The Magi - some questions for Epiphany

Now that Christmas is over we can look ahead to Epiphany - the time when the wise men arrived to pay homage to the baby Jesus. I know that some churches refuse to allow the wise men to be put in the nativity crib for Christmas as it is a separate feast and occurs later. But in the popular imagination and in much of the church it is all bundled into the great winter festival!

So what do we actually know about the Magi.

1) The Gospel of Matthew doesn’t say how many Magi there were. Three became the most popular answer because of the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

2) Early Christians didn’t agree on where the Magi were from. The most popular answer was Persia (modern Iran), but others thought they were from Babylon or Arabia. East could really be any where exotic if you look at the map

3) Nobody knows what the Star of Bethlehem really was. Some recent theories say it was a comet but many early Christians thought it was an angel or the Holy Spirit.

4) Opinions differ about how long it took the Magi to reach Bethlehem. It could have been two years based on Herods questions or it could be twelve days based on the number of days between 25th December and 6th January.

And what was a magi anyway - a wise man? a magician? an astronomer? an astrologer? a leader of an eastern esoteric religious group? (but remember this is long before the prophet Mohamed was born!)

It is a feast with more questions than answers! And just to confuse things further I remember when I was in southern Spain last January I saw plastic models (sometimes almost life size) of the wise men decoratively climbing up the front of many houses and apartments. In local folk-law it is the wise men who bring the seasonal gifts for childrens stockings! I must have skipped that bit of the bible!

Christmas Eve midnight service

I was in a strange church. I was there for the first time. I did not know the minister. I find that such a situation awakens ones sensitivity to what is going on. You worship and look and listen to learn and all the while you are hoping that this one will say something interesting and useful for you... You don't have any personal relationships to cloud your interaction with the worship leader which makes for a different experience.

But having led services at midnight Christmas eve for so many years I recognise all he does, for I have done it myself many times. It is one of my favourite services - there is one script and an expectation of universal good cheer.

The hymns were good but you would have to be a real moron to muck up a carol service!

The prayers are OK - perhaps a little too self centred. I am disappointed that there is scant recognition the wider world beyond the personal life of the believer.

But the sermon - oh dear. The preacher has fallen into the trap that enslaves many evangelicals - he preaches to a congregation that exists in his imagination rather than to the real people who are there! On Christmas eve these folk are all church regulars. They are not drunks lost on the way home from the pub as the pubs are still open! They will have heard more Christmas sermons on this night that the young preacher and yet he assumes that we all need to hear the simple message about the gift of Christmas - receive the present of Jesus - and it is a free gift that we can do nothing to earn! Usual evo message that causes non-evos like me to think "here we go again" as I mentally switch to some more interesting thoughts. Sadly, it can also causes the evangelicals (and others for whom being saved is the a priori factor in their Christian experience) to look around judgementally to see which of the backsliders in the church this message is for! I would find it very difficult to have to listen to a message like that regularly - it would drive me crazy!

I forgot to mention that the preacher also read his script verbatim - but he hadn't written it in a style for reading out loud! There were long complicated sentences with sub clauses. It was so obvious he was reading and so rendered it a lifeless performance.

But it was Christmas and strangers greeted each other ignoring the preachers shortcomings and enjoyed the magic of the night. The joy of the season couldn't be quelled and the organist struck up the closing voluntary "Santa Claus is coming to town" as the minister left the church!

It is time to get rid of the white witch

C S Lewis wrote the famous children's book "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" in 1950. Narnia was a frozen waste with winter but no spring (or Christmas). As the adventure progresses the cause of the everlasting winter is discovered to be the wicked witch (The Snow Queen). Once she is defeated, and Aslan returns, the winter ends.

After December 2010 I now know how the little Narnia folk felt as they keep looking for a sign of a thaw but can see nothing but continuing ice.

It seems to me significant that Lewis wrote the book with the winter of 1948 in recent living memory - probably the worst winter of the 20th century. The difference between 1948 and today is that people were more resilient, having lived through the hard years of war and rationing. It was colder and more prolonged than 2010. (Though we are not finished yet!)

