Eternal Echoes

Friday 5 Positive Pot Pourri edition

Will Smama over at revgals says Greetings friends! It's been awhile since I've contributed to the posts here at the revgalblogpals website, but I agreed to step into the Fifth Friday of the Month Friday Five slot.

So here I be.

As I zip around the webring it is quite clear that we are getting BUSY. "Tis the season" when clergy and laypeople alike walk the highwire from Fall programming to Christmas carrying their balancing pole with family/rest on the one side and turkey shelters/advent wreaths on the other.

And so I offer this Friday Five with 5 quick hit questions... and a bonus:

1) Your work day is done and the brain is fried, what do you do?

Now if I was super spiritual I'd say meditate or something like that, but it would be a lie. I quite often veg out in front of the TV, CSI, Houseand Desperate Housewives are amongst my favourite tune out shows! A recent BBC show that really caught my imagination was Sunshine, it made me laugh and cry"

So there you have it, I am an evening couch potato!!!

2) Your work week is done and the brain is fried (for some Friday, others Sunday afternoon), what do you do?

Friday is my day off and I like to get out for a long walk, often that is on a nearby beach, but today it will be in the Peak District as we are taking Christopher back to Clliff College after reading week.

3) Like most of us, I often keep myself busy even while programs are on the tv. I stop to watch The Office and 30 Rock on Thursday nights. Do you have 'stop everything' tv programming or books or events or projects that are totally 'for you' moments?

See #1!!! But also totally for me moments are when I pick up my guitar and simply play, not for anything, not as practice but simply for the pleasure of it, often this becomes worship, but it is just me and God, and that is good!

4) When was the last time you laughed, really laughed? What was so funny?

Yesterday I had a good laugh at this:

and on Tuesday evening I spent a long time chattiong with a friend, we laughed together and commiserated together...it certainly did me good!

5) What is a fairly common item that some people are willing to go cheap on, but you are not.

Bread, quite simply I like really good bread, cheap stuff will not do! We have a bread machine so often make our own. Now my mouth is watering!!!

Bonus: It's become trite but is also true that we often benefit the most when we give. Go ahead, toot your own horn. When was the last time you gave until it felt good?

It may be trite ( although I don't think it is) but it is true. We are opting for a ( mostly)Buy nothing Christmas this year, the gifts we do give will be Alternative gifts, water or school supplies or livestock for those that need them. Check out Cafod's gift site! We have done this for the last couple of years and it has been good!!!!!

A modern day parable/ a call for mercy…

Not so long ago, and not to far away, in a time of global recession the banks where all of the people's money was invested hit a crisis. Loosing confidence in the global situation they stopped lending to one another.

The government of the country watched the situation with growing concern, they decided that they must act and so they called in the heads of the various banks for a talk. The talks were held and both the government ministers and the heads of the various banks emerged serious, but smiling. The government had decided to help out the banks to the tune of several billion pounds. The banks were now solvent again, and many investors breathed a cautious sigh of relief.

That relief proved to be short lived however for many small business bosses, for the bank leaders returned to their offices and began to look at their record books. The small business owners found that they were receiving letters demanding higher repayments, and in some cases lines of credit such as overdrafts were withdrawn. The small business owners cried out in anguish and asked for mercy….

Will the banks relent?

The government ministers certainly hope so, and they have encouraged the bank leaders to apply for more aid so that they can help out the small business owners…

Will this story end in smiles or tears? We will wait and see; in the meantime the bank leaders might like to consider the following parable:

 

The Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn't pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.

 "But the man fell down before his master and begged him, 'Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.' Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

"But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

"His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. 'Be patient with me, and I will pay it,' he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn't wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

"When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, 'You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?' Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. (Matthew 18)

Sermon blogging: God wants his church back/ Come Holy Spirit. John 14: 15-31

I do not very often choose not to preach on the lectionary readings, but this week I have been compelled to do so. God has taken hold of my heart and soul again and set a fire within me, and for that I am thankful!!!

 

Earlier this week my husband received a letter from wise friend who noted that the Methodist Church once exhibited both intellectual rigour and passion, he went on to lament that over the last century it has slowly replaced passion with bureaucracy! That same morning I had opened my mail to read an article by Andy Atkins entitled "What ever happened to the Holy Spirit?

