Last Thursday we celebrated my mum and dad's diamond wedding anniversary. It was truly a diamond moment.
Hannah and Tristan came up. Simon came up. My mum dad and brother martin came up. The day itself saw us opening lots of cards, including one from Elizabeth the second! We celebrated with supper at the Lerwick Hotel and we had a lovely meal.
One for the memory banks for sure
As I continue to settle in Shetland, a place I have loved since 1971, I have been keen to record some of the thoughts and activities of this major migration. It is amazing how the journey unfolds, ups and downs but well worth it. It is wonderful to be here. I would like to pay tribute to Stuart Haves who introduced me to these Islands in 1971. Mr Haves died aged 68 in April 2012
Monday, 15 September 2014
Forgiveness
How often should I forgive?
As we come closer to the “unpacking forgiveness”
seminar in Sound hall I have naturally been giving the topic a great deal of
thought, so it feels daunting to have such a central subject to our belief and
faith set before me today.
Forgiveness is huge in every sense of the word, it
is as complex as it is essential. We do not have an option it seems to me and
yet we have to keep on going for it over and over again, and today Jesus recognises
the process may never reach the conclusion.
Forgiveness is central to Gods relationship to
human kind. “It is the divine correlative of human sin” (Dictionary)This is
clear from the opening verses of the Old Testament where the relationship between
us is mapped out, and even the final verses of out New testament emphasise the
importance of this binding relationship.
Because the relationship we have to God is bound
up with forgiveness the process of forgiveness is at the very heart of what we
are as humans. This is so clearly seen in the heart of what we call the Lord’s
Prayer… Forgives us as we forgive.
As
Christians we cannot duck the issue, no matter how painful the issue might
become. Sure… I would often want to move away from it, dance around the edges
sometimes but each time I know there is no real ducking.
I have been reading “The book of forgiveness” by
Desmond and Mpho Tutu. I warmly commend this to you all. He describes
forgiveness as a fourfold path ( a cycle of forgiveness in fact), which is
helpful as it maps out a process and journey over which we travel as
forgiveness unfolds. And as the word suggests the cycle may often repeat as the
journey goes on.
Here I read the curious phrase “Forgiveness means
giving up all hope for a better past”
It is a phrase which needs thought and anguish.
The flipside of the path of forgiveness is simply
scary. We either choose one path or the other… but the scary part is the other cycle is the cycle of revenge.
Somehow we trick ourselves into thinking that by
following this route we can change what has been done. We cannot.!
Desmond Tutu, among many others, emphasise that
Forgiveness is not about forgetting. Indeed the cycle of forgiveness demands
that the story be told, and heard.
The path of forgives is tough and bumpy and it
involves facing many things we try to avoid, anger bitterness, resentment,
revenge, hurt, pain and loss.
We pray to God to forgive us as we also forgive
and we ask how many times should we do this. I did once hear a member of one of
my congregations talking to another member and they were struggling with a
sense of injustice that had been done to them… the trouble was it was not the
first time.. she knew the issue was not easy, she knew the other person quite
well, and with natural desperation I heard her say “but there is a limit….”
A phrase which even if we do not say we certainly
feel.
Peter felt there was a limit and he was willing to
go all the way… as many as seven times? Once again Peter is put in his place!
One thing for certain is that there is nothing
magical about forgiveness. It is healing, it is wholeness, it is healthy, it is
goodness… but it is not magic. It is not instant or easy, it is not quick and
certainly not cheap.
We all need it from God and others, but boy it is
difficult to work it, to play our own part in it.
Forgive us God,,, as we forgive others!
Sometimes the words stick I my throat I do not
know about you?
Matthew paints his usual horrible scenario for the
one who fails to forgive.
No matter what
happened Reeva Steemkamp was killed by Oscar Pistorius. It has been a long a
convoluted case. June Steemkamp said a number of weeks ago that she had
forgiven Oscar for doing this.
She did not
say, it didn’t matter, she did not say it did not hurt, she did not say I want
Oscar to be set free from jail, or for the trial to find him Not Guilty of
anything. She did not say I do not want justice to be done.
She did say
that she could not live herself without forgiveness, and that she did not want
to be trapped in the past, which could not be undone. She did recognise that
for her own life forgiveness was the only way forward.
What an
example to us who think on these things.
Forgive us
Lord, as we forgive….. give us the strength and courage to walk the path of forgiveness
even if I have the ground seventy times seven times.
Monday, 3 February 2014
Feast of Presentation February 2nd
Malachi asks a leading question today. “who can
endure the day of his coming, who can stand when he appears?”
What was it about Simeon that made him so ready
and able to see the unfolding of salvation?