I haven't seen green on my lawn for over a month and days with constant sub-zero temperatures are becoming rather tiresome. I love snow. But it has gone on long enough. Its time to end the reign of the white witch of the north! Aslan come!

A Prayer of Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton was a monk who wrote many books on spirituality. As such his personal devotional life must have contained many hours of prayer and contemplation. Those of us who struggle with the complexities of modern life often feel guilty that time for our spiritual devotions can get squeezed out. I certainly expected a wise spiritual monk to have a clear vision of what God wanted from him.

How reassuring then to find that he wrote the following prayer. This indicates that he could feel as unclear regarding the direction that God wanted for his life as the rest of us sometimes feel. Yet it also is full of a confident, trusting faith. Holding together faith and uncertainty is central to my Christian journey.

The Prayer of Thomas Merton
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.

THINK before you press the send button

Some people treat their keyboard as an extension of the subconscious - they do not filter what they write and send it unfiltered to others. Hence the way people on e-groups express far more extreme views and verbally attack others in a way that they would never do in real life. Perhaps this is because we do not see the other person at the other end of cyberspace as a real person? We know that we will never have to look them in the eye.

I read the following advice today that would help to keep the "flame wars", as online arguments are called, within acceptable boundaries. It would also help us to consider very carefully before we commit to send that angry email. Once sent into the ether, that message exists for all time and could be something that will come back and haunt us!

So here is the advice for times when we feel obliged to make our feelings known, especially if we intend to put them in writing:

Remember each letter of the word think.....
THINK!
Is it True?
Is it Helpful?
Is it Inspiring?
Is it Necessary?
Is it Kind?

If we paused and considered THINK before we pressed the send button, the Internet and all electronic communication would be transformed. A new community built on values we could be proud to be associated with would be built. Perhaps we could even practice such a review in all our face to face interactions too! Now that would have a transformative effect!

Planned Spontaneity

When is spontaneity really spontaneous?

I am puzzling about spontaneity following my experiences yesterday.

I sang in a "flash mob" hallelujah chorus at the Kelvingrove in Glasgow. It was a fantastic experience - the acoustics in the hall were superb and the organ must be one of the grandest in all Scotland.

But was it spontaneous as there was careful planning. The organist knew he was finishing the daily recital with this particular piece of Handel. The programme was published. Many local choirs had been emailed and the word spread virally on the web. And people like me travelled by cycle, train and underground with a total journey time of over an hour to be there. Nothing spontaneous then?

But it felt spontaneous. There had been no rehearsal. (so perhaps we were a bit out of time/tune!) It was a fun and rewarding thing to be part of. I suppose that I'll have to wait for the inevitable you-tube video to see how it actually sounded!

But there was also something yesterday that was completely spontaneous. In the evening I went to an excellent pantomime at the macrobert. (Snow White and the seven De Wharffs) In one of the big scenes "Prince Charming Darling" is lying dead in the arms of Snow White after having bitten the poisoned apple ( It is panto so the traditional story gets amended ) and she is wailing along the lines "Oh my beloved is dead - what shall I do".

At this point of dramatic tension a wee boy in the audience shouts out helpfully "He's dead - get over it!"

She carried on bravely and sang her song but that sort of true spontaneity perhaps she could have done without!!!!

Shared past

As I was sitting in a concert in a church last week my eye was caught by a brass plaque on the wall above the pulpit. It was a memorial to a long dead worthy of that church. What first caught my eye was the man's name... Abercromby Dior. Now there is a name ahead of his time - not just one but two designer labels in one person! The Scottish custom of using a surname as a first name was alive and well over 100 years ago.
What next attracted my attention to the plaque was that under the name was the phrase "Bengal Civil Service". He died in 1879 so it would seem that in the mid nineteenth century he was active in Bengal. The British Empire is very often viewed today with regret rather than celebration. Yet here in this simple plaque in a small Scottish village church was mention of a man who probably gave the best years of his life far from home in what would have been an insanitary and inhospitable place because of a sense of Christian duty. He was though of highly by the church to merit the plaque and so my guess is that he saw his Christian duty to be to bring order and civilisation through the empire.
There was much in the British Empire that was not good but very often today we loose sight of the many dedicated individuals who used the mechanisms of their time to try, in their own small way, to make the world a better place. I believe it is important not to forget that the history we share with many other parts of the world is like all life - a mixture of the good and the bad.

