Second before lent
27th February 2011.
If you have not seen it already, then “Inside I’m Dancing” is a must see film. It is the story of two young men who live with full time care and a life confined to wheelchairs. It is a very moving film, partly because of the way it may make the viewer think about themselves. I have now met three people confined to life in a wheel chair because of Multiple Sclerosis who have coincidently and independently said to me that they have been blessed with the condition, as it has made them a better person, or the person they are.
Lent is soon to be upon us and a time of critical self reflection is often what is carried out at this time.
Stephen Cherry, the author of the Barefoot disciple, gives up grumbling one Lent, and says what an education that was.
How do we go about looking at ourselves in a positive yet self critical way?
Certainly we need to be able to do this, otherwise we can easily get sucked into feeling that others should feel and react to things the way we do, and that the world revolves around the self.
Paul obviously struggled with this a little in today’s epistle as he struggles with the judgement of self and of others. His well versed conclusion is “do not judge others!” which is of course easier said than done. However he does frame God in the scenario and conclude that God is real one who has to face who we are and what we are.
This week I have been heartened to see that the Government are beginning to recognise (again!) that what has been called “Quality of life” is perhaps more important, or at least as important, as money wealth and property. To this end they are conducting a survey apparently to find out how happy we are.
Wil Smith featured with his own son a few years ago in another great film called “In pursuit of Happyness”. It tells the heart rending story of a salesman Chris Gardner, who depends on the sale of a particular medical machine to survive. Gradually he looses everything including his wife, who just comes to the end of her tether. He struggles against the odds with his son. He eventually gets hope when he pursues his gift with numbers and with tenacity becomes very successful indeed. Chris Gardner is now in real life a multi millionaire.
Although the real story has a monetary reward, the film is about holding on to the things that are important and investing in them, rather than stuff. It comes back to what possesses us rather than what we possess. And the phrase “the most important things in life aren’t things”.
As we begin Lent therefore it may be the time to take a good long look at who we are and what posseses us, and check if this is the thing which feeds us or if it is the thing which drives us.
Jesus taught his disciples constantly to be aware of the things which feed them.
How can we find enough food to feed this multitude of people they asked one day, and yet his response was amazing bring what you have bring who you already are and share it… there was more than enough.
Elsewhere he reminds them “I am the bread of life”, and though some might want to stray into thinking that there is some link with Sacrament here, he was not for sure meaning this at all.
Do not worry about your life….. food, eating drinking, clothing, fashion, smell, looks, appearances, cars, appliances, gadgets…… Strive to find God and then you may discover that everything else fits into its proper place.
It might seem that even in Jesus day people were possessed by the world rather than being freed to live in it and alongside it.
There are people who see God set almost against the world, they see the Great Judge before they see the great lover, and one at the expense of the other. The people of Israel also tustled with this worrying thought over and over….. we are for it now!! But in todays OT reading we are reminded of the intimate natural relationship we have with God and God with us, so intimate that we are seen as inscribed on the palms of his hands. This means that when in metaphorical language we come towards him and see his outstretched arms what is it we see? (our own names)
So looking at ourselves critically over Lent is a time of liberation not condemnation, it is a time to rediscover a God Life and a life lived wholly and Holy in the world.
If a child lives with Criticism,
He learns to Condemn.
If a child lives with Hostility,
He learns to Fight.
If a child lives with Ridicule,
He learns to be Shy.
If a child lives with Shame,
He learns to feel Guilty.
If a child lives with Tolerance,
He learns to be Patient.
If a child lives with Encouragement,
He learns Confidence.
If a child lives with Praise,
He learns to Appreciate.
If a child lives with Fairness,
He learns Justice.
If a child lives with Security,
He learns to have Faith.
If a child lives with Approval,
He learns to Like Himself.
If a child lives with Acceptance and Friendship,
He learns to find Love in the World.
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Sunday's contribution!
Epiphany 6 yr A
The Headlines in this weeks Shetland Times reads “Grim reality hits home….” And in the article Sandy Cluness the Convenor says “Its never going to be a good day….”
It must be a sad time of life to think “Its never going to be a good day!” and I work with people for whom this thought is very much the case. There is never any escape from a grim reality, and doom sits on the shoulder every day only to be replaced by anxiety.
