A vision for now

There's a fabulous post on the iBenedictines' blog today, called On the Holy Mountain. I hope Sister Catherine won't mind me quoting it in full.

From our monastery we look out towards the Black Mountains and the Brecons. They are a constant reminder that in scripture mountains are a privileged meeting-place between God and humankind. Today Isaiah 11 speaks of the holy mountain on which no hurt or harm will be done. It is a messianic vision, we say, pausing only to pull out our concordances and commentaries to extract every little nuance of meaning we can from the text. It is a prophecy of the end times, not really meant for here and now.

How wrong can we be! The holy mountain on which no hurt or harm is done should be the ground we tread every day of our lives. God wants to be known and loved now, not just hereafter. If we feel there is some block to this knowing, something that hinders us, we need to look at it and be prepared to change. We can be people of integrity, as Isaiah says. We can be ‘filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters swell the sea’ — if we wish. That is the crux of the matter. What do we really want? During this Year of Consecrated Life many people will be challenged to answer that question in a way they never thought possible, but it isn’t a question just for religious or clergy but every one of us. We are all called to know the promise of the gospel (Luke 10.21-24), all called to know the Lord.

Amen!

My wife and the Holy Spirit

Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Walsingham, Norfolk

I hardly know where to start! Most churches have celebrated Pentecost and Trinity Sundays in the past few weeks. But it strikes me that the Holy Spirit nevertheless receives something of a raw deal, even though Pentecost is "His" festival, and since the 70s He has appeared much more in Christians' vocabulary.

There was once a widely used and mildly derogatory expression, "nominal Christians", meaning people who called themselves Christians but gave very little evidence of committed faith in practice. (The oft-reported decline in church attendance seems to me to be more a symptom of the increasing demands of real faith on nominal allegiance in a society drifting towards secularism.) I wonder whether today we are witnessing a new phenomenon of "nominal charismatics", ie Christians who talk about the Holy Spirit but who deny His reality and power.

In simple terms nominal charismatics refer to the Spirit as an inanimate "it", or "spirit" with a lower case s, implying something like "influence" or "character". The legacy that Jesus left behind was... his spirit, his influence, his example. The truth, as Jesus makes clear repeatedly, is much more than this, just as a person is much more that a shadow. The Holy Spirit is dynamic, active and above all personal. He is no less personal than God the Father and God the Son. (By the way, I use the masculine pronoun "He" as that's the habit of our Bible translations; but I'm equally at ease with the feminine "She", being equally personal - but never "it". God must be at least and more than personal, but never less.) His coming to the disciples at Pentecost demonstrated His power and interaction with people.

As this beautiful hymn by Irish musicians, Keith and Kristyn Getty, makes clear, the Holy Spirit is part of the mystery who is God: "Holy Spirit, Breath of God" with Kristyn & Keith Getty. Whatever else He is an active agent, not a passive possession. And so Jesus describes Him as a helper, a witness, a counsellor, a strengthener, a guide. I could go on, looking at what is sometimes known as The Acts of the Holy Spirit (Acts) and what Paul says about Him. I could relate how He impacted, unlooked for, my life. But I want to finish with what I recently found a helpful picture.

It starts, inappropriately, with my regular expeditions to the toilet. I am very unsteady on my feet and use a rollator (a wheeled zimmer). Getting into our toilet is a tricky operation, leaving my rollator outside and transferring precariously to grab-rails and trying awkwardly to turn round. Often I find hands steadying my waist at the point of greatest danger. Jane has glided up silently and unasked, and saves me from disaster. Occasionally in dire straits I shout out and there she is - panic over! Then I reflect how many details she has already thought of - everything is prepared, in position as I need it.

And wider than that, actually I depend on her for my survival from waking to going to sleep. She's there with me through my tough times - helping and encouraging. She enables the highlights of my life! She's my constant companion - and she does not seem to mind. In fact she likes to do it. Which is why I'm confident that she will, as she said well nigh 40 years ago, have and hold me until death parts us.

Of course I can be bolshy. I can refuse her help. I sometimes won't ask for her help; and in that case she doesn't force herself on me. I can and have been ungrateful and ungracious. I sometimes grimace when she stretches my muscles to keep me as mobile as possible, even though I know it's for my good. In a literal way through her I'm still alive and move and have my being. Mostly I am quite aware of how much I owe her and am full of gratitude.

It strikes me that there are a lot of parallels between the way Jane relates to me and the Holy Spirit's relationship with the believer. It is a personal relationship. There is a dynamic about it. I frequently grieve Him. He often surprises and delights me. One difference is that He proposed to me! Another is on His part, although He relates to me personally, it's not exclusive. The Holy Spirit - much as I love my wife - is infinitely greater in his scope. His activity is not restricted to caring for one person, or even one group of people.

As the great Jesuit poet Hopkins put it:
"There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings."

He has an infinite individual love, because He is God. And I'm grateful.

New Year Reflections

One of the pleasures of blogging - usually, when trolls aren't in the vicinity - is receiving comments which inspire me or provoke me. I received one on my Dancing Donkey blog last week, which included this reflection. It's a sort of Beatitudes, which personally I'd like set the tone for my 2014.

REFLECTION 
Happy are those who are poor in spirit
whose heart freely gives and receives,
who say with Mary: “Be it done unto me.”
Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Happy are those who are gentle,
whose concern brings comfort,
whose touch, healing,
whose manner says: “The Lord is with you!”
They will inherit the earth.