Was it because he had been waiting for so long
patiently? It was not because he was a man, because Anna was also able to
recognise the coming of God too..
Would we have been able to stand there and
recognise God as the parents carried the baby to the temple, or more likely I suspect
we would be looking over their shoulders for something a bit more obviously
comforting.
Anna and Simeon recognised God because they
trusted in him all their life. They were connected with generations of faithful
Jews before them who looked toward God and not just their faith tradition.
Our problem is that so often we find ourselves
looking to our faith tradition and put our hope and trust there, rather than in
God himself.
Who can endure to put faith in God, who is able to
remain standing strong when he comes?
To look at our faith tradition is often comfort
and even uplifting. The saints and teachers down the ages, those who have
inspired us and lifted us… the voices of affirmation.
To look to God we face many more uncomfortable
things. We see scary moments, moments of pain and failure, moments of doubt and
despair, we even perhaps look into the face of death and destruction itself.
That is not a nice place to look.
Can we endure the day of his coming?
As we look to God today we must lift our gaze a little
further than we are perhaps used to. Simeon and Anna were able to do this,
tradition also suggests Mary was able to do this too.
What have we to take on board to be able to do
this “star” gazing. Richard Rohr seeks to open up this question in a book I am
reading at present.
1.
We look at ourselves the person we
are. We see and recognise our own needs, the way we search for significance and
meaning. The desire for self affirmation, and even love. This is the private
self and we must recognise it, love it. Hold it. It is not all good we know
this, but it is probably not all bad either! We recognise our own private
struggles, our journey. This is my story
2.
Against my story we recognise “Our
story” the one where I find myself with others. The group I am part of, the
church and faith group. The culture I am part of, the people to whom I am
faithful too, the ideas I support. The church which has taught us so much about
God and prayer. About good and evil, right and wrong. Our concepts of
rightness.
3.
Against “Our story” we go further now
and see a bigger picture. “The whole story”. The truth and nothing but the
truth if you like…. In the real story the smallness of me is seen for what it
is, important yes but so small too. Did you know that fifteen people have died
to enable you to be here today …….(explain)
Against the real
truth we also put into perspective “our story”, the story that makes us who we
are too. The illusion that “us” is what matters. That our group is what
matters. Against the real truth the whole story that is where God is and it
God’s perspective.
Holding together
goodness and pain, things which we more naturally want to keep apart, indeed
some would say they were opposites, as if they were not connected.
As God see the world
goodness and pain are essential together. For Simeon and Anna and for Mary the
pain and sharpness of death was bound up in the life of the baby Jesus.
This is what enabled
them to endure the day.
As we behold our own
stories today let us also be able to see the pain and Joy being held within the
gaze of God. Let us feel stronger to recognise God holding us in entirety.
We take our own lives
more seriously and honestly when we hold good and bad together. We are not
trapped with a small view of ourselves or even the group we belong to, we are
lifted to see ourselves as God sees and holds us. It is this picture that the
Kingdom of God domes to dwell.
Simeon and Anna felt
fulfilled when holding the baby they declared a vision of the Kingdom, not just
for their people but for the whole world.
As the songs puts it
“he’s got the whole world in his hands, he has all of us in his hands, he has,
by being alongside us through the incarnation, drawn everything into God and
shown God to everything.
So we are enabled to
endure the day of his coming as Simeon and Anna were.
Thanks be to God
Saturday, 1 February 2014
Some bits of news long overdue!
I know February is now upon us, and I am sorry it has taken so long to get writing.
However we have now begun our 150th Anniversary at St Magnus in Lerwick
The Rectory is a lot different this winter thanks to the new windows. It s just as well we had them done because we have had such awful storms that either the windows upstairs may have blown out, or the wind would have found its way inside somehow.
We had a good Up Helly Aa last week and though it was very cold and windy it did stay dry for Da Galley burning.
Jack is busy getting read for his own even next week so I may have some pictures of that.
I am looking forward to introducing Rachel to te Lake District in April. We have booked a week at the Winchester Guest house in Keswick. Hopefully Hannah and Simon will be able to join us for a few days too which will be brilliant. Jack is staying back in Shetland as School is still on, but he will have fun with Grandma and Grandad and his own Dad too.
Work is going well and I am staying very busy. If it not one it is the other!
I must be settling in now because at a recent funeral I seemed to know a lot of people who came along even though it was not at St Magnus or St Colman. Furthermore those who I did not already know came up to me after and said they knew me! (well actually my in laws and wife... I even met Rachels old teacher, and the lady who died actually used to live in the house Rachel grew up in... so there!
