Braveheart

Tags

Church of Scotland, Justice, Religion

On Sunday the church celebrated Pentecost the coming of the Holy Spirit, I am sure in pulpits round the world there was talk of the chaos she brings along with her, the way she blows where she wills mucking about with things, messing things up.  Disturbing the ways of mortals so that the Immortal One can make people look anew, afresh, without structures that can confound and confuse us into thinking we already know it all and have all the answers, that because God is unchanging we should be too.

Church is a messy old business, congregations are full of people who do not necessarily agree on every doctrinal crossed ‘t’ and dotted ‘i’.  There would appear to be just about as many branches of theology as there are books in the Bible.  Many have always lived and breathed and brought life to the very structures and institutions which they do not fully agree with.  Our faith is in God not in a church or even the Church.  As I said yesterday with Hiliary of Potiers help, our expressions of our faith are at the perils of our human expression.  We can not express God in word or image or doctrine, but we try to, we feel compelled to, and we fail in the trying because God can not be put in a box for a box always has things outside of it.  Ergo we can not confine our understanding of God to mere theology and doctrines – as in only the rational and principals – although we will try and we should try, but we must not and should not make those things our idols.

Yesterday, my sisters and brothers in the Church of Scotland, wrestled like Jacob with the angels, they were never going to get it right, never going to come to an agreement, yet they were compelled to try.  They wrestled with a doctrine they want to hold on to because it contains the essence of something they can’t quite define.  They wrestled with cries for justice that doctrine denies. They wrestled with the hurt and pain and equally wrestled with tradition and fear, and they have come out of it with a limp and a hip out of joint.  It is messy and what will follow will no doubt also be messy, but at least they wrestled.  At least they allowed the stirring of the pool to begin so that there is a chance of going down into the waters and coming out healed.

The Church of Scotland had brave stout hearts yesterday for they have agreed to live in the mess of the Holy Spirit doing her work, some don’t like it, me I love it for now there is a real chance for healing and as Mel would say ‘Freedom.’  Now the question is will the other churches do likewise, will they choose to wrestle, will they allow the mess, or will they try and keep the Holy Spirit under control?

Unattainable

Tags

Hilary of Poitiers, Justice, Religion

We are compelled to attempt what is unattainable, to climb where we cannot reach, to speak what we cannot utter.  Instead of the bare adoration of faith we are compelled to entrust the deep things of religion to the perils of human expression.

Hilary of Poitiers

I recently decided to treat myself, thanks to a kind gift, to a copy of Celebrating the Seasons for my kindle.  I have two hard copies already but they tend to be left in churches and I don’t always have one when I want one.  If you have never come across this and it’s companion, Celebrating the Saints, then I believe you are missing out.

For most days there is one reading, some days – such as Pentecost – have two or more, I have posted some on here before, they often find there way into my sermons and some echo round and round my head for days after I have read them.  They come from a variety of people and there is a handy biography at the back, this is what it says about Hilary of Poitiers:  (315-367)  Hilary was born at Poitiers.  His family, though pagan, gave him an excellent education and he was proficient in Latin and Greek.  After extensive personal study, he was baptized at the age of thirty.  He was elected bishop of the city in 350 and immediately became caught up in the Arian controversy, himself asserting that mortals of this world were created to practice moral virtues, thus reflecting the One in whose image they are made, the eternal and creative first cause, God; and that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, is of one substance with the Father.  His outstanding treatise On the Trinity led to his title of the ‘Athanasius of the West’. While I didn’t need to look up who Hilary of Poitiers was there are some writings of lesser known individuals such as Walter Hilton (1343-1396) who comes after him in the biographical notes and whom I wouldn’t even know the century of without its help.  There is also a helpful theme index, but I digress.

I spend much of my time flicking to the right day as I don’t (or rather didn’t) have a copy just for my personal use hence when I turned the page on the kindle this morning for Monday after Pentecost I came across a page I had never noticed before, a title page for Ordinary Time after Pentecost with the quote at the top of this blog on it and I haven’t got past it not sure I will get past it tomorrow either.

