Last week we had a delicious lunch with our friends Rob and Lib in Essex. Rob and I have known each other since university days, and known each other well enough to interfere significantly in each other's lives in the sort of way that only good friends can.... He sent me the text of his sermon on Pentecost sermon which addressed what I reckon is a common Christian experience, the feeling of insecurity and inferiority - in other words, not being sure about whether we are "saved" or destined for heaven and suspecting we're not good enough and others are all better than us. I'd say this is because we haven't grasped the hugeness of God's grace, or as Frederick Faber put it "the wideness of God's mercy". Like baptism, it's not what we do that counts; it's what He does and has done eternally. We really need to get rid of our own sense of self-importance. Anyway here's a short extract from Rob's sermon:
"Let me tell you
something that a famous Indian priest, Anthony de Mello, taught. All you have
to do to experience God’s Holy Spirit is simply to breathe in. Anthony de Mello
spent a huge amount of his life teaching people to breathe in, and hence to
receive God’s Holy Spirit. When you have learned how to breathe in you will stop
worrying about other people and whether you are beautiful because you will have
received God’s Holy Spirit, and nothing else will matter again in the same way.
There is nothing living that is not enlivened by God’s Spirit. What must we do
to be saved? Breathe."
8 comments:
Hope you don't mind. here's the whole of Frederick Faber's wonderful Hymn." There's A Wideness In God's Mercy"
I have it saved and resort to the words frequently.
There's a wideness in God's mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there's a kindness in God's justice
which is more than liberty.
There's no place where human sorrows
are more deeply felt than heav'n;
there's no place where human failings
have such kindly judgments giv'n.
For the love of God is broader
than the measures of our mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
But we make that love too narrow
by the limits of our own;
and we magnify God's strictness
with a zeal Love will not own.
There is grace enough for thousands
of new worlds as great as this;
there is room for fresh creations
in that endless world of bliss.
If our love were but more simple
we would trust the living Word;
and our lives would fill with gladness
in the joy of Christ our Lord.
Words by F.W. Faber, altered by Colin Gibson 1993
Music and revised text © Colin Gibson 1993
magnifying God's strictness, for me, partly stems from an incredibly strict and narrow minded Religious Upbringing, from the nuns and from my Parents.
They portrayed for me a God who was like a professional mouse catcher waiting to zap you when you deviated in the tiniest way.
It isn't easy to shed that image. Like trying to remove nettles from a flower bed!!
Any chance of your posting the whole of the sermon?
I've asked Rob about his sermon.
Meanwhile I have to say that your early experience is not dissimilar from many others'. If you've not read it I recommend Gerard Hughes' "God of Surprises". He's a Jesuit who was a university chaplain and came across a lot of false perspectives of the God of love. One of the most striking passages is his story of the boy taken to visit good old uncle George.
"God was a familiar relative, much admired by Mum and Dad, who described God as very loving, a great friend of the family, very powerful and interested in all of us. Eventually we are taken to visit ‘Good Old Uncle George’. He lives in a formidable mansion, is bearded, gruff and threatening. We cannot share our parents’ professed admiration for this jewel in the family. At the end of the visit, Uncle George turns to address us. ‘Now listen dear,’ he begins, looking very severe, ‘I want to see you here once a week, and if you fail to come, let me just show you what will happen to you’. He then leads us down to the mansion’s basement. It is dark, becomes hotter and hotter as we descend, and we begin to hear unearthly screams. In the basement there are steel doors. Uncle George opens one. ‘Now look in there dear’, he says. We see a nightmare vision, an array of blazing furnaces with little demons in attendance, who hurl into the blaze those men, women and children who failed to visit Uncle George or to act in a way he approved. ‘And if you don’t visit me dear, that is where you will most certainly go’, says Uncle George. He then takes us upstairs to meet Mum and Dad. Mum leans over and says, ‘And now don’t you love Uncle George with all your heart and soul, mind and strength?’ And we, loathing the monster, say, ‘Yes I do’, because to say anything else would be to join the queue at the furnace. At a tender age religious schizophrenia has set in and we keep telling Uncle George how much we love him and how good he is and that we want to do only what pleases him. We observe what we’re told are his wishes and dare not admit, even to ourselves, that we loathe him”.
