‘I eat my peas with honey,’ Spike Milligan wrote, ‘I’ve done it all my life. It makes the peas taste funny, but it keeps them on the knife.’ He was a genius, after all.

Now you would label these two innovative ideas as either ‘thinking outside the box’ if you were impressed, otherwise you might consider them as thinking from ‘off the rails.’

Jesus asked the lady at the well in Samaria to give her some water.

He was well off the rails. You don’t speak to Samaritans, to women, especially at that time of day in this place, because it told you she was a shunned lady. He was seeking a response, and that enabled him to share the drink he had to offer. Living water. Once tasted, you don’t have the same appetite for any other.

Follow me, said Jesus, onto my rails.

I’m not saying Jesus wants you to store your beans upside down, but the Jesus I know sees the world differently, and changes our perceptions to see with love, down to the last bean.

Partly I guess it is art. We buy things because we appreciate how they were made, or because they are ingenious, or of a style we warm to or aspire to. Or they fit in.

And I suppose it should have a use, justify its place in our living space, and give something back for the fact it has board, lodgings, and is kept dusted and polished. If we are talking about a TV, it may take more space in our lives than the physical space it occupies.

Is it essential? Well, the dictionary definition is “The movable articles in a room or an establishment that make it fit for living or working.” It will depend on how you understand the word ‘fit.’

If you were there, you will probably remember Nathan’s sermon where he made a distinction between luggage and baggage.

Very useful, that is.

He was referring to our lives, really, and asking us to label our personal furniture, and recognise it for what it is – useful or obstructive.

Jesus did say “I am the luggage of life.” However, by then, John must have felt he had had too many ‘I am’ sayings in his gospel, so he recorded it simply as “I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly.”

Always best to travel light, and in the light.

Usually it is panic that has got them to make the brave step of asking for help – or something or someone has pushed them over a threshold. Often a friend’s concern, or their concern for someone else in the household. Things that affect others we love are harder to cope with than if they just affect us.

I suppose you think I keep a big marshmallow gun under the stairs for just such eventualities, and the bishop has kept me supplied with fresh ammunition. ‘Fraid not. But there is a toolkit.

It is one of the few requests we get that asks for, though not directly, Jesus’ authority to be exercised. Where the rubber of the faith has to hit the road and grip. The toolkit is this: vulnerability. Open and honest before God, and open and honest about God.

Experience helps, but this is opportunities to have become comfortable with trusting God.

Never go looking for it. But always a privilege to respond.

Ann doesn’t like his voice, which is a bit of a barrier to enjoying the music, which she does, however, like. My family didn’t realise Adele’s song ‘Make You Feel Like My Love’ was one of Bob’s recent ones. I don’t think they’ll ever get into Tom Waits, though.

Amnesty International, I happened to notice via Spotify, have got together hordes of musicians to record 75 of Dylan’s songs, and issued it as a record to raise funds. Chimes of Freedom.

It wouldn’t have been one I’d have added to my collection, but I’ve started listening out of curiosity. There is no way I would say the versions are better than the originals, but there are some belters. Many weird. Some most intriguing ones done by people I’ve never heard of.

What caught me off guard is the ‘respect,’ and even ‘love,’ that the artists show for the songs in the way they have done them, and the interesting choices they have made in respect of which ones to do. It might just persuade me to go and listen to some of their own music.

Love, respect, surprising choices. They’ve inadvertently done a good piece of evangelism to me, and made an opening for their music.

We have a life to proclaim, let’s inadvertently do the same.

I think my worst example at buying a gift was the crystal butter dish I’d bought for my mum. I realised a few months later that there was this strange groove at one side of the lower half – I’d bought an ash tray and not realised it! But it was proudly converted to a butter dish and so it remained. Redeemed by love.

God is rather good at gifting too. But his gifts are unusual in this respect. They are for sharing.

They actually are given, often entrusted to individuals, but are to be received by the whole church. The gift of tongues, as Paul points out, is kind of an exception, in that it is generally to give and use individually in prayer and praise.

We are not very good at receiving. We don’t think we deserve anything – particularly being British, we have both a colonial and under-dog mentality.

Well, that won’t do.

It is rude to turn down gifts given in love. We have accepted Jesus’ gift of saving love, his forgiveness, his grace. We need to accept his gifts of ministry, use them, and let them multiply. It is our responsibility to each other.

Ask, and you shall receive. Share, and your cup shall be re-filled to overflowing.

If you spot a bushel on someone’s head, gently ease it off – but ask the permission of the wearer first.

If you are a good gift spotter – you have my permission to shine your torch to enable others to see.

Encourage. Encourage. Encourage.

Then it all changed. You could blame Heisenberg, but he just made it a rule, that uncertainty is built into the guts of the universe. I will not attempt to explain any further, only to mystify you more by saying the saving feature of uncertainty is that, down there at the very subatomic level, it is truly random, which is why there is order! Any bias, and we become unstuck.

Physics is about exploring and mapping the consequences of uncertainty.

There, bet that makes you feel better.

I love that bit of John (ch14) where Jesus is telling them not to worry, he’s off to sort their rooms out. ‘You know where I’m off to,’ he quips. Thomas scratches his head, and says ‘Pardon? I missed the postcode, so the satnav will be no use.’

