How do you imagine Jesus?

How do you visualise Jesus? Do you see him as a white, slightly emaciated, male ?

This photo is apparently of the crucified Jesus as portrayed in Korea. It gives him the physique of Rambo with... well you can see!

What do I make of this. I was actually confused when I first saw it as I didn't know what to think. It looks wrong. But then all our representations of Jesus are by their nature wrong. There were no portraits made two thousand years ago. It also highlights how we can be in danger of making Jesus into our own image - of making him fit our culture and racial stereotypes. I have seen images that portray Jesus with Asian, African and European characteristics as well as some that make him look uncomfortably Arab like. We have to return to the truth that the Son of God Jesus transcends all our images of Him!

Perhaps this image is Jesus for body-builders and we should leave it at that!


Source of picture - It was posted on Facebook - I don't know the origin or the copyright position!

Wedding poem

I have conducted many marriage ceremonies and the following poem is a popular choice. It combines realism with idealism and unlike some poetry is accessible by anyone.

Wedding Vow by Wendy Cope

I cannot promise never to be angry;

I cannot promise always to be kind.

You know what you are taking on, my darling –

It's only at the start that love is blind.

And yet I'm still the one you want to be with

And you're the one for me – of that I'm sure.

You are my closest friend, my favourite person,

The lover and the home I've waited for.

I cannot promise that I will deserve you

From this day on. I hope to pass that test.

I love you and I want to make you happy.

I promise I will do my very best.

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What God wants me to be...

Am I what God wants me to be? Do I worry that I should be something else? Am I happy in my skin? Do I dream of being someone else?  George MacDonald has a word of wisdom for anyone who doubts their own identity:

"I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God's thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking.” 
― George MacDonald


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George MacDonald - poet - shortest poem

The nineteenth century minister, poet and author George MacDonald wrote what must be the shortest poem ever. It has only two words. The title is longer than the poem itself. However in those two words he allows our minds to wonder about family, hospitality, welcome and the all the meanings of home. 

The Shortest and Sweetest of Songs by George MacDonald

Come

Home. 

Biographical note:
George MacDonald was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, in 1824. After studying Moral Philosophy and Sciences at Aberdeen University, he trained for the Congregational church, but his liberal views prevented him from being successful as a minister. He was, however, successful as a writer, giving expression to his religious beliefs through allegorical novels and poetry, notably Phantastes (1858). Although best know now for his classic books for children, poetry started off his life of prolific production and continued to feature during the following four decades.


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Just to be clear about Jesus

Contrary to popular belief Jesus did not:

• Start the Christian religion
• See human beings as sinners
• Die in order to rescue people from God
• Establish a spiritual hierarchy of clergy and laity
• Create a theological orthodoxy about God
• Write or read the New Testament
• Advocate the hatred, diminishment or maltreatment of another human being for any reason
• Teach that women were subservient to men
• Deny the image of God in any human being
• Believe that humankind was separated from God

- Jim Palmer.

I post this quote as today has been a very heavy day and I've no time to write and original thought!

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Celtic hymn addressed to the new moon

Last night the sky was clear and the garden was bright under a new moon. I looked up in wonder at the expanse of stars across the heavens.

The Celtic people of old looked on the moon as a friend who guided their course on land and sea. For seafaring folk the guiding of the moon could be a matter of life and death. For this reason there are many hymns in the Celtic tradition addressed to the gracious light of the night sky.

The following hymn, translated from the Carmina Gadelica, is quoted by Esther de Waal in her book "The Celtic Vision" 

May thy light be fair to me!
May thy course be smooth to me!
If good to me is thy beginning,
Seven times better be thine end,
Thou fair moon of the seasons,
Thou great lamp of grace!

He who created thee
created me likewise;
He who gave thee weight and light
Gave to me life and death,
And the joy of the seven satisfactions,
Thou lamp of grace,
Thou fair moon of the seasons.

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Too much stuff?

Years ago when people moved house the average removal truck was medium sized. A few years later, the average house move needed a large truck. Today the average house removal needs two large removal vehicles! This is an indication of how much STUFF people have these days compared with previous generations.