However we have now begun our 150th Anniversary at St Magnus in Lerwick
Here is a picture painted at the turn of last century after the distinctive tower was added.
We had a good Up Helly Aa last week and though it was very cold and windy it did stay dry for Da Galley burning.
Jack is busy getting read for his own even next week so I may have some pictures of that.
I am looking forward to introducing Rachel to te Lake District in April. We have booked a week at the Winchester Guest house in Keswick. Hopefully Hannah and Simon will be able to join us for a few days too which will be brilliant. Jack is staying back in Shetland as School is still on, but he will have fun with Grandma and Grandad and his own Dad too.
Work is going well and I am staying very busy. If it not one it is the other!
I must be settling in now because at a recent funeral I seemed to know a lot of people who came along even though it was not at St Magnus or St Colman. Furthermore those who I did not already know came up to me after and said they knew me! (well actually my in laws and wife... I even met Rachels old teacher, and the lady who died actually used to live in the house Rachel grew up in... so there!
2014 here and now even February!
Sunday is the Feast of the Presentation. This marks the end of th Christmas and Epiphany season.
Here is Sunday's sermon:
Here is Sunday's sermon:
Malachi asks a leading question today. “who can
endure the day of his coming, who can stand when he appears?”
What was it about Simeon that made him so ready
and able to see the unfolding of salvation?
Was it because he had been waiting for so long
patiently? It was not because he was a man, because Anna was also able to
recognise the coming of God too..
Would we have been able to stand there and
recognise God as the parents carried the baby to the temple, or more likely I suspect
we would be looking over their shoulders for something a bit more obviously
comforting.
Anna and Simeon recognised God because they
trusted in him all their life. They were connected with generations of faithful
Jews before them who looked toward God and not just their faith tradition.
Our problem is that so often we find ourselves
looking to our faith tradition and put our hope and trust there, rather than in
God himself.
Who can endure to put faith in God, who is able to
remain standing strong when he comes?
To look at our faith tradition is often comfort
and even uplifting. The saints and teachers down the ages, those who have
inspired us and lifted us… the voices of affirmation.
To look to God we face many more uncomfortable
things. We see scary moments, moments of pain and failure, moments of doubt and
despair, we even perhaps look into the face of death and destruction itself.
That is not a nice place to look.
Can we endure the day of his coming?
As we look to God today we must lift our gaze a little
further than we are perhaps used to. Simeon and Anna were able to do this,
tradition also suggests Mary was able to do this too.
What have we to take on board to be able to do
this “star” gazing. Richard Rohr seeks to open up this question in a book I am
reading at present.
1.
We look at ourselves the person we
are. We see and recognise our own needs, the way we search for significance and
meaning. The desire for self affirmation, and even love. This is the private
self and we must recognise it, love it. Hold it. It is not all good we know
this, but it is probably not all bad either! We recognise our own private
struggles, our journey. This is my story
2.
Against my story we recognise “Our
story” the one where I find myself with others. The group I am part of, the
church and faith group. The culture I am part of, the people to whom I am
faithful too, the ideas I support. The church which has taught us so much about
God and prayer. About good and evil, right and wrong. Our concepts of
rightness.
3.
Against “Our story” we go further now
and see a bigger picture. “The whole story”. The truth and nothing but the
truth if you like…. In the real story the smallness of me is seen for what it
is, important yes but so small too. Did you know that fifteen people have died
to enable you to be here today …….(explain)
Against the real
truth we also put into perspective “our story”, the story that makes us who we
are too. The illusion that “us” is what matters. That our group is what
matters. Against the real truth the whole story that is where God is and it
God’s perspective.
Holding together
goodness and pain, things which we more naturally want to keep apart, indeed
some would say they were opposites, as if they were not connected.
As God see the world
goodness and pain are essential together. For Simeon and Anna and for Mary the
pain and sharpness of death was bound up in the life of the baby Jesus.
This is what enabled
them to endure the day.
As we behold our own
stories today let us also be able to see the pain and Joy being held within the
gaze of God. Let us feel stronger to recognise God holding us in entirety.
We take our own lives
more seriously and honestly when we hold good and bad together. We are not
trapped with a small view of ourselves or even the group we belong to, we are
lifted to see ourselves as God sees and holds us. It is this picture that the
Kingdom of God domes to dwell.
Simeon and Anna felt
fulfilled when holding the baby they declared a vision of the Kingdom, not just
for their people but for the whole world.
As the songs puts it
“he’s got the whole world in his hands, he has all of us in his hands, he has,
by being alongside us through the incarnation, drawn everything into God and
shown God to everything.
So we are enabled to
endure the day of his coming as Simeon and Anna were.
Thanks be to God
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