Hate

Hatred is irrational
raw and spiteful
venom unleashed
from deep inside
where old hurts have been cherished
and polished
to be flung back
with added bile
red
purple
black
incandescent glowing
ready to explode

Hate can be extinguished by love
but it will take so much love
that much love will be melted and burned away
leaving hurt and bruised lovers
while the hating still smolders
awaiting the final damping down
with even more love


(Just because it is difficult to overcome hate with love doesn't mean it is impossible or that we shouldn't try. But we must not underestimate how costly it will be....)

Creed

I believe in God
the father almighty
most of the time
but sometimes
I wonder
what life would be like
if I didn't.

If there was no moral origin to the universe.
If there were no origin in love
and no destination in love
just a rabid struggle for supremacy
without rules
in the short years of life.

If we lived and accumulated
and bonked and fought
and hid and cried
knowing that nothing meant anything
and all was ephemeral floss.

If the big brother house
were the model for life
and the animal instincts
we have mostly civilised
became rampart serpents
in the evolutionary struggle
of not so sociable
social Darwinianism.

As we trudge onward
on our return journey
to the primal slime....

I'd prefer to believe in God!


(The image accompanying this entry is one of the series of engravings by William Blake illustrating the story of Job)

The excitement of discovery...

I have just read a book by an author totally unknown to me and was completely blown away by it.
Cate Kennedy is fairly well known in Australia where she lives and the book is set. Her first novel, “The World Beneath” is about an absent father coming back into his daughters life when she is 15 for them to go into the wilderness on a journey of self discovery and bonding.
Kennedy says ‘I wanted to write a book about stasis... about people spinning their wheels and then encountering a crisis that knocks them sideways’. This book is about change and redemption, but not in any corny or simple sense. The plot the tells a story of an unhappy family: Rich, a nomadic, self-obsessed photographer; Sandy, his wacky, New-Age, fractious and estranged partner; and their ‘emo goth’ daughter, Sophie, a 15-year-old full of anger and fiercely intelligent. These characters are so skilfully drawn that they are not the stereotypes a lesser writer could have made them. They engage and move us, seeming utterly plausible, and are situated convincingly in the narrative of transformation.
There are many comments on contemporary society. I especially liked how Sophie is left first without her mobile and then without her ipod after the batteries expire removing her digital protection from the dramatic Tasmanian mountain landscape.
It is an excellent read, feisty, intelligent and closely written. I highly recommend it!

My last sermon as minister of Stirling Methodist Church

22 Aug 2010 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

"Go on your way."(Luke 10:3) were Jesus' words to the seventy missionaries that he sent ahead to prepare the way for his coming.

"Go on your way." Words, which I feel I heard clearly when it was decided that I would move on from this position after ten years. Ten years is a long time.. Methodist ministers used to move every 3 years! But it is also a short time – I read in the last ACTS bulletin of Revd Andrew Scobie who is just celebrating 45 years in Cardross parish church...

So I am moving on and I am being challenged to do something new and different with my life. Though at first I wanted to stay on here as the months have gone on I have become aware that it is time to move on in a totally new direction. I was serving as a minister in churches that had been the whole of my life for those ten years. I am in a part of the country that I love and treasure. I was working with colleagues who are wonderful and caring. I am with friends, both old and new. It seemed to me that everything should feel perfect, and yet I have been forced to acknowledge an inner feeling that I was becoming stale, lacking the enthusiasm and bright new ideas that I had when I first started here and I should prepare myself for a new direction.

The decision was made and it is still frightening, scary, sad and exciting. A decision complicated by the family situation where we are not able to move at the present time. This means I am out of the normal pattern of what usually happens to ministers. But I know deep down inside that it is the right decision. What the future really holds I do not know. I have been investigating several openings but to date none of them has been the right one for me.

