Category: faith

faith · Songwriting · The Holy Spirit

The Song Of The Spirit

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I don’t often write songs with an overt religious theme, or message, but was keen to write something for the Christian festival of Pentecost, coming up on May 19th.

The images come from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and one from Celtic Christianity – the Wild Goose.

I love that you can’t nail God down, but must allow God to be seen from different directions and in a variety of ways.

Rowan Williams talks about one of the ways of seeing God that he finds most helpful – that is, that God is free; more proactive than reactive.

If you like – we might be blown by the wind, but God is the wind doing the blowing. (As I read that back to myself, it doesn’t feel quite right, but I’ll leave it for now !)

I am the strong wind blowing among you
I’m the bright flame alight on your head
I am the water flowing all through you
Remember the words that he said:

I give you my word,
my presence will fill you.
Wait for the promise.
My spirit will come.

I am the Wild Goose, come to disturb you
I’m the white Dove, the bringer of peace
I am the cloud going before you
Wait for the Spirit’s release

I am the breath, breathed into you
I’m the soft whisper you long to hear
I am the oil of anointing upon you
Wait ‘til the Spirit is near.

A Prayer For This Day · faith

A Prayer For This Day

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A prayer for the poor – that they may receive the kingdom of God ?

For the lowly – may they be lifted up?

For the hungry – may they be filled?

For the widow, the orphan, and the stranger – may they know justice ?

For the outcast, the lonely, the ones who suffer at the hand of violence. For Gaza, South Sudan, Ukraine – May the face of Christ be present in them and for them.

For us who have all we need – may we have courage, clearer sight, single-mindedness and be always active in love ?

May we be bringers of peace, hungry for justice, persevering in service, loving with humility ?

Amen. Yes, now and always.

Activism · Bible · faith · Persecution · Political · World Affairs

You’ld Think They Would Understand

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I read this psalm this morning

Responsorial Psalm

Jeremiah 31:10-13

R: Response
The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.

O nations, hear the word of the Lord,
proclaim it to the far-off coasts.
Say: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him
and guard him as a shepherd guards his flock’ R

For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
has saved him from an overpowering hand.
They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion,
they will stream to the blessings of the Lord. R

Then the young girls will rejoice and will dance,
the men, young and old, will be glad.
I will turn their mourning into joy.
I will console them, give gladness for grief. R

The prophet Jeremiah is writing about ‘The overpowering hand’ … that had subjected Israel to captivity, humiliation, exile and death for many. Removed them from their ancestral home.

It happened in Jeremiah’s time. It happened again in persecution and pogroms, and holocaust.

Jeremiah tells of a time when that humiliation will pass. When life will return to normal. There will once again be laughing, dancing, joy.

One would hope that a people who had experienced such devastation would recognise that they themselves have become the overpowering hand. The foot on the throat.

O to be able to speak the words of the psalm to Gaza and the people of the West Bank ? To say that the Lord will save them, that they will rejoice again ? How long ? How long ?

faith

All Our Systems Are Broken

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Or should that be ‘cisterns’ ? See the end of this post.

We’ve just had a stressful but interesting and eye-opening week. An insider view of the NHS in Wales.

We see all sorts of things on TV, but it’s often only when we experience it for ourselves that the full impact of the situation comes home to us.

So in the last week we have:

….. waited at home for an ambulance – with a paramedic in attendance – for six hours. During those six hours, the paramedic gave us an insight into his working life. He kept us updated throughout the afternoon, letting us know that there were 10 ambulances waiting outside the accident and emergency unit 20 miles away, and until they could discharge patients into hospital, there would not be an ambulance available for us.

(He had arrived at 1.30 pm, following a visit from the GP earlier in the day who had recommended a trip to hospital. The paramedic was a highly trained professional who could have been doing something else during those 6 hours).

In the end it was the local GP ambulance that arrived at 7.30 pm.

…. waited 10 hours in an ambulance outside A&E. Once more with the ambulance crew having to be with us throughout. They said that they expected the same to happen the next day. It’s not unusual for them to spend a whole shift waiting in this way. Once more, a tragic waste of human resources.

… waited, thankfully in a room in A&E and not on a corridor, from 6.30 am Saturday until Monday afternoon, when the bed was wheeled up to the assessment ward.

….. waited anxiously by the nurse’s station, hearing the ward manager tell the nurse who had accompanied us that there had been a mistake in communication and that there wasn’t a bed !

