Eternal Echoes

Love poured out : Sermon blogging for Pentecost; John 20: 19-23 & Acts 2: 1-21

What were you waiting for?

Were you hoping

he'd come back,

hoping that this

second grief

would end as the

first one had?

 

…and how did you pray,

could you pray?

weren't your minds

awash with questions,

weren't your hearts

still badly torn?

 

What were you expecting

as you gathered

waiting on his promise?

 

 

I would like to ask the disciples some questions; I am fed up with the faith filled sermons that abound at this time of year. I doubt that the disciples were filled with faith, their friend, Jesus had just left them for the second time, and although this leaving was not a death as such, and nor did it carry with it the horrors of the cross, he was GONE, and they were alone again! Alone and waiting….

I am sure that they didn't know what to expect, and I am sure that their minds were full of questions… lets consider Thomas, he'd been incredulous when it came to believing the resurrection, not happy until he had seen and touched Jesus… what were his questions now?

How about Peter, Peter whose denial although forgiven would always be a part of him, bringing a new humility, and an awareness of his frailty, how did he pray as he waited? Did his heart ache for Jesus presence, did he long simply to be with his friend?

I do believe that the disciples would have been filled with a cautious hope, hope as the Apostle Paul reminds us; "…does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." During Jesus ministry he spoke to the disciples about the Holy Spirit, calling her the comforter, the guide, the teacher, he breathed awakening into the disciples, calling them to receive the Holy Spirit, preparing them, wooing them if you like for what was to come.

And so let us take a journey, let's travel through time today to join the disciples at that first Pentecost, and as we do so we may take with us our questions, our grief's, our sorrows, but let us not forget to take our hope…

Hope that God the Holy Spirit will meet us here…

Hope not in wind and fire, but in the love and power of God…

I told the story of Pentecost to a group of Primary School children two weeks ago, and we had great fun with the images of fire and wind, and then as the room quietened for me to carry on with the story one young boy breathed out in an awe filled voice "wow, fire"….

It was a holy moment, and one that I don't want to forget, for it seemed as if the fire had moved from being outside of him to being something that lit his soul. That I believe is what happened to the disciples, I told the children to imagine what it would be like of the love and power of God were to fill them up; from their feet, from the tips of their toes, right up to and spilling out of their heads, and not one part of them was not filled with the love of God….

I was telling a story, but that simple meditation had a profound effect upon me as I imagined along with the children what it was to be filled to overflowing with the love and power of God.

Fire and wind are wonderful symbols, and glorious signs of God's presence, but the love of God is what makes the difference….

The love of God is what made a difference to John Wesley, who famously declared his heart to have been strangely warmed….

It was the love of God that sent that group of first disciples out into Jerusalem, early that Pentecost morning, the love of God spilling from their hearts, minds and souls, the love of God compelling them and propelling them out….

Timidity was gone, and for now, their questions were set aside as they rejoiced in the fullness of God, and revelled in the love-making presence of the Spirit….

The Holy Spirit had come, and they were filled up with her. The whole Church is founded upon the experience of the Holy Spirits presence and power to transform, right through history fresh moves of the Spirit have been recorded. But perhaps a more compelling and insistent truth has been the love-making, love creating, love empowering presence of the Spirit deep down in the everyday, ordinary stuff of our lives.

And so as we heard the story of that first Pentecost today, let us remember that the coming of the Holy Spirit was not a one of event set far back in history, an event to be remembered fondly each year and then set aside until the next…

As Jesus breathed over the disciples, inviting them to receive the Holy Spirit, so he is breathing over us now, and we have not been commanded to wait as they were for the Spirit has given herself to the Church, to dwell in and through and amongst us… and so as you listen in a few moments time to the Taize Chant Veni Sancte Spiritus, where the words include; "Come, Holy Spirit, send forth the heavenly radiance of your light" and:

 

"Wash that which is unclean,

water that which is dry,

heal that which is wounded.

Bend that which is inflexible,

warm that which is chilled,

make right that which is wrong.

 

 

Imagine if you can the love of God, filling you right from the tips of your toes, and infusing every part of your being until it spills out and overflows….

This overflowing, out pouring is the gift of the Holy Spirit, poured out upon the church, upon us and into our lives day by day. This is God with us, this is love.

The Big to do- Friday Five

Over at revgals Kathryn says; It seems like every year I enter into the summer with a growing list of HUGE projects/events/trips that seem to have a permanent place on the 'to do' list.
This year I have a huge move pending so that takes up an entire list all on its own, but it doesn't take a big event like that for me to make plans bigger than my summer can hold!
How about you?