"Go on your way. I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves."(Luke 10:3) Jesus' words to the seventy he sent out speak to me loudly. I feel like a lamb that is being removed from his flock and shoved out into the big bad world. I don't think there are any wolves waiting to devour me; ( the interview panel at Edinburgh University were rather wolf like!) However, I do not know where my journey will take me or the welcome I will receive.

This quote from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien holds real truth in my life and I share it with you, thinking that it may resonate for you as you experience your own life's journey.

"The road goes on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say."

For each of us, life holds real uncertainties which are part and parcel of its fullness, delight and challenges. Each of you has surely had moments like those that are so pointed for me at this juncture.

I feel as if I am walking in the footprints of the first missionaries of Jesus. I know not what the future holds for me but I know that wherever I go and wherever I serve I will be taking something of what I have learned here with me. You are part of me, each of you and each of those who have been a part of this church family. God has richly blessed all of us. We have struggled together, we have grieved together and we have laughed, played and rejoiced together.

We have caressed each other, soothed each other's wounds and we have nurtured each other. We have prayed for one another and we have worshipped together. We have had disagreements and we have made up our differences. We have helped our children to grow spiritually and lovingly. We have seen little toddlers become young men and women and move on to take their proper place in the world. And we have watched each other grow older and comforted each other as we have aged. There were no grey hairs in my beard when I started here! This is what a Christian family does for each other and I will be taking all of this with me into the wider world. I will be sharing what this church has taught me about the joy of worshipping, of working for God and of spreading the good news of the gospel.

A church is much more than its minister. Ministers can set the tone and influence the direction of a church but the church is the people and you together are the ones who make things happen or not as the case may be. Ministers are called by God. But this is no different to the Call that God makes to every follower. What matters is that we open ourselves up to hearing the voice of God in our lives, and accept Gods call to us when we receive it. That call can take many different forms. We are not all called to the same ministry. We are not all called to be ordained in the church for example.

After church on Sunday morning, a young boy suddenly announced to his mother, "Mum, I've decided I'm going to be a minister when I grow up. "That's okay with us," the mother said, "But what made you decide to be a minister?" "Well," the boy replied, "I'll have to go to church on Sunday anyway, and I figure it will be more fun to stand up and yell than to sit still and listen.

Mission – (sounds scary but all it means is what we do together for God in the world) is something we all do together. I believe passionately in working together. Think of the church as a group of people traveling along through life together. The journey can happen in many ways -Two examples:

If the minister is in total control and does everything then it is like those big tourist coaches I see passing regularly through Stirling. The driver is in his seat with a microphone in his hand and telling everyone what they should be seeing as they go past. And you look at the bus as it passes - the seats are filled with the glazed faces of semi comatose people, numbed into not seeing or doing because they don't know where they are: They have been through so many places so quickly and never really stopped and felt the wind on their faces and the earth under their feet. The people from the coach will have absorbed some stuff as they went along but they are not equipped for making any sort of journey on their own or indeed for passing on much of what they have been spoon fed through the commentary from the speakers above their heads...

A church can be like this if a minister is there doing everything for everyone and not letting people build and develop their own ministries. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the ride – but church can be so much more than this.

On the other hand a church can be like a group of friends out for a walk in the park. They will work out between them where they want to go and take account of what everyone can do. They will discuss the route, maybe argue about it, arrange between themselves for rest stops and what they want to see and achieve.. they will invite others to join them and bring their friends because the experience is one that is to be enjoyed. In this sort of vision of the church the minister is one of the friends walking in the group, someone with special gifts and training but who helps everyone else to use their gifts and talents but does not try to over control or run everything...

