Eternal Echoes

Surviving Christmas, amongst family and friends....

My friend Mike posted this very helpful article  (by Phil Wyman) today via facebook, it is written for people who will face Christmas alone, and offers many helpful suggestions for making the season meaningful. For too many Christmas serves to highlight this issue, along with the problems of homelessness and deprivation of many kinds and we must not forget that.

It brings other stresses too:

Over the last few weeks I have written quite a bit about my need to engage with the season of advent, and the fact that I struggle with the pressures of the season, especially the consumerism and skewed celebration of it all. I have attempted to keep up a discipline of daily reading and meditation, not always successfully as my days have become steadily busier, and although this busyness has been God-focused through Carol Services I find myself craving solitude and time to rub two thoughts together.

The flip side to the loneliness problem at Christmas is the demand to be sociable and outgoing, Christmas is well documented as a season which places unusual stresses upon relationships, it is often a time when the cracks begin to show in apparently stable families and divorce lawyers expect a flurry of calls; it seems that Christmas not only highlights loneliness, it also highlights relationship overload. Now I know there are a number of factors surrounding this, not least the consumerist nature and pressure of the season, where finances are stretched to the limit and partners with different perspectives clash. For me though the main pressure is lack of space; like many who are either introverts or marginal extroverts the constant interaction with others is wearing and draining.

So for those who struggle with Christmas overload, rather than Christmas loneliness I have a few suggestions, and maybe not so strangely they are quite similar to those suggested in The Boston Examiner linked above!

1. Try to recapture the sense of what Christmas is all about. Take time to read the story, make yourself some space, light a candle and take in the wonder of it all. This could just as easily be done in company with others using prayers and silences as you deliberately quiet yourselves and draw away from the rush to engage with the wonder.

2. Get out for a walk everyday, preferably in daylight, again if going alone is impossible the simple act of getting out and gaining more space around you will work wonders!

3.Carve out some you time, maybe to take a long hot soak, hopefully most people won't want to join you in the bath!

4.Use the end/ beginning of the day to find some solitude, which depends on whether you are a morning or an evening person. Ten minutes of listening to music or meditation can be rejuvenating for the soul.

5.Relax, Christmas is not a show, too many arguments break out because of raised expectations...

6. In a quiet moment take a good look at your loved ones, remember what a precious gift they are and say a prayer for those whose loneliness will continue long after Christmas is over this year.

This Christmas Lord,

take a corner of my life

and steal in...

invade the busyness of my doing

with the quiet of your coming

 

This Christmas Lord

take a corner of my mind

and steal in..

illuminate the darkness of my thinking

with the brightness of your seeing.

 

This Christmas Lord

take a corner of my heart

and steal in...

infuse the coldness of my loving

with the warmth of your being.

 

This Christmas Lord

as at Bethlehem's stable

come and steal in...

take the unprepared places of my life

and make them fit for your dwelling.

(Pat Bennett-from;  Hay and Stardust)

 

Telling the Christmas Story

Over the last week and a half I have been involved in leading nine different services and events where the Christmas story has been told in poetry, song and more traditionaly throgh readings and sermons/ meditations. These have been for folk of all ages, from Christmas Meditation for Womens Fellowship to this mornings inter-active telling of the Christmas story to a group of pre-schoolers and their parents/ carers.They have also been of all sizes, from a packed out church last night to a few parents/ carers and children this morning...

Each event has been special in a different way, yesterday evening saw lots of people invloved, some reading and others leading prayers. The readings included a wonderful rendition of Luke 2: 8-16 from the Yorkshire Bible, which included the wonderful lines:

"' t' angil o' t' Lord says tul' em:

Nay there's nowt t' be afeeared on!! Ah've come to bring thee sum reight cheerful neews- neew's neews at'll gladden all t' fowk 'oo ear it! Ther's a little lad just bin born i' Beth'lem- t' Royal City o' David tha knaws.....

Tha'll find im in a mistal, liggin' in a manger, all wharm an' cooasy in is ippins!"

Don't ask me to translate, but you get the gist! It was great fun and Malcom the reader recieved a round of applause, people really listened! To finish the evening I preached and was pleased that a number of folk taked to me about what I had said on the way out.

This morning was special too, I took a robust wooden nativity set with me and hid the figures around the church, I asked the children to find them and they had great fun looking for Mary and Joseph, locating the shepherds and the wise men and then setting up the whole scene before we told the story, and then sang a few simple songs.

