The Summer of Drowning by John Burnside: a review

The Summer of Drowning by John Burnside is an atmospheric novel set on an island near Tromso in the north of Norway in the arctic circle. It narrates the events of one summer as seen through the eyes of Liv then aged eighteen. It is written from her viewpoint ten years later, looking back to interpret the events of that summer.


I have visited Norway several times will go again this summer so was interested to read a novel set in the land of the midnight sun. It started out as a simple mystery story involving the odd characters who choose to live in such an extremely remote location. But half way through the narrative I became aware that it was not all as it should be. Liv's narrative shows increasing signs of paranoia and other symptoms of mental illness. She is a cold unfeeling person and has been dominated by her strange and talented, reclusive mother. Her attitude to life is derived to some extent from the white light of the night as Burnside describes how the lack of darkness affects all the people who live at these latitudes.


The sense of paranoia increased as the book reached its climax and Liv's account ceases to make sense on a rational level. She starts reinterpreting events along the lines of the ancient saga of the Huldra, a dangerous spirit who appears in the form of a young woman to tempt men to their death. The climax comes and she collapses with a breakdown.


It is a book about madness that is disturbing and provocative. It leaves you ultimately wondering what was it all about and what really happened? 


Possible spoiler Alert.  My understanding of the ambiguous ending is that Liv was a psychopath - evidenced by her total lack of emotional involvement with any other human being. Maia wasn't a real person. Maia was the murderous alter ego living in her imagination. Was Liv schizophrenic? Did she become the huldra in her mind through an unhealthy interest in the dark folk tales and was she responsible for the deaths of the four men who disappeared? Her mother perhaps recognised this serious mental disturbance in Liv when she was painting her and for this reason stopped painting portraits. 

Life with no corners

I had lunch today with a lovely couple who had worked as medical doctors in Zambia several years ago.


I learnt one interesting fact from them today. In the native language of the Zambian people they worked with there was no word for a corner. The word corner didn't exist. They thought in natural curves and flows. They lived in round huts and had no corners. The language had been adapted after the influence of western society and technology had introduced into their world straight lines and boxes, cubes and corners. And so their language adopted the English word "corner" into it.


It must be strange living in a world with no corners. Where shapes are formed naturally and are smoothed by time to be best suited for their purpose.


It must be stranger still to not have the philosophical concept of hiding in your own corner - defending your corner - if you could not be backed into a corner with the associated connotations of foul play. If you could not corner someone. You could not hide in a corner!


I think I would like a world without corners!

Beards

“The beard is a masculine ornament, given to us by God not for any practical use, but for our dignity" - St. Augustine

"Over the course of history, men with facial hair have been ascribed various attributes such as wisdom, sexual virility, masculinity, or a higher status; although beards may also be perceived to be associated with a lack of general cleanliness and a loss of refinement." - Wikipedia!!

In Greco-Roman antiquity the beard was "seen as the defining characteristic of the philosopher; philosophers had to have beards, and anyone with a beard was assumed to be a philosopher."   - John Sellars (1988). The art of living: the Stoics on the nature and function of philosophy. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Earlier this month a friend submitted an Advertising Standards Authority complaint over offensive advertising, encouraging ridicule, bullying and intimidation, by Wilkinson Sword.

The Bible tells us that a man should have a full, untrimmed beard, while trimming the hair on the head to an acceptable length. Much of this centres on the verse in Lev. 19:27 which should be translated:

'You must not shave or cut the corners of the hairs of your head and you are not to trim (mar or clip off) the edge (corners) of your beard.'

Does this mean that any man who claims to be a bible believing Christian and does not have a beard is a fake and fraud!

"This, then, is the mark of the man, the beard. By this, he is seen to be a man... It is the token of the superior nature....It is therefore unholy to desecrate the symbol of manhood, hairiness." St. Clement of Alexandria

 

Well being for ministers

We are all motivated people. We have been called by God and there can be no higher motivation than that. But such a vocation can have a downside. 