The latter as you know is my vision of church – a group of people who work together to try and do something useful for God. Now that sort of vision transcends the boundaries of denomination, churchmanship and nationality. Sometimes the church gets lost in these structural concerns.. we loose sight of what the church really is under the accumulation of detritus piled up on all of us from centuries of history and thought. All these things have their place but sometimes we need to strip it all away and think what is it really all about at the most basic level. ( I almost said back to basics but that phrase has been devalued by association!) .. and for me it is really all about knowing we are loved and valued by God, becoming people with more of the characteristics of Jesus in our lives, so that both individually and together we can do things that make the world a better rather than a worse place. And if we have stripped off all the cultural baggage it is then easy to tell other people naturally about what faith means to us because it will be more likely to mean something.

With a vision of church like that when I step out into the unknown I am not afraid because God is with me. I carry with me the love and friendship I have shared with many many people and know that God will guide my path in the future as he has in the past. It is always easy to see god in the past for with hindsight we all have 20-20 vision.

Remember the song “I was born under a wandering Star”(Lee Marvin 1970) .... One line - “I haven't seen a sight that doesn't look better looking back!” With hindsight we can all have 20-20 vision!

As I look back over the ten years that I have been here I can see many things which now I can see as the will of God but at the time we were too close to see the wood for the trees. Often when we are going through a difficult or confusing time, we are unaware of how God is guiding us. When I’m in the middle of a crisis, it’s difficult to comprehend God's plan because my thoughts and emotions are in turmoil.  My mind is frantically working to find solutions, but all the while God is right there working things out!  Years later it may become clear why God brought us through that experience the way He did. The bible verse at Romans 8:28 “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” sounds very confident but when things are a muddle all round we may not feel at all confident in God.

William Willimon says, “I believe that providence can be discerned in this life, but usually only in the backward view, never in the forward. That is, it is difficult to speak of God's guiding in terms of what happens to us at this moment or what will happen to us tomorrow. But we are more able to discern the loving hand of God in that which has happened to us in the past. As Saint Augustine said, when you first consider your life, it looks like nothing but a bunch of chicken tracks in the mud of a farmyard, going this way and that. But through the eyes of faith, we begin to discern pattern, meaning, direction.  Providence.”

And we take with us the gift of peace...

I pray that I will enter each new experience with the words of the first missionaries, "Peace to this house" (Luke 10:5), and that this may not be just a message from one Christian to another but a message from all of you to other Christians who share in the Kingdom of God. For we all are sharers of the peace of God, sharers of the peace of the Son of God. Luke tells us in Acts 16 that to proclaim the peace of Christ to others is to proclaim that God reigns supreme in our lives.

The most meaningful part of our liturgy and worship for me personally, is the sharing of the peace and our sending forth at the end of each service often with the words "Go in Peace to love and serve the Lord." The ultimate reason for our lives. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with all who will hear, see and accept it.

I hope this is the prayer that you will send me out with – for it is certainly the one that I will leave with you.

"Peace to this house."(Luke 10:5)

Reminiscence inspired by an old note book.

On the way back from Edinburgh on the train yesterday I started flicking through the old notebook that I had taken with me to note down any great words of inspiration that I heard in the presentation. I hadn't written much yesterday but the book was full of notes dating back several years.

Being a neat, pocket sized, notebook it had travelled with me to conferences and meetings all over the place.

The page that caught my eye was from a workshop/ seminar led by my old friend Peter Graves, in the summer of 2007 in the convent conference centre on the Frauenchimsee island on the Chimsee lake in Bavaria. (What a hardship to have to go to a location like that for a one week conference!)

Peters seminar had the title “When the going gets tough” and the page that caught my eye had the following quotation on it.

“To be effective ministers we need the head of a scholar, the heart of a child, the hide of a rhinoceros and a soft underbelly.”

Peter talked about each of these needs and pointed to the importance of keeping the balance between them all.

His presentation had many other memorable quotations:
“people are impossible – love them anyway”
“small minds kill big ideas”
“Never love God's work more than God”
“embrace your brokenness”
"tough times don't last, tough people do"
"The difference between a victim and a survivor - a victim always has someone to blame for their circumstances whereas a survivor always says they will see a way through and will win"

I must spend some more time looking through that old book and see what other wisdom is contained therein.

“Sepulchre” A book review

It is a big thick book.

