Trying to Follow

Unmaker of Old Paths

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:24:00 +0000

O thou sudden God, generous in mercy
quickener of new life, giver of new love
irreverent, subversive, deep source of yearning
startling comforter, bearer of darkness
unmaker of old paths, bringer of strange joy
abundant, disturbing, healing unlooked for
tender and piercing:
late have I loved thee
O beauty so ancient and so new.
Rescue my heart, Restore my soul, Renew my life
Gracious Father, Holy Spirit, Blessed Son
I am yours now and forever

Amen

"As a Lenten practice, in order to habituate toward the mean of temperance, some women, and perhaps..."

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:25:12 +0000

“As a Lenten practice, in order to habituate toward the mean of temperance, some women, and perhaps some men too, might need to eat exactly what they fear, but should love, in order to open themselves to God’s blessing.”

- http://jkameroncarter.com/?p=1003

Try to See it My Way

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:29:48 +0000

The public face of Christianity has been under attack again this week with The Advertising Standards Agency ruling that posters/flyers for a ‘Healing on the Streets’ event were illegal and The High Court ruling that Biddeford Council (and by implication all councils) may not have ‘Opening Prayers’ as an agenda item because it is not a legal part of the council’s business. They can still pray but it mustn’t be an agenda item!

Predictably Christians exploded onto the internet, Facebook and Twitter to comment/rant and no doubt the letters pages of the newspapers, secular and religious, will be filled with diatribes on the ‘creep of secularism’ from ‘Angry of Aylesbury’ and their like. Although I am broadly sympathetic on both of the issues I have highlighted I do wonder why we should feel entitled to express our faith in any and every public sphere. I also think that very often we rail against the ‘bad people’ who are against us without trying to see things from their perspective.

If you will indulge me in the assumption dear reader that you, like me, are a practicing Christian, I’d like to offer an example that may help put the issue into perspective. If you were elected to the City Council and arrived for your first meeting to be invited to join in a Pagan ritual to the Earth Mother because the leader of the Council happened to be a Pagan, how would you feel? Take a moment to think about it.

Let me tell you how I think I would feel: VERY uncomfortable, nervous, anxious and unsure what I should do (to join in or to leave?). It is possible, is it not, that the Biddeford Councillor felt the same when faced with Christian ritual?

Now I’m fully aware that the National Secular Society, who backed the case, have their own agenda that is completely separate from how the Councillor may or may not have felt but what I’m getting at here is how often, at an individual level, we fail to take anyone else’s feelings into consideration because we somehow believe it is our right to do as we wish. This applies in our day to day lives as well as in high profile court and media cases.

As someone who has led prayers before council meetings on many occasions I can tell you they are pretty perfunctory and last about one minute. And whilst I support the saying of them, there are probably more effective ways of seeking God for our towns and cities. What if the local church prayed for two hours at the same time the council met asking God to give them a spirit of wisdom as they make their decisions? How about contacting the leader of your council to offer practical support because you believe God cares what happens in your city? Nobody could stop it and it might be a deal more effective than a one minute prayer.

It’s too easy to condemn and criticise those who say something that affects our faith in a negative way. Instead of expecting them to see it our way maybe we should try and see it from their point of view. Jesus told us to be humble and loving towards those we meet, to think of them as better than us. We know from the New Testament that this didn’t mean going soft on the gospel but that it was about speaking the truth in love rather than being angry and defensive, attacking those who disagree with us. Our mission is not to tell people the truth but, like Jesus, to lead them into it.

Twitter in Church

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:44:37 +0000

Twitter in Church

A. W. Tozer – Church Quote

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:45:41 +0000

“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has not done deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.”
― A.W. Tozer

fruit of the spirit

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:34:46 +0000

I placed 10 of these around the academy yesterday and was stunned by the response. I had to replace several and was involved in, and overheard/was told of, several interesting conversations about what they meant and why people took what they took.

No explanation was offered by me as to what they meant or why I had put the posters up. I thought I’d just let them speak for themselves. Turns out sometimes no explanation is necessary!

Given to my late grandmother by her husband on their honeymoon...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:04:00 +0000

Given to my late grandmother by her husband on their honeymoon in Ballintoy (Ireland), 31st August 1948.

My Mum’s ‘Uncle John’ RIP

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:57:00 +0000

My Mum’s ‘Uncle John’ RIP

Photo

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:50:20 +0000

Photo

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:48:55 +0000

The Holy Family don’t look so Middle Eastern after all.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:43:00 +0000

The Holy Family don’t look so Middle Eastern after all.

If you’re having a tough time the Catholics say,...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:39:10 +0000

If you’re having a tough time the Catholics say, “pray to St. Jude.” He doesn’t look very approachable!

I’m guessing a bit here but most probably Jack &...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:34:00 +0000

I’m guessing a bit here but most probably Jack & Winifred Smyth were the parents of Gerald Smyth (Gerry) my recently deceased grandmother’s husband.

Who knew? Turns out Jesus gave St. Francis a hug whilst on the...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:07:52 +0000

Who knew? Turns out Jesus gave St. Francis a hug whilst on the cross!