Being called by God implies for many of us the self sacrificing service that Kipling described in his poem "IF"  The verse

  If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
    And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
or
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
 
are recipes for burn out and heart attacks!

This sort of self sacrifice has been expected of those who serve in the church for a long time. Recall the prayer of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits ....

Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest;

to give, and not count the cost;

to fight, and not to heed the wounds;

to toil, and not to seek for rest;

to labour, and not to ask for any reward,

save that of knowing that we do thy will;

It was selfless dedication like this that built empires and spread the Christian message over the whole world. But such self sacrifice ca destroy relationships and family life, damage health and bring premature death.

Our calling from God to give ourselves selflessly which we renew every year in the covenant service or at ministerial synod at our service of re-dedication needs to be tempered with Jesus words reminding us that we have to love ourselves if we are ever to manage to love our neighbours. Most Christians, especially protestants, feel gulty about loving themselves.

The bottom line is that we need balanced lives. John Biggs wrote of the juggling we do:
 
"Take a note of the balls you are juggling. As you keep your work, health, family, friends, and spirit in the air remember that work is a rubber ball and will bounce back if you drop it. All the rest are made of glass; drop one of them and it will be irrevocably scuffed, tarnished or even smashed."   

When juggling you have to know what you can drop safely and what will break is not handled with care. Each of us may have different answers but we need to know. 




(The talk I gave at the Ministerial synod today...)

Compassion

"The principal of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions and it calls us always to treat all others as we would wish to be treated ourselves."

With these words, Karen Armstrong unveiled the Charter for Compassionon November 9th 2009.  This charter is for people of every faith and those with no faith from around the world. The charter contains the public confession that “we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion."

The Charter for Compassion was devised by Karen Armstrong, the author who has written many books on religion and faith in the contemporary world. She was at one time a Roman Catholic nun before studying at Oxford University and ending up as a teacher. In recent years she has become known for her books on comparative religion and Christianity. As she studied the world’s religions, their differences were very clear, but she identified a common thread that ran through them all that moved her.  This common thread was compassion.

This dream is not simple or naieve but articulates the aspirations of all thinking and caring people. The Charter of Compassion “impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures and to honor the inviolable sanctity of every single human being treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

By 2012 more than 85,000 people  have affirmed the charter online. It has been implemented in various settings. One of the most notable is in a US jail in Washington State where the goal was to decrease violence by 2.5 percent. The project was much more successful than hoped and violence decreased by 100 percent. The creators are evaluating the advantages for the federal government by implementing this program across the United States.


The full text of the charter...
The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.
It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.
We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.
We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

Issues and personalities

The church does some things very well but also tends to do some things very badly. 

One of the things that the church in general does badly is to confuse issues with personalities. All too often the idea being expressed is inextricable linked with the person expressing that viewpoint and as a result every debate about that issue becomes seen as a personal attack. Many people seem unable to discuss ideas in the abstract. 

I first saw this when, as editor of a journal, I published an article critical of the re-establishment of the Methodist Diaconal order after it had previously been closed. The article weighed up the evidence and speculated if the will if God had been truly discerned or if a mistake had been made. I received one enraged letter from a distraught deacon who was very upset that this article was undermining her whole life and vocation. She saw it as a personal attack and wanted to cancel her subscription immediately. My reaction was one of surprised that such a highly strung, over sensitive and non-discerning individual had got through the Churches usually tight selection processes. Perhaps she was just having a bad day!

We see this issue emerging whenever the church discusses issues that are controversial or uncomfortable. The current debates about gay marriage have not always brought out the best levels of intellectual debate. Those who have had the benefit of learning debating at school or university will have gained a great advantage whenever they take part in any discussion. They will understand that what is important is to focus on the issue and the arguments of your opponent and who or what your opponent is as a person is irrelevant. The popular mass media often engage in personal attacks but this is often when they have little real argument of substance to offer to counter the points being made.