I got to page 428 out of 739 and felt I have had enough. I don't want to waste however many hours of my life it will take to read the other half.

The book is “Sepulchre” by Kate Mosse and I liked her first book “Labyrinth”. I feel let down and disappointed as I do not like failing or leaving things unfinished. The time slip genre worked for Labyrinth but here she is trying to repeat the formula and it fails: the link is too tenuous.

The first 400 pages introduced a complex situation, introduced complex characters with secrets and there were all sorts of suggestions as to where the plot could have gone. But by page 429 I know there is an evil baddie and why he is out to get them. If you understand the contrived plot then you can easily work out that it can only move in certain directions. The characters are thin and clichéd. Is the plot about Debussy, the Tarot or about Meredith's past as none of the three story-lines is convincing? It is just a case of waiting to see if the psychopath gets them or they get him? Will Meredith and Hal get together and find meaning in life through each other? The author has failed to build up enough tension to make me want to bother to find out the answer to these questions.

I think I will just have to go and get another book.

Remembering Brother Roger five years after his assassination

Brother Roger 16.8.2010


No words can ever
express the depths of pain
that struck
five years ago
this very day

an elderly man
who meant so much
to so many
and showed such practical love
talking always from his heart
with that husky
instantly recognisable voice
was suddenly
robbed of life
by someone he was
trying to help

As he rests in peace
his legacy
living
lives on
as the Christ he served
still calls

and we
entering deeply the mystery
of the silence
he inhabited so effortlessly
find we are
called
to carry the torch
that dropped from
his dying hands

With hindsight we all have 20-20 vision!

As I consider what to write in my last ministers letter a line from the song “I was born under a wandering Star”(Lee Marvin 1970) is in my head.... “I haven't seen a sight that doesn't look better looking back!” With hindsight we can all have 20-20 vision!

As I look back over the ten years that I have been at this church I can see many things which now I can see as the will of God but at the time we were too close to see the wood for the trees. Often when we are going through a difficult or confusing time, we are unaware of how God is guiding us. When I’m in the middle of a crisis, it’s difficult to comprehend God's plan because my thoughts and emotions are in turmoil.  My mind is frantically working to find solutions, but all the while God is right there working things out!  Years later it may become clear why God brought us through that experience the way He did. The bible verse at Romans 8:28 “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” sounds very confident but when things are a muddle all round we may not feel at all confident in God.

William Willimon says, “I believe that providence can be discerned in this life, but usually only in the backward view, never in the forward. That is, it is difficult to speak of God's guiding in terms of what happens to us at this moment or what will happen to us tomorrow. But we are more able to discern the loving hand of God in that which has happened to us in the past. As Saint Augustine said, when you first consider your life, it looks like nothing but a bunch of chicken tracks in the mud of a farmyard, going this way and that. But through the eyes of faith, we begin to discern pattern, meaning, direction.  Providence.”

At some times in my life I have kept a journal. This is more than a diary and at times of turmoil or uncertainty it can be a way of organising your thoughts and helping you work things out. Sometimes if we write a diary or journal it can help us see all of the places where God is with us, and where God is working around us.  In writing it down so that we may see it more clearly,  we can develop our understanding rather than going over the same things again and again. If we learn to look using this as one tool to help us then perhaps we will begin to recognise God at work in the present.

As we look back we can all say “I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am if that hadn’t happened”

So with the date set for my final services I can look back over the last ten years and remember many happy times we have shared together. There have also been some times when we have exercised our Christian responsibility of care as we have supported each other. The church has grown and developed over that time – indeed churches are living organisms that only stand still when they are dead. Sadly some of the folks who were with us ten years ago are no longer with us but we rejoice that new people have come into the church. So I thank God for all the people here whose lives and words have shown me things about the love of God.

And I will continue to remember you all and pray for you and I hope you will remember me and pray for me too.

