sermons proclaimed from pulpits, in learned books of theology, but in human conversation.
Timothy Radcliffe: Why go to Church? (p53)

Writing

At its best the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain and then - and only then - it is handed to you. From the corner of yur eye you can see motion. Something is moving the air and headed your way.

from the Writing Life by Annie Dillard (p75)

The learned man said
to the almond tree:
Speak to me of God.
And the almond tree blossomed.

Anonymous poem on a poster in the Abbey of Sylvanes, translated by David McAndrew and quoted by Timothy Radcliffe in Why go the Church.

Vocation and mission

All revelation is summons or sending.

Martin Buber

Aha moments

From Friday Mailing:

From Ed Sanders (Richard Cooke says these are ' reflections on his practice as a university teacher. As well as being an outstanding NT scholar himself, Sanders has also produced a rich crop of graduate students - the quote below may show why!’)

"I think that the greatest moment in a teacher’s life is seeing a student have an “ah ha” moment by his or her own endeavor. The instructor’s clever or even memorable phrasing is worth much less. I began my career by overestimating students: I did not realize how much they needed repetition and the practice of describing texts and ideas in their own words. The more patient I was, and the harder I worked at getting them to see things for themselves—rather than offering my own glib solutions of difficulties—the better I was at teaching and the more rewarding I found the activity. The hardest thing to do—at which I often failed in my early years—is to find the students’ own level."

The whole thing is at http://www.duke.edu/web/gradreligion/documents/GPRnewsfall2008.pdf.

To be a pilgrim

The pilgrim resolves that the one who returns will not be the same person as the one who set out.

Andrew Schelling

If we are to defeat the mosquitoes of terrorism we must drain the swamps of poverty and despair, which result in the stones of anger, hatred and violence.

Rt Rev Peter Price in his maiden speech to the House of Lords in which he expressed fear that the church is obsessed with its own internal agenda