We are compelled to entrust the deep things of religion to the perils of human expression. On Saturday I entrusted the mystery of God’s unconditional acceptance and love of everyone to the perils of my human expression, and what is worse it was expression out of exasperation, years of it.  I am not going to delete that post but I do now know a little more of what has been going on up in Stornoway and I know my human expression is utterly and totally inadequate.  I just have to entrust it to God.

I will continue to attempt the unattainable because I am compelled to, because I believe God wants all to know they are special and loved and accepted and that no peril of human expression can take that away, however vile or hurtful or malicious it might be.

Anger and Prayer

Tags

News, Religion

This afternoon anger has driven me to prayer and I am mainly praying for Revd Shona Boardman and Mr Donald Morrison.  This letter in the Hebrides News is why:

The pulpit is no place for a woman       17/5/13

Sirs,
One cannot help but sadly see that the Church of Scotland continuing her downward spiral when she gleefully and shamefully supports bizarre unions and appointments that the Bible clearly opposes. The continuing appointments of women at skyscraping levels in the church is not just wrong but very wrong, just as it is unbiblical for a woman to be a minister in any church denomination or congregation. There are around 196 women which are now ministers in the Church of Scotland. This is 196 too many. There may be only a few women ministers in our Highlands and Islands church congregations, but these few are still a few too many. The very fact that they are women debars them from the Christian ministry.
The pulpit is no place for a woman minister, however elegant she may be in public speaking or proficient in her knowledge of Biblical theology. She may rise up and hold high office in a nation, just like Queen Elizabeth and as the late Mrs Margaret Thatcher did, but not the steps that lead up to any Church pulpit, whether in Inverness Ness Bank Church or St Peter’s Episcopal’s Church in Stornoway.
Yes, women are to remain silent in every church assembly, and that includes pulpit, presbytery and the annual General Assembly. It is best to hear what absolute truth has to clearly say: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church” (1 Corinthians 14v34-35).
The truth is that God has never ordained or anointed any woman to be a preacher or teacher. If it were God’s will that women should hold such a post in the Church, Jesus Christ would have shown an example by choosing one woman, at least, to be an apostle. But he did not, and even when he selected 70 disciples whom he sent out, two by two, no woman was included. Although Jesus had many women ‘disciples’ He certainly did not send any of them to go about preaching.
God has ordained that only men are to serve in positions of spiritual teaching authority in the church. This is not because men are necessarily better teachers, or because women are inferior or less intelligent (which is not the case). It is simply the way God designed the church to function. Men are to set the example in spiritual leadership—in their lives and through their words. Women are to take a less authoritative role. Certainly women are encouraged to teach other women (Titus 2:3-5). The Bible also does not restrict women from teaching children. The only activity women are restricted from is teaching or having spiritual authority over men.
Yes, a woman, by reason of her faith, knowledge and good understanding, can rise to a place of honour in the church but there are certain offices and privileges which God never assigned to women: no women apostles, no women bishops, no women elders, no women pastors, no women evangelists, no women deaconesses, no women priests, no women moderators. Clearly, the Bible has nothing to say in support of any of these appointments despite what many undiscerning women and unspiritual men may claim, whether in the church or out of her.

Mr Donald J Morrison
85 Old Edinburgh Road
Inverness

Now I could spend the rest of my life trying to make Mr Morrison see how he has misrepresented the Bible and Jesus’ teachings (I think it is a pretty safe bet to say that he was wearing mixed fibers with pen in hand) but I would be wasting my time, so I will not bother.

Shona is Rector of St Peter’s Stornaway, I know her only slightly having met her only once briefly on a train.  However as the SEC is so small I do know of her and respect her integrity and calling and know she has been doing wonderful things on our futhermost part of God’s vineyard.