Whilst some might want to shoo this stray from his bed in the...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:02:57 +0000

Whilst some might want to shoo this stray from his bed in the manger scene, I think it perfectly embodies the Christmas message – acceptance, shelter and rest for those on the edges of society.

a future not our own

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:44:17 +0000

It helps now and then to step back and take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about:
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and do it very well.
It may be incomplete, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between a master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

-Oscar Romero

Who Gives a Fig?

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:36:35 +0000

If there’s one thing the British love, it’s a good moan! We love to complain about the weather (too hot or too cold), the time we’ve been waiting in a queue or the trouble we’ve had finding a parking space. A few days after we get back from holiday and someone says to us, “Did you have a good time?” many of us will say something like, “Lovely, thanks but it seems a long time ago now!”. All in all we do seem to tend toward the pessimistic and yet we’re also famous for our ‘stiff upper lip’ and being resilient in times of real crisis.

The prophet Habakkuk, writing in the Old Testament spends two whole days complaining to God for not punishing Judah for her many sins. God answers his complaint and Habakkuk has a change of heart. This is what he says:

Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,

and there are no grapes on the vines;

even though the olive crop fails,

and the fields lie empty and barren;

even though the flocks die in the fields,

and the cattle barns are empty,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord!

I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! Habakkuk 3

He effectively says that no matter how bad things get in the future he will rejoice in God and in his salvation – even if he loses everything!

All this got me to thinking about my own response to difficulty and I realised that I complain too much, that I loose sight of what is really important. The likelihood is that you do too. So I have decided to try and complain less and would like to invite you to do the same. A vicar of mine used to say that in the face of adversity or problems, “you can get bitter, or you can get better”. My wife recently read a book bearing the title S.U.M.O. which stands for Shut Up and Move On which encouraged it’s readers, as the Americans would say, not to “sweat the small stuff”.

We have so much to be grateful for that when you look at it objectively that some of the things we complain about seem pretty trivial. Why not have a go at rewriting Habakkuk’s words to fit your own situation (you could even send me the results for fun) inserting the things you grumble about instead of the things Habakkuk put? It might help you keep things in perspective.

Even though _____________

and _____________

even though _____________

and _____________ etc. etc…

Celebrate!

Sat, 21 May 2011 14:09:49 +0100

I have recently read Rob Bell’s controversial new book Love Wins which is about heaven, hell and salvation. He has been widely condemned as a result of the book for appearing to suggest that ultimately everybody is (or at least can be) saved, regardless of faith, denomination or any other characteristic. I don’t want to get into that particular argument here but I do want to pick up on an image he uses for heaven.

In summary Bell, using the story of the Prodigal Son, and focussing particularly on the party at the end, seems to be saying that we make our own heaven or hell depending upon how we live our lives and the choices we make. So the younger brother makes all the wrong choices but comes to see the error of his ways and returns home to his dad and gets the biggest party the local area has ever seen. The older son, hearing the disco, comes to his father and complains that he has never even been offered as much as a goat for a party with is friends. The father says, “but son, you could have had a party any time you wanted”.

The inference is that the older brother has gone through his life resenting his younger brother for some reason and failing to take the opportunities right under his nose. Maybe he thought his brother was their dad’s favourite or perhaps he was better looking – we don’t know, but it does appear as though big brother has been simmering and sulking inside. Yet all the time the older brother was surrounded by his father’s wealth and property and could have had as many parties as he wanted. The younger brother, despite his appalling behaviour towards his dad, seems to be trying to live life to the full. He doesn’t get it right all the time but he is a least humble enough to return home and apologise.

The bible tells us that we are co-heirs with Christ, that everything on heaven and earth is ours because we have been adopted into the heavenly family through Jesus. We have grace upon grace, eternal life, forgiveness of sins and can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Yet so many of us, like the older brother, harbour resentment and bitterness because things haven’t worked out as we think they should have done.

Most of us have been at the office Christmas party when we didn’t really want to go and have spent the hours beforehand inwardly saying, “It’s going to be rubbish, I don’t even like half of them, why am I even bothering?”. Is it any surprise then, that with an attitude like that we don’t enjoy it? Even the worst party has something going for it!

The Americans have a saying: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. We can’t control what happens to us throughout life but we can control how we respond (I have deliberately used the more reflective word ‘respond’ rather than react here). A previous vicar of mine used to say, “you can get bitter or you can get better”.

Jesus has come and set life in all it’s fullness before us. All the blessings of heaven are ours so why would we choose to go through life miserable and complaining. Some of us need to ask God for a change of mindset and attitude, we need to receive again the Gospel of grace and freedom and to allow the Holy Spirit to soften our hearts. Otherwise we might discover that we have been missing the greatest party ever known and that really would be hell!

"God, let us be at peace. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful..."

Tue, 10 May 2011 08:01:39 +0100

“God, let us be at peace. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. May we be cheerful and strive to be happy. Amen.”

- “Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann

Photo

Mon, 09 May 2011 07:16:05 +0100