Sometimes it seems that success in our consumerist society is only measured by the amount of stuff we have accumulated. I believe that we need to rethink our relationship with things.

Do I possess things or do things possess me? 
Do we confuse I want and I need?
Deep down do I believe that the one who dies with the most stuff has won the race of life?
Do I have a sense of stewardship which recognises the ultimate owner of everything is God and I am only a temporary custodian?
How does the example of Jesus and the simple life he led impact on the reality of my life? 

There are no answers today - just questions and I conclude with a quotation from Oscar Wilde:

"those who have much are often greedy; those who have little always share"

This year my lent discipline is to write at least one post each day on my blog.

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For Christianity to prevail...

In a journal from over 100 years ago I found an article that discussed the state of the church and what is needed for the survival of the faith. It could have been written today - though today it would be in sound-bites and not such a long dense text! It concludes with this wise, if long, sentence -

"If Christianity is to prevail, it must be by love of truth for truth's sake, by transparent simplicity, by self-distrust and self denial; by walking humbly and sympathising generously; by large allowances, and boundless forgivenesses; by putting off the spirit of the world, and putting on the spirit of Christ." 

- Written by the Dean of Canterbury and published January 1870 in the journal "Good Words"

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Biblical truth

When people debate the truth of the Bible, some think that the phrase "being true" can only mean one thing and that is literal truth. However truth is more complex. We can talk about literal truth and symbolic truth. The Bible contains many different types of literature and both types of truth are found. Literal truth and symbolic truth are equally important, but very different. John Dominic Crossan sums up the difference this distinction makes when interpreting the Bible brilliantly in the following quotation.

"My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally."  

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The importance of simplicity

"Franciscanism is sometimes called an alternative orthodoxy because it invites us all to sit at God's One Abundant Table, while much of the Christian tradition has set a scarce table for very few. The Church too often assumed that people were very simple and so we had to make the laws complex to protect them from themselves. Jesus and Francis recognized that people are endlessly diverse, complex and mysterious, and we had best make the law very simple. Just love your neighbour exactly as you love yourself." Surely it can't be that simple?  Do we accept that simplicity or do we try to make life and faith complex to cover all possibilities.

Quotation from "Gateway to Silence" by Richard Rohr

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Forty Days - a poem for Lent

Forty Days 

A poem by Katherine Middleton*

A journey lasting forty days

through barren country, bare of shoots,

still in the grip of winter's chill,

where plants lie frozen at the roots.

Take us, as days grow longer, and

the sun gains strength to melt the frost,

onward towards Jerusalem,

where one man's death redeemed the lost.

Though all seems dead, the buds break through

and bright Lent lilies nod and wave,

as from the gloom of Lent's dark days

he springs victorious from the grave.

* This Katherine Middleton is different to the one who married into the English Royal family.


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The continual journey of the search for truth

Bishop Spong is a controversial figure in the church. I find that sometimes his writing sums up in a short paragraph something that I have felt or thought I knew but found difficult to articulate. I experienced such a memorable light bulb moment when I read the following paragraph.

'The Christian Church will die of boredom long before it dies of controversy. The ranks of the ordained will continue to include a minority who will push the boundaries while the majority will seek to provide the narcotic of religious security. This remains true despite the fact that most of our denominational training schools are in the business of blessing the status quo, rather than engaging in a search for truth that will meet the people of tomorrow’s world.'  - John Shelby Spong.

Am I always pushing the boundaries and searching for truth for the present age OR am I guilty of providing the narcotic of religious security by blessing the status quo?


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A winter blessing

A blessing for a cold winter day

May the blessing of God surround you like a warm blanket;

May the peace of God fill you like a cup of hot chocolate;

And may the warming of God within you be a blessing to others.

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The extent of God's love

How can we measure God's love for us? If we think of the love of a close family member, friend, parent or even partner or spouse we can think of their tolerance, forgiveness, generosity, fidelity and faithfulness. But even that best human example pales in comparison with God's unconditional love. God loves because that is the way God is.
We may think we are undeserving or unlovable. We may worry about our faults, but that is not the way that God looks at us. Gods love has no strings attached. Gods love without consideration of how much we deserve or merit loving. 
Gods love is not just for me. Gods love is for everyone. Every person, however despicable they may seem in the eyes of he world are also bathed in this immense cloud of unimaginable love. Now doesn't that challenge our attitudes to others when we criticise, put down or reject others as unworthy of our attention. We are not even trying to emulate God. 
Our imitation of the way of Christ in the way of discipleship is a way of learning how to begin to love like God.


