Eternal Echoes

The way of love, into suffering ( Sermon blogging Matthew 16: 21-28)

Have you noticed how so many good TV series leave you with a cliff-hanger ending to the episode, not the ones where it is obvious what will happen but those who leave you with a sense of anticipation because you really aren't sure what will happen next. Those where the unfurling story takes strange twists and turns and perhaps even when the beginning only makes sense right at the end, and even then there are questions. I am sure you can think of examples! 

Just pause for a moment and watch this story unfold, our story is coming to a crunch point and I want to take you back to last week's episode, to the cliff hanger ending of the Gospel reading, the ending that should have left you asking for more, and possibly left you with one big question; "Why not?"

Just in case you missed it Jesus has been quizzing his disciples, " who do people say I am?", and finally;

¹⁵He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. ¹⁸And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. ¹⁹I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ²⁰Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Wow, put yourself in Peter's shoes, he has got it right, this revelation is not from himself and his deductive thinking, but God himself has revealed to Peter the truth of who Jesus is, great things are about to happen....

Then Jesus sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone... queue the music, credits roll; what Jesus? Why not Jesus? Surely this is good news, really good news, the long awaited Messiah, the Saviour of Israel, the one we've been waiting for has come and we are to say nothing, nothing at all?

So how about this weeks story, here are Peter and the others with the keys to the kingdom of heaven in their hearts and minds standing on the threshold of something new and wonderful, and Jesus begins to speak to them about suffering, the suffering and death that he has to undergo! Confusion reigns, this cannot be, why on earth would the Messiah have to suffer...

Once again Peter steps in as spokesman and is rounded upon by Jesus, "Get behind me Satan"!

What is going on? Lets pause for a moment and unpack that sentence on which this passage hinges, the meaning of the term of name Satan is actually opponent, so what is Jesus saying to and of Peter? Has Peter just become the devil incarnate, or is there something more subtle and more dangerous going on? Could it be that Peter's view of who the Messiah is and what he has come for is in direct opposition to God's ways?

Just think for a while on God's ways as revealed in Jesus...

How he left the glory of heaven and slipped into frail, vulnerable human flesh, born in obscurity and poverty...

How even as a babe he became a refugee, fleeing the slaughter of the innocents...

How he grew and learned a trade, grew and grew in understanding of God's ways, and then when the time was right submitted himself to baptism, struggled against the opponent within him in the desert and emerged to bring the good news of God's coming kingdom not into Temple in Jerusalem, the heart and seat of power of those who called themselves God's chosen people  but to the outcast, the lepper, the tax collector, the foreigner, the adulterer and the prostitute, to all who were pushed to the margins and rejected by society Jesus came, healing, accepting, teaching and releasing. Living out the message that all are welcome and none are excluded! 

Now he speaks of entering into necessary suffering, and while Peter does not understand it this too is good news, for he calls us to follow him! 

This is good news, for he calls us to follow him, to follow him against the will of our internal voices that call out for ease and comfort and a decent standard of living. Listen again to Jesus:

 If you want to follow Me, you must deny yourself the things you think you want. You must pick up your cross and follow Me.  The person who wants to save his life must lose it, and she who loses her life for Me will find it. Look, does it make sense to truly become successful, but then to hand over your very soul? What is your soul really worth?

Your soul of course is infinetly valuable, it tells you who you are body, mind and spirit in Christ, when we follow the way of Jesus we become hidden with Christ in God and our world expands beyond our limited wishes and desires. 

To leave ourselves behind means becoming more, it means having our hearts open to the other, to the outcasts, to the vulnerable, to any that we might formerly have called "other"!

Jesus is going to walk the road to Jerusalem and he will not be opposed, and he calls us to follow him, to break away the barriers, and tear down the walls in our minds that keep us sanitised and safe from the world. In a world where there is so much turmoil and pain this is good news, to the people of Gaza and Israel, of Syria and Iraq this is good news for in the eyes of Christ they are not other but infinetly precious and included. To the confused and traumatised people of Rotherham this is good news, for he sees their hurts, and in his woundedness brings healing through his body here on earth if we too dare to bear his wounds and cry out for justice. To the poor and marginalised in our town this is good news if we like him choose to satnd with them and open our eyes to the truth that we are one!

