Eternal Echoes

Celebrating the New Year...

I must be getting old, I don't want to see the New Year in with a party, I don't want to dance and drink the night away, though I do like dancing and enjoy a drink, I am looking forward to a quiet evening at home with Tim. We plan to get in a take-away and watch a film or two and mark the point of midnight with  prayer... (and a kiss I'm sure!!!)

I am looking forward to tomorrow morning though, with a number of our local preachers away we are holding sectional services and I have decided to celebrate communion as a part of the one I am leading.  For various reasons our Covenant Services begin next week and I suppose I could have taken less time and given myself a bit more of a break, but this feels important.Breaking bread reminds us of whose we are, and equips and sends us to be the people we are called to be.We place so many hopes and expectations into the turning of a new year, many folk make resolutions, or lists of things hoped and dreamed for, what better way to ground and centre all of these things than by returning to the centre point of our faith, a reminder of the love of God poured out on the cross, and the power of God through the resurrection and the promise of God as we look towards the day when ALL things will be made new....

The service will include this prayer (I have written the liturgy):

God of heaven and earth, we come to your table.

Place your good gifts of bread and wine into our hands.

Do not let us leave this place, unmoved, unchanged or unchallenged.

Help us to find here your healing, your strength, your life, your power, your purpose made real within us.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

 

Whatever you are doing to celebrate I do pray that you will encounter the love and power of God, and that you will know whose you are, and find your purpose in him.

May your 2012 be filled with blessings.

 

a new years prayer...

a new day,

a threshold

of possibilities

of potential,

brim full of hope

bursting

with dreams,

and yet

held tightly

they will disappear

like vapour on the wind,

help me to hold them

loosely Lord,

brood over my days

as the Spirit brooded over

the waters,

release your creative powers

in and through me,

revive,

restore,

renew me;

a new day,

a threshold

of possibilities

of potential,

brim full of hope

bursting

with dreams,

let me live it

no longer my own,

but yours...

Flesh by Tim

 

 

Nearly New Year Friday Five...

 

A simple Friday Five for a busy part of the year; indulge me by sharing two fives:

 

As you look back over 2011 share 5 blessings, they can be as grand or as simple as you like,if you year has been like mine they are probably a mixture!

As you look towards 2012 share 5 hopes- again, anything goes!

Pictures and songs welcome!

2011 Blessings:

1. Voices of dissent, cries for freedom from around the globe from the Middle East to Manchester, from Tahrir Square to Times Square, the cry for jusitce is rising. All I need is the courage to live my convictions. Lord have mercy....

2. My garden, though I have neglected it and failed it this year it has given to me in abundance, vegetables and flowers, a true sign of grace...

3. Time, particularly time with Tim, he is studying away from home right now so all the hours we have are precious, including time out on holiday in North West Norfolk:

 

4. For my family and real reminders how precious they are, all of them! We celebrated the joy of a wedding this year, but also the pain of a break up, life takes us through ups and downs, but a visit to a lovely man today reminded me that all of this is a part of the rich tapestry of life...

My children and my new son-in-law!

Tim and me with Jo and Dave

5. Prayer, prayer that has become a heart cry within me, especially as I struggled with depression in the mid- late part of the year. also for o counsellor who helped me to see that I am stronger than I thought!

Bonus: For on-line friends, through Twitter, Facebok, e-mail etc... you know who you are!!!

 

2012 Hopes and dreams :

1. I'll start where I left off, prayer, for prayer to become a deeper reality and condition of my being, that I might know myself to be part of the vine...

2. For pastures new, not until later 2012, but long awaited... and looked forward to...

3. For continued discipline in self care and a lifting of depression, this is step by step and day by day, but I pray that I might be more empathetic and stronger for my experience...

4. For a renewal of marriage vows, we celebrate 30 years in February 2012, I pray there will be many more...

5. Back to # 1 in my previous list, that wisdom and justice might be seasoned with grace and love....

 In the midst of all of these cam my own Ordination, to be trusted with the word of God, a Bible placed into my hands, hands laid upon my head and prayers said... this is a deep blessing, but also a challenge and responsibility- the lightness comes by the Spirit alone!