Am I being unreasonable in expecting better from the church?

Creativity vs Christianity in the Celtic fringe

I was reading the Carmina Gadelica earlier today. I was interested in the way that the nineteenth century collector of prayers and folk law in the western isles, Alexander Carmicheal, didn't discriminate between the deep heartfelt Christian faith of the islanders and their beliefs in fairies and other magic. The compilers of more modern anthologies of so called "Celtic Christian" resources have been very selective.  He was fairly even handed. This is just one of the tensions in the Celtic world.

Carmicheal highlighted the ambiguity between the natural Celtic creativity and the strands of Christianity who saw all forms of creative exuberance as being of the devil. I was moved by the following sad story and having met some free church attitudes, I can understand the clash he describes...

"A famous violin-player died in the island of Eigg a few years ago. He was known for his old style playing and his old-world airs which died with him. A preacher denounced him, saying :- ' Tha thu shios an sin cul na comhla, a dhuine thruaigh le do chiabhan liath, a cluich do sheann fhiodhla le laimh fhuair a mach agus le teine an diabhoil a steach ' - Thou art down there behind the door, thou miserable man with thy grey hair, playing thine old fiddle with the cold hand without, and the devil's fire within. His family pressed the man to burn his fiddle and never to play again. A peddler came round and offered ten shillings for the violin. The instrument had been made by a pupil of Stradivarius, and was famed for its tone. ' Cha b'e idir an rud a fhuaradh na dail a ghoirtich mo chridhe cho cruaidh ach an dealachadh rithe ! an dealachadh rithe ! agus gun tug mi fhein a bho a b'fhearr am buaile m'athar air a son, an uair a bha mi og '--It was not at all the thing that was got for it that grieved my heart so sorely, but the parting with it! the parting with it! and that I myself gave the best cow in my father's fold for it when I was young. The voice of the old man faltered and a tear fell. He was never again seen to smile."

This book by Rosemary Power is one of the best contemporary assesments of Celtic spirituality and Christianity. I reviewed it on this blog last year.

A church has gotta do what a church has gotta do

I heard recently about a small inner city church. It is located in a part of the city that is run down and has a mixed cultural population. 

This church is in a city that is a major centre for refugees and asylum seekers. The regular congregation numbers about thirty people, all either elderly retired whites or working age black people. The building dates back to when the church had many more people and the congregation now less than a quarter fills the large sanctuary. There are wire grills over all the windows and high security locks on the doors as it is in a run down/high risk area. However there are many halls and rooms on several different levels and they are widely used by community groups.

A familiar picture of an inner city church. So whats new? 

One day a tall black guy turned up. He was an asylum seeker from an African country with a poor human rights record. He was going through the lengthy process of trying to become legal. He had nowhere to go. He church had rooms.  They didn't hesitate - they said have a room - and fixed up some furniture and he stayed. He is still there. He does some basic care taking duties and in return the church have agreed to let him stay for as long as he needs.

I was moved by this story - not because I condone the church breaking the law - which they probably have many times by helping a an illegal alien, by not registering a church as a hostel or place of residence, and numerous health and safety rules etc. They have ignored all the bureaucracy and responded to a need and acted.

‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’" Matthew 25  38-40

What is the demanding common task?

As a new member of the Iona Community the phrase “the demanding common task”  baffled me when I heard it banded about by members without a definition being given. It is clear that there are many interpretations possible and I believe the meaning has changed considerably over the years and I would expect it to continue changing.

For George McLeod (though I never knew him unlike many of the senior members) it was a socialist agenda to relieve poverty in the areas of deprivation and make the church relevant to the poor. One of the ways of achieving this was by incorporating manual labour into ministerial formation. Restoring an ancient abbey was a byproduct of his dream by getting theologians and artisans working close together, sharing the work under his rules and strict discipline.

In our day things are very different. The community is not involved in ministerial formation, members are not forced to do manual labour and we have a large historic property by which the community is principally known to the world.