The Church is not called to maintain lovely buildings and hold Committee meetings ( though that often consumes our time), rather it is called as the people of God, the body of Christ to enter into his suffering, to take on his vulnerable flesh and to bear his wounds, to move beyond the barriers and boundaries of respectability and to put on Christ in love...

The choice is ours, are we those who will dare to follow, or do we prefer our own kingdom, our place of saftey, our will and ways? If that is our choice we might perhaps here Jesus challenge to us as Peter did, do not oppose me... "Get behind me Satan!" I hope we will choose the better path, the more daring and inclusive path, that we will choose to walk the way of the cross, to become those who in Christ turn the world upside down until it and we find ourselves the right way up at last! What a series ending that would be!!!

Out of the darkness light; Image mine

Lessons from a hedge, a hug and a Greenbelt prayer

I have spent quite a bit of time today pruning a hedge and cutting back some very overgrown shrubs, the result is a tidy front garden and a back garden that looks like a lunatic with a pair of clippers has been let loose. I have been brutal with the shrubs, they were eating up the light in my garden and pushing over my neighbours fence, as a result I have exposed a 4ft width of ground to the light, cut away a load of dead wood and overgrown tangled branches. I haven't dug the shrubs out because I hope they will grow back much more healthily in the spring. I like them, they all produce flowers at different times through the season, but the pruning was necessary.

Today for me the pruning became a prayer and a parable, over the last year or so I know that God has ( with my cooperation and sometimes even willing...) carried out a fair amount of pruning in my life, the old has been chopped away, the ground has been exposed and I feel a bit like my garden looks, a bit stark, bare and vulnerable, but also prepared for something new, I could not have prepared for something new carrying about the burden of overgrown stuff, stuff that was dying and bent and brittle. 

So as I cut the branches away today I gave thanks to God for his care in my life and prayed for the possibilities that new growth might bring, I was affirmed last week to receive an encouragement fro a visitor to New Central Church here in Blackpool who told me she had attended the Shoppers Service last year too and had noticed how much I had grown ( odd when you feel cut back) in my preaching, and while I can't see it obviously she could so I give thanks for that potential too.

It would have been easy to leave the shrubs and the hedge as they were, on the outside they did not look unhealthy, it was only when I began to cut away at the tangle of branches that I understood how messy and unhealthy things were. My life had been like that, so as I cut away the branches I enacted again a prayerful letting go, something I was privileged to experience powerfully at Greenbelt last weekend when Mpho Tutu read an extract from the book she and her father Desmond Tutu have written together on Forgiveness. It not only helped me to do some personal letting go, but also to engage with loving and firgiving myself. Here is the prayer:

I will forgive you

The words are so small 

But there is a universe hidden in them,

When I forgive you 

all those chords of resentment pain and sadness that had wrapped

themselves around my heart will be gone

when I forgive you

You will no longer define me

You meassured me and assessed me and

decided that you could hurt me

I didn't count

But I will forgive you

Because I do count

I do matter

I am bigger than the image you have of me

I am stronger

I am more beautiful

And I am infinetly more precious than you thought me

I will forgive you

My forgiveness is not a gift that I am giving to you

When I forgive you

My fogiveness will be a gift that gives itself to me

 

There at the Greenbelt's glade stage at Boughton House a weight lifted from me, and while I might pick it up again from time to time I know I can also put it down again, let it go again and feel the lightness of the discarded mess and branches that held me being swept away. The service ended with a reading from John 21, the restoration/ recomissioning of Peter, and in that moment  I found myself restored. When the service was over I bumped into ( and I don't believe in coincidences like this) the one person I know who not only knew something of my story but whose own story is similar, the prayer had affected both of us, we shared briefly and parted with a hug, and God was in that encounter calling forth new life.

I bought the book!

Across the Glade at Greenbelt

silence, mystery and awe ( Greenbelt moments 1)

silence held him

as he reached out

to touch the mystery

of broken bread, 

bread

broken for him,

in this incense laden place

full of prayers,

of wonder and holiness,

heaven touched earth here

as the wordless communion

opened his eyes 

to the mystery of how

God might be with us...

did his heart sing

in that moment,

I do not know,

but this I do know

his wonder touched my heart

and mine sang

as our eyes met

in the silence...