A the risk of trying to point out the obvious, a world in which there is no hope, where there is no escape from “badness”, is a living hell, and is to already endure the eternal suffering so often associated with a mythical or real hell.
I put it to you that we cannot and must not allow ourselves to be dragged into the scenario that its never going to be a good day. Either in a personal living, for that would be to become Mentally and emotionally unwell, or in a corporate sense for that is a lost and broken society…. Of which I trust we are not.
Last week we noticed the challenges that the exiles returning faced, and the conflict of interests as they struggled with rebuilding both temple and society at the same time. Not one at the expense of the other, but both together.
Today we read in the Apocraphyl book (also from the post exilic time) how choice continued to play a part in the lives of people and society. We have placed before us some fairly stark choices, most notably to choose between life or death.
Against the agonising choice comes the knowledge that god is alongside us and understands us. In point of fact the choice is our choice…. Not God’s Choice. God is predisposed to be with us, to love us, to redeem us as his chosen people.
But the choice is ours… there is the challenge for us.
Sometimes people make wrong choices, sometimes we make mistaken choices. That cannot ever be the end of things, and the Christian Church stands for those who say it is never the end of the line. It is never beyond redemption.
In our own Christian living we must be resilient to the temptation to draw a line under either our own lives or the lives of others. Jesus never did this and he always accepted people no matter what.
It is perhaps interesting that the gospel reading today seems to show Jesus at his worst and his best. At his worst, because it may appear that he puts the bar above the attainment of all but the few. At his best, because we see him speaking to the people where they were at with all the concerns of that particular day at hand. He is not remote.
We certainly must not take this passage away from its context, or for that matter the words before and after. We all know the damage that can be done from taking a portion of a story and thinking we have the whole picture, or from overhearing part of a conversation and believing we have heard it all.
The words we have today are set against the struggle to know what it was to love perfectly, it was not about minor rules and regulations. Jesus is holding the whole law before people, not chosen excerpts. The whole law whose purpose it was to remind the people of God’s very close presence with them in their struggles. God wanted his people to win….. God wants us to choose life.
In choosing life, or in having this option always before us, we are called to be people who have hope ever before them.
In the Book the barefoot Disciple, which we are going to focus on during Lent, Stephen Cherry recounts the time when he gave up grumbling for Lent. He noticed what a difference it made not just to himself but to those around him. So often we also find it easier to frown than to smile.
A few years ago now I watched an interesting film called “Pay it Forward”.
The scenario was that a young boy (as a result of being set a task by his school teacher) began to pay it forward rather than “pay it back”. You do something good to someone, you help someone, you be generous to someone, you love someone…. As the first thing not as the result of something. This First act is the paying it Forward and it results in other doing the same thing in their turn.
This small action by the school child eventually led to a huge wave of positive loving actions, which swept the society….. everyone felt better, everyone’s life improved, and the whole outlook was good not negative.
God sets before us the choice to live, may the people we meet and speak with this week see reflected in our own voices and actions that we have chosen to live and love. And the Dawn from on high will break in on us as the people who have sat in darkness suddenly begin to see a light.
The Headlines in this weeks Shetland Times reads “Grim reality hits home….” And in the article Sandy Cluness the Convenor says “Its never going to be a good day….”
It must be a sad time of life to think “Its never going to be a good day!” and I work with people for whom this thought is very much the case. There is never any escape from a grim reality, and doom sits on the shoulder every day only to be replaced by anxiety.
A the risk of trying to point out the obvious, a world in which there is no hope, where there is no escape from “badness”, is a living hell, and is to already endure the eternal suffering so often associated with a mythical or real hell.
I put it to you that we cannot and must not allow ourselves to be dragged into the scenario that its never going to be a good day. Either in a personal living, for that would be to become Mentally and emotionally unwell, or in a corporate sense for that is a lost and broken society…. Of which I trust we are not.
Last week we noticed the challenges that the exiles returning faced, and the conflict of interests as they struggled with rebuilding both temple and society at the same time. Not one at the expense of the other, but both together.
Today we read in the Apocraphyl book (also from the post exilic time) how choice continued to play a part in the lives of people and society. We have placed before us some fairly stark choices, most notably to choose between life or death.