For me the demanding common task is following the agenda of justice, peace and the integrity of creation and at the same time bringing a creative spirit of renewal to the worship life of the church.

Some people over the long history of the Iona Community have been side-tracked in their definition of the demanding common task because a great deal of time has been taken up by the “millstone” of running a Christian holiday centre! Though it is rightly seen now as a resource for the social, political and spiritual goals of the community, it has often been too much of a focus on its own. 

The social, political and spiritual goals of the community are demanding for they are tasks which have no clear end as there is always more that could be done. It would be easy to become depressed at the slow speed of progress towards these ends. It is thus very important to have a community of likeminded people who share the vision to support you and encourage you. A community that has such wide, all-encompassing aims can have few members who are enthusiastic activists for every cause. Yet the community encourages and supports each member to follow their passions in their part of the common task. In this way community members all do different things, pulling in the same general direction, given unity by this shared trajectory and supporting one another in the same way that a rope is strengthened by each of the many strands that make it up.

Let Christ out of the church

Nobody worries about Christ as long as he can be kept shut up in churches. He is quite safe inside. But there is always trouble if you try and let him out.

-- G. A. Studdert Kennedy

Geoffrey A Studdert Kennedy,  (27 June 1883 – 8 March 1929), was Church of England priest and poet. He was nicknamed 'Woodbine Willie' during the first world war for giving Woodbine cigarettes along with spiritual aid to injured and dying soldiers.

After the war he had a parish in London where he bacame a vocal campaigner for Christian Socialism until his death. 

Rainer Maria Rilke

I don't quite know why but today seems a day for some of my favourite Rainer Maria Rilke quotations.  He died in 1923 but I feel that many of his words have a contemporary ring to them. They are worth further study...

"If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the Creator, there is no poverty."     

 

"Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers."

"The only journey is the one within."

"This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess."

“The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.” 

“For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so, because it serenely disdains to destroy us.
Every angel is terrible.” 

“I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other. ” 

Squandering a birthright

In the Guardian today George Monbiot looks at his baby daughter and ponders on the things that we take for granted which might have disappeared when she reaches his age. It is partly a eulogy about the health service but is much more too.

When I was born,  the National Health Service was just 15 years old. It must still have been hard for people to believe that – for the first time in the history of these islands – they could fall ill without risking financial ruin, that nobody need die for want of funds. I see this system as the summit of civilisation, one of the wonders of the world. Now it is so much a part of our lives that it is just as hard to believe that we might lose it. But I fear that, when you have reached my age, free universal healthcare will be a distant fantasy, a mythologised Arcadia as far removed from the experience of your children's generation as the Blitz was from mine. One of the lessons you will learn, painfully and reluctantly, is that nothing of public value exists which has not been fought for.

He also laments the way the environment is being wasted...

By the time your children are born, the tiger, the rhino, the bluefin tuna and many of the other animals that have so enthralled me could be nothing but a cause of regret......  You may live to see the extremes of climate change I have spent much of my life hoping we can avert, accompanied by further ecological disasters, such as the acidification of the oceans, the loss of most of the world's remaining forests, its wetlands and fossil water reserves, its large predators, fish and coral reefs. If so, you will doubtless boggle at the stupidity and short-sightedness of those who preceded you. No one can claim that we were not warned.

Is this pessimism inevitable?  Does it have to turn out like this? Is there another way? Are the small voices that point to a different path being heard?

George Monbiot is a present day prophet in the biblical tradition - pointing out what might be if we keep going the way we are are asking us what we really value. Like those prophets from pre-history there are many who have stuffed their ears so that they do not have to listen to an uncomfortable message. There are plenty who would try to silence the prophet and discredit his message.

Do we value rhinos and rainforests or the health service enough to make a stand before it is too late?

Ignatius Loyola's prayer

Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest;

to give, and not count the cost;

to fight, and not to heed the wounds;

to toil, and not to seek for rest;

to labour, and not to ask for any reward,

save that of knowing that we do thy will;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Amen.