 

Andy quoted the evangelist David Watson saying:

 

"For sixteen years I have suffered from asthma. When you are gasping for breath you are literally fighting for your life. You cannot talk, walk, work or do anything. The church in many parts of the world today is in a chronic asthmatic condition. So evangelist David Watson described the church of his generation- dry, breathless and immobilised, trying by human effort to do what God had only promised to do through his life giving Spirit.

 

The illustration of spiritual asthma resonated deeply with me, perhaps because I know what it is to see an asthmatic struggle for breath, as both my husband and one of my daughters are asthmatic. Their lives are not blighted by asthma though, they both enjoy the active hobby of sailing; they are able to do so because both preventative and therapeutic medications have been prescribed for them. They use the preventative medication every day, the medication works by reducing inflammation in their lungs and helping them to breathe freely and easily.

 

If the church is in an asthmatic state, struggling for life and breath it needs treatment, what is crazy is that the God given, life bringing, life filling, life releasing answer to our chronic state was given, God breathed, as Jesus spoke the words over his disciples almost 2,000 years ago "receive the Holy Spirit"!

 

Receive the Holy Spirit, this glorious third person of the trinity comes to us, to live within and amongst us, to empower, enliven and equip us, and yet somehow we have on the whole missed her! Why?

 

We cannot see her, but then neither can we see The Father or the Son! There are many symbols which evoke the reality of her presence amongst us, but I fear that too often we have reduced her to being a concept or an emphasis rather than a real presence. She is reduced to the edges of spiritual experience and forgotten in the day to day struggle that we walk as we try to work out how to be the body of Christ together, and yet the church is called to be a community of the Holy Spirit, a people amongst whom and within whom God's presence dwells!

 

Too often I have heard people when challenged by the works and deeds of the early church recorded for us in the Acts of the Apostles state that that was for then, that the Holy Spirit does not dwell amongst us in power as she did then. But they are only half right, for although the last part of the statement is true the first part is certainly not, in fact it is tantamount to blasphemy! Fortunate for us that one of the Spirit's qualities is gentleness, fortunate for us but not for her, could it be that our stubbornness, coldness and pride is effectively breaking God's heart over and over again as we reject his presence amongst us preferring to keep him at arms length!

 

To be a Christian is not to ascent to a philosophy to be debated and discussed at an intellectual level only, to be a Christian is not to choose a lifestyle or to make a statement of class, to be a Christian is to live in a live and vibrant relationship with the creator and sustainer of the universe! The lover of our souls! To know that because of Christ's sacrifice of himself upon the cross that we are forgiven- and that he made that sacrifice out of love for us!

 

John Wesley the founding father of the people who call themselves Methodists discovered this for himself, he is famously quoted as saying the his heart was strangely warmed, but we do him and God an injustice if we say to ourselves that it was nice for Wesley to have such a spiritual experience!

 

John Wesley was an intellectual, he studied at Oxford and was a member of the holiness movement, he sought to please God, but his efforts left him exhausted and depressed. He could not do it alone!

 

On 24^th May 1735, still in a state of depression John opened his Bible and read at random these words; "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God" later that day he heard Luther's Anthem "Out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord", and in the evening he reluctantly attended a society meeting where Luther's preface to Romans was being read… He records this in his journal:

 

"…while he was describing the change in the heart through faith in Christ I felt my heart strangely warmed….I felt an assurance was given to me that He had taken away my sins…and saved me from the law of sin and death."

 

John Wesley was a changed man, not changed by his intellect although it informed his preaching and teaching well, not changed by his good works, but changed by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit's living presence in his life! John Wesley was compelled by the discovery of God's passion for not only himself but for every human soul, out of his comfort zone and into the highways and byways of this country, he travelled over a quarter of a million miles and preached over 40,000 sermons!

 

We sit here in a Methodist Church today; do we know the fire of God warming our hearts and souls? Have we experienced his passion and compassion for us? Do we know that our sins have been forgiven and that we have been set free to live a life of love in the power of the Holy Spirit?

 

Sadly I do not see much evidence in Methodism today to suggest that this is true, and I find myself challenged and convicted by God even as I write these words, challenged and convicted but not condemned…

 

for the God who brings the challenge is passionate about each one of us, we are loved with a love so high, wide and deep that it is beyond our comprehension. The God who brings the challenge is the God who goes before us and invites us to step into the wonders of His grace, to know his life bubbling up from within our very souls, and flowing as streams of living water in a dry and dusty land.