That is a totally false view of course, but it's difficult to dislodge. Keep reading Jesus' parable of the waiting Father (Luke 15) for the real character of God - and breathe in! Come, Holy Spirit.
Thank-you Michael:)
hen I was a small child, in the Brownie, we were asked to take a flower to adorn our Brownie Corner. I aske my Father if I could have rose from the garden and he said 'no'. Being no angel, I took it anyway! Later when asked, I denied taking it. Already theft and a lie! Playing in the garden the same day I got a lump of earth in my eye. When my Mother was removing it she said" You see dear, that's what God does to little girls who tell lies!!"
I laugh now, but I've never forgotten what she said. I used to tease her about it when I was grown up with children of our own. I vowed that they would never receive that image of God from their parents!
Isn't it interesting how a small incident (no doubt your parents didn't regard it as a mortal sin) like that can lodge so deep into a child? And affect his/her view of God ever thereafter.
In a way I suppose it is a strange sort of grace. It makes one aware of what one wants to avoid if possible when becomes a Parent. Having said that, our daughter is a far better Mother than I ever managed to be.
Another thing I vowed never to do when I became a Teacher, was to call any child stupid. I had been called stupid so many times by a teacher that I almost came to believe it., I promised myself that no child in my class, whatever their limitations or difficulties would EVER be labelled stupid. When it comes to columns of figures etc my brain still automatically tells me I cannot do it!
Perhaps your daughter is proof of that grace!
I agree with you about the cardinal sin of teaching. I vividly recall an instance of it happening when I was teaching, in an assembly - can you believe? The teacher in question should have known better.
“For the love of God is broader
than the measures of our mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind”
Oh I do hope so because despite all my good intentions I ‘lost it’ again last night!
We live in Sheltered Accommodation. I often visit a lady here who is entirely bedridden. For some idiotic reason, the voice box connected to her pendant is in a different room. They have been requested to move it urgently.
Last night she called me about 9.00pm. She was in acute discomfort and needed urgent help. I called the only number we have for the District Nurse...No Reply. Called the Out of Hours doctor and was directed to ring 111. Which I did. Waited 10 minutes for a reply. Was then told they would try to contact the Emergency Nurse despite my telling them it was urgent.
Rang MagnaCare who said pretty much the same thing except that whoever replied kept saying ‘Bear with me’ while she consulted someone else.
Then rang the lady’s Care Agency who told me to ring 111 . I suggested they do so as they are qualified people who might get taken more notice of, they said no, I should do it. So I did it again! Same procedure! By this time it was 11.00 pm.
Eventually 2 Nurses, who were absolutely lovely, cam had been having a Streokee. They were able to resolve the problem very quickly. 111 rang them while they were here. That’s how quickly they operate..
I just feel so frustrated that one has to be very close to bad mannered before one can get the help which is needed. What if she had been having a Stroke. I would have bypassed all of those and called 999.
It’s a Bank Holiday so although my husband will send another email ‘rocket’ off to the Powers that are supposed to help, nothing will happen very soon. Next weekend we will be away and my concern is that the same thing may happen and this lady will not be able to get help.
I explained to Magna Care that her voice box connection was in the wrong room and that she could not hear them nor they her. They said,’ Oh we would not just ignore it if we got no answer, we would call the police!!’
You see, the ‘measures of my mind are infinitesimally small and I feel ashamed of having to behave as I did but what else could I do? Possibly be somewhat politer? Then no-one takes any notice.!
It always brings to mind the words of another hymn
“I need Thee, oh, I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee”
Why, oh why, does one have to rock the boat nearly into the water!!
Sorry for all this. I releasing the steam valve”
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