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Let go and let God

Here is a phrase that is popular on badges, tee shirt slogans and bumper stickers. 

"Let go and let God."

But what does a sound bite like this really mean?  
It is a call to conquer selfishness in all its forms and this is so pervasive in our society that we may not even recognise it.
Letting go of our desire to possess and own stuff, power, money and even people. 
Letting go of prejudices and attitudes that jar with the teaching of Jesus.
Letting go of wanting to be accepted and popular.
Letting go of everything that stands in the way of our relationship with God. 

This is not easy. We kid ourselves that we can have both a close relationship with God and all these things too. But we clutter our lives and our minds and hearts and convince ourselves that we need it all.

A minister I know has a huge library of religious books. He has far more than he can ever read - indeed so many that he now no longer knows what he has! So he has decided that this Lent he will give away one book a day for each of the forty days. Losing forty books will make little impact on the clutter of his overcrowded study but hopefully it will help him concentrate on what is most important and not on the peripherals of faith. 

To let go we need to trust God. We need to believe that God will be there to fill the empty space left behind. We need an open heart and an open mind to let God dwell fully in us. And after we have given ourselves to God then we can experience the riches of the gifts that are given to us. All it needs is for us to let go. Then God can and will deliver.



This year my lent discipline is to write a thought each day on my blog.

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Pain and suffering

No life is complete without pain or suffering of some sort. Often it seems quite arbitrary. People ask "Why me?" or "Why does God...?". And it is not just for ourselves. It is painful to watch the suffering of others. The whole problem of suffering has taxed the minds of philosophers and theologians for centuries. There are no easy answers and we must be wary of those who pretend that there are.

Here are a few quotations from well known sources that I have found helpful:

• If you suffer, thank God! -- it is a sure sign that you are alive. --Elbert Hubbard
• Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you respond to it. anon
• Bless a thing and it will bless you. Curse it and it will curse you...If you bless a situation, it has no power to hurt you, and even if it is troublesome for a time, it will gradually fade out, if you sincerely bless it. --Emmet Fox
• The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. --Anne Frank
• The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt. --Thomas Merton
• In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. --Jesus Christ
• The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word "love", and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake. "Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the divine love may rest "well pleased".  ― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

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Lent 2016 - an alarming statistic on loneliness

I found a rather alarming statistic yesterday.  No, it was not about church decline but about Christmas. (Now you know why I posted a nativity scene in Lent!) 

Apparently in the United Kingdom 2044 people submitted their self assessment tax return on-line to the inland revenue on Christmas Day. I started thinking about what could be the reason for this statistic. Perhaps:

• There are some people so busy on 364 days of the year that Christmas day holiday is the only time they get to do a tax form. That is sad.
• There are some people who have no friends or family to spend the holiday with and they sit at home alone filling in the on-line tax return. Sad.
• Some people find being with their families at Christmas so stressful that they lock themselves away in a quiet room and fill in the tax collectors requirements. Again sad.
• Some people regard Christmas in the same way as Charles Dickens' character Scrooge. They protest at the atmosphere of bonhomie and say "bah humbug" before filling in the form on the inland revenue website!
• Christmas has only been a public holiday in Scotland since 1958 so perhaps some people have not yet gotten used to the idea and still think of it as a working day! (Though they would be very old by now!)
• Is there anyone who enjoys completing their tax return so much that they save it to do on one of the most fun days of the year!  Huh?
• They could be of another religion for whom Christmas means nothing. 

This statistic is a reminder for me to be aware of others. When we are enjoying ourselves we can think everyone is bound to be having a good time too. There will always be some people who will not be sharing in the festivities and for whatever reason will feel excluded. On Christmas day we expect everyone to share the seasonal joy, even if they are not marking the birth of Jesus. But it can be just another day. Sad. 