I believe passionately that the Christmas story is timeless, and that we must keep telling it. I don't believe it is cosy or comfortable, but I do believe that it is wonderful and powerful and timeless for through it God touches us again through the mystery the incarnation.

I also believe passionately that we must unwrap the story from a whole load of nonsesne that so often surrounds it; I am sure that Jesus was not a meek and mild baby who never cried! But more than anything we must keep on telling it, and reminding ourselves of it's transformational power.

A Week of Carols and Conversations...

I have had a Christmas Carol filled week, if I haven't been out singing them than it is likely that I have been preparing to go out to sing them. Interestingly this has led to some strange conversations.We started on Monday with the first of the two Primary Schools coming down to the Chapel for their Carol Service. The Key Stage 2 children (7-11's) had clearly been practicing for weeks. They came with extra microphones, trumpets, cornets, clarinets violins and cello's, they had a decent choir and one very brave and enthusiastic music specialist. Their parents came too many clearly uncomfortable at being in Church, my job was to welcome them and to open and close the service. We sang, opening with Once in Royal David's City... a pet hate of mine is one particular verse with the impossible lines:

"Christian children all must be, Mild, obedient, good as he...."

Now as much as I might like to believe that Jesus was a good child, I refuse to believe that he was mild, he certainly wasn't mild as an adult so why would he be a good Victorian mouse who was seen (rarely) and not heard? Actually I like to imagine that Jesus was a pretty ordinary boy, and that he wasn't devoid of mischief and fun. If I am asked to include it in a Carol Service I refuse to allow that verse to be sung. I mentioned that to one of the mums who told me after-wards that her daughter wouldn't be good enough to come to church... why oh why do we insist on sing this sugary claptrap????

On to visit an elderly couple, she has had a severe stroke, and he by choice is caring for her at home, their house was clean and warm and decorated for Christmas, their living room has been largely taken over by hospital furniture, their once vibrant conversation is all on sided. He showed me his Christmas letter explaining their predicament to friends near and far. I reflect on how cruel life can be, he has lost her, and yet she is there, there is something very wrong in this picture. They, he told me, were planning to listen to carols on Christmas Day, it would be a treat. I guess it will, and so before I left I prayed for them making a note to try to visit next week.

In the evening more carols at a house group party... I wonder why Christians find it so difficult to socialise, maybe we are all trying to be mild, obedient and good....... One conversation centered around the question of where Jesus had traveled before he began his ministry, had he come to England? Or was it more likely that he traveled to the Far East to study with the Yogi's? Errr, I suggested that he had been a carpenters apprentice and unlikely to have gone far at all... As for where he gained his wisdom from, umm; "In the beginning was the word....." Seems we have some Bible Study to do!!!

Tuesday was a day of preparation at home, looking at readings and preparing the Power Points for Sunday's two Community Carol Services, I am looking forward to these with slight trepidation, there are lots of people involved, and a potential for the whole thing to go pear shaped....

Wednesday and more carol singing, first with the Nursery Class from the second Primary School and their traditional Nativity Play. The shepherds wore tea-towels and the angels were decked out in tinsel. Mary was grumpy ( she didn't want to carry the doll... um Jesus) and Joseph reluctant ( he didn't want to be with grumpy Mary), some of the children sang beautifully while others were bashful. The teachers did a great job, and our Womens Fellowship surpassed themselves, making orange juice,teas and coffees, cutting cake, and warming mince pies this was the first year that they had served the school in this way and the school appreciated it. Lots of parents stayed to enjoy a chat and a warm drink, all in all it was a lovely morning!

Home for lunch and then to Pontefract for a hospital visit, another member who has suffered a stroke, she is unlikely to recover; I talk, hold silence and pray, there are no other visitors, life can be cruel...

And so to my first Community Carol even this week, with a neighbouring LEP (Local Ecumenical Project), a number of community members take part and the service is led by Ian the Anglican Vicar and me (Methodist Minister), because it is held in the Church not the Chapel we have mulled wine and mince pies after-wards.... Mulled juice would not have been the same! The Chapel Steward tells me how he used to pop out to have a drink in the neighbouring village and wonders if I mind that they are serving wine. I have several conversations on this topic and wonder if people can see the glass in my hand!