Against the agonising choice comes the knowledge that god is alongside us and understands us. In point of fact the choice is our choice…. Not God’s Choice. God is predisposed to be with us, to love us, to redeem us as his chosen people.
But the choice is ours… there is the challenge for us.
Sometimes people make wrong choices, sometimes we make mistaken choices. That cannot ever be the end of things, and the Christian Church stands for those who say it is never the end of the line. It is never beyond redemption.
In our own Christian living we must be resilient to the temptation to draw a line under either our own lives or the lives of others. Jesus never did this and he always accepted people no matter what.
It is perhaps interesting that the gospel reading today seems to show Jesus at his worst and his best. At his worst, because it may appear that he puts the bar above the attainment of all but the few. At his best, because we see him speaking to the people where they were at with all the concerns of that particular day at hand. He is not remote.
We certainly must not take this passage away from its context, or for that matter the words before and after. We all know the damage that can be done from taking a portion of a story and thinking we have the whole picture, or from overhearing part of a conversation and believing we have heard it all.
The words we have today are set against the struggle to know what it was to love perfectly, it was not about minor rules and regulations. Jesus is holding the whole law before people, not chosen excerpts. The whole law whose purpose it was to remind the people of God’s very close presence with them in their struggles. God wanted his people to win….. God wants us to choose life.
In choosing life, or in having this option always before us, we are called to be people who have hope ever before them.
In the Book the barefoot Disciple, which we are going to focus on during Lent, Stephen Cherry recounts the time when he gave up grumbling for Lent. He noticed what a difference it made not just to himself but to those around him. So often we also find it easier to frown than to smile.
A few years ago now I watched an interesting film called “Pay it Forward”.
The scenario was that a young boy (as a result of being set a task by his school teacher) began to pay it forward rather than “pay it back”. You do something good to someone, you help someone, you be generous to someone, you love someone…. As the first thing not as the result of something. This First act is the paying it Forward and it results in other doing the same thing in their turn.
This small action by the school child eventually led to a huge wave of positive loving actions, which swept the society….. everyone felt better, everyone’s life improved, and the whole outlook was good not negative.
God sets before us the choice to live, may the people we meet and speak with this week see reflected in our own voices and actions that we have chosen to live and love. And the Dawn from on high will break in on us as the people who have sat in darkness suddenly begin to see a light.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
A sermon from Sunday
Fifth Sunday before Lent.
St Magnus 2011.
Shout out, do not hold back!
God speaks to Isaiah.
It all sounds fairly confident yet I wonder if God was to speak to me such confident words, would I sit up and listen? Surely there would be lots of reasons why I might not?
This portion of Isaiah comes from the time after the exile, the time after those who had been exiled by the Babylonians and taken away from their homes and lands, had been allowed to return by the Persians.
Rather than being a time of simple hope it was actually wracked with difficulties and tensions. Those returning home after years of exile were met with very suspicious neighbours who had not been exiled. Community tension was high. The exiles were not welcomed with open arms, and the exiles in turn faced more than just rebuilding walls and temple.
A time of disillusion kicked in, as the social realities took a firm grip on the people.
To the prophet God speaks… “Shout out…..”
It is all very well preaching on a Sunday to a group of people who sit quietly in the pews, sometimes nodding in agreement, and sometimes nodding off maybe as the words go on and on…. But to speak out when the hearers are not listening or even when they are antagonistic must be an awful thing to have to do.
We have seen some violent protests recently in Tunisia, Algeria, and now Egypt. People are shouting out, they have had enough of suspicion and corruption, they want to be heard (and supported?) Maybe I am feeling cynical, but Tunisia and Algeria were reported and passed over, but Egypt, because it matters more to us, is being watched more closely.
It is hard to put yourselves in the place of those rioters in Egypt, or anywhere else for that matter, and yet they contain a cross section of the people from young to old.
Isaiah was faced with the cross section of the people and a lone voice against a crowd is a sorry sound.
And yet it is also from this section of Isaiah that we hear many of the familiar readings around Christmas. The light shining in the darkness, the voice in the wilderness, and the need for real sacrifice not ritual sacrifice. (social awareness)
The Jewish nation survived this period of disillusion, because the lone voices were heard, and other people arose to rebuild not just the temple but the sense of social justice so necessary to any community.
Jesus tells us in the gospel today that we are salt and light.