Jesus then goes poetic about way, truth and life, brings his dad into it, and says ‘you know him.’

Philip, I then picture, grabbing Jesus by the lapels and saying ‘Show us the Father, and we’ll be happy.’ Just give us a bit of concrete certainty. Is that too much to ask?

The scribes and pharisees tended to ask the same question, but they were determined to challenge any answer given, because they didn’t want to know or see. Philip is simply confused, but cares and trusts.

Philip is told/discovers he already does know the Father, but he hasn’t recognised the value of the knowledge he has through being with Jesus. He didn’t realise the certainty he was in through his random mustard seeds of faith. He didn’t realise that he was already in a relationship with God that would be electrified by the Holy Spirit in the days to come.

Physicists likewise had to learn that there’s was not to dictate to the universe how it worked, but to recognise that at it’s heart is mystery which manifests order, and there’s is to be part of it and observe with awe.

A setting often springs readily to mind, and it does convey more than can be put just in words. Sometimes that is the perfect place to finish a eulogy. A summary.

I’m sure we are designed to ‘panic,’ and to check the place we feel vulnerable.

When the church faces issues, such as how to react to prayers not being allowed on council agendas, I think we do the same. We quickly seek to reassure the membership that everything is OK, nothing has been lost, but whoever is doing the scaring needs to be ‘opposed’ or ‘issues’ need to be dealt with.

A similar thing happened the previous week when the Advertising Standards Agency ruled that the Healing on the Streets team in Bath can not say, on their leaflets, that God heals – unless they have a written statement from God himself (but the Bible or contemporary testimonies don’t count on the grounds of being anecdotal)! They even go further, arguably outside their remit, to rule that the Bath team can’t even say they believe God heals.

In the first place, I’m not that keen on formal prayers as a kind of tradition. However, I think it is powerful to acknowledge and honour God publicly through prayer, and losing that will have consequences. I think the solution, to have prayers before the agenda in Bideford, which will be voluntary, might bring some sort of renewal, if done with grace.

However, we need to accept the interpretation of the law, and if necessary seek to amend it to be in tune with what we as citizens expect and want. A different kind of renewal. And thank the person that brought the complaint!

As to Healing on the Streets, it is rude of God to heal, and to seemingly stick to his own rules rather than according to what the ASA might like. It is untidy, and it causes holy disruption to lives.

And it starts on a regular basis in Cleveleys next month. You can still sign up for the training if you ask Andrew nicely.

This training involves being taught to, rather than panic, see and follow through God’s love, possibilities and purpose – in response to lies and crimes perpetrated by that thief, the devil.

The most memorable case was in America. In a McDonald’s, which they seemed to be in the process of rebuilding but was still open, having ordered coffee, we were asked if we wanted ‘space’ – or that’s what it sounded like. We asked again. ‘Do you want space?’ Mmm. We had heard right, but were no wiser. We didn’t know whether to say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ which of course were the options the lady was expecting. In the end we had to go off-script and say ‘Look, we’ve no idea what ‘space’ means.’ ‘Space for milk,’ as if we children, she said!

I once, because the options of ordering by self-service machine was available, did that to avoid the cross-questioning!

Whenever we learn something, a ‘script’ is vital. It’s how we learn language. We babble, copy, then eventually make our own stuff up from the toolkit we acquire. Always amusing at first!

However, it is de-humanising when people who serve us are expected to only stick to the script. Once they know the job, they can, and should, simply communicate with each individual individually. It’s de-humanising for the customers, too. We are somehow expected to conform to someone’s efficient idea of how food should be ordered.

Ordering food at a machine, when they are people waiting to serve you, is a bad cop out, I must admit.

Where am I heading with this story?

Well, it struck me that when people attend worship, it can be very off-putting to  attend if you think there is a ‘script’ that they need to know. It means you’ve got to be determined to come. Some people attend on-line instead, or simply say they worship at home.

These type of people need bringing by someone who knows them, can reassure them, explain what phrases like ‘space’ might mean, and generally behave in a way they think of as ‘normal’ so they feel accepted. (It’s great when Verlaine goes out to share a cigarette with the guys, for example!)

Probably also needs saying that we need to be careful not to hide behind a script, or to cling on to one. Scripts need to be embodied. In life as much as drama.

Exactly what Paul was thinking of when he described people as living epistles. Literally lives that God is read in.

The best kind of service is person-to-person, frailty accepting/affirming, but server doing job well, customer having needs met.

That happens to be a good description of prayer too.

I’ll just give you a few seconds while you re-read that and let the penny drop. Good, isn’t it?

What about this one from Matthew. ‘Preaching is about finding your voice.’

‘What’s the point of finding your voice if you haven’t found their ear first?’

My last seven years in teaching were mainly about checking that what had been heard/seen by particular sensory impaired pupils was in fact the same as what had been taught. To ensure they had the same access as everyone else.

In school there are key things to learn, so effective access is important, and has many sides to it.

In our world, God has a passion for being with us, and being closely with us.

Worship, particularly collectively, is such a potentially powerful place for that to happen. God is spirit, and speaks to spirit, but words are often the vehicle. Please come on Sunday. Ask for the voice to be clear, and for it to know where the ear is. And also consider this. Your voice is as important as the preacher’s to someone’s ear.