Thursday and more preparations, and then frustrations because there is a fault on my phone line, I have checked everything that BT have asked me to check so an engineer is coming out this morning if he can get through the snow. Thankfully people can call in, but I can't call out! I went Christmas shopping in the afternoon, did the lot in one hit, we are having a simple Christmas gift wise this year, as we need to buy a car for Tim to get to work, he starts in January.

This morning I am sipping Hot Chili Chocolate and watching the snow fall, it has settled overnight, and it is still snowing as I write this. Our Outdoor Carol Singing will be pretty if cold on Saturday morning the snow is forecast to continue, who knows we may just have a white Christmas at this rate!

Only six services to go and then Turkey and the Dr Who Christmas Special.... :-)

Time for a carol I think:

Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain;
heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

 

 

An Advent Communion

I attended a Circuit Communion Service this evening led by one of the other Circuit Ministers, it felt like an oasis of calm in the desert of busyness. I needed a bit of space and quiet and that is exactly what I found. There was no standing up and sitting down, there were no hymns to sing, only the simple advent liturgy and some reflective music.

I have blogged a lot about the need to slow down and stop recently, suggesting that we need time and space to meet with God in a fresh way. This evening provided me with that freshness and I am writing now as a way of recording my experience.

Geoff asked us all to retain the bread once we had been served so that as the family of God we could all eat together, this worked well as were were a small group (it also reminded me of my Congregational roots). As he served us he used the words "Body of Christ given in love", this really struck me and as I held the small piece of bread in my hand I pondered Christs brokenness, and it seemed suddenly as if I was cradling that broken body in much the same way that Mary had. I have always found the Pieta to be a strong image of sacrifice, not only the sacrifice of Christ (although that is the ultimate sacrifice) but also the sacrifice of Mary. I preached on Sunday about the need to say our yes to God as Mary had, so perhaps this was still in my mind.

What overwhelmed me however was the sense of awe that Christ was present with us, giving himself for us again and calling us to respond, I watched a crumb of the bread fall to the floor as one woman took the bread and it seemed a terrible thing, so much so that I retrieved it afterward. As a non-conformist at heart I was struck by my reaction, it is not our practice to consume the left over elements and each Chapel has its own way of disposing of them, but the discarded crumb spoke volumes to me, how often do we discard the crumbs? Only minutes earlier we had declared ourselves unfit even to gather them!

How much do we miss? How often do we fail to hear the still small voice within calling us aside? How often do we turn away from love's call...

"Body of Christ, given in love..."

Lord help me to take time to hear you, help me to take time to respond...

 

Time out from tinsel....

This morning  I as looked out across my garden it seemed that winter had arrived, bare branches reached skywards  where only a few months ago there were flowers and green shrubs. Now the leaves have fallen, and the bare branches of many of the shrubs have been pruned back.The scene in monochrome, even the vegetable beds that Tim has been working on so hard are waiting for the new season, the soil has been dug and the beds prepared but they are bare, open to the winter rains and frosts...

Yesterday I re-potted a couple of my orchids, even these indoor plants have entered into a time of waiting, their stalks have been pruned back, their colourful exotic flowers are gone for this year, and I have moved them to a place where they will receive just the right amount of warmth and light for the waiting time....

There seems to be little life in the garden, and the orchids look like dead sticks, but all is not what it seems, new life is simply waiting to burst forth when the time is right, but for now this bit of creation has entered into the waiting time.

In contrast to the quiet and stillness of my garden are  the local shops where even in the village Christmas has arrived with full force, adverts in the local Co-op tempt us not to wait until Christmas Day to begin feasting, while in a neighbouring village the lights have been on for weeks now. If I turn on the television I am bombarded with adverts, the radio offers the same constant feed of consumerism, preparation is all about consumption.

No wonder we are weary, we have lost the ability to truly rest, and have forsaken the wonder of waiting, replacing anticipation with headlong rush of activity adding stress to a season that sends bank accounts and relationships spiraling into disaster. How tragic that parents are judged not by the love, care and concern that they have for their children but by the size of the parcel they are able to provide. I speak to mothers who sacrifice bedtime stories and cuddles for part-time jobs simply in order to buy that latest toy for a child whose head has been filled desire for a toy that has been advertised solidly from September onwards. I speak to families stressed out by not being able to buy the approval of relatives and friends. I hear it from my own children as living on student loans they struggle to resist the perils of the season!