Is this the third summer in a row you have made a pledge involving your garage and actually getting a car into it?
Did you once again miss the registration deadline for the continuing education event of your dreams ?
Are you starting to think you couldn't even find the tents, let alone get it together to pull off a camping trip?

Here is your chance to get it out into the open and OWN your Big To-Do! Who knows? Maybe making the list will help you move the Big To-Do to the Big Ta-Da!

1) What home fix-it project is on your Big To-Do?

No home fix projects, I live in a Manse, and will be moving to another Manse in the summer, so the nearest I will get to a home fix project is a big BIG clear out!

2) What event (fun or work) is on your Big To-Do?

My eldest son is getting married this summer so that will be this summers big event!

3) What trip is on your Big To-Do?

Ah, now it won't happen this summer, but ONE DAY, I want to take a trip to New Zealand, maybe a dream sabbatical.....

4) What do you wish was on someone ELSE's (partner, family member, celebrity, etc...) Big To-Do?

Well this isn't really a to-do, but a wish for this summer is that Christopher's' latest heart surgery would be a success, the last 5 years have knocked the stuffing out of all of us, he has undergone at least one surgery every year. I want to shout ENOUGH, and I want him to be able to get on with his life, to enjoy his final year at Cliff College illness free.

5) Getting inspired? What may end this summer having moved from the Big To-Do to the Big Ta-da?

See # 4 above- that is my prayer! If you have room on your prayer list, please add him to it!

Desert prayers at Pentecost….

No strength,

no strength…

weary and dry

her parched

soul waits, and

unvoiced, her

prayer is

that waiting

will be enough…

for she can offer

nothing else…

Image by Sheri Doty

Pentecost waiting…..

 

 

…can you hear love's whisper

in the distant wind?

Do you feel the warmth

of the coming fire?

 

Love passionate and pure,

beyond description,

uncontainable..

 

love…

 

blown in on the wind,

burning like fire

filling hearts and

flooding minds…

 

love…

 

…releasing words

lifting them beyond their limits,

until, pouring in torrents…

 

of love…

 

as a storm swollen river

cannot contain the flow,

and the banks are breached

so love comes….

 

poured out…

 

can you hear the whisper

in the distant wind?

Do you feel the warmth

of the coming fire?

 

love waits,

waits,

upon our waiting again…

 

 

Fire and wind by Zoltan Jedlicska

 

Festival outreach part 2, who came and why?

My last post was about the Churches Together Prayer Tent at Downham Market Festival, and following Angela's comment on the post I'd like to think a little more about who came and why....

The tent has been placed on the Festival site for almost 10 years now, with Tim and I responsible for setting up the installations and the team for the last 5 years. It represents a small part of the work that we do in the community, but is by contrast a large and visible representation of that work.. The installation itself is carefully thought out and prepared to be colourful and inviting, but I suspect that more people come because of the relationships we have built than anything else, because they felt comfortable with us they came....

...and because this was not a formal or churchy setting they felt free to engage with what was on offer....

What was on offer was the Through the Church Year Installation, which beginning with Advent took folk on a journey through the life of Jesus. At each section there was an interactive meditation and a Chance to respond (pray).

The fact that most folk took longer at the sections for Lent and Good Friday provides the Church with an instructive reflection, folk want to engage with a Jesus who meets them where they are,  one who understands temptation and suffering. They don't want an unattainable, untouchable Jesus. The Church folk as I mentioned yesterday were more interested in the Christmas and Easter sections, I wonder if in our rush to communicate the Good News we forget that sometimes we have to make room for it, by that I mean that often people carry around with them the concept that they are not and cannot be good enough. Negative images of Church and church folk abound, and an unreal rush to communicate the good stuff ( and it undoubtedly is good stuff) misses the depths that some need. We have Good news because of the wilderness and because of Good Friday.

I believe that what we saw yesterday was the evidence of a real hunger for meaning and depth to life, Tim was surrounded by about ten members of one family as he told Jesus story from the Jesus Deck, mixing in his testimony and being relaxed enough to answer questions, treating them as welcome interruptions. I spent over half an hour with one couple, again using the Jesus Deck, they picked cards one by one to speak into their past, present and future, finding once again that this representation of the Gospels opened connectionsand made room for meaningful dialogue.

Meeting people where they are is essential, I believe that most people are aware of the spiritual side of their nature but quite often don't know how to go about exploring what it might mean for them to be spiritual beings. This work contrasts the Mind Body and Soul outreach that I am more often involved in, here people are aware of their spirituality and are actively seeking, yesterday I think that for some folk that seeking began as they allowed a misunderstood or ignored part of themselves to surface. For some this was joyful, for others ( and these were the majority), it meant finding the suffering Jesus and allowing themselves to be found by him.