One of the highlights of Greenbelt for me was the Silent Eucharist on Sunday afternoon, it was made more special by one little boy and his family. The children entered in to this silent act of worship with a real sense of awe and wonder, they shared the peace beaming at the people around them and lighting us all up, they loved being able to cast their prayers as incense on charcoal, but the whole thing was made for me as the youngest took the bread that was broken and offered to him, his eyes were like saucers and his wole face lit up. Surely God was with us.

Photo from The Mount  at Boughton House ( mine)

Is this what you were expecting? ( pondering John the Baptist)

Today is the feast of the beheading of John the Baptist, a strange thing to remember perhaps, this wild prophet of millenia ago locked away for speaking out and then  beheaded on a vengeful whim because his words continued to cut through and expose  the debauchery and depravity of anothers situation and shone truth into their lives. John suffered martyrdom for speaking the truth, he was a herald and forrunner for Christ choosing to step aside to make room for his cousin yet carrying on his own ministry speaking light into the darkness. 

I think of John as I think of local, national and global situations today, John who overwhelmed by the reality of his imprisonment sent his disciples to Jesus to confirm that he had got it right, that he had not missed the point, that he could and should continue to speak out. I think of John when I see reports from Gaza, more deaths, more destruction, more oppression, and I yearn for a truly prophetic voice that cuts through the political and emotional crap and cries out "this must stop". I think of John when I think of the recently exposed child abuse cases ( 1400) in Rotherham, and how the abuse and dismissal of children has been covered up and hushed up, of how young girls have been sexually objectified and terrorised, and long again for a prophetic voice that demands that they been seen, for surely they are fearfully and wonderfully made. I think of John when I think of local situations here in Blackpool, of unchecked poverty, of abuses of power, case after case of depression and addiction, and I long for the herald to cry out, "level the way- make the rough places smooth, prepare a way for the Lord"...

Then I realise that I have that voice, that the stirring within me gives rise to the cries for justice, for peace and for healing, that John was beheaded is a challenge that calls me beyond my comfort zone, that should call all who bear the name of Christ, all who care for humanity in any way beyond our comfort zones to work together and not to remain silent...

To take a stand, to declare that this must stop, to know our own brokenness that holds us back and sends us diving for cover . Over on Facebook this morning Morning Bell posted an image bearing the words; "Let us set foot on the Holy Mountain that we may gaze upon the divine". On the holy mountain we gain a bigger perspective than our own, I believe that that is where John dwelt, both looking upon God and seeing with God. How can we respond to the invitation of the feast day of his martyrdom? By stepping onto the mountain of God and looking upon the world, his world with compassion and awe, by weeping with those who weep, by calling this brokeness wrong, by standing in the gap and by refusing to be silenced...

Jesus told them, “Go back and tell John what’s going on:

The blind see,
The lame walk,
Lepers are cleansed,
The deaf hear,
The dead are raised,
The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.

“Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed!”

Matthew 11: 4-6 The Message

 

"New life begins in the dark" Image mine.

Grounded in love

Last Saturday I was asked to give the message at a friends wedding, it was a rel privilige to do so, since then I have been asked to reproduce it, so here it is:

____________________________________________________________________

The reading was from 1 John Chapter 4: 7-12

There was also a reading from mother Julian of Norwich.

C&S have chosen a powerful reading, a reading that acknowledges that the source of the love that they have found in one another lies beyond them. In that acknowledgement lies a deep and holy strength, a strength that will allow them to live within and draw upon the love of God, a love that Mother Julian reminds us " has never slackened nor ever shall".

She also tells us that; "All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well."

All shall be well, for love is here.

All shall be well for we are loved, each one of us cherished, unique, valued, sought after and held in the heart of love. What a wonderfully creative sense of humor God has!

Each one of us known through and through.

Each one of us held in the love that is God.

All shall be well, love is here, and all shall be well.

It is a topic that has consumed artists of all kinds throughout human history; paintings, poems, novels and more all explore the topic of love. The question of what love is and what it means to be loved acts itself out on stage and screen, through word, song, movement and dance. It comes to us daily in human stories via the news, dramas, documentaries, sop operas and more.

Philosophers ask the question, as do theologians, even science looks into the physical, biological, sociological and psychological benefits of love to the whole person and therefore to society, acknowledging that we need more in our lives than food and shelter. We need love, we were made by love for love. To love and to be loved is a part of who we are, fo all to be well we need to dwell in love.

True love is not soft and fluffy.

