Sermon - The Quest for Spirituality - Hope Amid the Broken Signposts. Christ Church New Malden Sunday 1 August 2021

 

 Christ Church New Malden

So I was asked to give a sermon titled The Quest for Spirituality. It was one of a series of sermons inspired by the book Broken Signposts by Tom Wright. The sermon series is called, Hope Amid the Broken Signposts. Click here see the other sermons in the series. And click here to listen to the whole sermon series.  Anyway, of course I said yes, I'd do it. Whenever I get asked to do anything at Christ Church New Malden - our church - my response is always to say yes.

Somtimes that's been okay. Sometimes that means a lot of trouble. Click here to read what I mean. But that's another story that won't get posted here.

But the sermon was a struggle. It was at times tortuous to prepare. So I've been a bit reluctant to post it.

However I'm reassured by the thought that no one reads this blog. I'm just fulfiling the commitment I've made to myself to post reguarly to the blog, but also to get the sermons out there. They take hours and hours to prepare.

We've been uploading our services to YouTube since we've been back at church after lockdown. 

Here's the whole service.

To help you navigate the service you'll find my introduction to the sermon at 14.32 and lasts 10 minutes . The sermon itself starts at 31.40 and lasts 17 minutes.

 

 

Not my best sermon. The Holy Spirit eventually took control.

The Oscar Peterson Trio - Ronnie Scott's 1974

I came across this piano solo by the Oscar Peterson Trio. Oscar Peterson is playing piano, Niels Pedersen is on bass and Barney Kessel plays guitar. It was recorded at Ronnie Scott's in 1974.  Apparently it's one of the greatest jazz piano solos of all time. 

 

In it Peterson plays a number of different jazz genres.

And just watch the expressions on Pedersen and Kessel's faces as they watch.

 

Enjoy

 

I still don't really know anything about jazz. But when I knew even less I did buy an album of the Oscar Peterson Trio. I remember the trio included Peterson on piano, Ray Brown on bass and perhaps Joe Paz on guitar. 

 

I probably bought the album some time between 1975 and 1979.

 

I loved it but still remained on the outside looking in.

 

I still am.

A sevice given on 6 June 2021 at 10.00 from Christ Church New Malden

Here's a link to our morning service at Christ Church New Malden given on the 6th June 2021. Katy is the service leader. 

The service lasts just under an hour.

Click here for a link to the service. Or copy and paste this url into your browser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0wphSxBq9Q

Or click on the video link just below

 

If you're at all impatient here are some timings to help you navigate your way through the service.

0.09 Introduction, confession and first song - 10.09 Katy
10.32 sermon taster David
16.50 readings Tim and Lynn
20.35 sermon - 40.41David
41.08 prayers - 48.25 Becky
48.26 final song and close of service - 55.04 Katy

Top Ten Critically and Commercially Acclaimed Songwriters by WatchMojo

 I've also been following WatchMojo lists for quite some time. So it seems appropriate to include this video. It's probably a more popular list. It has way more UK artists and includes or mentions another four of my list. 

It's still almost completely dominated by men. Most artists are from the 60s-70s and are all white.

I thought it was worth sharing.

And hope you enjoy it.

Despite....

Top 20 Singer Song Writers of all Time by Rick Beato

 I've watched a few of Rick Beato's Top Twenty videos on YouTube. Most of the time I haven't felt at all qualified to make any guesses as to what he's going to include in his list. But I enjoy listening anyway. However, watching this list I jotted down five names I'd expect him to include. 

He mentions four of my five names. And really don't understand why he didn't include the fifth name. But I expect this is really about taste. I'm not gonna mention the names I had. If you've visited this blog at all over the last year or so you'll pretty much know the names I chose.

Most of the names mentioned in the video are from the United States. With only three names from the United Kingdom. Two of my names are Canadian. And one of those got the number one slot. Of course, the name he didn't mention on my list is also Canadian. Very disappointing. I was also surprised at how few women are here. There are at least two other women, on reflection, I would have expected to see here. 

Anyway, I thought it was worth sharing with you.

Hope you enjoy the video

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Life in a box episode

 A colleague mentioned Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead the other day, and I was reminded of that fabulous exchange about life in a box.

Here's the extract from the film with Tim Roth and Gary Oldman.

It's not a favourite film of mine but it is Tim Roth and Gary Oldman.

However, there's always this performance from Benedict Cumberbatch as Rosencrantz

One hundred words about David Bowie now

 

In 2012 a friend and I began listening to every Bowie album from Space Oddity to Scary Monsters. It was the first time I’d played a Bowie album since 2003. When The Next Day and Blackstar were released we listened to them immediately.

