Category Archives: God

in case we fool ourselves …

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Asbo Jesus again reminding me of the reality of situations.

The Prodigal Father

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Today’s Lent thought from Giving It Up was based on what is probably my favourite story from the bible.

Maggi gives a taste of her thinking on her blog today.

‘the first person in the story to throw the cash around was actually the Father, not the son…’ intrigues … go read more!

the mountain is out!

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It’s my last full day here in Seattle (unless you are in the UK and it’s already Wednesday!) The sun is shining and Mount Rainier has appeared from behind the clouds. Well … strictly speaking the clouds have lifted and rainier has always been there, but the locals say she has come out and so who am I to argue!!

The sight is pretty amazing. The skyline of Seattle is impressive but seen next to the massiveness of Rainier its kind of pales into insignificance.

To me it is a kind of iconic appearance. Here in a place like Seattle where life is pretty progressive and people enjoy life and know how to party, it is quite easy to think that we are very much in control of our lives and have to worry about nothing else. This place has been built by pioneering people and it is easy to think there was nothing here before. I have spoken to many people here and a typical topic we have got around to chatting about is that I am based in a 1400 year old cathedral. Seattle history starts in 1851, and so the city is only 159 years old. People have spoken of the history of the are being very young.

Then … a day like today comes, when this massive volcano created by God just appears, sitting quietly reminding us that this area is much bigger than city life and does have a much longer history – the present cone of the volcano is though to be 500 000 years old – that’s pretty impressive. It serves as a reminder that before us was God, and lying quietly and waiting the creator still stands and is ready to receive us when we are ready to give ourselves.

the only survival, the only meaning

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A friend at work lent me a book recently called The Bridge of San Luis Rey.

It’s a short book (127 pages) written by Thornton Wilder in 1927 and I have read it in more or less one sitting (bar eucharist and evensong) yesterday. It’s an amazing little book and the synopsis on the back cover tells you all you need to know before you read:

‘An ancient bridge collapses over a gorge in Peru, hurling five people into the abyss. It seems a meaningless human tragedy. But one witness, a Franciscan monk, believes the deaths might not be as random as they appear. Convinced that the disaster is a punishment sent from Heaven, the monk sets out to discover all he can about the travellers. The five strangers were connected in some way, he thinks. There must be a purpose behind their deaths. But are their lost lives the result of sin? … Or of love?’

The story looks at each of the five characters who were on the bridge, all the while asking what connects these people and why this has happened. Thornton Wilder said that he was posing a question: “Is there a direction and meaning in lives beyond the individual’s own will?” It seems to me that he was challenging the all too common ‘over judgmental’ view of God that sees God as a schoolmaster looking to catch people out and dish out punishment for every and all sin. He was, I think, challenging the view of God that causes people to blame God when bad things happen to them whether that be a flat car battery in the morning or a hurricane that flattens their house. It challenges the pettiness that many seem to think God exists in – a God that says ‘I don’t like what you just did, so I’m going to do this nasty thing to you!’

That is not the God of love that I have a relationship with!

This wonderful little book challenges us to really ask what life is about and what is important. The final words of the book cause me to ponder and reflect:

‘…soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for awhile and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.’

This little book has been an amazing read – why not go find it!

Shack Relationships

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Over most of the summer I relaxed with the family and laughed a lot.I read a little bit, but to be honest not too much.
I caught up with many that have read The Shack. I found this an interesting book which caused me to think more about relationship and how God the Trinity exists and operates in relationship, and particularly how the relationship of perichoresis of the Trinity affects how I operate in relationship with others.

This became the subject of some discussion between myself and Sarah, and later on our second holiday with Chris and Gary as well. A topic we spoke a bit about was relationship and leadership, particularly in relation to the church.

There were some parts where relationship is discussed in terms of not being about power or winning and losing, but about love and respect. ‘Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself – to serve…. we don’t need power over one another because we are always looking to serve .. once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it and you end up with some kind of chain of command …. you rarely see or experience relationship apart from power. Hierarchy imposes laws and rules and you end up missing the wonder of relationship that we intended for you.’