Mr Donald Morrison I do not know, but I have come across people who hold his views.  He might be a very nice man, however I find it near impossible to respect his integrity but maybe that is a fault in me rather than him.  I struggle to understand why anyone would want to spew forth hate against anyone but I know it happens, worse still I know it happens in the name of religion and in name of the Church.  That does not make it right, that does not make it acceptable and it certainly does not mean we should be silent.  Over on here on her Blog Ruth has already written a post about what has been going on.  Unlike her I still experience what Shona is up against although thankfully in a less public way, indeed in recent years I would say such views are being expressed more often and even, it saddens me to say, by recognised authority figures in the Church.

This is a personal attack nothing more, nothing less, and should be named as such.  However unfortunately this is not an isolated instance.  No person should be allowed to hide their prejudices be they against women, or ethnicity, or gender, or culture, or sexual orientation, or race, or education, or age, or wealth, or any other difference that you care to name behind anything least of all religion.  The Christian faith is about love and acceptance, about acknowledging all are special and precious in God’s sight, that no one is unworthy and that God doesn’t do partiality in any way shape or form.

So today I pray that God will grant Shona and all those who find themselves in a similar situation to hers, strength and grace to stand firm in their calling.  That they will know God’s peace and feel the support of all those who are upholding them in prayer with love, and that the Holy Spirit will give them the words to speak whenever they are faced with such comments.

And I also pray for Mr Morrison and all those who would like to see a narrow minded church, where only those and such as those are welcome.  I pray that they will also know God’s peace, and that God will grant them the strength and grace to live what they say they believe that the will of God should reign.

My prayer is that it may reign in all its fullness.

Don’t Forget To Count The Trees

Tags

Anna Karenina, Counting, Genesis 15:5, Lent, Religion, Trees, Vaulue

In Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina; Stepan visits Levin while in the process of selling a forest to a third party. Levin thinking that he has undervalued the sale price asks Stepan if he has ‘counted the trees’; Stepan being a townie laughs at such an idea and replies; ‘Count the sands of the sea, number the stars.  Some higher power might do it.’

For Stepan the idea of counting trees was so alien that he didn’t know where to even begin and saw it as something only God could do.  Nothing Levin said could convince him that if he counted the trees he would see that he had undervalued the land and it was worth far more.

What have we undervalued recently?

Where are the trees we need to count this Lent?

The Unseen Dust

Tags

dust, Lent, Religion

There are times when our eyes are suddenly opened for us.

Times when we suddenly become aware of things around us.

Things that are always there only tend to go unseen.

We all do it, none of us are immune.

One of those times is when the sun streams through the window and catches the dust in the air.

You glance up from your chair, your book falling to your knees, the warm sun streaming through the window and warming your skin, distracting you from the text that has so beguiled you up till now, that instead of being out there in that sun you sit inside and read.  The sun however is having none of it, the sun reaches into your hiding place and makes you pay attention to it.  So you are looking up towards the window and between you and it, also lit by the suns warm beams, are flecks of dust dancing around the room.  Of course those motes are always there, floating about in the air around us we are just blind to them, unaware of their presence as we go about our daily activities.  Oh yes somewhere we know they are there but they only come into view in the light of the sun, it is only then our attention is drawn to them, only then we notice them in our midst.

Flecks of dust hidden in our midst, unseen expect by the light of the sun.

What else is hidden right before us, right in our midst?

This is another of my contributions to Beauty from Chaos – bookmark it, add it to your reader, or pop over and visit it.  For each day there is at least one new offering from a range of people.

Stripped Bare for Lent

Tags

Bare, Lent, Poem, Religion, Transformation

Stripped bare for Lent down to the framework God has built,
the skeleton that is to be re-clothed.
Re-clothed with new shoots
fresh growth
and God given beauty.
Day by day the purple of sorrow will fade from view,
not in a blink of an eye but gradually
slowly
little by little.
Transformed.

With eyes willing to see
can we see what God sees?
With all the trappings we have placed removed
with nothing – not even a fig leaf -
to hide behind in our own Lenten nakedness.
Can we see?
See what God sees,
as God sees,
the potential, the promise,
the bright raiment waiting to clothe us.
Clothe us in a splendour beyond our imagination,
beyond our wildest dreams,
beyond all hope and reason.
Reborn.