As I look at you all today I can see the light and salt that you are in this community. I know some of the things people are involved in, much I do not know, neither do I need to know.
When the people coming back from exile did eventually began to rebuild the temple they did so with a clear focus on both God in their midst and the need for social reconstruction.
A temple built just as a religious sanctuary, a place for ritual sacrifice alone, a place where they could just take their hollow fasts and wonder why nothing was coming of them, was not worth the effort, and I suspect the people who had not been exiled certainly felt this.
But a Temple that could stand as an ensign of Gods love and justice in society, was worth building, and it was worth worshiping in too.
Fasts were heard, offerings received, and everyone knew that it was really worth it.
St Magnus has been restored, a period of exile maybe has been endured…..
God promises to water his Garden but we are the gardeners. Without our deliberate effort, nothing will have been gained except a restored building.
We are the salt and light.
St Magnus 2011.
Shout out, do not hold back!
God speaks to Isaiah.
It all sounds fairly confident yet I wonder if God was to speak to me such confident words, would I sit up and listen? Surely there would be lots of reasons why I might not?
This portion of Isaiah comes from the time after the exile, the time after those who had been exiled by the Babylonians and taken away from their homes and lands, had been allowed to return by the Persians.
Rather than being a time of simple hope it was actually wracked with difficulties and tensions. Those returning home after years of exile were met with very suspicious neighbours who had not been exiled. Community tension was high. The exiles were not welcomed with open arms, and the exiles in turn faced more than just rebuilding walls and temple.
A time of disillusion kicked in, as the social realities took a firm grip on the people.
To the prophet God speaks… “Shout out…..”
It is all very well preaching on a Sunday to a group of people who sit quietly in the pews, sometimes nodding in agreement, and sometimes nodding off maybe as the words go on and on…. But to speak out when the hearers are not listening or even when they are antagonistic must be an awful thing to have to do.
We have seen some violent protests recently in Tunisia, Algeria, and now Egypt. People are shouting out, they have had enough of suspicion and corruption, they want to be heard (and supported?) Maybe I am feeling cynical, but Tunisia and Algeria were reported and passed over, but Egypt, because it matters more to us, is being watched more closely.
It is hard to put yourselves in the place of those rioters in Egypt, or anywhere else for that matter, and yet they contain a cross section of the people from young to old.
Isaiah was faced with the cross section of the people and a lone voice against a crowd is a sorry sound.
And yet it is also from this section of Isaiah that we hear many of the familiar readings around Christmas. The light shining in the darkness, the voice in the wilderness, and the need for real sacrifice not ritual sacrifice. (social awareness)
The Jewish nation survived this period of disillusion, because the lone voices were heard, and other people arose to rebuild not just the temple but the sense of social justice so necessary to any community.
Jesus tells us in the gospel today that we are salt and light.
As I look at you all today I can see the light and salt that you are in this community. I know some of the things people are involved in, much I do not know, neither do I need to know.
When the people coming back from exile did eventually began to rebuild the temple they did so with a clear focus on both God in their midst and the need for social reconstruction.
A temple built just as a religious sanctuary, a place for ritual sacrifice alone, a place where they could just take their hollow fasts and wonder why nothing was coming of them, was not worth the effort, and I suspect the people who had not been exiled certainly felt this.
But a Temple that could stand as an ensign of Gods love and justice in society, was worth building, and it was worth worshiping in too.
Fasts were heard, offerings received, and everyone knew that it was really worth it.
St Magnus has been restored, a period of exile maybe has been endured…..
God promises to water his Garden but we are the gardeners. Without our deliberate effort, nothing will have been gained except a restored building.
We are the salt and light.
Spot the sock???
There has been a "bit of wind" recently here. This is the air sock on Papa Stour, still working away despite not being all that helpful to incoming pilots!!!
Thursday, 3 February 2011
3rd February
Well winter gales have arrived again today. Driving sleet and snow and the boats are all disrupted.. Even Eli was almost blown over on his mornings walk this morning.
I had a visit from friends in Cambridge last week and it was great to see them again. They came up for Up Helly Aa the fire festival held on the last Tuesday of every January. This is the largest fire festival in Europe I am told, and it certainly is very impressive.
This years Festival was very impressive and the weather was relatively kind too. Lerwick was full of people.