 

Then there is this, that speaks to every blessing, those past, and those to come:

to expect the unexpected...

What do we expect I wonder, when we tell the Christmas story year after year? Do we expect it to change us? To change others? Or do we simply wish to bask in some cosy nostalgic glow, where truth mixes with myth and tradition to create a nice, sweet and yet truly unbelievable story easily dressed in tinsel for a while, then put away until next year....

How do we deal with tales of majestic angels and vivid dreams, of ancient prophecies unfolding in unexpected ways? Let's begin with the angels, appearing to Zechariah, to Mary, to Joseph, and to the shepherds; can we really read of these appearances with an easy comfort? Don't we wonder where these angels are today? Do we encounter and experience them or are we numb to their touch and blind to their appearing...

Then there are the dreams, Joseph and the Magi dream, they dream and they heed the messages of their dreams; do we really treat dreams with such seriousness today, do we ponder their messages and meanings? 

There is so much mystery in the Christmas story, deep mystery that deserves more than a short retelling, mystery and wonder that if we dare to open our hearts to their message we might just find ourselves caught up in the remarkable (seemingly) upside down wisdom of God who chose to reveal himself in poverty and vulnerability, all of those riches, all of that power wrapped in an infants flesh, waiting to encounter and be encountered.

How easy it is to move on from these wonders, to fail to ponder the otherness of what is being shown to us...

...and I wonder what might happen, if we dared this year to allow the story to sink in just a little deeper....

unexpected....

neither powerful,

nor rich,

neither strong,

nor beautiful,

neither famous,

nor even newsworthy

at the time

he came, 

weak and

vulnerable,

without a penny

to his name,

he came,

yet in him

all wisdom,

all power, 

all love

is revealed

to those

with eyes to see,

ears to hear,

and hearts to receive,

+

he came,

he comes

to those whose

hearts yearn

for holiness

even when they

could not name

it such,

he came,

he comes,

he stands again

at the door

and knocks

+

he came,

he comes, even

today...

+

but he might not be

what you expected!

This post is part of a synchroblog, the list of others is here.

 

 

 

 

Christmas blues...

nothing is quite

as we planned,

the slick Christmas operation,

the perfect meal,

the polite conversation, the peace,

the harmony,

the unqualified happiness...

nothing is quite

as we planned,

though we have eaten well,

and laughed,

at times...

though we have talked,

and walked, and watched T.V.

nothing is quite

as we planned...

what's missing???

why this emptiness???

why is nothing

quite as we planned????

+

what are we missing?

 

Messy Church .... no not that one...

I have been reflecting on our Christmas Services, and if I have to use one word to describe them the word I would use is messy. Of course we didn't set out to be messy, but that is how they largely turned out. Lets start with the Carol Services on the 18th, these are usually among the highlight of my year, but for some reason this year the message weighed heavy on me, add that to a change of format for  and the fact that one of the Chapel is undergoing a refurbishment, while the other had a change of format for health and safety reasons (no more hanging candles over peoples heads), and the general feel was well, messy!

On to Christmas Eve, well I'm not sure what was going on, the lossof a very dear member half way through the week had obviously played its part, but the service itself was anything but smooth, it is quite possible that our visitors thought we were mad, but in reality they seemed to relax in our muddle!, the Christmas day dawned and it became apparent that the main service in one village had been advertised at two different times! Other than that things went along pretty well but it did take a while to draw everyone in! The last service was a typical family Christmas morning, parents who'd been up for a while and children fractious to get back to their presents. Some folk enjoying family, others joining together so they weren't lonely, oh yes, and the organist was late- she'd been visiting friends...

So much for smooth well run events...

So much for timing...

And yet in the carols and the prayers, in the scripture, the preaching and the breaking of bread God was with us, Immanuel....