That last wait was just a few minutes. Whew! There followed the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday and half of Wednesday before we were discharged, medically sorted but weak and unable to stand or walk unaided.

We read lots of statistics about the NHS and ambulance service. They’re all about waiting times and related statistics. What I can’t find is a simple figure – The actual number of emergency ambulances for a given area. Because everything depends on how many ambulances and how many staff there are.

This was one of the complaints from the first paramedic. There just aren’t enough ambulances. Sadly, we are seeing the collapse of the infrastructure of our beloved country in so many ways. The Health Service; Royal Mail; our schools; high streets …

As I was writing the title of this post – ‘all our systems are broken’ – it was then that the word ‘cisterns’ came to mind as well.

A cistern is a container for water, that most valuable of resources. A broken cistern leaks. It’s not fit for purpose. Sadly, many of our cisterns are leaking and fast approaching the point where there’s no water left.

However … the saving grace has been the people. Almost without exception, the nurses, doctors and other staff we have encountered have been patient, kind and good humoured. It’s the systems that we need fixing.

Activism · Bible · faith · suffering · World Affairs

Reading Scripture From The Margins

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I walked to church this morning. it’s about a half an hour walk, and on the way I was thinking about stuff that’s going on in the world, especially Israel and Gaza. I had noted down this phrase few days ago that came into my mind. – ‘stories that no one should have known’ – there are so many stories that we’ve heard that no one should ever have to hear.

Then, in church, we had this reading from Isaiah chapter 41

14 Do not fear, you worm Jacob,
you insect Israel!
I will help you, says the Lord;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15 Now, I will make of you a threshing-sledge,
sharp, new, and having teeth;
you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you shall make the hills like chaff.
16 You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away,
and the tempest shall scatter them.
Then you shall rejoice in the Lord;
in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

17 When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them,
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together,
20 so that all may see and know,
all may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.

I looked at these words. And God’s word to Israel where God says “you shall thresh the mountains and crush them … you shall make the hills like chaff … and the wind shall carry them away.”

It brought to mind the intent of the state of Israel, that their aim is to do away with Hamas completely, and similarly, the aim of Hamas to do away with the state of Israel completely. (I will make of you a threshing sledge)

Reading scripture is a dangerous business. I fear that there are those who might see justification in holy scripture for acts that are unholy.

I wonder if some might be tempted to see in these verses an encouragement to continue in acts of terror, or in raining down bombs on Gaza – and to see that as God‘s work ? I trust not.

The thing about the Bible, both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament is that they are written by and to people on the margins. These verses in Isaiah are written to the people of Israel who have been in captivity in Babylon. They are the ones without power. Context is – well, if not everything, then almost everything.

These words – all of them – are addressed to the poor and needy, those parched with thirst. And who are those people ? Not Hamas, and not the State of Israel, but citizens of Israel and Gaza and everywhere else where the might of military power is at work to terrorise and subdue.

The violence in the language is utterly human and borne out of powerlessness and suffering. But in the end, the aim is not destruction, which is easy to understand and all around us, but something that always seems out of our reach and yet is held out to us as hope.

These words, from earlier in the Isaiah prophecy give us a sense of what that might be – The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. (Isaiah 11 verse 6)

God is God of the poor and the suffering. Hear our prayer for them.

faith · God

When God’s Hand Is Guiding

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One thing that helps me to discern when my life is being shaped by the eternal Potter is the purpose of the pot as it starts to take shape. A pot is made to hold something, and to offer that something to others food or drink, perhaps, or flowers. When God’s hand is guiding the circumstances of my life, the result will be something for others, however small. God the Potter is God the Giver. To trust the process that leads to this result, I am asked to surrender my own limited thoughts and views of what should happen to the larger vision of the holy Potter, who knows what he is making and why.

From the December 10th episode of Margaret Silft’s Advent book: Lighted Windows.

A Prayer For This Day · faith · Political · World Affairs

Caught up in this battle

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On the weekend of October 7/8, we saw the beginning of a terrifying situation unfolding in Israel/Palestine.

Caught up in this battle between Hamas extremists and the state of Israel are ordinary Palestinian people.

Since 1948 their freedoms have been eroded. They live with many restrictions on their daily lives, and the state of Israel has gradually taken over their land and demolished their houses.

Somehow, the inequality of the situation must be recognised.

The reality of the injustice must not be overlooked or confused with what is now going on with the war.

Meanwhile, context is everything.

It’s understandable to focus in the immediate aftermath on the families who have lost love ones, and to condemn attacks on civilians of both sides.

