Knowing that we would be hanging around the house this week, last week I spent some time ordering books from Amazon with one of the many vouchers my former congregation had given me.

It was good to review and renew some of my Bible Commentaries, and complete some sets. Preparation for worship these days tends not to rely so much on printed material, as there are so many good online resources offering a wide range of theological perspectives and academic reflection in Biblical texts. I have favourite sites which include Working Preacher and Lindy Nuggets. Every so often I have to challenge myself to look elsewhere, and that includes returning to printed material. For the first time in a few weeks I even returned to the Greek Biblical text with an appropriate lexicon, and translated parts of the Gospel so I could be sure that my key to the text was correct.

This week the spoils of my Amazon shopping are slowly appearing. The commentaries are on the appropriate shelf waiting to be used.

In amongst the commentaries was a reorder of a book I like to use during Advent, The First Christmas by Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan. Last year I loaned my original to someone and it doesn’t seem to have appeared back. That doesn’t upset me as I’m delighted to think that someone else is enjoying and making use of it.

My new copy will allow me to start to think about Advent and the potential for exploring the Christmas story in new ways in a new place. I like Borg and Crossan’s book as they explore each Gospel and pull on the theological, social and political agendas of each Gospel.

Still more parcels to arrive this week, and I’m going to enjoy the pleasure of opening the parcels and exploring the contents.