True love is not sentimental or weak.

True love is powerful, overwhelming and quite unstoppable.

True love should never be treated carelessly or lightly. True love as the Scriptures remind us has its source, its completion and its identity in God. 

Listen to the powerful words of Mother Julian again:

He loves us and enjoys us. Hear that for yourself...

He loves you and enjoys you. He loves YOU, and enjoys YOU!!! God LOVES you and ENJOYS you.

If you are able to even begin to recieve the awesome truth of that, able to be open to that then you are beginning to connect with and understand the heart of God. The heart of God who shows himself in the wonder and joy of creation. The heart of God who could not hold love back but revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus, even pouring out his life on the cross.

God is always for us, always at work within us, and all around us, wooing us and waiting for us to awaken to the presence of love in our lives. As God is love so we are love,  but very often we need to discover this, discover that he has always and always will love us first.

S&C, as we gather as your friends and family today we pray that you will continue to draw upon the never slackening love of God. We pray that in your openness to God  that you will mirrior that love not only to one another but also to those around you, that you will be channels of his love, life and peace. May the gift of your marriage give to you and to us a fresh glimpse of the heart of God. 

For Gods love reaches its goal when we not only receive it but allow it to work within us freeing us and opening our hearts to the other, creating life-giving relationships that feed us all. As we join you in celebrating today you do indeed grant us a glimpse of loves glory and we are reminded that in a world where there is so much global and personal pain that: All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

We are reminded that each of us here is loved and capable of love, unique, special and held in the heart of the God who loved us first.

I leave you with a prayer, again from Mother Julian:

Lord before ever you made us you loved us. Nor has your love ever slackened, nor ever shall. In love all your works have begun, and in love they continue. In this love our life is everlasting, and in this love we shall see you and be glad forever. Amen.

Picture: New beginnings ( mine)

Entering the storm (prayer and the current world crisis)

I am sitting in the lovely sun room in the Manse in Blackpool looking out across my back garden, there are flowers blooming and a soft breeze is blowing, it would be easy to say all is well with the world, to bury my head in the sand ( not difficult here in Blackpool)  and to carry on with the mundane stuff of life. At the same time I am reading news pages, reading posts to Facebook and twitter expressing continued outrage at the atrocities happening elsewhere, posts calling for peace, calling for an end to the madness, calling for something to happen, someone to listen.

I have joined my voice to these voices, shared and re-shared news items, grown angry at the atrocities, appallled at the continued violence and destruction. The place names are repeated again and again, Israel, Gaza, Iraq, The Ukraine, Israel, Gaza.... Image follows image, children maimed, bloodied, and tormented faces fill our screens. There are arguements from each side too, arguements claiming absolute "right", arguements insisting that war, violence and slaughter is justified. Arguements that fail to see the the inhumanity they perpetuate upon fellow human beings.

How can the slaughter of children be right, how can the targetting of family homes be right, how can the beheadding of children, the hanging of fathers be right? Quite simply it cannot be and is not right, no matter what your religion, what your race or creed wholesale slaughter and destruction is wrong. 

As I ponder adding my voice to the voices crying out for peace again I am struck by the smallness of it, but I must not let this stop me, I must enter the storm of protest with an open heart and an open mind, I must be willing to speak up even if it seems that the winds are roaring so loudly that my voice is carried away. I must enter the storm because it is there that I find the open heart of God, the heart of a God who I am convinced weeps for the people he has made who are so intent on destroying one another, and I must be prepared to weep with him, and weeping will become my prayer. I have to challenge myself to see the humanity through the images  and feel the horror of the stories that come to me day by day, hour by hour.

What is it like for the medic who can do no more because there is no power and supplies have run out? How does she sustain the strength to sit with the dying child whose life in different circumstances could have been saved. 

What is it like to watch approaching soldiers knowing that your death is imminent unless you convert to a faith you do not hold? Can I place myself into the shoes of a mother seeing her children beheaded knowing that she faces rape and death herself, and there is nowhere to flee?

Of course I can't, but I can try, I can try to be open to the pain and the horror and to meet the Christ who met his disciples in the storm ( Matthew 14: 22-33), because it was Christ who sent them into it! I have a choice, I can bury my head in the sand, enjoy the flowers in my garden and generally ignore the suffering and horror, or I can dare to get into and maybe even out of the boat, dare to walk with Christ across the waves and allow my voice to join the many voices calling for peace until the storm is stilled.