Book review - Kissing through a pane of Glass

Kissing through a pane of Glass by Peter Michael Rosenberg   (Downloaded from Amazon for Kindle)

This is a book about love and could simply be seen as a love story, complete with the obligatory sex scenes. But it is really a study of a relationship that is founded on obsession and dependency between a love sick, immature young man and a young woman who is mentally ill.

A mentally disturbed beautiful young woman captivates the narrator when they meet in India and it is not until he is obsessively in love that he realises that her "funny little ways" are something much more serious. His commitment to her means that he sticks by her. This is even when her illness makes her very unlikable and his own life becomes completely shaped according to her needs. 

These days we are encouraged to recognise the person who is suffering with a mental illness first and not begin our relationships with others by prejudging or using labels such as psychotic, manic depressive or whatever. This novel takes such a position seriously and reveals the unsettling consequences of loving a person with a mental illness. It will affect all parts of your life. It is also a study of love as single minded obsession that is prepared to make all sorts of allowances because of the need for relationship. An interesting, intriguing and ultimately disturbing book.

Animals in captivity

I was at the zoo today. The last zoo I visited was in Budapest and the animals there were sad specimens that looked bored. I found the whole experience depressing. Today was different.

Today I went to the Lakeland wildlife park at Dalton in Furness. The animals looked very healthy and were housed in huge enclosures. The Rhinos had the space to run about having frisky mock fights.The lions were fed with fresh meat hung on the top of high telegraph like poles so they had to climb the poles before they could eat. It was exciting to see the lions climb these poles in a couple of athletic leaps. Makes you appreciate the power of nature. It is also a warning that if you are being chased by a lion not to try to escape by climbing a tree!

If wild animals have to be kept in captivity then they deserve to be treated with respect. They have a natural dignity which is only visible when their welfare and environment let them thrive.

It made me think about humans who live in situations where their freedom is restricted. Seeing the fences surrounding the animals and the resulting limits to their freedom reminded me of the fences erected to restrict the freedom of other human beings. The Berlin wall has now gone but new walls in other places divide people from kith and kin and cut people off from their land and livelihoods.  Perhaps the most notable example today is the wall between Israel - Palestine. Like the fence between me and the lion, that wall will save lives but there is the loss of freedom for so many worth the immense cost?  Perhaps the big question when looking at the Israel/Palestine wall is on which side are the nice familes and which side has the wild animals?!

Locked in syndrome - the waiting room for death?

I read a short story last night called "Mind cafe" by Lizzy Ford. (I do find all sorts of things when searching the books and short stories that are on offer for free download for my kindle.)
This is an original short story. The mind cafe is the inner world - a room with leather sofas which Rosie imagines that she lives in since she has been paralysed by an accident 24 years earlier. Since then she has been living as a vegetable. She can only communicate through complex technology that involves moving the iris of her eye. She looks out at the room she is kept in but prefers to be in her imagined inner room which is the waiting room for death. 
Various characters visit her in this inner room, some living, some dead and one imagined from the photo on the back of one of her old university text books. 
She has been in this state for years waiting to die and so has become resigned to her fate. She is looking forward to the day when death will let her pass through the door in her waiting room to join her mother and sister who are waiting for her. She believes that they are on the other side of the wall of her room waiting with Earl Grey tea on the veranda.
It is a thought provoking idea, but could have been more fully developed. There is little about the immense sense of frustration at her imprisonment. This is only lightly touched on as she articulates her moans about the lazy nurse/maid who is supposed to be her carer. But then it was only 5000 words. 
It made me think about being imprisoned in a body that had no functioning parts (as in "locked in" syndrome). The story also resonated with the discussion I had taken part in recently on assisted dying.

Free kindle books

A group of authors are putting on a book giveaway tomorrow (Friday, 13 April 2012).  They will be offering over 70 books free on the Kindle Store at Amazon.com.  All of the books can be found at:  

Book bonanza freebies for kindle.... 

