He suggests:

“For every person there is one way in which they can show God, and only they can do it like that.”

I like this attitude very much.  It is respectful of personal distinctiveness.  It allows for a diversity seldom approached in the church.   If reflects the sermon I chickened out of a week or so ago on John 1:10-18. It was mainly on verse 17  and the meaning of the words from which are derived the phrase ‘Grace and Truth’ mainly in the Hebrew word Chesed.  The part at which I stopped short would have said that we have created anew the law and are living in subservience to that, rather than in witness to the ‘Grace and Truth’.  If you take this to its (I’ll have to say ‘perhaps’ here because I’m part of the problem) logical conclusion the structures and organisation or business based Church (basically control) which we run is putting into a small box something that was never intended to be contained and until we let go of control and allow people to be ruled by the heart we will always be smothering something beautiful.  To be continued, after another book I’ve not yet finished - A Celtic Model of Ministry.

Not too dissimilar to that last Passover of Jesus, so I wrote this in the style of John Bell and Graham Maule

Eh, Jesus?

I couldn’t agree more, why do we have to play silly language games to speak of things beyond our understanding rather than just admitting that we don’t know!!!  Once we admit that, then serious conversation can begin!

Inspiration at the last possible moment came whilst drifting away from the reading back to the morning’s breakfast. The children wanted to watch a video whilst eating and chose Narnia! I was now re-creating the scene for my congregation in which Lucy (the youngest of the four Narnian adventurers was not believed about the land behind the wardrobe, even though she was more truthful out of herself and Edmond!
It occured to me as dd1 asked if there was a real place called Narnia me that perhaps we have lost our ability to imagine and to see the truth in stories needing to see tangible evidence.
The desperate need to know whether Narnia was real was not helped by my assertion that stories are as real as we want or need them to be. Those who don’t need or want the creation story to be real have seemingly lost the childhood ability to imagine a world beyond our own, strangly, something i attribute to the assertion of David Attenborough when he said recently on BBC1 about Darwin, that humanity believed it was the dominant race because the bible says so.
Such a lack of imagination not to engage with the story, but simply to say this is how it is.
If we start to realise we are not the most important creature on this planet, then that can be a starting point for cooperation rather than domination.  Of course that is the scary part for those with fixed ideas about the unseen world as we have to start to let go of our power over our own future…

All from the comments of a 9 year old sceptic!

He was particularly interesting on ‘The Kingdom of God’ which, he bemoans, is so often shortened to ‘The Kingdom’ or even ‘Kingdom … ‘  Suggesting that ‘The Kingdom’ in the current understanding of the phrase relates to a place, but the word derives from its old usage that of kingship or reign.  He was challenged with a question on charismatic ‘signs and wonders’ ‘of The Kingdom’ and if there were not to be located in someplace how could we see them etc.  I found this very strange, clearly he did too as he stressed his usage of the phrase Kingdom of God, rather than its shortening and actually prefering ‘Kingship of God’ as it doesn’t refer to a place.

If I had been quick enough, and I guess that is why I like to cycle home – time to think – I might have said that the question where is the Kingdom, ie signs and wonders is the wrong question.  Trying to locate ‘The Kingdom’ or signs of it with where questions kind of misses the point I feel.  I have not really ever thought of  ‘The Kingdom of God’ as a ‘where’, but a ‘what’.  It boils down to the same as ‘Where’, or ‘What’ is ‘God’ Dick suggested that if you must shorten the phrase then to shorten it the other way, i.e. God, rather than kingdom.

When you start asking ‘What is God?’ rather than ‘Where is God?’ or ‘What are the signs of the Kingdom of God‘ you get a far different answer.   Start taking a closer interest in what is around you rather than searching out the great lightning bolts.  You can then start to locate God in everything from the greatest marvel of creation to the simple hug shared between friends.

Oscar Wilde said:

“It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”

Therefore we just have to open our eyes and see…

Yesterday I came up with this, baked a roll, and shared it with our chapter.

Blessed are you, Lord God of all Creation

Blessed indeed is God, Lord of all that is.  We cannot add or take away from you.
You stand in, above and below all that is made, before and behind us, the source of life itself, the breath in all that lives.
We greet you Lord God, and gather in your light and grace.