This was origionally a piece I did for the Lenten blog Beauty from Chaos were you will find at least one new post every day from a host of authors.

60 Years On

Tags

Poem, Religion

In a more sedate manner, although no less glorious, at St Andrew’s on Sunday evening celebrations were also afoot this time nothing to do with animals, but rather an Evensong to mark the Queen’s Jubilee.

Although it was Evensong not a Coronation with Communion, as I happen to have a copy of the service which was used on 2nd June 1953, we used parts of it for the service, we would have used more parts of it had I thought to look at it before all the music choices had been made and music ordered – that will have to wait for the Sapphire celebration!

One of the great things about the service was again the number of people who were not members of St Andrew’s who came along, a small group of them having seen it in the local paper.

John Mansefield was the Poet Laureate at the time of the Queen’s Coronation and wrote these verses for the occasion, they really do speak of another time:

This Lady whom we crown was born
When buds were green upon the thorn
And earliest cowslips showed;
When still unseen by mortal eye
One cuckoo tolled his “Here am I,”
And over little glints of sky,
In rain-pools whence the trickles flowed,
The small snipe clattered wing.
The swallows were upon the road,
Nought but the cherry-blossom snowed,
The promise was on all fields sowed
Of Earth’s beginning Spring.

Now that we crown her as our Queen
May love keep all her pathways green,
May sunlight bless her days;
May the fair Spring of her beginning
Ripen to all things worth the winning,
The very surest of our praise
That mortal men attempt,
May this old land revive and be
Again a star set in the sea,
A Kingdom fit for such as she
With glories yet undreamt.

Two Legs, Fours Legs and Three Legs

Tags

Nature, Religion

Well it happened, for the first time for both All Saints and myself there was an Animal Blessing service and what fun it was.

I had no idea how many people might turn up and more to the point how many animals, or what kinds and whether they would get along with each other.  The hour before the service was a bit of an anxious time if I am honest.  However, the reality was over 40 people turned up – by far the majority were not members of All Saints, in fact not church goers at all.  We had 14 dogs, 1 kitten and a hamster in person – or whatever the equivalent of person is in the animal kingdom – and 6 cats, 2 dogs, 3 birds, 4 rabbits and some fish represented by pictures, some pinned up on a board, others on people’s mobile phones.

Helen, Webley her dog, and I had welcomed people outside – fortunately the weather had been kind to us – introducing both pets and humans to each other, although some already knew each other, walking a dog seems to be a great way to get to know people.  The service started with Helen welcoming everyone and dealing with the practicalities – bowl of water outside, accidents happen don’t worry about them, just please tell us so we know, and the like – then I introduced the congregation to those pets who were present in spirit through their photographs pinned on a board at the front of the church.  Then we prayed giving thanks for all creatures great and small, had a Bible reading before singing some dogs joined in.  I did a very brief talk ending with part of a poem by TS Elliot, then we moved on to the blessings.  Firstly for all creatures, including working animals, livestock and the creature we aren’t too keen on.  A prayer for those who looks after animals, vets, those who work with animals and animals in danger, concluding with a thanksgiving for pets no longer with us.  Then the owners present were blessed – much to some’s surprise and delight, then a general blessing for all the pets present and their in picture form followed by a dismissal, but it wasn’t over, oh no it was just beginning.

I had promised that the service would be short – we had decided to keep it to 15 minutes – but at the beginning of the blessings had promised that I was happy to offer individual blessings to any pet present.  But first there was a bit of a mad scramble, the photographer from the local press had turned up and we gathered all the pets together including a rather anxious kitten and hamster.