As I said … we chatted. Surely you need leadership for church to work, after all who will make decisions. But … if relationship is all about serving then a hierarchy of leadership is not needed. I’d love to see this in operation in the community gathering – but it is so alien to us that it will be difficult to work in such a way. I thnik I agree with the book – I cans ee how our need for leadership and systems can cause us to miss out on relationship. Proper, genuine relationship needs all to limit themselves and seek to serve each other – I wonder that if we can achieve this can we really gain greater understanding of and something from God that is seriously missing from our lives and our churches.

A church where all serve all with no need for anyone to adopt a power chain of command … that’s the sort of church I want to belong to. Actually – I wonder whether we can even use the term church, which all the negative word association that has for many, to describe such a community.

There are some interesting reviews around for The Shack – it has caused a stir here and there.
There is one here from the Evangelical Alliance and another one from the Ship of Fools. Personally, I didn’t love it or hate it. Nothing particularly annoyed me, but then nothing particularly wowed me either. It was a good summer read! I read it because I wanted to be able to join with what others are saying. It has certainly made me think about some stuff and I enjoy anything that can possibly enlarge my image and understanding of God. Maybe The Shack did, I’m not sure yet.

on the road

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This morning was the most daunting task that I have had to carry out since being ordained and being at the cathedral. We have recently started a Family Eucharist, which is an all age service in the cathedral. Today I spoke at the Family Eucharist and I think I was the most nervous I have been for quite a while.

For the last however many years I have avoided the talk/sermon at family services of any kind. Even when I was on the staff of Holy Trinity Nailsea I avoided this as Sarah is so much better – and still is.

My curacy at the cathedral meant that today was the day to break new ground. My first ever family service talk. I started the talk by playing a few games such as ‘I Spy’, ‘Numberplates’ and ‘Animal Alphabet’ and I was quite excited to hear people calling out names of animals as we went through the alphabet. We got stuck on the letter x but there seems to be quite a few here – none of which I have ever heard – such as the xenopus pictured!

My aim through these was to introduce the idea of journey as these games are typical of those played in cars with children on journeys – and today we were looking at Saul’s journey to Damascus and meeting Jesus on the road.

The interesting thing for me in the preparation for this talk is where Jesus chooses to meet with Saul. It is on the road where the action is – not at the destination, not during a camp set up for the night, not even during a lunch break … but God chooses to meet with Saul while Saul is on a normal everyday journey as part of his normal everyday work.

As I dwelled on that, I then started to wonder whether I have actually ever missed God on my everyday travels through being plugged into my ipod, reading my book (not whilst driving!) or just because I have been too intent on the task being finished or the destination being reached. It’s an interesting thought.

Could it be that God is trying to break through a lot of the time, maybe not as majorly and unavoidably as he does with Saul in today’s text – but still in an unmistakingly unique way that tells us it is God? I wonder …

(if you want to read the whole talk (all one and a bit sides of A4!) it will be on the cathedral website with all the other sermons here.

Happy New Year

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Personally 2008 was something of an exciting year with ordination, the Olympics and seeing friends and children take on new challenges successfully.

I blog to record and review, to contemplate and consider. After four and a half years blogging I still love seeing a comment from someone. This past year there have been a couple of interactions with people – it’s great to be able to tussle over subjects together, and to learn from each other and be supported by each other in this way.

One way I like to reflect is to look back over past blogs from previous years and on Jan 1st 2008 I wrote:

But this is now 2008!
Tomorrow I am back at work with millions of others.
I could look back on the year, but I want to look ahead.

2008 … the year of Hope.
I hope the church rise to the challenge to bring hope this year rather than complain.
For us 2008 will be a year of change in so many ways.
I have dreams for 2008.
Some big, some little.
Some totally in my control, others not.
All important.
2008 will also be a year of painful anniversaries for family and friends alike.
It’s not all going to be rosy!

I’m making no resolutions this year, just a commitment to myself to be realistic and keep my promises which probably means I will have to say ‘no’ every now and again!

Whatever happens, 2008 is going to be a year of opportunity.
We can look back and regret, or we can look forward and grasp the opportunities that arise.
Here’s to looking forward.

In many ways, stuff has not changed from that – I still have the same hopes and dreams. (and I am actually very pleased to be able to note that I have said ‘no’ to a few things this year which has allowed space for other things). The fact that those dreams have not been realised yet does not mean they were wrong, it just means I have to continue to wait while acknowledging that God works at a different speed to me. God sees the bigger picture while I get frustrated in my immediacy.