Blessed are you, Lord God of all Creation
Through your goodness we have this bread to set before you

Such order, manifest in creation, such careful design, the Goodness of your earth, bound up in wheat, the sun and rain in divine proportion gives unto us this golden grain to be ground to the finest flour.
Mineral salt given up from the earth and sea to flavour and colour.
Yeast, the natural leaven the living breath of the bread, the smallest of life creates through decay, new life of goodness and nutrition.
Water, a gift for life, nourishment for parched bodies, enlivens and binds the dough on a path to perfection.

Blessed are you, Lord God of all Creation
Through your goodness we have this bread to set before you
Which earth has given and human hands have made

Hands you have crafted O Lord, work and knead, skilled in the ancient art; knowledge gained from your natural processes put to use for our benefit, earth has given up her best. We craft and create with it our daily bread.

Blessed are you, Lord God of all Creation
Through your goodness we have this bread to set before you
Which earth has given and human hands have made
It will become for us the Bread of Life.

So in recognition of all of this we set aside a portion, enough to taste the goodness throughout which you have created, been creating, intrinsically involved from the very first seed.   In the knowledge that all bread is blessed, a hurried loaf on a Monday morn, a sliced white in a lunch box, fluffy and regularly square, wholegrain and seed bread in careful plait, sourdough, soda, spelt, paskha, rye, olive, rolls and bloomer, split top, French loaf or cob; because it all comes from you, yet in and through this bread, this gift, this offering of your gift back in recognition of all your work,  we ask for a blessing once again, blessing on what has been created and set aside, blessing on those who gather to draw nourishment from it.
Because we do this, we acknowledge all that has gone before and as Christ broke bread and ate with his friends so many times, so we too follow his example and share this blessed bread with all who come to table.

Blessed are you, Lord God of all Creation
Through your goodness we have this bread to set before you
Which earth has given and human hands have made
It will become for us the Bread of Life.

Blessed be God forever.

I was distracted from writing by an excellent few days, but I did pen this – almost as it was happening.

The course material started this train of thought, focusing on who we are…

There is a chapel atop a rocky outcrop near St. Beuno’s, the key to which is normally on the hook in the boot room, or so we were informed.

No key…

But the sign said something about a sticky lock and not to lock it.

I climbed the hill full of expectation about what the chapel might be like, the views, the nature on the way and was pleased to arrive at the chapel’s east end, a stone building, small and well formed. It stood waiting to be explored.

I investigated the door, it was locked – no way in.

I was in a little despair, what now?

I sat on the step looking away from the chapel, contemplating – writing!

The key arrives, my heart leaps, I can go in, but I can’t turn around, I can’t look, it has been built up to now it is too much.

Forcing myself up I turn and go in. I hate it.

It is full of tat, rubbish, too many trappings for God. An ugly tatty crucifix, incense sticks, prayer cards, statues, candles, modern art paintings, loud noisy clutter. I close my eyes to rid myself of the images and sink to my knees in silence.

I bow my head to the floor, it is cold, beautifully cold, the fresh stone makes me wish the whole chapel had been like that, plain cold stone, refreshing.

I kneel for what seems like ages before getting up and very quietly going out, (the nun is in silence)

As I step out of the door, the sound hits me, the light is too bright, the volume has been turned up fully, children, cows, birds, the wind, a horse. I heard it all inside the church of course, but dully as if through earmuffs, but now it is as bright as the sun. I am fully awake, alive to the sounds of God walking though the garden, waiting for me to emerge from the gloom to enliven me with the spirit.

How are we to proceed in honesty and integrity with such a pronouncement. The decision buys the Anglican communion time together to discern a way forward. Yet how are individual priests and ministers to respond to a genuine request from committed same sex couples for the blessing of God?

Is this not a case of prevenient grace – the grace that God gives when an individual – or couple – moves towards God? How can we deny the blessing of God in such a situation? I am at a loss to answer this. I can only hope that the answer will lie in the experience, if and when it happens!

It is probably just me, I have been reading and studying about Eucharistic celebrations both for college and a week on Iona I am involved with, so to focus on this in that context I guess was a bit strange.

It is a shared experience of the outpouring of Grace, for me at least, echoed in the blessing and sharing of the sacrament. I am still puzzled and have yet to link this agape, the love of God, with what is more traditionally associated with Eros, the love of desire. I am reminded of a sermon I gave two years ago to students on Iona.
You should have been able to read it here, maybe I will post it tomorrow!!