Foreign aid, War, NGOs and Somalia

I have just finished reading "The Somalia Doctrine" by James Grenton.

This thriller is based in Somalia, the lawless part of the horn of Africa ruled by warlords, most recently in the news for the pirates based there. The hero is an undercover Interpol agent investigating shady goings on by a huge global NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) ostensibly distributing aid to displaced persons but with several hidden sinister agendas. The plot is fast moving and full of action but there are a large number of co-incidences and conspiracies allow the villain to have tame henchmen all over the world. But even with a plot that sometimes stretches credulity, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

It gives bloody descriptions of the massacres in refugee camps and portrays the chaos in a failed state where brute force is the only rule of law. It is a situation where only the fittest and most cunning survive and where no value is given to human life.

The author has worked for a NGO and his first hand experience shows in the narrative. Through the plot several worrying issues are brought to light about the way the aid machine works across the globe. NGOs are not accountable to anyone outside of themselves and their budgets can be greater than those of many small third world countries. NGOs often use questionable tactics to raise funds from their donors, using spin freely to give the side of the story that they want portrayed.

Earlier this year I had read “Too Much Aid: Not Enough Help” by Ken Gibson which made the case that aid is a geopolitical tool and a form of neo-colonialism. This novel takes the argument further and shows an NGO in league with a private security company wanting to take over running Somalia. Though fiction, it shows what could happen if recent trends continue unchecked.

The book shows how the media are culpable for only looking at the most dramatic stories of suffering when covering development issues. It also highlights how prolonged war destroys every part of society and the ones who suffer most are the weakest and poorest.

The thriller is a very thought provoking read and is well written.

If revisited..

Last night in a group of friends discussing the world and its problems over dinner someone referred to Kipling's poem "If". I had not read the poem for several years but found that I still know large stanzas of it by heart. 

I was put off this poem over twenty years ago when some commentator on a radio discussion programme dismissed it as a relic of the British Empire. He was no doubt one of those Marxist intellectuals who reinterpret history to fit in with their narrow view of what constitutes human life. (Fortunately most of these people have now retired!)


Looking at the poem afresh I can honestly say I am truly moved by the sentiments expressed here. Kipling captures something about what it means to be a good human being and a valuable and contributing member of society. It is about being positive. It is about perseverance against the odds. It is about big society - in the proper sense of the word - not the political spin often associated with the word. 

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Triumph of Light

Christ is Risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

This day is the triumph of light over darkness. As I was on the castle esplanade early this Easter Sunday morning watching the first light of the sun bring colour to the horizon I thought "The light has shone in the darkness and the darkness shall never overcome it."

In John's Gospel the words "Dark" and "darkness" appear several times. But not after the resurrection. After this miracle the darkness is finally banished to its proper place. 

Darkness will still affect the lives of Christians. We will have times of disappointment, illness, sadness and everything else that goes to make up life. But resurrection will come because the shadow of darkness is only a shadow and the light has complete victory. The light will come as sure as the dawn will come. 

Happy Easter - rejoice and walk in the light!!

Good Friday Walk and Services

The procession of witness involved walking between five churches across the town centre and reading a section of Mark's gospel in each. The result was that we followed the whole passion story from one gospel broken up by processing in the rain between the venues. It was an appropriate day to be dreek and wet. The song may go "Don't let it rain on my parade!" but the grey skies and damp chill seemed to fit the mood well.

Of course crucifixion in Jerusalem would have been in the heat of the day. From nine am until three in the afternoon Jesus was dying on the cross. "We may not know, we cannot tell, the pains he had to bear" is a verse we sing in the green hill hymn. No wonder that one of the recorded sayings from the cross is "I thirst".