I want to stand in the centre of our towns and shopping centres with a big placard  that simply reads STOP! I wonder if I did, how many people would take the time to come and see just what I was up to, and why I wanted to break into the frenetic activity I find around me. I want to invite people to take time out from tinsel, and to give themselves a breathing space. In that space I pray that some form or perspective might begin to dawn...

I am aware that I am repeating myself. I have said so much of this before, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record I will continue to say it. We need to STOP! Advent is not about chocolate filled calenders it is a season of repentance and fasting just as Lent is, it is also a season of preparation, one that calls us not to look to the babe in the manger but rather to the risen Christ WHO WILL COME AGAIN. Last Sunday's gospel reading brought with it the challenge not to get caught up in dissipation and drunkenness but challenged us instead to look beyond the cares and desires of this world.

Do I struggle with all of this? Oh yes, I was brought up to believe that Christmas was all about presents and feasting. I feel guilty if I don't enter into the spirit of the season, but through my struggle I want to encounter the Spirit who made the season a cause for celebration, the Spirit who opened the virgins womb and made the incarnation a reality. That same Spirit is the one who brought life to the lifeless body of Jesus and raised the babe of Bethlehem restoring him to heavens glory. It is that Spirit, the Holy Spirit whose fire I want to fill my life in and through the coming celebrations, and because of that I need the season of Advent, not so that I can prepare through purchases filling my life with clutter. Rather I need to be emptied, I need time out from tinsel, for although it is particularly noticeable at Christmas time, glitter and tinsel beckon to us through out the year in one way or another.

So I am taking time out, to seek the one who calls to us; he sees that we are weary and burdened, and he invites us aside. He offers us rest, and if we chose the road to radical recovery, and long, no yearn to live a life free from consumerism's grip and look instead for contentment, he promises to walk with us and work with us.

We can choose to take permanent time out from tinsel, and in doing do we might just find that we really have something to celebrate!

The Risen Christ, by John Young

I wouldn't start from here.....

I have had a busy weekend, and am trying to draw together my thoughts, for although there have been many different activities there seems to me to be a common thread running through...

On Saturday I traveled to Newark to present a Jesus Deck Workshop. Two Journey Into Wholeness Groups were involved, and as they engaged with the teaching a common theme emerged from the comments and questions, it centered around the way we expect to present the gospel. So often we take a linear approach, we want to tell the story of Jesus from beginning to end, and we want people to confess their sins before we are happy to say that they have had a meaningful relationship with God.

The Jesus Deck demands that we engage with the gospels in a non linear way. We may have to begin in the middle and move around between the end and the beginning as we tell the story of the cards. It can also be so with people coming to faith, I have a friend who talks of having a meaningful relationship with God for almost 3 years before he had any conviction of personal sin! We talked about how the traditional ( or at least post-enlightenment) emphasis on preaching a gospel of repentance, provides us with a narrow message, often perceived as unattractive in a spiritually minded culture. I do believe that there is a place for repentance, indeed I believe it is essential ( and should be an ongoing part of out journey), it is just not necessarily the first or second thing that we should ask of folk!

Could it be that we so often encounter folk and try to get them to come with us to a starting point within our comfort zone so that we can journey with them... Maybe the challenge is to learn to start where they are, no matter how uncomfortable that makes us! If we dare to do so maybe we will end up at a wonderful destination we could never have envisaged!!!

Next came the Sunday morning service and a look at the themes of Advent. How interesting that we begin the Church year with a look at the second coming! I find this challenging and discomforting, and used two images to make my point.

, and

It is easy to domesticate the season of advent, to visit only it's acceptable themes, but Christ cannot be domesticated and the message of the gospels is not always comfortable. If we never dare to venture beyond our comfort zones maybe we never meet the risen Christ and never come into contact with resurrection possibilities for ourselves! Maybe we need to engage with the season of advent by daring to begin from a different place....

Lastly Tim and I drove around the Circuit tasking photos and filming for two different projects. My favourite photo was this one...

I live in an area dominated by power stations, Drax, Eggborough and Ferrybridge are iconic if sobering landmarks. This photo taken at Drax this morning shows the original power station and two new wind turbines. Interestingly in an ever increasing culture of eco-awareness there have been a number of locsal protests.Some folk are not happy about the turbines.

I am challenged by this thinking on a number of levels, and am struck by how human it is! Could it be I wonder that this picture and situation could serve as a parable for the church...