Jesus compelled the disciples to enter the boat, and sent them out into the sea ( which represents chaos, darkness and evil), they laboured their pushing through the storm fearing for their lives almost all night before he came walking out towards them. He had been up upon a mountain praying, face to face with the Father before entering the storm, and I have a suspicion that that mountain top was not a place of idyllic calm and loveliness but once again a place where Jesus fought through the storms of his humanity to find the complete peace and strength of being at one with God. In that strength he walked across the waves and into the storm.

The storm is raging today, raging all around the world, raging in the Middle East with obvious violence and horror, raging in West as decisions are made over arms and aid, raging in the hearts of those who seek war, and those who seek peace. I believe we are called to enter into it, for if we ignore it we forget that we are a part of it anyway, so let us dare to enter, dare to step out, dare to speak up, dare to say once again, and then again, THAT THIS MUST STOP.

This is not about politics, race or creed, this is about people, real living, breathing, hurting, bleeding and dying people, and THIS MUST STOP!!!

Image "Storm" mine

Grace comes...

Grace comes,

unbidden,

Spirit moving

wild and free

calling us into

a recreative dance,

to leave behind the former things,

to follow lifes new flow,

to catch the heartbeat of  love,

to hear the truth of its rhythm...

+

Grace comes

unbidden,

Spirit moving

wild and free

calling us to follow

to step out and know the power of 

this new days invitation,

to breathe new air,

to grasp new vision,

to become more, not less than we have been...

+

Grace comes

unbidden,

Spirit moving

wild and free

calling us beyond our fears,

beyond our hesitations.

Grace comes,

God is with us,

and now

the hands that flung stars into space,

the hands that healed, and calmed and nurtured,

the hands that surrendered to wood and nail

are reaching out to you, to me...

+

Grace comes,

with just one question;

will you come and dance with me?

+

 

The thinking behind this poem/ meditation was a part of the process of creating a piece of art work for a church in Darwen, Lancashire, the idea of a move of grace is an interpretation of the community of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that Christianity names God. It reminds us that God is somehow knowable and yet unknown, faith and walking in faith become in many ways a walk into mystery with a trusted friend, that friend is God, the God who knows us through and through for we are created in God's image.

God often calls people beyond their comfort zones, from Abraham right at the beginning of the Bible, to the Apostles at the end God issues invitations to the people he loves and leads them into some amazing if sometimes scary adventures.

Jesus himself called people to follow him all through his ministry, that call has rumbled on through history ever since. This is one of Jesus invitations:

“The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.

28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Matthew 11: 27-30

transformed ( on loving ourselves)

...here it is

this bitter gall

that cries out for revenge,

and demands justice on

its own terms,

destructive and demanding

it turns me on myself

and has the power to consume

all of the good in me,

+

...it screams with hurt,

howls with pain,

but I will NOT be destroyed

by it,

I will call it what it is,

a small quaking thing,

needing my compassion

not my denial or

my fear, so

I will hold it

'til it knows only love,

and we are both transformed.

Image; Waves of Grace ( mine)

This poem is deeply personal, some will know my story and others will not, I am not going to tell it here, but I am going to talk about one of the things I find hardest of all, that thing is accepting and loving myself. Over recent months it has become clear to me that the reason for this is that I do not deal well with negative emotions, I want to smooth things over and put things right, even hide from them rather than seeing them for what they are and allowing God into that space where a work of transformation can begin. 

I am beginning to learn something new, that negative emotions are OK and can be expressed and given over to good, that God works in the dark as well as the light and perhaps often at deeper levels in the dark. I am learning to have patience and compassion with myself and discovering that that compassion sets me free because I am telling the truth about myself.

This may of course seem plainly obvious to many, but I don't think we talk about anger very much in Christian circles, I think we tend to brush things under the carpet and try to ignore them, very often there is an eventual explosion, but again we hide from it because it is unacceptable, and surely we should "just be loving". Some of this discovery has come about from reading two books by Richard Rhor; Dancing Standing Still, and The Enneagram; A Christian Perspective. I hope to write more about both of these soon.

Related articles

Castles in the air....

Trying to keep something alive... (Peter, Peaches Geldof and Rev)...

All this...