Was there an expectation of being pious and singing solemn hymns as we walked? It didn't happen. The mixed group of people from different churches were eager to converse, exchange news and share sweeties. I have never eaten so many boiled sweets in such a short time before. Perhaps they are allowed for those who are fasting! What did the "walk of witness" achieve? Most of the time we were walking along paths where there were no people to witness to! When we walked along the shopping mall people looked out of shops and saw the group of people walking past but unless they saw the person in the lead carrying the big wooden cross they might not have had any idea what we were doing.

On Good Friday evening I attended a service meditating on the events of the day. The preacher led a series of meditations based on the words from the cross. The atmosphere was solemn and the hymns worthy and the verbal pictures painted in the meditations of the practice of crucifixion horrific. But I was left wondering what has all this to do with the every day faith that I try to live out. 

Have we lost the ability to mark this important day in the church calender in a way that is appropriate for people today?

Maundy Thursday thoughts

Today is Maundy Thursday - a day for foot washing, and reenacting the last supper that Jesus shared with his disciples. Some Christian friends are today planning a Christian version of a passover meal. But I am doing nothing.And about that I feel guilty.

This is one of the holiest days of the annual Christan calender but it does not play a big part in the life of the church where I now minister. We had a service last Sunday when we considered the triumphal entry and palms and all that and tomorrow on Friday a few of the folk will join with other Churches in a procession around the town ending up at our church where we will have a short closing service before sausage rolls and cups of tea. But tonight there is nothing and after the walk of witness also there is nothing until Sunday morning. They seem like big empty spaces for a Holiday weekend. Should I be glad that I can catch up on my gardening or many of the other jobs I have to do.

Perhaps I should be glad of the break. I know the stories of some clergy who wear themselves out with umpteen services for the whole week and by the time they get to resurrection they feel like death warmed up!

Perhaps though for those first disciples their Easter experience was one of confusion and grief and emptiness. They went back to get on with the DIY at home to take their minds off the terrible way things had turned out.Each gospel has a different slant on the story and we are often too ready to conflate the individual accounts to make assumptions and meet our preconceived expectations.

Even on Easter Sunday according to John's account the first Easter experience is somewhat lacklustre, especially in the lives of those first on the scene. The story involves three people Mary Magdalene, Peter, and the beloved disciple. They are the first to the tomb that Sunday morning. John doesn’t tell us why Mary comes. Maybe she is there to grieve? Maybe she comes to remember and give thanks for the life of this rabbi who had changed her life forever. Maybe Mary comes because she needs some time alone to think but John doesn’t tell us.

As Mary arrives she sees that the stone is rolled back from the entrance of the tomb. Immediately she leaves without further investigation. Mary tells Peter and the beloved disciple. They then run to the tomb, with the beloved disciple getting there first. Peter looks in and sees the place where Jesus had been, and nothing is there. The beloved disciple looks at the same scene, and the Scripture tells us he believes. Then, they go home.

Mary is encouraged by the other two and wants to take a look for herself. She too sees the place, only now there are two angels, one sitting at the foot of where Jesus had been and the other at the head. “Who are you looking for?” asks one of the angels. Mary begs him to tell her where they have taken Jesus’ body. As she turns around she sees Jesus but does not recognise him. She supposes he is the gardener and asks him if he knows where they have taken the body. If he will tell her she will go and get the body. Jesus then calls her by name, and immediately she recognises him. Jesus then instructs her not to touch him and to go and tell his followers, which she does.

What a strange and mysterious story. Lots of things that you want to be there aren't. Everyone saw something different, even in the one gospel account. The whole Easter story is a mystery central to faith but a mystery none the less. Perhaps that is why I have these gaps in my schedule - I can meditate on the holy mysteries as I do the gardening!

Real Resurrection Hope

As Easter approaches many preachers will be preparing their special sermon for Easter Sunday - a high point of the Christian year.  But though people love emphasising the wonderful and amazing idea of resurrection and all that resurrected life means they often ignore all that led up to this. Some churches do not have a service between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday and so you move direct from the triumphal entry to the triumph on the cross with no depths to be plunged in between. It’s a bad habit that Protestants have but perhaps we also criticise Catholics for keeping Jesus pinned to the cross in their iconography.