 

God is waiting, and God wants his church back! If you sense a stirring in your spirit as you hear these words then you can respond and He will come afresh and in power upon your life! But be aware of this, this is not about seeking a once and for all experience, this is about entering into the most amazing, most fulfilling relationship you have ever entered into….

 

Without God's empowering presence the church is simply another institution that will crumble and fade, Jesus is simply another idea rather than the living reality that our spiritually bankrupt generation hungers for. Without the Holy Spirit the Christian life is reduced to duty, a morality and conformity to a life style!

 

But God desires more for us than that! God's desire is to dwell within and amongst us, transforming and equipping us, empowering and strengthening and inspiring us…

 

We may call ourselves weak; we may consider that this is impossible, but God reminds us that He is the strength in our weakness and that with him all things are possible. We need the Holy Spirit to teach and direct us, we need the Holy Spirit to strengthen and equip us, and in her we will find wisdom and riches of grace, God's gift to His church. God is calling to us, God is wooing us…

 

…and he is waiting for our response…..

 

Come Holy Spirit; breathe life into your church again!

seeking grace…

do I cheapen

your sacrifice,

simply by being

myself?

for although

i speak of grace,

I struggle to live

in it's light.

i find myself

at odds with

myself,

doing the

things

i hate,

and failing

again, and

again,

to do the

things,

i know

i should.

 

the trouble is

that I choose

to live

my way

rather than

your way,

i allow myself

to be driven

by my own desires

and appetites,

my selfishness,

my pride.

 

i want to

love you more,

to put you first,

but that will mean

facing myself,

owning my faults,

and my failings,

and accepting

that you

love me

anyway.

 

will you come

Holy Spirit?

will you strengthen me?

will you help me,

to change?

Eucharistic tensions

The table is set,

the bread prepared,

the wine poured,

the white linen,

silver plate,

and goblet

have been

carefully positioned.

 

My ears are ready

to receive the invitation,

come!

 

And then

as bread is broken open

I am called forward.

 

Can I meet you

in the beauty

of this ritual?

 

You who were broken,

torn apart for us,

in a place where beauty

could not,

dare not reside.

 

But somehow I find you,

in the breaking and

the pouring,

in the eating,

and the drinking.

 

In this place beauty

and terror

sit side by side.

And you issue your invitation,

Come.

 

Will you transform me

here?

Symbol and ritual...how important are they?

I've been reading today about the importance of symbol and ritual within Christian worship, and about how their presence enriches our experience. The reading has also considered how easy it is for us to overlook the importance of these two aspects of worship and to downplay our need to engage both emotionally and imaginatively with the God whose presence amongst us is highlighted and brought close through the enactment of them.

I come from a word based tradition, a tradition where rationality and pragmatism are highly prized, but over the years I have come to value the symbolism and ritual of highly liturgical worship, I sense that I am impoverished without them.

I wonder how others feel about symbol and ritual.

Are they important?

Which symbols/ rituals speak to you deeply?

Like cutting off an arm.... ( and being thankful)

I've made a big decision today, feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volumeof reading that is required for the two MA modules I am taking this year, not to mention the Life and Service Unit I have decided to cut back on the amount of preaching I am doing.

For many people training for Ordained Ministry this is a no brainer, but my work as a Community Worker for the Methodist Church has always involved quite a bit of preaching, usually around 10 preaching appointments per quarter. I love preaching, I believe that for me this is a God given gift and one that I am called to, but for now I need to cut back or the study just isn't going to get done! Next quarter I am only offering 3 appointments in my home circuit, and 2 in my placement circuit, and although I know that this is the right decision it hurts in a very real way.

I feel like I have just cut off an arm, and although I know that this self imposed restriction will only last for a few months I am not looking forward to it. Tomorrow I am going to set myself a study schedule and I am going to try hard to stick to it... I might just end up writing sermons to myself that are based around the study.

I know that God is in this however, and it will be good to attend worship services that I have had no hand in planning.

Edited to add:

I went to the evening Communion Service today and met God in a tangible way in the bread and the wine, and I am thankful that he does not require me to exhaust myself with busyness, but sense that he has has given me this time as a preparation gift....

...and I am thankful...

Time for a quiz....

Haven't taken a quiz for a long time... so just for fun I tried out this one;

Apparently I am a verbal/ interpersonal thinker... well well....

Your result for The 4-Variable IQ Test...

Verbal

  35% interpersonal, 10% visual, 45% verbal and 10% mathematical!

