a blog by howard jameson @ gatheringgrace.org

Lent no 30 - over the mountains and the sea...

I am a fairly regular kind of guy (I hope) but I am all too aware of being blown about by the merest trifle. Up one minute, down the next.

On Sunday morning somebody had one of those petulant jabs about something, not even hearing the irony of their own words, and I had to close my eyes because I thought if I make eye contact I am going to really explode. It passed, but it rankled. Within a couple of hours I was fifteen feet tall when my guitar playing was complimented by a professional guitarist (who plays with somebody famous).

Contrast that with Jesus as we approach Holy Week. Here is somebody deeply rooted in who he was before God and so didn't need to bite back at cheap jibes during his trial and beating, and as a result left the tang of grace across each moment.

My mountain theme on Saturday also had something about identity.

 ¹ The Mighty One, God, the LORD, 
       speaks and summons the earth 
       from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.

 ² From Zion, perfect in beauty, 
       God shines forth.

 ³ Our God comes and will not be silent; 
       a fire devours before him, 
       and around him a tempest rages.

Zion was the mountain upon which the city of Jerusalem was built. The mountain itself provided excellent defences, but it was the presence of God and His provision in the first place which gave the Psalmist his confidence.

Lord Jesus, show me today what I need to learn to grow more like you. Make me certain of who I am in your sight and therefore more able to carry your grace instead of my desire to get my own back. Shone forth from me today, I pray.

Lent no 29 - remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return

I have been anxious about today for a while. This afternoon I will take the funeral of F's mother, Hilary. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

I have had a bit of a run of funerals of late, each different and yet also fundamentally the same. On Saturday I spoke at the funeral of a renowned geologist and found myself looking at various references to mountains in the Old Testament (I hope she would have enjoyed it).

I loved this idea of her brilliant mind captivated by what she found in the rocks, and pray that something in there pointed her towards the One who made the rocks in the first place.

Some of the Funeral service liturgy is taken from Psalm 90...

 ¹ Lord, you have been our dwelling place 
       throughout all generations.

 ² Before the mountains were born 
       or you brought forth the earth and the world, 
       from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

 ³ You turn men back to dust, 
       saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men."

 ⁴ For a thousand years in your sight 
       are like a day that has just gone by, 
       or like a watch in the night.

 ⁵ You sweep men away in the sleep of death; 
       they are like the new grass of the morning-

 ⁶ though in the morning it springs up new, 
       by evening it is dry and withered.

Before the mountains were formed God was...and when even the mountains themselves are turned back to dust He will be. Such permanence and long-standing should be at the fore-front of our own minds as we contemplate our lives.

I suppose I have a natural sympathy with the existentialism of people such as John Lennon, and so I feel uncomfortable with the way that sometimes Christians give the impression that all the important and good stuff will only take place in the future when we get to Heaven. (Although we tend too often to make it sound like we want to hedge our bets and keep as much of what we already have now for ourselves - you know, just in case). Surely if our generous and eternal Father truly is God then why do we have to wait for it all. Why can't we make some of it here...today...where I live...because I am only passing through like a cloud or a blade of grass.

Awesome God, creator of the mountains and the one who will also lay them low, accept the little I can bring to this world as I pass through it today and use it for your glory.

Lent no 28 - Stop enjoying yourself!!

This video clip seems to be doing the rounds at the moment (H.T. various people, most recently Dave Paisley)

 

Laughter is today's Lenten discipline. Everything's amazing, nobody's happy. Perhaps laughter (not cynical contemporary comedy which cuts down but the generous belly laugh from God that relaxes every muscle in our bodies and makes us alive again) is something we need to do more. I recall a series of pictures of Jesus I have used in various places; Jesus dying, Jesus as a horrific tortured man, Jesus as a bloodied and battered body - but the image which most often causes distress is one of Jesus laughing.

What on earth have we become? So a second video to watch... 

 

...dance along if you are able, and enjoy the laughter that represents a joy and contentment at having been made in the image of the Creator and Bringer of Joy and Life and Movement and Music and Refreshment. Enjoy God's pleasure at pleasure.

Lent no 27 - Just doing what comes naturally...

We were talking recently about the Diocesan well-being project Fully Alive.

"What makes you feel fully alive?", somebody had been asked.

"Well my favourite hobby is making music".

"I'm sorry," interjected the Bishop, "making music is part of who you are, not a hobby".

In a different context we were talking to somebody who is sports mad about heaven. They had wondered whether there would be sport in Heaven. The Bible doesn't say anything about this, but Heaven would not be Heaven for him if there was no sport, and we were reminded of the scene from Chariots of Fire where Liddell talks about when he ran he felt God's pleasure.

All this might sound a bit disrespectful or flippant, but it is not meant to. Since we lost the sense of the physicality of our resurrected life we lost a sense of Heaven being a real solid place, whereas Heaven must surely be the place where we ultimately find ourselves as ourselves; musicians (without the lost chord), athletes (but without the foot), gardeners (without the greenfly) and so forth.

So today let us make a moment to glimpse a bit of Heaven and practice the things which we will do to worship when we get there for real. I for one will play my guitar until the ends of my fingers feel a little sore.

Living God, we long to be with you in Heaven so take a little bit of our worship today and let us just be ourselves as creative, gifted worshippers, doing what it means to be us for you.

Lent no 26 - too much of a good thing?

Life can be full of good things and Lent is supposed to be a time of reflecting on the bad things; the things which hold us back and stop us enjoying a life fully embracing the liberty and glory of the living God. That's the theory anyway...

...but isn't it also sometimes true to say that we settle for a good thing even if that prevents us from enjoying a better thing. There's a lot of reasons, I'm sure, safety and not willing to consider the risks involved.