I believe that many of the wrongs in our society are a result of people no longer feeling part of any real community. Social research has identified loneliness and isolation as one of the big problems of our day. It can hit any age group, with the elderly particularly susceptible.

Churches traditionally were a focal point in a local community, and frequently people belonged without believing. Today churches are smaller and we put so much emphasis on believing that people who have trouble believing feel that they do not belong. Perhaps we just have to loosen up and really mean it when we sing "All are welcome". Becoming a community where anyone can walk in and feel a sense of belonging is one of the major challenges for the church of today. 




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Closing a church and the hope of resurrection

The closure of a much loved church building is a painful experience as it comes to the end of its life. In the radio interview posted below with Shona from Heartland FM local radio station I explain the experiences of the Methodists in Blairgowrie and their changed continuing presence in the town. 
Click on the start button to hear the interview...

Lent 2016 - Things to do

Some people have got tired of giving things up for lent so instead try to do something positive instead. They add a good habit to their lives that they hope will be good and useful in itself and in the long term not only bring benefit to others but also help you grow in your own Christian faith and maturity. So I have chosen to write a Christian reflection every day. It is easy for the first few days but the test will come when I am on day 38! I don't have a plan. I am trusting in divine inspiration and that is scary as I like to know what is happening.

Here is an interesting activity that a friend is doing this lent:

Aware of how much "stuff" we accumulate in our homes and wardrobes, M** said she was downsizing her "stuff" by one item a day for each of the forty days of lent. Her wardrobes and clothes drawers are bulging and her shelves are full of souvenirs from her travels.  I am sure the local charity shops (goodwill stores) will benefit from her lenten discipline. She has admitted she will "cheat" a little as, rather than give everything away, she will sell some of her interesting surplus items on ebay and then send the money to her church. Couldn't we all do with a little downsizing!

Lent is a good time to do something different. What do you plan to do?



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Lent 2016 - it is not about banning chocolate

When we think of Lent people often think about what they will give up! This is only part of the story!

Lent is a season of reflection, self-examination, and preparation. Properly understood, Lent is not a disciplined obligation we observe out of duty. I like to think of Lent as a yearly second chance. Each year the Church gives us forty days to take a long, loving look at our lives to see if our values and priorities are in line with what God wants for us. And when we do this most of us will find that we have wandered from God’s path. Lent thus becomes that second chance to “return to God with our whole heart.” It is an opportunity for us to take intentional steps towards a deeper and more satisfactory life with God. Lent reawakens us to a reality that we are often tempted to forget. We embrace the season of Lent because we desire an increased awareness of God’s presence in our everyday lives and a greater appreciation of all God has done for us. 

Now that sounds much more important than not eating chocolate for six weeks!

This year my lent discipline is to write a thought each day on my blog.

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Lent day 1 - Ash Wednesday 2016 RIP Stephen Brown

"Remember you are dust and to dust you will return."

This morning the sky is a clear blue and there are no clouds to be seen. The sun is shining. The frost is melting off the grass as the sun hits it. We have had such a wet and dismal winter that today seems a new start! So today I stood outside gazing upwards, thankful to be alive, thankful for all that God has given.
The Ash Wednesday prayer said during the ashing ceremony about returning to dust has a particular poignancy this week as a friend died suddenly and unexpectedly. Ash Wednesday is the day the church reminds us that we’re mortal and that someday we’re all going to die. We remember death as a way to affirm life. Meditating on mortality helps me to live more fully in the present.  
The Revd Stephen Brown and I studied together at Luther King House in the 1980s and sat together in some BD classes at Manchester University. Though we did not see each other for over 20 years, we re-connected about five years ago. Stephen was only 58 and married with two adult children. He was a creative, talented, spirit filled person who gave much joy and hope to all he met. He was also a brilliant musician, composer and hymn writer. His family, friends and congregation at Helensburgh United Reformed Church are all in a state of shock.
So in the warm spring sunshine of Ash Wednesday I meditated on life and death as I remembered Stephen and prayed for his family.  


This year my lent discipline is to write a thought each day on my blog.