Curate Conundrums

  Michaelmas, God’s Protection and Mystery Today is Michaelmas , the day when the church celebrates Michael and all the angels of God. I wonder what your views on angels are? Perhaps that song by Abba is playing in your head right now? I mean I find them a bit confusing, not Abba obvs, but angels; and biblically accurate angels are often absolutely terrifying. This from Ezekiel: 4  As I looked, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually, and in the middle of the fire, something like gleaming amber.  5  In the middle of it was something like four living creatures. This was their appearance: they were of human form.  6  Each had four faces, and each of them had four wings.  7  Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished bronze.  8  Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings

  Writing this sermon the term ‘stumbling block’ kept coming into my mind so I’m going to run with it. Can you think of something that’s been a stumbling block to you? Something or someone that’s stood in your way? As someone who is blessed with the hand eye co-ordination of a blind sloth, stumbling blocks are something that I regularly have to deal with. In fact if you chopped off one of my hands when I stumble, I doubt it would make much difference. I have a hand-eye co-ordination disability called ‘Dyspraxia’ or as it was called when my dad was little ‘clumsy child syndrome.’ It affects my hand-eye co-ordination, my speech, and my fine and gross motor skills. I don’t mean the difference between a BMW and a Nissan Micra, I mean small and large movements. So stumbling is something I’m used to. But also other people’s attitudes have been a stumbling block for me too, and I’m sure all of us can think of examples, and here’s one from my experience. A long long time ago, in a