Festival outreach part 1, engaging with the hungry (?)

I spent the day on Downham Market's Festival Field, for the last 5 years we have been responsible for setting up the Churches Together Prayer Tent, as the theme for the Festival this year was Through the Ages I decided to present the Church Year in colour, and through reflective and interactive meditation. Alongside this Tim and I offered Jesus Deck Readings, once again, they were surprisingly accurate!... All in all it was a very good day..

One group of people were so impressed that they kept coming back, bringing different friends with them each time. The readings were well received and the most popular prayer station was the one that dwelt upon Lent;

"We all have things in our lives we are sorry for, burdens if you like; the season of Lent offers us a chance to connect with those things, to recognize them, to be sorry for them, then to give that burden to God  and leave them behind…

 You might like to leave something behind you as you leave this space, take the time to talk to God about them, God is a God of love and forgiveness, when we are sorry he forgives us.

Take a stone in your hand, and feel its weight, let that weight represent the burden you are carrying, drop it into the empty bucket, listen to the thud as it hits the bottom, it has gone, and God says you are forgiven....

When you are ready move on..."

I suspect that it reflected a deep desire for transformation, this was followed of course by a reflection on Good Friday, again people lingered here, gazing at the San Damiano Icon set against a black cloth...

Interestingly though while the folk we see Sunday by Sunday rushed around the tent, lingering only at the Christmas and Easter prayer stations, most other folk lingered at Lent and Easter identifying with the God of suffering and finding as one person commented;  "that he understands where I am at...." What is going on when there is such a dichotomy in the way that people engage, what does it say about the spirituality of the nation; I reflected on these things as I emptied the bucket full of stones back into my stone box this evening, each one represented a heartfelt prayer, each one different, but....

 

 

 

A view up the Prayer Tent, from Good Friday, to Easter with the green of Ordinary Time in the background ( we didn't miss Pentecost, it just isn't visible here!!!)

 

 

Pentecost

 

 

 

 

Lent

brains, beauty and exploitation....

"Studies have shown that 63 per cent of girls would rather be a topless model or lap dancer than a doctor, lawyer or teacher." So says Emmalina Thompsell, a second year Social and Political ( not Physical  as reported in the Mail)  Sciences student at Cambridge University.

Emmalina has made the headlines in the Daily Mail  by entering a beauty contest, spotted in Cambridge city centre by a talent scout, she was asked if she would consider entering, she hopes that by doing so that she will show other girls that education is important.

The Daily Mail shows its true colours by remarking not only on Emmalina's brains but also on her size, calling her curvaceous, and being astonished that a 10st, size 12 ( that is 10 for my friends from the USA!) would even be considered as a contestant in a beauty pageant. Since when was 10st overweight, and size 12 large?

The article continues to sadden me, can Emmalina possibly be right, would 63% of girls truly rather be a lap dancer or a topless model than a lawyer, a doctor, or a teacher? I know for a fact that neither of my daughters fall into that category, and I pray that this is a gross exaggeration, if it is not then what have we done to our daughters? Have we really told them that their bodies are commodities to be sold for profit?

Emmalina's parting comment to the newspaper, which I admit may well have been taken out of context by the editorial team at the Mail, disturbs me even more; "I want to show that not everybody who comes to Cambridge is like Gail Trimble - you can be pretty and clever." Is being pretty really an indicator of our worth, do we divide ourselves into categories so easily?

The newspaper says that her parents are being supportive.... I think that as a parent I would want to ask some serious questions, because I don't believe that beauty contests are truly the arena for encouraging young women not to exploit their bodies!

I want to tell young women that they are valuable simply by being themselves, they have been fearfully and wonderfully made, and do not need to be a certain weight and a certain size in order to be acceptable. I want to lament the fact that even though we are living in a century which claims to be enlightened and aware of sexist issues, that women are still judged and valued on their appearance, and demands for them to conform are not dissipating, but probably intensifying! I am not suggesting that women should not care about their appearance and neglect to live healthily, but I am saying that they must be freed from the tyranny of cultural scrutiny to say with the psalmist " Body and soul, I am marvelously made!" (Psalm 139) 
     

 

Vacations Friday Five

Mary Beth at revgals is dreaming about summer holidays ( vacations), although it is not quite that season here in the UK, I am happy to spend some time remembering and dreaming, Mary Beth asks:

1) What did your family do for vacations when you were a child? Or did you have stay-cations at home?

My childhood came into two parts, first the very privileged life of an ex-pat in Malaysia and Singapore, where holidays were taken in Penang, or the Cameron Highlands, and those were just the local getaways... my family traveled widely, I have spent weeks in Australia, and Thailand, and as a child thought nothing of it!