Of course, the unrealised dreams could also be due to me having heard God wrong – but in many ways the easy thing to do is to decide I have heard wrong and change what I do, rather than continue in the uncomfortableness of ministry that I currently experience. In our culture of instants, it can be difficult to stick at waiting because it is so alien to us.

As with last year, whatever happens, 2009 is going to be a year of opportunity. For one I am seriously hoping a new president of the USA will see a change in a policy of allowing atrocities against those living in Gaza – will this be an opportunity taken or lost?

I guess the challenge is to notice the opportunities that God gives and discern the places and ways that God is working before our eyes – as John the Baptist says: ‘Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ (John 1: 26-27)

Happy New Year to you all – and in 2009 may you be blessed in you meeting of and with the ‘one who stands among us’

God in darkness

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It’s only December but I’ve already sung a fair few carols and started Advent with a bang.

On Sunday evening we had an outstanding Advent carol service by candlelight. The cathedral is amazing in darkness and that may sound strange but it is difficult to explain. I read from Exodus chapter 20 and noticed these words for the first time:

The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

God in the thick darkness was a bit of a revelation to me. God is light and particularly at Advent with the lighting of candles we talk of Christ as light of the world. Yet Moses met with God in the thick darkness.

As we turned the lights off in the cathedral on Sunday night I could not say the darkness was thick but it was clear that God was there in the darkness with us.

It’s easy to use darkness as negative and prefer the imagery of light because it may be easier to explain. But … God is also in the darkness, he was in the darkness with Moses and is in the darkness with us.

This links with today’s thought in Beginnings and Endings where we are reminded that the Christmas story started at the beginning of creation, not with the baby in a manger, or even with the angelic visit of to Mary.

In the beginning there was a formless void and darkness. The darkness was not absent of God, God was there, right in the middle of the darkness.

This Advent as I search for God and await the return of Christ, I must remember to seek him in the places of darkness as well as in the places of light. God in the darkness throws uop new images for me, and will inevitably bring fresh knowledge of what it means to find God in the darkness.

Survivors

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I have been watching Survivors on the BBC. For those not in the UK, and those who are but haven’t seen this, it is a drama following people after a massive virus outbreak has killed off most of the worlds population.

A central character of the story is a woman called Abby who is searching for her son who was in hospital on the other side of the country on the day when most people died.

After chatting to my good friend Sheena who noticed something I had missed in the first episode I wonder if there are some Christian tones or playful licence in this program. For example – in the first episode it did seem that Abby died of the virus. Three days later Abby woke up, came back to life, recovered. It’s interesting that it should be three days.

Abby, that could be a play on Abba (father), is looking for her son. The name Abby derives from Abigail which is also interesting. The strict translation is ‘my father is joy’ but after being used a lot by the puritans and being the central character in a play in the 1600’s the name became a slang term for a servant.

It’s easy to read things into this – but Abby, searching parent, servant is drawing a community together. In episode 2 which I watched last night Abby is calling for the moral ground, refusing to use violence to get food, and seems to be reminding her community (for they look to her as the leader) of what it means to be human.

It’s an interesting drama and I’m interested to see how the character of Abby in particular develops. I think its a another case from the many of little traits of God appearing in parts of his (media) creation.

Aylesford

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I will be leaving soon to attend the residential for KCME which is the Canterbury and Rochester Dioceses ongoing training program for curates – it used to be called POTTY training (post ordination training).

For the next few days I will be at Aylesford Priory which I know well from good use while at SEITE. It will be odd being there without everyone else I trained with, but good to know a few will be there.

For me … sadly, I feel this residential comes at the wrong time. I’m four weeks into a new ministry, I’m starting to make very tentative connections with people and I want to be ‘out there’ continuing those connections rather than inside for 3 days of training.

This is, however, good for me as it is a good excuse of reminding me that it will be God, and God alone, who fosters these connections and develops them if they are to develop. Me being away for a few days does nothing to change that – in fact, to think it does shows that I may have developed a little bit of a feeling of being important in this process which I need to be rid of.

No blogging though for the next few days as I know from experience that the Friar’s don’t have wireless 😦