Happy are those who mourn with the mourning,
who reach out to the suffering, the oppressed,
who stand with Mary near the cross of her Lord;
in His cross they will be comforted.

Happy are those who thirst for what is right,
who use mind and heart for the Kingdom,
though persecuted in the cause of what is just,
with living waters they will be filled.
Theirs is the Kingdom of God.

Happy are the merciful, the peacemaker,
who forgive and accept the other,
who heal the wounded, reconcile the broken,
feeling oneness with sinful humanity.
Mercy will be shown to them.

Happy are those, pure in heart, transparent,
who pray, “Your name is oil poured out…
in your footsteps, draw me. Let us run...
You are my joy and my gladness!"
Yes, they will see God.





I'm also indebted to Vicky Beeching for pointing this out. I believe it's from the "Think before you tweet" campaign, but could equally apply to all social media. 

My mother used to tell us as children before we spoke to apply the Three Rule test: 
Is it true?
Is it necessary?
Is it kind? Sadly I did not always pass the test.

Another ideal to aspire to this year!

Human flesh and a Happy New Year

My former college, Wycliffe Hall, kindly sent out an Advent devotional this year. On Christmas Day, reflecting on the Gospel reading from John chapter 1, the principal wrote this about "the Word became flesh". I liked it, and tried to remember it through the day. 

“If God could be God when one cell small in the womb of Mary, then we can be human when we are constrained. When we feel cramped. When we feel trapped. When we feel that life is not giving us the scope to be ourselves. Limited circumstances did not stop God from being God, and limited circumstances will not stop us from being human, or from being ourselves – or (Luke 1:44) from giving joy to others” (Dr Mike Lloyd).

I hope you like it too. Enjoy a fully human New Year - whatever your circumstances!

Glory in the cave

I've been thinking about Psalm 57 today. It's one of those psalms where David tells God just what he's feeling. I don't know whether I'd have put verse 3 like that, but the great thing he keeps affirming is that "the God of all the earth will do right", as Abraham put it. God's character is both just and loving. As St John said of Jesus, "full of grace and truth". No one else combines both of those to perfection. When we hear of awful human atrocities, or even experience minor injustices ourselves, our reaction is naturally one of anger, which may well be appropriate, but maintaining love is beyond us.

I preached last Sunday about the Spirit in Prayer (Sermons at St John's/28th July), and quoted Maureen Greaves' testimony. The widow of the organist murdered going to Midnight Mass in Sheffield, at his funeral, said she had decided to forgive the two young men as it was what her husband would have wanted: “It has to be a daily act of saying ‘I place them in your hands, God’, so that I don’t have to worry about them, I don’t have to hate them. After the massive shock and heartbreak, this was probably the most difficult thing I have ever had to do, to go down the path of forgiving them.
“It has been a wonderful release that I have not had the burden of hatred towards them. I have to do it every day so I don’t lapse. It is not an easy journey to look two men in the face who have killed the person you love most in the world and hang onto that.
“When you are sitting there in court and you see them and you are heartbroken at what they have done to you, they have taken from you the person who is still your soulmate, it is very difficult to sit there and continue to forgive them and want to forgive them.
“One thing I have comforted myself with is that the God I believe in had a son who was beaten as Alan was beaten. The God I believe in had a son who was resurrected as I believe Alan will be resurrected to be with God.”

Only God's Holy Spirit can enable us to prayer from our hearts: "Your will (not mine) be done.... Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us." Only the Holy Spirit can give us the attitude of gratitude which David maintains, even in the blackness of his cave. Come, Holy Spirit.

Let Your Glory Be over All the Earth

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.

57 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
    for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
    till the storms of destruction pass by.
² I cry out to God Most High,
    to God who fulfils his purpose for me.
³ He will send from heaven and save me;
    he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
⁴ My soul is in the midst of lions;
    I lie down amid fiery beasts—
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
    whose tongues are sharp swords.
⁵ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be over all the earth!
⁶ They set a net for my steps;
    my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my way,
    but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah
⁷ My heart is steadfast, O God,
    my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
⁸     Awake, my glory!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
    I will awake the dawn!
⁹ I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
    I will sing praises to you among the nations.
¹⁰ For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the clouds.
¹¹ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be over all the earth!  (English Standard Version)

Times and seasons

I see it's a very long time since I last posted here. Business isn't the reason. I suppose it's because I've not had much to say. However I was struck in the interim by what Jesus said before ascending: "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed...".


At the end of May, Jane had to make the difficult decision to uproot our wallflowers and pansies which were still in full bloom. The result was that the flower bed and the pots were left bare and brown. Of course that wasn't the end. The next stage was putting in the young plants we bought from the local garden centre. Even so the view from my seat is a tad dull and not a patch on what it was before.  

Why did she grub up flowers in their prime? Vandalism? Perversity? Of course not. We know the reason. The season is the reason. In order for new flowers to blossom in the summer, the winter/spring flowers need to be grubbed up. As I look at the incomplete garden, it occurs to me that it might be how God works with us. Why does he take away? Why does he cut us down in our prime? Why does life hurt so often? Maybe it's a matter of times and seasons. Maybe it's because, as St Paul says, we are his workmanship. Maybe he has something good in mind.