As a teenager I had moved back to England, and lived on a farm in rural Essex, here horses were an important part of life, and holidays tended to be at home, but with warm sunny days and the freedom to roam it hardly mattered!

2) Tell us about your favorite vacation ever:

My favourite holidays have been outdoor breaks with my husband and children, and it is hard to pick out one, but here goes, one year we were looking after a neighbours dog so she added an interesting element to our camping trip, but we headed to a wonderful campsite at Arncliffe in the Yorkshire Dales. We walked everyday and thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. It was a year when all of the children were at an age where they had outgrown the need to be carried or pushed, and none of them thought going on holiday with mum and dad was out of the question.Things soon changed, but it was a glorious summer!

One wonderful memory of a family holiday is sitting in our large frame tent in a rain storm, reading the Cockney Bible to one another complete with accents, much laughter and lots of cake!

3) What do you do for a one-day or afternoon getaway...is there a place nearby that you escape to on a Saturday afternoon/other day off?

Ah Snettisham beach... why is no-one surprised.... that will have to change soo though so I will be looking for getaway places in Yorkshire. Somehow I think I'll be spoiled for choice!

Watching the sunset over the dingy park.

4) What's your best recommendation for a full-on vacation near you...what would you suggest to someone coming to your area? (Near - may be defined any way you wish!)

Well the North Norfolk Coast is well worth exploring, I would recommend that you hired a cottage and went out exploring, there are some wonderful walks, beautiful views, and excellent places to eat! Moving inland you will find Walsingham, and a trip to Norwich for those who like city life, and it would make an excellent break for a week or two ( I am not being paid for this ;-) )

5) What's your DREAM VACATION?

Can't say that I have one, I have been blessed to live in some beautiful parts of the world, but being with the right people is key, I am not one for luxury, so anywhere quiet, with beautiful views will do!

No awful stories to tell....

seasonal choices….

Knowing that the

seasons will

continue their

rotation,

that the warmth of spring,

and heat of summer,

will give way

to autumn's winds,

and winter's ice,

she faces a choice…

 

…to thaw within

at the touch of spring,

or to remain hardened and cold

even to summer's heat…

 

…only the outside

changing…

 

…and I wonder

how to help her…

 

This poem was inspired by a set of photographs and a meditation on Dave Perry's blog . Dave said:

"Our deepest truth therefore is not our snowbound frozen souls, but rather the beauty which lies waiting to be discovered deep down and underneath the compressed snowflakes of shame, regret and hurt. The warming of love will melt it, if only we trust to the light of God's love in Jesus."

"If only"…………. it struck me that the transformation he was speaking of has the potential to be a surface transformation only, that as the seasons of life change, a centre or heart that has been/ become frozen may find the touch or warmth a threat. My ending musing reflects a longing for people to see that true openness before God might seem dangerous, but is never damaging….

 

Here are copies of some of his pictures ( see Dave's blog for the full size pictures and more…)

 

On being...

Last Saturday a friend and I headed off to Norwich to Chapel Field Gardens, where the Architects of Air had their Levity iii installation on display. Levity iii is a huge inflatable sculpture, entering into it was like entering into another world. In the end we spent almost three hours in there enjoying the changing light ( it is fed by natural sunlight, and the weather was changeable), the sounds and the peace, we moved from zone to zone sometimes together sometimes not. It was an amazing experience, but what surprised me was how long it took me to settle into simply being there.

To begin with we walked around the whole sculpture enjoying each space in turn, then we began to spend intentional time in each space, to begin with my mind was racing, one hundred and one things crowded in demanding attention. Setting them aside was both a conscious and quite a difficult exercise, but once I achieved the rhythm of acknowledging thoughts and letting them go I began to relax and be....

Three hours later I was thoroughly chilled out! Three hours is not long, but the benefits lasted through the day and into the evening, even into the next week....

      

Yesterday again I decided to intentionally relax and be, Tim and I had taken the boat back to the beach for the weekends sailing, we walked, and then while he set the boat up ( his hobby not mine) I sat and watched the sunset, yet again the process of letting go and being was difficult to begin with...

.....and that has got me wondering about my relationship with God, I have to ask myself how often I simply enter into his/her presence to be, not with a to do list, but with the intention to listen and to catch the rhythms of her hearts beat. I know that when Tim and I don't make time to be together that our relationship suffers, it becomes purely functional and soulless...

Is my Christian walk purely functional? Is it soulless? Do I need to make more time to be, and to listeN for God's heart? I know the answer, now I simply need to practice being in his/her presence.