We want change, but how often do we dig our heels in and refuse to begin something new. How often do we welcome change, providing it is not us who are being challenged...

How often does the sentiment "I wouldn't start from here" pass through our minds and flow into our practice....

I wonder how many of us would have dared to start in a rough hewn manger in Bethlehem?
 

 

Active thanksgiving

I am sitting in my warm dry study, surrounded by books and working using a reasonably new lap-top. Outside my window a Blue-tit is feeding at the containers of bird food I have hung there, and even though it is November the weather is good enough today for me to have laundry hanging out on the line. Although it is the end of my pay quarter we have plenty of food in the cupboards and fuel in the car and even some money in the bank. I am well provided for and have no fear for my life or health, and for all of this I am thankful.

As I consider all of this I am pondering whether it is enough simply to be thankful, or even whether thankfulness as a feeling is inadequate, and that it should be translated into an action if it is going to be at all meaningful. Across the pond my American friends are celebrating Thanksgiving today, many of them have got together with friends and family to share a meal and to relax together, and that is good, others may be taking part in a community event choosing to celebrate with folk who are homeless or in need in some way.

I have written about my experience of Thanksgiving in Texas here, and believe that it is a very positive holiday, and I am not a kill-joy regarding family and community celebrations, I love them! BUT I believe that to live our lives in an attitude of thanksgiving requires something far deeper than a celebration, and a commitment that is not based on warm feelings because sometimes thanksgiving is tough!

I am challenged by Paul's instruction to the Thessalonians: "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Challenged because it calls forth a real and active response from me that demands something more than empty words. It asks me to be aware of God in and through all circumstances, and it calls me to make a positive response, a response of thanksgiving, and it may be that that thanksgiving is no more than a real awareness that I am able to respond in prayer.

The Psalms are great examples of prayer in the tough times, so often even when the Psalmist begins by pouring out his complaint he ends it with thanksgiving and praise; these two things pour out it seems when the Psalmist acknowledges the ultimate rule of God in his life, and that although it may not seem like it in the present moment, but there will come a time when all will be well.

 Thanksgiving is made possible for me in the tough times if and when I focus on something beyond myself, and on others... but I am also aware that this too is a luxury, and again that I am not caught up in a hopeless situation, nor am I helpless. Others are not so fortunate, neither are they less human, and this should spur me on to share what I have both materially and spiritually ( no matter how small my offering seems)...

As I ponder the concept of thanksgiving then I am challenged to make it a daily discipline of prayerful thanks and active living and being....

The Bible in five statements, Beaker Folk and other things

My good friend the Arch-druid Eileen has tagged me in an meme- and I am thankful that she has asked me to respond to the original form of the meme, although I am tempted to respond to the request for Beaker beliefs too; although I am not a community member I ws privileged to be there when this ancient group was revived...

May I suggest then that as far as the Beaker folk are concerned; and with thanks to the Arch-druid for her tireless work on their behalf, my beliefs about their work are:

1. Creative

2. Hidden truths

3.Occasionally very silly

4. More often thought provoking

5.tea lights and pebbles essentials

As for the original meme; which read:

Summarise the Bible in five statements, the first one word long, the second two, the third three, the fourth four and the last five words long. Or possibly you could do this in descending order. Tag five people.

1. creation

2. ongoing revelation

3. prophets mysteries unfolding

4.God dwells with people

5. truth stranger than fiction. Alleluia!

Thanks for this Arch Druid, my brain is emerging from a migraine and needed a gentle wake up call....

I tag: Matt Stone, Dave Perry, Sam, Danny, and Pam....

I also tag Mike

Friday Five -Thanksgiving

Jan over at Revgals is offering a Thanksgiving Friday Five, asking questions about customs and traditions. As a non-American member of the group ( a Brit) I will not be celebrating Thanksgiving- next Thursday will be a normal day of work for me and I will not be eating any special foods, and my children will all be working on their studies at various their Universities around the country.

But I have celebrated Thanksgiving in the past, and was struck by truly celebratory nature of the occasion. For each of the three years that we lived in Texas (Katy, just outside Houston) we were invited by three different groups to celebrate with them. The first two times we were made welcome and treated as members of the family, we helped with some of the food preparation and joined in with the games and fun before and after the meal. I was struck by the way that the celebration was rooted in true thankfulness and that the reason for the first thanksgiving has not really been lost (despite the fact that most turkeys came from supermarkets, and that some of the pumpkin was canned!). I was also struck by the family centered nature of the occasion and was pleased when on the third occasion we joined a group who took Thanksgiving meal and celebration to a park in a poorer area of the city. Turkeys had been donated, four of them were cooked at home and four of them deep fried (yes really) at the park. Side-dishes were prepared and people were invited. We ran a shuttle of cars to take meals and blankets to folk who were housebound and laid on games and music for the whole of the afternoon. It was a truly community centered event.