I wouldn’t describe myself now as a David Bowie fan. I think I stopped being a fan in 1974 soon after I’d heard Diamond Dogs.

Now five years after Bowie’s death I’ve been revisiting some of those records and re-living the memories from that fan life. It’s been quite interesting. Also nostalgic, sentimental and a little inspiring.

T. S. Eliot Prize Winner 2020 How to Wash a Heart by Bhanu Kapil

Huge congratulations go to Bhanu Kapil who has won the 2020 T. S. Eliot poetry prize.

The collection contains a series of poems in which the narrator, separated from family members and home,  addresses her host who has taken the narrator into her home. The collection partly explores the relationship between host and guest. Quickly we realise as we read that we're not just reading about a personal relationship between landlord and tenant but about the relationship between a country of origin and host country. In Kapil's case, India and the United Kingdom. At times, Kapil portrays the host country as a mother figure, and at other times as a predator. She's generous and selfish. The guest/tenant is presented as grateful but also trapped and a victim. She tries to escape and become her own person.

Other poems inhabit the collection. They are poems about home and family. They are poems of loss and longing.

Bhanu Kapil

Here's a reading from How to Wash a Heart by Bhanu Kapil

Here's a video from YouTube showing a reading and introduction to Kapil's poetry from Churchill College Cambridge. I think it must have been recorded during the first lockdown between March and July 2020.

One hundred words about buying Low and Heroes

 

But that wasn’t the end. Although I’d dropped Bowie. That fan life opened up a whole world of music and poetry for me.

However, my old vinal album collection includes Pinups and Young Americans. I bought Pinups soon after its release on the 3^rd November 1973. I can’t remember when I bought Young Americans.

In 1981 I went to Hatfield Polytechnic. The student in the room next to me use to play Heroes and Low. She played them a lot and I really began to enjoy them. I bought them both. I wasn’t a fan. I just liked the music.

One hundred words about my David Bowie fan life

My fan life with David Bowie lasted 21 months. It was intense. I plastered my bedroom walls with Bowie posters and bought, the LP’s Ziggy Stardust, Hunky Dory, Space Oddity and The Man Who Sold the World.

At its height, I remember one afternoon, nervously propping the Aladdin Sane album cover up against the pillows on my bed and kissing his lips.

It all started on the 3^rd July 1972, I’d just turned 13, the night Bowie performed Starman on Top of the Pops. And ended on the 24^th May 1974, when Diamond Dogs was released. I didn’t like it.

 

One Hundred Words About Why Bowie Matters by Will Brooker

 

Will Brooker is both fan of David Bowie and an academic specialising in Cultural Studies. The book contains both aspects of Brooker's life. In 2015 Brooker undertook a yearlong research project reliving one year of Bowie’s life during his stay in Berlin – 1976 -1979. The book draws together aspects of Brooker’s own trip to Berlin, recalls Bowie’s own visit, includes some critical theory analysis of songs and videos from Bowie’s last album Blackstar and assesses Bowie’s impact on contemporary culture. For example the book considers Bowie’s contribution and impact to the LGBT community. Actually I think that’s been quite huge.

One Hundred Words About Being Pointed at by David Bowie

 I was in our sitting room watching Top of the Pops the night David Bowie pointed at me. That moment inspired artists like Mark Almond and Boy George and many others. It also inspired me. Bowie was mesmerising. He seemed out of this world. I wasn't sure if he was a man or a woman. He seemed to be neither and both.

In doing that he completely broke down the very narrow idea I had of what it meant to be a man. I was thirteen and a student, a sort of prisoner at a secondary modern boys school.

Introducing One Hundred Words About David Bowie

 

It’s been five years since David Bowie died. Television and radio have been full of documentaries and programmes about him. I’ve been listening and watching some of them. At Christmas, I got given a book. Why Bowie Matters by Will Brooker. Brooker is a Bowie fan and academic and has written a unique biography and personal memoir of Bowie. I loved it – despite its many failings. It has enabled me to review my own personal experience of being a Bowie fan and has inspired me to write a couple of poems. I’m going to share some of my thoughts here.

A 45,000 year old purplish pig

 

 Photo by Maxime Aubert 

This is a pre-historic picture of a purplish pig adorning the walls of a cave hidden in a highland valley on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. They now estimate that it was painted a staggering 45,500 years ago. If that date is correct, the find in Leang Tedongnge cave could represent the earliest known example of figurative art, which is created when painters illustrate objects from the real world rather than simply abstract patterns and designs.