(This letter is in the current edition of the Grahamston United Church review)

Tread softly

"L'âme d'autrui est une forêt obscure où il faut marcher avec précaution."* - Claude Debussy
Yesterday I was asked to see a lady in a nursing home. When I had seen her previously I remembered her as a very smart, petite lady with her hair in neat, tight, grey curls and with the thin transparent skin of the very old. But yesterday she was lying on her bed, curled into a fetal position and crying. Deep silent sobs came with every other breath as she screwed her face up in a silent echo of some inner pain.
I took her hand in mine and talked softly. I read a psalm and said a prayer.
I stayed beside the bed for as long as I could and was aware the human contact seemed to bring her some relief. As I left she seemed to be a little more at peace. I felt I wanted to do more but what?
I was reminded yet again of the immense complexity of every person. None of us know the inner struggles and burdens that another carries within them. It is a warning too that even the most sensitive and aware people can do untold harm by blundering around in the inner life of others.


* "the soul of another is a dark forest where you must walk with care"

Intercessory prayer as metaphorically walking round the garden (A sort of meditation)

Recently, as I was working in the garden, it came to me that walking round a garden can help our intercessory prayer.

There is lawn – a place of little interest but where everything happens – where children play and grown ups sit. In the same way there are many ordinary places which do not look much but are vital for our lives, our recreation and our health. We thank God for those places where things are always happening in the busyness and ordinariness of life

There are flower beds and borders – places that look very pretty yet hide the amount of work needed to keep them looking wonderful. So we pray for all those who work behind the scenes in our society to keep the wheels of life turning so that all we take for granted runs efficiently.

There is often a place of disaster – where nothing will grow or where mice and slugs have eaten what was planted and all the hard work seems wasted – places where the soil is infertile or a heavy useless clay. So we pray for the places where life is hard where people are struggling to make a life for themselves against the odds. (The floods in Pakistan are the latest example of human life being shown in all its vulnerability against the forces of nature) We pray for people facing hardship and danger in their everyday lives and that we and others may find ways to help them. There are people we know who find life a struggle against the odds through illness or circumstance and we remember them and pray for them.

The is a compost heap – an unpleasant smelly place which is nevertheless essential for the life of the whole. We pray for the parts of life that are unpleasant and which people usually ignore but which are essential for the balance of nature.

There is the vegetable bed – where plants are grown for what they can provide for the table so we pray for all those involved in production of the essentials of life such as food and water. We remember that what we take for granted is a luxury in other parts of the world.

There are weeds and pests – things that we don't want around, that ruin the nice things we try to do. So it is in our world: there is so much that makes us often feel our efforts are overwhelmed. We work to build things in a new way and find that there are those who get pleasure by destroying the good things that people do. Help us not to get discouraged by this and continue to work for justice, peace and sharing and the coming of Gods kingdom in the world

And there is the shed where the tools are kept – a place of quiet order – equipping us for service. So we pray for those who serve others, those who lead and those who administer that they may act fairly and for the common good.

The garden is a place where we go to relax. So we pray for the times we have to recover and recharge our batteries. We remember all those who are away on holiday at present preparing themselves for the busyness of the autumn.

That the garden is a microcosm of our world, a place of beauty and a place of utility, a place of order and a place of chaos, but most of all a place to both work and play.

We bring all these aspects of our lives, our society our church and our world to God in prayer in the name of Jesus.. Amen

The time traveller's wife...

Audrey Niffenegger's book "The Time Travellers Wife" is her first novel. I had heard of the film of this title in the context of awards so took the book for a holiday read. If time travel were to be possible, and many people suspend disbelief on Saturdays for Dr Who, then the sort of emotional problems that would be created are illustrated in this novel.

For Henry time travel is a genetic disorder that causes him much discomfort and pain for when he time travels he arrives naked. The main story line is a romance between Henry and Clare built up when the participants meet out of chronological sequence long before they meet in real time. He of course wonders when they do meet how this stranger to him has known him for so long. She met him first when he was about 30 was 6 but he does not really meet here until she is 20. Confused? You needn't be as each short chapter indicates the date and the relative ages of the protagonists.