I have just posted some photos to Facebook, they are photos of our preparations for this evening when we meet together at North Shore Methodist Church in Blackpool. We will be celebrating Pentecost. We will meet to eat, share stories, talk, pray and worship together. Here are those pictures:

We love symbols, candles, water and oil will all be present this evening. The Icon and the rosaries are also important to us, to add to these we have prayer blankets and paper and pens will also be available for those wishing to write prayers or blessings and leave them in the basket. Interestingly we write more prayers for others and blessings are often prayed for friends and family. I say interestingly because when we meet as a community tonight I will be reminded once again how amazingly priviledged I am, many who I will meet with are struggling to make ends meet, many have been victims of government sanctions, some are desperate, and some are homeless. I will hear stories of the 20p Hilton ( read public toilets) and from a couple who are living in a tent, packing it up every morning and walking the streets of Blackpool with it until the pitch it again in the evening. Everything they own is contained in a suitcase.

This evening we will celebrate with cake, we will share bread and wine and prayers will be said, we know God's presence with us, last week we were overwhelmed by the love and power of God at work among us. We were made aware of a love that knows no barriers of gender, race or status, we are all loved, all valued, all important.

How can it be then that these are a good idea?

How can it be possible that a community might value others so little that they treat the other as vermin, a mere nuiscance to be disuaded from shelter?

How can it be possible in the 21st Century in a so called civilised country for us to have a definite "under-class", a forgotten, hidden ( we wish), marginalised group of people? How can this be? It makes me angry, and week by week as I meet with my friends I am driven to my knees in weeping for the plight of so many, and there are many, and for many it is a small thing that has pushed them over the edge into spiralling poverty. 

You can find the story behind the studs here, please read it and let it challenge you, the question it brings to us, "who is my neighbour?" is one that we sorely need to hear, and not I suspect only in this context. Yesterday at Church we welcomed a lovely family and their friends, a father and son were baptised, after the baptism and during a hymn I offered a blessing for any that might choose to receive on, we ran out of hymn as the queue of people coming forward grew, not just the baptism family but the regular congregation too, some of whom will gather with us this evening, all of whom were responding to the love of God.

There are times when I wonder how on earth I became caught up in the wonder of all that God is doing among us at North Shore, people are hungry for God, there are some who have church backgrounds and those who don't, people who have been hurt, confused and even ignored by church and some for whom it is all a new adventure. It is not helpful to categorise folk because " it risks turning people into ecclesiastical 'widgets' or commodities. Categorising or defining people in a way that allows them to be quantified is helpful for particular pieces of analysis but risks depersonalising human beings made in the image of God. It also feels very institutional"1 , and this move of God is not about the institution, not about the survival or otherwise of a particular church in a particular setting but about how people are being wooed by a God who loves them, in this we are simply his co-workers or channels, and I often find that my task is to stand around looking amazed and wonder what on earth will hapen next.

God is with us, this I do know, and as we gather to tell his story, the wonder of creation, incarnation , and spirit power become real in us, as we take and break bread we are nourished by him, as we pour and drink wine we are cleansed, as we bless one another with symbol of water and oil we are healed, and as we light candles our prayers ascend to heaven. We find ourselves enveloped by grace, none is excluded, no humanbeing made in the image of God should be marginalised, there is Good News for the poor, sight for the blind, healing and hope for the outcast, and freedom for the prisoners.

As I baptised baby Oscar and his Dad yesterday I used the wonderful words "All this for you", Jesus shows us clearly with outstretched bleeding hands "all this for all"

1. http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/views/unchurched : Andrew Roberts 

mercy, justice, love...

mercy and justice,

bread for the hungry,

comfort for the opressed,

a share in the richess 

of the worlds resources

for all,

+

mercy and justice,

freedom for the captives

law that grants truth

to see the value of EVERY soul

the ache of hearts,

the tears that fall

+

mercy and justice

sight for the blind,

blinded by wealth,

blinded by pleasure,

blinded by desire,

blinded, may they see

+

mercy and justice

no-one excluded, may

mercy and justice

grow in compsassion

from love...

+

My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.

(1 John 3)

This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.

(1 John 4)

Image; Bread by Koder

sometimes our greatest concerns should preach to us, when we fuss over bread baskets in the vestry maybe we should hear Jesus whisper "feed my sheep".... ( just reflecting on some of the conversations I have had today)