Work on the Church Tower in Lerwick is going well. The steel joists were very seriously corroded very scary seeing what the builders have been cutting out. Some of the corrosion was so bad that literally nothing was left, and in places the steel was down to 1mm thick!!!!
Generally things are going well, though I am very busy indeed running between jobs. I have managed to mostly steer clear of bugs and flu.
The house continue to be a challenge, but at least I have work to go to to keep warm. I have moved into a smaller bedroom to try to stay warm.
I had a visit from friends in Cambridge last week and it was great to see them again. They came up for Up Helly Aa the fire festival held on the last Tuesday of every January. This is the largest fire festival in Europe I am told, and it certainly is very impressive.
This years Festival was very impressive and the weather was relatively kind too. Lerwick was full of people.
Work on the Church Tower in Lerwick is going well. The steel joists were very seriously corroded very scary seeing what the builders have been cutting out. Some of the corrosion was so bad that literally nothing was left, and in places the steel was down to 1mm thick!!!!
Generally things are going well, though I am very busy indeed running between jobs. I have managed to mostly steer clear of bugs and flu.
The house continue to be a challenge, but at least I have work to go to to keep warm. I have moved into a smaller bedroom to try to stay warm.
Sunday, 9 January 2011
An Epiphany moment (Sermon for Epiphany)
Recently I have got a new mobile phone. It has what is called a touch screen, not as posh as an I phone, but the best I could manage!!
Needless to say it is quite clever.
Computers and phones now nearly all visually work using things curiously called icons, which is strange really because this word is an ancient religious word in origin.
More about that later.
When my phone wants to tell me something, like for example that I have a message, or that someone has tried to call me, an icon appears.
At first I just thought this curious because the icon appeared to be a piece of jigsaw. Then after a while (I am slower than the phone) I also realised that there was also on the screen a jigsaw piece shaped “hole” and then I learnt that if I carefully moved, using my finger on the touch screen, the jigsaw piece into the same shaped “hole” then all would be revealed and I would learn what the nature of the call was etc.
Putting the piece into place made everything clear to me.
An Icon is????
A curious question? ………
What have Matthew, Mark Luke and John got in common with Rolf Harris?
They all work with the same strap line when they are painting their icons/pictures.
They also all work backwards too as it happens.
Let me try to explain what I mean….
Can you see what it is yet? Is what Matthew mark Luke and John all work with… just like dear Rolf.
Today we celebrate the Epiphany, for us in the western church who have now added 25th December to our Christian Calendar, this is symbolized by the Wise Men arriving at the house where Jesus was born, according to the writer of Matthews Gospel.
As it happens, and as we have realized on the news this week, for the other half of Christendom, the Eastern church, January 6th is the celebration of not only the birth but also of the Baptism of Christ… they roll them all into one.
Why?
As we know Mathew and Luke have got birth stories in their gospel. Luke has shepherds and stable, Mathew has Magi and house. John written later is more philosophical in his approach and see Jesus in such a different place that he is as if it were from the very beginning anyway.
Mark on the other hand being the earliest of the gospels to be written and without the need to complicate things with a baby being born, sees the moment of Epiphany (making clear) as being the moment Jesus was Baptised and the heavenly voice proclaims that this is the one..
All the gospels have epiphanies, but they all do it differently.
It is as if in each writer we hear the words “Can you see what it is yet?”
For the Christian, and for Mathew Mark, Luke and John, and for every disciple of Jesus, Jesus is the very icon to God.
Christian theology varies hugely in the finer points, but all see Jesus as the revelation of God. It is by looking to Jesus as the pioneer and perfector of our faith (words from Ephesians) that we learn not only how to live as fully living humans but also in relationship with God.
Jesus in what he says and does keeps reminding us about Loving, each other and God and keeping this channel of Love open both ways all the time. As Bishop John Spong describes He loves recklessly and calls us to love in the same way too.
Today being epiphany is the time we recognise something in Christ. The penny drops… it is all made clear…. We see what it is we are looking at.
The icon is put into place and the purpose is made clear.
All the birth stories are moments of Epiphany. In this sense we have been having epiphanies since December 25th. Also in this sense what we call the season of Epiphany is part of the season of Christmas.
