Blessing to Follow

Tom Gordon

Description

A collection of original and contemporary parables - the first of a series of three - using the framework of the Christian Year to offer a story for every week, and a few more besides.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Ecumenism

Informations

• Publié par: Wild Goose Publications
• Date de parution: 13 novembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781905010745
• Langue: English

Extrait

A blessing to follow
Contemporary parables for living
Tom Gordon

WILD GOOSE PUBLICATIONS
Copyright © 2009 Tom Gordon
First published 2009 by Wild Goose Publications, 4th Floor, Savoy House, 140 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3DH, UK. Wild Goose Publications is the publishing division of the Iona Community. Scottish Charity No. SC003794. Limited Company Reg. No. SC096243. www.ionabooks.com
ePub:ISBN 978-1-905010-74-5 Mobipocket:ISBN 978-1-905010-75-2 PDF:ISBN 978-1-905010-76-9
Cover photo © Mary Gordon
The publishers gratefully acknowledge the support of the DrummondTrust, 3 Pitt Terrace, Stirling FK8 2EY in producing this book.
All rights reserved.Apart from reasonable personal use on the purchaser’s own system and related devices, no part of this document or file(s) may be reproduced or transmitted in any form,by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher
Non-commercial use: The material in this book may be used non-commercially for worship and group work without written permission from the publisher. Please make full acknowledgement of the source, i.e. cite title and author of extract, title and author of book, publisher, address and date of publication. Where a large number of copies are made, a donation may be made to the Iona Community viaWild Goose Publications, but this is not obligatory. For any commercial use of the contents of this book, permission must be obtained in writing from the publisher in advance.
Tom Gordon has asserted his right in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
To
Alexander William Day,
my first grandchild, whose birth has been an inspiration, and to whom I hope I can tell many, many stories.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1    Anticipation First in Advent
2    Angus gets ready Second in Advent
3    Prepared Third in Advent
4    The best Christmas ever Fourth in Advent
5    The Nativity Play Christmas
6    Why? First after Christmas
7    Rodney’s carnation Epiphany
8    A little liturgical twist Baptis ofourLord
9    The wedding day Second after Epiphany
10    The shoes Third after Epiphany
11    The basket-maker Fourth after Epiphany
12    Chosen Fifth after Epiphany
13    The climb Transfiguration
14    Beauty from the ashes Ash Wednesday
15    The theft First in Lent
16    Bessie’s plan Second in Lent
17    The rowan tree Third in Lent
18    Elvis leaves the building Fourth in Lent
19    Introductions Fifth in Lent
20    Happiness Passion/Palm Sunday
21    Sceptical Monday of Holy Week
22    Mrs Garrity’s Monday morning Tuesday of HolyWeek
23    Betrayal Wednesday of HolyWeek
24    Beyond words Maundy Thursday
25    Murdo the story teller Good Friday
26    Puzzled Holy Saturday
27    Janie’s long wait Easter Day
28    The gate First after Easter
29    Billy’s box Second after Easter
30    Duncan Third after Easter
31    A friend in Id Fourth after Easter
32    Monkey Fifth after Easter
33    Invisible to the eye Ascension Day
34    Through clouds and sunshine Seventh after Easter
35    One over the eight Pentecost
36    The milking-stool Trinity
37    New life Tenth Sunday after Easter
38    Velda’s shoes Eleventh Sunday
39    Graffiti Twelfth Sunday
40    Larry’sj acket Thirteenth Sunday
41    Seventy-two Fourteenth Sunday
42    Two doughnuts, please Fifteenth Sunday
43    Listening Sixteenth Sunday
44    Harold Seventeenth Sunday
45    A prize possession Eighteenth Sunday
46    The warning Nineteenth Sunday
47    Division Twentieth Sunday
48    Victoria Twenty-first Sunday
49    Strangers together Twenty-second Sunday
50    What lasts? Twenty-thirdSunday
51    Lost and found Twenty-fourth Sunday
52    The brown coat Twenty-fifth Sunday
53    Riches Twenty-sixth Sunday
54    Laurie Henderson’s boat Twenty-seventh Sunday
55    Just a wee note Twenty-eighth Sunday
56    Elvis gets a chance Twenty-ninth Sunday
57    The showman preacher Thirtieth Sunday
58    Knee-high Thirty-first Sunday
59    The old photo-frame All Saints
60    The clockmaker Thirty-second Sunday
61    Aunt Martha’s flat Thirty-third Sunday
62    Andrew StAndrew’s Day
63    A blessing to follow Last Sunday of the year
Preface
The Gaels have a word for ‘storyteller’: seanachaidh. It refers to the bard who passes on a community tradition and makes it live again … and again. I remember one particular storyteller from the Hebrides – the late Attie McKechnie, who lived on Mull, and took part in the rebuilding of the living quarters of Iona Abbey. His stories about the restorative work on the walls – with (sometimes inept) divinity students acting as labourers for the craftsmen – were both funny and instructive. And his tales drawn from the pool of Hebridean mythology were magical. With that musical accent of his, he drew you spellbound into a world which was both natural and almost supernatural.