But at some point news reporting must give the context of what has been happening in Palestine since 1917 and the favouritism shown to The state of Israel.

Church · faith · Grace · Greenbelt Festival,

An Oaty Bar With Raisins

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I was in my Monday night discussion group this week, and we were catching up with Matt and Laura, who had been to the Greenbelt Festival for the first time. They had loved it, and had a particularly wonderful story to tell …

On the Sunday morning of Greenbelt, there’s a communion service which works by people gathering in groups of about 10, and collecting a bag which will have all you need for communion – some juice, bread and a napkin.

Matt and Laura were in a group without a bag – it seems they had all gone.

In a wonderful re-imagining of the feeding of the 5,000, someone in the group volunteered that they had an oaty bar that they were willing to share with the group.

So they passed it round and all took a piece of the oaty bar. To add to the delight of the whole situation, it turned out that the oaty bar had raisins in it, which meant that the wine was covered as well.

Well, how about that !

faith

It’s Amazing, But It’s True

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So, about a week ago, I was thinking about some of the Nomad interviews that I’ve heard over the last few years, and I decided to listen again to one by Rowan Williams. (Becoming Natural N262)

I listened to the first part of it, and then got distracted. I’d just got back from the Greenbelt Festival where we had seen Bruce Cockburn, and I had his new album, ‘O Sun, O Moon’ on repeat. ‘Into the Now’ is currently my favourite track.

Anyway, this morning, I went for a run in Gloucester Park (trying to get back into some cardio exercise) and jumped back into the Rowan Williams interview. Some of what he was saying touched on the nature of God – to be free, not reactive but proactive, and to be the originator of diversity. As he talked about diversity, he used the example of a beam of light entering a prism and breaking up into different colours, the eternal light of God the Word coming throught the prism of creation and breaking up into all these brilliantly diverse realities, which is the world we’re in.

At the exact moment that he used this example, I saw, just to my right a marquee in rainbow colours. This weekend there are Pride celebrations in Gloucester and the park is being set up today for the event tomorrow.



Rowan Williams continued on the theme of diversity, and the various ways that human beings respond to the action of God. He used the example of pride, which we have often been taught is a bad thing – but it depends who you are talking about. It’s fine to say that pride is a bad thing if you are talking about Donald Trump (the example he used) but not so fine if you are talking about a schoolgirl inAfghanistan.

I suddenly had this memory of something similar happening … hearing someone talk about diversity, and seeing people dressed up for Pride celebrations …. then the penny dropped …

I had been listening to this very talk exactly one year ago, on the weekend of the Pride events in Gloucester Park.

It doesn’t surprise me any more, and in fact, I’m always looking out for it … to see God at work in the world around me and to remember that everything is connected.

Grace and peace.




Church · faith

For The People Of God

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So, I was in my fortnightly zoom call with a group of friends thinking about triangles and circles.

Specifically, the triangle that is church (most of the time), with the top of the triangle being supported by the rest of the triangle, and the bottom of the triangle feeling the pressure of everything above it and not able to move.

Someone told me this week that there are seven steps in a church building to go up to the ‘far end.’  I had never come across that before, but it’s true that in most churches the ‘holy bit’ is separated from where the congregation are, and is reached by going up steps … and seven is one of those mystical numbers, so who knows ?

Any way, the point is, the leader in a congregation (and it will depend on what kind of church it is, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Free Church etc) is lifted up above the rest.

This symbolises the Holiness and otherness of God, I get that, but it also serves to emphasise the hierarchy in our churches.

Even in the Churches that meet in old Cinemas and Sports Halls there’s often some kind of platform to raise the leaders (and the band !) up above the rest.

Yes, it’s so we can all see the speaker.  

But …..

what if we were 30 people in a circle and not 100 seated in rows looking up at the one person leading.

Who’s the leader when we’re in a circle ?  No-one knows … And can you still see the one speaking ? (Yes)

So what about the circle that might be the church, where we’re all supporting each other and able to see and respond to each other.

It seems to me that the circle gives an opportunity for all sorts of things to happen

Diversity of contribution -share gifts we didn’t know we had
Acknowledge the power dynamics (which will still be there) rather than them being obvious but never addressed
Be a powerful political vision of a different kind of soceity
And in the context of Holy Communion/Eucharist/Mass/Lord’s Supper – have the potential to be the kind of crazy table where everyone gets fed.

Until next time

Grace and Peace