I hadn’t really thought about how the individual blessings were going to happen and didn’t really know how many owners would take up the offer.  Well to my surprise they all wanted their pets blessed.  Remember the majority of these people never step foot in a church usually yet they wanted God’s blessing for their pets, what can we learn from that?  Before I knew it I was crawling about the floor getting covered in hairs and wet from licks as labradors, a pug, a wippet and every other animal there was blessed.  Some got prayers too – “Tika is scared of water do would it be alright to pray about that?”, I was asked, “Well it wont do any harm”, was my reply as I laid my hands on her head and gazed into her brown eyes.  While Poppy – the three legs referred to in the title of this post – is rather timid so some bravery was asked for her along with her blessing.  I have no idea if Tika is still scared of water, or if Poppy now has the bravery of a lion, but apparently Rita kitten and Lucy pussy – two of the cats who photographs were pinned on the board and who were introduced as the house mates who couldn’t be left in the same room are reported to be getting on really well this morning.

Yes it was hard work and required a lot of preparation, but it was fun, proved to be a great bit of outreach, and was well worth doing.  I would recommend you try it for yourself and if needed I will offer any help I can.

The Epistle to Diognetus

Tags

Religion

A member of the congregation asked me if I had ever heard of Judas’ Gospel, I replied I had and offered to lend them a copy.  Once read they returned it with words along the lines of – ‘I think I will stick to the Gospels in the Bible.’  I know what he meant, however his question had also reminded me of the Epistle to Diognetus another of those writings that isn’t in the Bible, yesterday I remembered it again and dug it out for a read.

Written in the second century by Aristides is replying to a question Diognetus (a non-Christian) had asked: -  ‘What is a Christian?’.  I find the question itself an interesting one, Diognetus isn’t asking, ‘What is Christianity?’ or even ‘Who was Christ?’ but ‘What is a Christian?’.  Of course we can’t know for certain, but I can’t help wondering if Diognetus’ question grew from a common seed we hear today.  You don’t need to be Christian to live your life caring for others, loving your neighbour, going the extra mile, being generous with your time, talents and money to good causes and charities, accepting people as they are or treating everyone as equal.  This is of course true, and all those years ago there were undoubtedly good people who lived up to the Christian ideals who weren’t Christians, so the question is a good one both then and now.  Of course we might want to say our answer will be slightly different after all we live in a different world and a different society, but take note of how Aristides begins his reply.

You cannot identify Christians from other people on the basis of nationality, language or customs.  They do not live in cities of their own, or speak some strange dialect, or adopt some peculiar lifestyle.  Their teaching is nor the inventive speculation of inquisitive minds.  They are not propagating mere human teaching as some people do.  They live in Greek or foreign city, wherever chance has placed them.  They follow local customs in clothing, food and other aspects of life.  But at the same time they demonstrate the strangely wonderful form of their own citizenship.  They each live in their native land, but as strangers.  They shoulder all th duties of citizenship, but are made to suffer like aliens.  Every foreign country is to them a homeland, while every homeland is like a foreign country.  They marry and have children just like everyone else; but they do not kill unwanted babies.  They share a common table but not a common bed.  They are present ‘in the flesh’, but they do not live ‘according to the flesh’. They live on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.  They obey human laws, but surpass these law in their personal lives.  They love everyone, but are persecuted by all.  They are unknown, and yet they are condemned.  They are put to death and yet they are more alive than ever.  They are poor and yet make many rich.  They are short of everything and yet they live in abundance.  They are dishonoured and yet their dishonour becomes a glory.  Their names are blackened; nevertheless they stand innocent.  They are mocked and yet they bless in return.  They are treated outrageously and yet behave respectfully to all.  When they do good they are punished as evildoers,  When punished they rejoice as if being given new life.  They are attacked by Jews as aliens and persecuted by the Greeks.  Yet those who hate them cannot give any reason for their hostility.  To put it simply – life is to the body as Christians are to the world.  Their life is in the body but is not of the body.  Christians are in the world but not of the word.  Life is locked into the body, yet it holds the body together.  Christians are held like prisoners in the world, yet it is they that hold the world together.

Diamond Jubilee Evensong

Tags

Religion

It feels good to have two liturgies virtual put to bed before 9.30am and the sun is shinning!

At 6.30pm this coming Sunday, St Andrew’s will be holding a BCP Evensong to mark the Diamond Jubilee.  If you can’t come along but are interested – you can always join us at that time in spirit if not in person – you will find the liturgy here.