Here in the UK many churches continue to celebrate Harvest, but it is a shadow of a celebration in comparison, the date is not set, and many folk don't celebrate at all. We have it seems become separated from the land. I know that the reasons for this are varied, and that our history is very different to that of the Pioneer settlers. but I do wonder if we are missing something vital and important.

When I look back through our Chapel records I see accounts of village feasts, and of communities working to bring the harvest home. I am also reminded that the land was not and is not tame, that the elements can make or break a harvest, they remain beyond our control. I live and minister in a rural area, and I wonder if the community centered nature of harvest is something that we need to re-visit, and I wonder how we can truly creatively do so. Perhaps as Jan hinted in the poem she quoted celebration is a cure for apathy- and that we need to put on a red dress, bake a cake, and share our lives more often!

Who will be welcome to our table?

We have been made worthy.........

 I have been mulling over this post all morning, partly because there is too much to write, and partly because I do not even have the words to begin...

This is not an exegesis, rather it is my devotional response to this mornings New Testament reading from Revelation 5.

Revelation 5 offers us a vision of the lamb, who alone is worthy to open the scroll, but first the writer offers us a glimpse of his own heart.  Caught up in a vision of heaven he hears the angels calling for one who is worthy to open the scroll and none is found, not in heaven, nor in the entire created universe. His response challenges me to my core;

"I wept and wept because no-one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside." (vs.4)

The writer knew that he was not worthy, and knew that if none was found that the scroll would never give up its secrets, and so he wept. He wept for his own inadequacies and for the salvation of the world. This was not self pity or sorrow. it came from somewhere much deeper than that, and it continued to flow as an intercession of tears until he was called to look up and to see the Lamb of God approaching. The Lamb had been slain, and yet he was standing, and this was no meek Lamb, the symbolism of Revelation shows him as one who has been perfected in strength ( seven horns), and whose spirit has been sent to all and for all ( seven eyes).

I am not attempting to unravel the mystery of the symbolic and apocalyptic language of Revelation, but I am struck here by the picture of the Lamb- Jesus who gave all has been raised in power, and it is to this Jesus that we look for strength. Not that this Jesus is different from the Jesus of the Gospels, he still calls us to follow, his teaching is the same teaching, and his challenges are the same challenges...

..but too often I think we leave Jesus at the cross, too often we bemoan our inadequacies, and we forget that not only does he call us to follow but he also promises to equip us for the task.

Throughout the gospels we hear Jesus telling the disciples over and over again of the type of death he will die, we read of the struggle they had to come to terms with what they were hearing, of their denial of it, and of Jesus further insistence that this must happen. The disciples are still confused as Jesus explains what will happen:

"¹⁵ If you love me, you will obey what I command.

    ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever—

    ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

    ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

    ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

    ²⁰On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." (John 14)

 

Like those first disciples I think that we are often confused, and we feel inadequate, even orphaned. BUT he has not left us, he has overcome death, and he will equip us by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can continue to follow and so that we can continue to share the wonder, the mystery and the astonishing truth that God loved the world so much that he came amongst us and gave himself for us....

He was slain, but he has overcome, and as the heavenly hosts burst forth in a song of praise they remind us that we have been put right with God to step into his calling for us:

‘You are worthy to take the scroll
   and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
   saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;
¹⁰you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,
   and they will reign on earth.’

We have been made worthy! In and through him we have and will overcome all that stands against us; this is not pie in the sky visionary stuff. This is God reminding us that he is for us and not against us, that he considered and considers us worthy of his attention and his love, and of the sacrifice he paid for us in Christ!

I need to be continually reminded of this as I work out my salvation and walk with others as the work out their salvation. God is for us, and he has overcome sin and death, and because he has overcome sin and death we will overcome sin and death...

As I read and pondered the Scripture this morning my first response was to sing a hymn of praise, and to allow myself to be caught up again in the wonder and the mystery of the truth that the Creator of heaven and earth loves us so deeply.