An example. In my study is the Benefice photocopier. This is a good thing! It makes my working life just a little easier, and reflects the generosity of a group of Churches willing to pay to get communication going. I should be very grateful, but I am aware of a problem. Having access for me to do photocopying so easily means that my study is also a place of "paper production" and is regularly shared. But I recognise a need to do something a little different. If, as I believe to be the case, I need to invest serious time with small groups of three or four people then I can't do that in a space with other demands upon it and with a copier sitting plum in the spot where a couple of chairs and a white board could go. A good thing is actually preventing a better thing from coming into being.

Sure, there are a whole host of unresolved issues in here too. Where could I put the copier to make the space I need? Where would it be secure and yet accessible? So I will have to continue for the moment to live with good and not better.

Perhaps that is a slightly trivial point, but it illustrates something for us to consider and learn. What do we have that may be good but which has an opportunity cost attached to it that prevents better?

Holy Spirit we need your wisdom on this. Sift through our lives and good intentions and show us where good prevents better. Make us grateful for the good and hungry for better, hungry enough to work and wrestle to make it happen. We long for the better that you hold in store for us today.

Lent no 25 - the potter and the potter's clay

Yesterday's Morning Prayer reading was a well known excerpt from Jeremiah about the potter and his clay. Read it here if you need to refresh your memory.

As I get older and a little more self-aware I think I can see those parts of myself where I shore myself up with scaffolding; sometimes its my rage (instead of my passion) or my willingness to compromise (instead of my compassion). We are, after all, complicated people.

In Jeremiah's account of what he was shown the clay was soft and malleable. The potter could easily re-use the clay and have a go at making a better pot. If he hadn't spotted the flaw in the pot then he would have baked the clay in the kiln and then, when the flaw was noticed, the clay would be brittle and hard. The only option open to the potter would be to break the pot and move on to another piece of clay.

So we need to be softer and more malleable before we can be open to God doing his work of reshaping. Ultimately I don't want to stay like this - I need to be shaped again and again to be made more and more into the likeness of Jesus. There is simply no halfway house - made new or broken and rejected.

Lord Jesus, make me more aware of the hardness I have to build around myself to support and protect me but which will ultimately have to be broken. Instead I pray you would take that away and make me a malleable and workable piece of clay in your hands. Make me more like you today, I pray.

Lent no 24 - breathe

Today, being Tuesday, is a day off. Obviously I cannot have a day off as an opt out from being a Christian, nor is it an opt out from Lent. But sometimes even the being reflective and trying to pace oneself can become an effort...

...so today I am just going to breathe...

Breathe in the goodness of God

Breathe out frustrations

Breathe in the fresh air and life of the Spirit

Breathe out irritations

Breathe in the cleansing love of Jesus

Breathe out my fear at not doing well enough

Breathe 

Breathe

Breathe

Father God, thank you for the simple truth of life - for opportunities of the day ahead. Give me a grateful heart today.

Lent no 23 - with thanks to B.

A really interesting day yesterday. Finished Mothering Sunday (three services almost back to back) and then a "Superman change" out of Vicar clothes into Dad clothes (in a layby, not a telephone box) and we set off with a friend to watch Rugby. We were really looking forward to it and had been talking about it for weeks - we were not disappointed either - a close game with thrills and spills, passion and humour along with some good Irish songs to join in with. B was a delight to take...and he taught me a lot in a couple of hours.

The crowds were already at the ground when we got there because we couldn't be as early as we would normally try to be. The queue for the shop was round the block and there were people everywhere; smoking, drinking Guinness and generally milling about. I led the way because I knew the layout and where we were going. B continued to surprise me.

Did I mention that B is in a wheelchair? Why should I? Our perspective on the day was very different from normal. We queued for everything, but not with the impatience of the fit, rather we had to have the patience of the disabled where you have to queue for everything. Walking through the crowds was hard work too. Normally we focus a couple of feet ahead, seeking out the gaps for us to claim for ourselves and move into to allow us to progress at our pace and in our chosen direction. This time was different. Short cuts through gaps in a fence were not allowed, and our focus had to be a few feet either side of us to make sure that nobody barged into B without seeing him coming. His patience and resilience were admirable; these were simply the things we had to do in order to enjoy the day...

I hope I can keep that perspective for a while longer - the patience and the slower pace. Being contained within oneself so as to keep going as the opportunities allowed. Simply not being in a position of power such as would allow us to determine where we go and when we do it.

Father God, I thank you for B and compared to him I see myself as disabled in terms of my impatience and unwillingness to simply face what is ahead of me with a smile. I am sorry for what I have missed in the rush to get to where I had to be. Remind me of that again today, I pray.

Mothering Sunday; God's love, mothers' love and Venn Diagrams

This morning's sermon from 8am is uploaded as a podcast here.

Lent no 22 - trees

Several recent thoughts have been on the general thread of the Kingdom of God being this ephemeral moment, and for us to be responsive and creative agents in bringing the Kingdom into being. But that can only be half the story. I don't just want to cover the world with Kingdom-like graffiti, I also want to make something that lasts.

There's a saying along the lines of

the person that plants trees loves other people

What they mean is that when somebody plants a line of beeches it is probably pretty unlikely that they will still be around to gain the maximum pleasure from seeing them fully grown - but the next generations will.

If you could plant a Kingdom of God tree what would it look like? Where would it be?

What can we do today that will have something of lasting value, even if it is something that will take a long time - even years - to germinate and grow, and therefore might be something that we are not around to see in its full grown splendour.

Lord, give us your eyes today for opportunities to make something that lasts, even if it is slow to come into being. Give us your patience to tender the young shoots. Give us your love to do that for others more than for ourselves.