Between now and the feast of the presentation we get a series of other types of Epiphany moment, John the Baptists witness, The teaching of Jesus, The miracles of Jesus. All these are other ways of recognizing the significance and importance of Jesus.
Each of us here will have had moments of epiphany. Moments when we have realized something important about Gods love. Moments, sometimes surprising ones too, when we have “seen what it is” as if again for the first time.
At every Epiphany comes recognition. Things slip into place and things feel right again..
The Christian Church is called to reveal this Epiphany to a waiting and expectant World. We celebrate this today.
Needless to say it is quite clever.
Computers and phones now nearly all visually work using things curiously called icons, which is strange really because this word is an ancient religious word in origin.
More about that later.
When my phone wants to tell me something, like for example that I have a message, or that someone has tried to call me, an icon appears.
At first I just thought this curious because the icon appeared to be a piece of jigsaw. Then after a while (I am slower than the phone) I also realised that there was also on the screen a jigsaw piece shaped “hole” and then I learnt that if I carefully moved, using my finger on the touch screen, the jigsaw piece into the same shaped “hole” then all would be revealed and I would learn what the nature of the call was etc.
Putting the piece into place made everything clear to me.
An Icon is????
A curious question? ………
What have Matthew, Mark Luke and John got in common with Rolf Harris?
They all work with the same strap line when they are painting their icons/pictures.
They also all work backwards too as it happens.
Let me try to explain what I mean….
Can you see what it is yet? Is what Matthew mark Luke and John all work with… just like dear Rolf.
Today we celebrate the Epiphany, for us in the western church who have now added 25th December to our Christian Calendar, this is symbolized by the Wise Men arriving at the house where Jesus was born, according to the writer of Matthews Gospel.
As it happens, and as we have realized on the news this week, for the other half of Christendom, the Eastern church, January 6th is the celebration of not only the birth but also of the Baptism of Christ… they roll them all into one.
Why?
As we know Mathew and Luke have got birth stories in their gospel. Luke has shepherds and stable, Mathew has Magi and house. John written later is more philosophical in his approach and see Jesus in such a different place that he is as if it were from the very beginning anyway.
Mark on the other hand being the earliest of the gospels to be written and without the need to complicate things with a baby being born, sees the moment of Epiphany (making clear) as being the moment Jesus was Baptised and the heavenly voice proclaims that this is the one..
All the gospels have epiphanies, but they all do it differently.
It is as if in each writer we hear the words “Can you see what it is yet?”
For the Christian, and for Mathew Mark, Luke and John, and for every disciple of Jesus, Jesus is the very icon to God.
Christian theology varies hugely in the finer points, but all see Jesus as the revelation of God. It is by looking to Jesus as the pioneer and perfector of our faith (words from Ephesians) that we learn not only how to live as fully living humans but also in relationship with God.
Jesus in what he says and does keeps reminding us about Loving, each other and God and keeping this channel of Love open both ways all the time. As Bishop John Spong describes He loves recklessly and calls us to love in the same way too.
Today being epiphany is the time we recognise something in Christ. The penny drops… it is all made clear…. We see what it is we are looking at.
The icon is put into place and the purpose is made clear.
All the birth stories are moments of Epiphany. In this sense we have been having epiphanies since December 25th. Also in this sense what we call the season of Epiphany is part of the season of Christmas.
Between now and the feast of the presentation we get a series of other types of Epiphany moment, John the Baptists witness, The teaching of Jesus, The miracles of Jesus. All these are other ways of recognizing the significance and importance of Jesus.
Each of us here will have had moments of epiphany. Moments when we have realized something important about Gods love. Moments, sometimes surprising ones too, when we have “seen what it is” as if again for the first time.
At every Epiphany comes recognition. Things slip into place and things feel right again..
The Christian Church is called to reveal this Epiphany to a waiting and expectant World. We celebrate this today.
Friday, 24 December 2010
Christtmas Eve 2010
The winter wonderland is back, and it is really great to see.
I am still staying very busy and there is never a dull moment at all. The driving has been difficult at times. I am now ready for Christmas and looking forward to it too. I am sure this Christmas will be very different to last Christmas, though the house is a pain to keep warm! (in fact it is impossible!)
I took my first wedding up here last weekend and it turned out to be really great. Jamie and Stephanie were a wonderful couple to marry and we all had a lovely time.
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