George Fielden MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community, was also a seanachaidh. He told stories, and told them again and again – so much so that members of the Iona Community could recite them, word for word. Indeed, members would make affectionate fun of George, mimicking the stories and emphasising the punchlines. He would tell the same tales so often that members of his own family would cry for mercy. Yet the great Celtic spellbinder knew exactly what he was doing: nearly two decades on from his death, his community still knows the stories. Orkney’s bard, George Mackay Brown, was another seanachaidh. Much influenced by the Icelandic sagas, GMB saw at least part of his vocation as being the retrieving and retelling of tales from Orkney’s ancient and more recent past.
Jesus Christ was a storyteller. He didn’t preach long sermons – many biblical scholars believe that the Sermon on the Mount was a compilation of teachings made at different times and places – but his stories stay in the imagination of believers and non-believers alike. There are subversive tales about farmers and housewives and fishermen and tax collectors and prostitutes; and who could forget stories like the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son? Jesus himself was the inheritor of stories which were repeated at the camp fires of Israel – Adam and Eve, the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua and the Walls of Jericho, David and Goliath, Solomon’s legendary wisdom, Jonah and the whale, and so on.
Now Tom Gordon will be more than a little surprised to be named in such illustrious company, but he is a natural storyteller whose gift is to see the transcendent in the ordinary and express it in vivid contemporary terms. He stands in a long tradition of bards in the Jewish and Christian traditions. Tom confesses that he doesn’t know how a story emerges. ‘It just seems to be “out there” and it’s my job to catch it and write it down,’ he says. ‘I’ve never been too bothered about how it happens, but I’m happy that it does.’
His stories aren’t about farmers and rabbis – familiar figures in the biblical landscapes – but about gangs and footballers and hospice patients and so-called ‘sink’ housing estates. He sees the activities of God in these tales, but he expresses the insights without lecturing or moralising. Like all good storytellers, his stories carry a power which needs no tedious elaboration.
There are stories here about a poor boy who has to share his shoes with his dad, ‘dossers’ who live on the streets, an inscription on a park bench, a woman standing at the grave of the love of her life, the return of a soldier from Iraq, a creaking gate near a graveyard, the battered face and brain of a boxer, a pair of red dancing shoes, graffiti on a church wall, wedding china, a cat in a crematorium, a boy called Elvis, and lots more.
There is one particularly moving story – the only one told by Tom in the first person. Josie, a patient in the hospice at which Tom was chaplain, asked for a communion service before she went back home. A bit irritated because he had so much to do, Tom agreed, but in a rush he brought the wrong book. He tried to bluff his way through the communion service, but Josie had a surprise for him, one which blurred the distinction between celebrant and participant. How? Well you’ll have to read the story.
This book is a helpful resource for both personal devotion and public worship. In fact, it is structured around the Christian year, a framing which is appropriate for the material. As well as stories there are lectionary readings, prayers and poems. But above all, the ancient and contemporary power of stories to move, to instruct, to comfort and to inspire is affirmed and celebrated.
Ron Ferguson
Introduction
I’ve always enjoyed telling stories - to entertain family and friends; to anchor images and characters for ever in the memory; to prick a bubble of stress or confusion; to allow a situation to have its own life without the need for explanation; to help illuminate complicated ideas and concepts. But, above all, telling stories is fun, enjoyable in the telling and in the reactions of the hearers.
Over the years a number of stories have remained in my memory bank, along with fragments of ideas which deserved to have a story built around them to bring them to life. So a question kept coming up: ‘Of what lasting use are such stories?’ Such a purpose has begun to become clear.
It began at funerals. The more I offered contemporary readings alongside scripture, the more people commented on the relevance and the helpfulness of the images and insights created. Then there were opportunities to share stories in worship, with children and with adults, where a story could stand for itself and not need an additional explanation. This continued in the writing of A Need for Living and New Journeys Now Begin , where stories were at the core of the lessons and insights shared. And when I was asked by others to write stories for use in