 

Your strongest type of intelligence is Verbal. You thrive on words, word games, and languages in general. I'm feeling insecure as I write this, because you are reading it. You see, language demands a certain level of recursive thought, and, as someone who just scored highly on it, I'm guessing you already noted the intentional dangling modifier I just put in this sentence. Didn't you? Smarty pants. 4-eyes.

Your specific scores follow. On any axis, a score above 25% means you use that kind of thinking more than average, and a score below 25% means you use it less. It says nothing about cognitive skills, just your interest.

Your brain is roughly:

35% Interpersonal

10%Visual

45%Verbal

10%Mathematical

You can take The 4-Variable IQ Test at HelloQuizzy

I must say I was surprised to be even 10% mathematical!

Free to love: reflecting on Matthew 22: 34-40

Without you,

I am a pale shadow

of lost possibilities.

 

Without you,

I am caught

within a

web of lies, and

too often they are

the ones that I tell!

 

Without you,

I cease to be

myself.

 

For you have

called me

to step out from

the shadows.

 

You have called me

to believe

your words.

 

You have called me

to be in you,

promising that you

will be in me.

 

Your call

is a call of love,

a call that reaches

to my inmost parts

where I hide

all that I call unlovely.

 

Your call

dares me to recognise

the divine spark within

myself that longs

to reconnect

with you

the source

of my life.

 

Only

in you

am I free

to love me.

I have discovered time and again that is only when I live in the light of God's love for me that I am truly able to love myself and therefore love others. The problem comes when I am unable to look at myself, when my own sense of sin causes me to wear a mask. The wearing of that mask cuts me off from myself and ultimately from God, only in the returning and the accepting of His love afresh do I find myself set free again.... this is an onging process, but one that I need to grow through again and again, one that deepens my knowledge of His love...

His love is the air that I need to breathe!

Richard Dawkins challenges the value of myth and story... I believe that we need them!

I an interview with the Daily Telegraph renowned atheist Richard Dawkins talks about why he has stepped down from his post at Oxford University to write a book for children.

Dawkins is concerned about the damage that myths and fairy-tales might cause and likens the telling of stories to a form of child abuse. He says:

"I think looking back to my own childhood, the fact that so many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's something for research."

How sad it is that he cannot recognise the power of story and myth to enhance the imaginations and lives of children ( and adults), would he ask us to suspend our imaginations, to decry art and poetry, and what of music, is music rational?

The interview continues and what is possibly one of the main reasons for his position is soon revealed:

He went on: "I plan to look at mythical accounts of various things and also the scientific account of the same thing. And the mythical account that I look at will be several different myths, of which the Judeo-Christian one will just be one of many.

"And the scientific one will be substantiated, but appeal to children to think for themselves; to look at the evidence. Always look at the evidence."

Obviously the assault upon the Judeo-Christian Creation account continues, how sad that he cannot see the beauty of the story, like many thinking Christians I do not believe that the world was created in seven days, what I see is a beautiful hymn of praise, and a story that reveals the hand of God in the whole process.

How did the Universe come into being? Yes I believe that science is helping us to understand, but the more we understand the more I am filled with awe at the intricacy and wonder of design. I am not a scientist, but I am profoundly grateful for the work of scientists, but I am also aware that we should treat knowledge with care, and that is an awesome task.

Having said that I do not believe that we will protect anyone by robbing them of myth, I believe that we will diminish them!

Steven Johnson (Artist ) speaks about the writings of Joseph Campbell:

"....Campbell went even farther to warn us that a society with no contemporary myths in which it can believe is in danger of losing an essential part of its humanity. And the appreciation of modern science, by itself, cannot rescue us from the dilemma."

Campbell spoke of our need to keep on creating myths, he goes on to say:

"It is in fact tragic that often our objective philosophies, backed by contemporary science, seem to imply that myths are nothing more than lies and rationalizations that were concocted in order to comfort the ignorant. In my opinion, nothing could be farther from the truth. "

I agree, I love stories and poems and art, I believe that I , no we need stories and poems and art, they enrich our lives and feed our souls in a way that science on its own cannot. There is no need for a case or either/ or, and it is a tragedy that Richard Dawkins experience and thinking has led him to this point. How sad that he believes that all Christians read the Bible as a text book, and misses the beauty within its pages.

Let us celebrate our God given  imagination and creativity, after all they are a reflection of the creators image within us!