One of our Elders in St Paul's was brought up on the Isle of Harris. He had an uncle who when he was particularly moved by a sermon on the Lord's Day would say, 'Aye, the minister was a long time in the quarry last night.'
I always liked that image of the man in his study chipping away at the Scriptures to bring forward a Word for his people. Even more so when I discovered a few years ago that I am descended from at least three generations of slate quarriers on Easdale Island. The photo on the left shows me looking out from the Island.
I have a chisel on the wall of my study which was found in one of the now redundant quarries. I call it my Grandfather's Chisel and although there is a degree of poetic license in that it is a reminder to me of my heritage. It is a reminder, also, of the nature of my work.
The American poet Archibald MacLeish once spoke of the process whereby he produced a poem:
'I chip away like a stonemason who has got it into his head that there is a pigeon in that block of marble. But there's a delight in the chipping. At least there's a delight when your hunch that the pigeon in there is stronger than you are carries you along.'
That's not unlike bringing a sermon to life. You come to the work in the faith that there is something in that passage or text that is stronger than you and once you have connected with that Word it carries you along to that moment when you deliver it to God's people. It's demanding but thrilling work.
Thus the title of this Blog. Everything you see will come from my own personal 'Quarry'.
