We often hear life described in sermons or religious writing as a pilgrimage, and so it is, I’ve written about it as such in these commentaries. What we don’t hear or read so very often is life described as a puzzle, and yet it is. Why are we here? Where are we going? What is it all about? If there is an all-powerful, all-loving God then why…etc., etc. Perhaps that is because sermons and religious writings are usually aimed at explaining, encouraging or uplifting, not raising questions or sowing doubts. That being the case I have to admit that I have a problem with this Sunday’s Readings. On the face of it they do not make very much sense to me. If anything they merely compound the puzzle that is life. However, I will attempt to make a virtue of necessity and use the fact that I find them all singularly unhelpful as my theme for this Sunday’s commentaries – there never were, and there never will be, any simple answers. I base this decision on that famous quote “When certainty stalks the land the prudent man climbs a tree and pulls it up after him.” (© J. Green 2010 all rights reserved including the Latin, Greek and Hebrew) or, to put it another way “If a man will begin with certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.” (Francis Bacon 1561-1626).