And as I ponder the story afresh I remember that he was not delivered in a sanitised hospital, nor was he laid in an immaculate and well planned nursery. He came right into the mess, the muddle, the difficulty and the heartache of this world, the vulnerable for the vulnerable, the weak for the weak, and yet somehow in the mystery of God al heaven rejoiced for he was the one who came anointed to preach good news to the poor, to bring sight to the blind, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and to set the prisoners free...

And even in our mess he comes!

here is love...

here is love,

grace poured out,

earth bound,

heaven sourced,

holding nothing back

given completely

to all that will be, 

glory veiled for now in frail flesh, 

yet those whose eyes dare

will catch a glimpse

of heavenly light

and hear the angels song

echoing through

the skies,

here is love,

grace poured out,

light and life,

truth and glory

are here...

he is here...

 

Flesh, by Tim

 

 

 

Christmas Eve Prayer...

wake in me Lord,

if only for a moment today

a sense of holy anticipation,

cause me to breathe deep,

to fall to my knees

in awed wonder,

to catch on the wind

the strain of eternal

angelic song

proclaiming your coming...

+

stir in me Lord,

if only briefly,

a desire to follow that song

to look within,  to find you

working in my life

a fresh miracle

that only your incarnate presence

can call  forth,

and turn my heart

to worship...

+

burn in me Lord,

and let it burn and blaze,

a deeper love

than I have known,

where the miracle,

the wonder,

and the power of Bethlehem

is loosed for all to see, 

Immanuel, Immanuel,

GOD IS WITH US...

 

Image: Fullness by Tim

 

 

 

into the darkness...

I am pondering one of the deeper mysteries of the Christmas season today, one that we so often forget, and that mystery is the mystery of darkness. I don't believe that it is a coincidence that we celebrate Christmas (in the Northern Hemisphere) during the time of year when the days are at their shortest, the hours of daylight are few, in fact non existent in some places...

Sometimes it seems to me that we are so busy concentrating on celebrating and embracing the symbol of light that we forget that light came into the darkness, for surely if light had come into the light then we would not have noticed it, or dare I say needed it...

But we do need light, we need the light and hope that came into the world in frailty, the fullness of that light cloaked for a time in vulnerable human flesh, choosing for a time to depend on human flesh for nurture and sustenance...

If we dare to pause for a while and dare to ask ourselves why God chose not only to come into the darkness, but also to come into the darkness in a vulnerable form we might begin to understand not only his own giveness, but also his understanding of our condition. Let's face it, we are not strong, we don't have our lives together, we struggle with doubts and fears and anxieties, and we need to connect with one who understands our state from the inside out...

And so he comes to us, into the darkness of our condition, into the darkness of our hidden vulnerable selves, into our questions, into our untogetherness...

He comes to us, daring us to see glory even in frailty, to embrace the possibilities that can only form in the darkness, just as he formed himself afresh in his mothers womb- hands that flung stars into space reformed as infants hands..

To kneel at the manger is to kneel in the darkness and to behold the faintest flickering flame, and to see within it the possibilities of a flame that will set the world ablaze, for it is truly a flame of passion and power...

To kneel at the manger means that we dare to behold not only our own weaknesses, but also the possibility that we can reject the invitation of the one who breathed and conceived our very beings, yet offers himself so completely to be accepted or rejected....

Of course all of this insists that we dare look deep into our own souls, to see beyond the tinsel and the glitter of the season into the depths of truth that it offers us, and to find in that offering not a burning torch but a flickering flame of hope, hope that will grow as we grow, hope that can be fanned into a flame that will set our souls on fire...

 

I wrote this for a synchro blog in 2008:

From the darkness

of his mother's womb,

born of blood,

and sweat, of toil and pain,

came the light of the world that night. ...

he came needing care,

needing shelter,

needing his mother's breast,

light of the world,

born into darkness…

This is the wonder,

this is the joy,

God with us Immanuel!

This is the good news…

this light,

this treasure,

born in darkness ...