Basically this is a love story with the expected contemporary degree of “adult” sexual behaviour and with the complication of non-sequential time. For this reason some classify it as science fiction. The author examines issues of love, loss, and free will. Specifically it uses time travel to explore how people fail to communicate and can be distant in relationships, while also looking at deeper existential questions.

I found the novel provoked many interesting theological questions about the nature of time. If time is simply a chronology of events that follow one after another with causes leading to effects, how does God fit in? Is God, in the terms of process philosophy, present in the potentials for choice and change in every present moment. Or is, at the other extreme, God outside of time, looking down from eternity at the pages of the days of all time laid out and viewing all at once. Such a position would severely restrict the ability of humans to affect their destiny out of its predetermined courses. Would we still be free agents?

These are not new arguments as in various forms they go back to the early church fathers. Living in Scotland I am surrounded by Calvinists who accept pre-destination to some greater or lesser extent. Pre-destination seems to have invaded the Scottish secular psyche even in its modern contexts. In this novel the author does not let the time traveller make any changes to events that would influence the future yet paradoxically she does allow him to memorise the lottery numbers for the following week so that they can buy their new home!

It is an intriguing and amusing book but is without a properly thought out philosophy of time underpinning it. However an excellent holiday read.

"I must go down to the sea again..."

"I must go down to the sea again..." is the beginning of the poem "Sea Fever" by John Masefield. I feel the sea calling this week as on Saturday we will collect our charter yacht on Loch Linnie and set off up the west coast. We have looked at the charts and the weather forecast but we will go where the winds and tides take us. We will anchor in small bays for the nights and hopefully there will be moderate but steady winds blowing to fill our sails. There is the challenge to keep alert for hazards, the exhilaration of having dolphins coming alongside and the sheer thrill of a well tuned yacht powering through the sea without the distraction of any engine sound. We are not attempting any great distances - this is our annual holiday. The joy is in pottering gently round the many rugged sea lochs that make up the coastline of the west of Scotland. And best of all there is no internet, no facebook, and for much of the time no mobile signal. So we really can get away! (The picture above is the actual yacht taken from the charter company website)

A poem

Today - 22/06/2010

Between hope and despair is a nowhere place

where it is too soon for weeping

and too late for partying

and all is unsettled, uncertain, unclear.

And in this empty place

this place of waiting

there is, most strangely, a peace

a deep, deep, peace

that comes from the deep faith

that beyond all human understanding

somewhere amidst the uncertainty

God is at work.

And we, protected from the vast void of nothing

which is the possibilities of futures unborn,

we live and love and watch the flowers grow

in the unsentimental reality

that is the present moment.

A huge bike ride....

I haven't blogged here for over six months – shame on me.

Sometimes there are other thing that you just have to do.

Caroline is doing something I could never do. She is riding from John O Groats to Lands end in 9 days and is now over half way. This time last week I waited with her at the front gate for her to be collected in a van with her bike for the four hour drive to John O Groats. She set off last Saturday morning and that night was at Lairg. Sunday she went from Lairg to Fort William then Monday it was south Glasgow and Tuesday it was to Ullswater. Wednesday brought them to Manchester and yesterday they got to Ludlow. Today the should end up in Cheddar ( the cheese place which is gorgeous!!! feeble attempt at humour!)

Cycling for me is a pleasure and a utilitarian way of transport, but please, no more than 50 miles a day! I suppose if I did all the training I might have been able to have done some serious cycling when I was younger. ButI am shamed by all the mature people doing this bike ride!

But I have never been one for sports. No matter how hard I pedal I cant seem to go faster than about 14 miles an hour and some of these guys are pumping along at 25 mph as they sprint to a checkpoint! The sensible thing is to do as much physical exercise as we can as it is undoubtedly good for us ( and I like my daily uphill dog walk) but recognise our limitations as very few of us were born to be Olympic athletes.

I cycled today – down to the post office to post a parcel – about a mile each way. I guess Caroline will have done ten times that distance before I got out of bed this morning.

Through the ride they are raising a huge amount of money for the paralympics. Now there are some athletes that you really can admire!

See more of Caroline's bike ride here.... http://blog.rideacrossbritain.com/