Part of this is because we don’t like to have to deal with the darkness of Jesus crucifixion, suffering, death and burial. It is brutal, cruel and unpleasant and we struggle to find a place for it in our twenty first century Christian faith. It is the same way that death has now been banished from our lives - death now happens to people in hospital at the end of long full lives and is not something that anyone need come into contact with in their day to day existence. And it is also because we don’t really understand the resurrection and we fail in our attempt to come to terms with a simplistic literal interpretation.

I have helpfully heard resurrection described as a process, rather than as a one-time event. It can be seen to be more like Martin Luther King spoke of the trajectory of history bending towards justice. It is a long term trajectory.  God’s planned trajectory for the whole of humanity is long, messy and sometimes even violent. This is a pointer that leads in the direction towards hope. It leads in the direction of life and love. Moving in the direction of love is most important because though there is always more that can be done , love is the restoring force that brings good into bad and has the power to overcome evil. Love may only be present in a partial form but even without showing its full potential love has the power to restore all that has been damaged including especially peoples lives.

Christian Piatt  -  "Resurrection literally means to make something right again. Though we are bent, bruised and bloodied by life’s darkness, God’s love makes us upright once again. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But faith in resurrection means that our entire existence bends toward God’s fullness."

Resurrection is the most creative and positive force in the universe that has the power to make things right and gives us confidence hat whatever the present state of things then they can be better. They can be much better! This is the real hope that has been formed in the dark days of the events of holy week as the depths of human inhumanity have been plunged. Hope does not just pop up out of nowhere on Easter morning!

Roll away the stone to see resurrection

As I meditate on the Easter story, as recorded by Mark, I keep seeing verses that I have glossed over and not really noticed before. One such verse is the women’s question: “Who will roll away the stone for us?” 

There are many stones that stand in our way. There are stones of education, finance, opportunity, unemployment, racism, prejudice, disability, and health.  People often feel that they have been hemmed in by big stones surrounding them and they can’t roll them away on our own.  We need help to break out. These walls would confine us and halt our progress but it is possible for them to be rolled away. And if the stones can be rolled away, the walls that pen us in are demolished and resurrection can come to us too.

This sort of resurrection will be most likely to emerge in a faithful community, attentive to God’s transforming presence. This will be a community where people look to other peoples needs and not just to their own. It will be a community where those with problems and weaknesses will be helped by those who are strong. A community where those with little will benefit from the sharing of those who have plenty. A place where all sorts of varied gifts will be valued and no one sort of giftedness will be considered to be superior to the others.

This will be church living as a resurrection community. Resurrection will always be a mystery but we can recognise it when it happens.  The resurrection story in Mark's gospel ends with the women in awe, fear, and silence. This is the natural reaction when things turn out in a way that is completely unexpected. It is the only response that is believable when the unbelievable happens before our own eyes.

Resurrection seems impossible when faced with what we all know to be the reality of death. But this final frontier is exactly the place that is affected and the empty tomb shows us the way to a new future - a future of possibilities where we thought there were none. The risen presence of Jesus himself is with us when he brings resurrection to hopeless situations and love where you would least expect to find it. The risen presence is there when justice is resurrected in places where justice seems to have been absent for a long time. Christ is alive, resurrected and bringing the possibility of resurrected life to all situations where we need courage, strength and wisdom. To those situations where we can work together to roll away the stones that imprison people and shut out the light. Resurrected we can join together in healing the world.

I acknowledge a short paragraph that I read by Bruce Epperly as inspiration for this post

Doing the truth

Matthew 7:24-27

New International Version (NIV)

The Wise and Foolish Builders

    ²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

The only proper response to this word which Jesus brings with him from eternity is simply to do it. Only in the doing of it does the word of Jesus retain its honour, might and power among us. Now the storm can rage over the house but it cannot shatter that union with him, which his word has created.  -   Dietrich Bonhoeffer.