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Tag: God

The Reality of Good News

Mon, August 1, 2022 Published by

T.S. Eliot once wrote humankind ‘cannot bear very much reality.’ I think the point he was trying to make is usually misunderstood, but, I thought of those words when I recently heard that number of people avoiding news-media has doubled in the last five years.

As a child I remember my Grandma ensuring that she watched both the lunchtime and evening television news bulletins, as well as having a national newspaper delivered in the morning and a local newspaper delivered each evening. Gone now is that rhythm for most people. According to a recent poll, only 17% now read a physical newspaper daily. Only 53% watch TV news bulletins. Its often discussed that smaller percentages of people are engaging with professionally produced, politically neutral news, and ceasing to distinguish it from passing entertainment or editorial comment. Perhaps T.S. Eliot was right when he famously wrote that humankind ‘cannot bear very much reality.’ But not all news is bad. When the evangelist Mark began to write his book, he started out with ‘The beginning of the gospel…’ which means ‘good news’. The start of the good news. That book talks about suffering, tragedy, in-fighting, occupation and political intrigue among many other things. So did he make a mistake? Did Mark forget what he said he was supposed to be writing about? For those who read that book, as well as the other books of our scriptures, it is important to remember that story of good news is set, not in a fairytale land where life is tranquil and charming, but rather in reality. And that is what makes it such good news. The news that causes us to see beyond the day-to-day difficulties, and to know the reality of God’s love for each of us. It is a knowledge of that love which led Mark to start his book by highlighting to 2000 years of readers, that that love is good and transformative. Hundreds of years before that, Isaiah knew the same to be true as he wrote “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and transformation”. May we hear that message of love, peace and transformation today. For that is the reality of a life of faith. T.S Elliot was right, we cannot bear too much reality. But perhaps that is because we all need to take a break from the bad news – to rediscover what the good news of love means for each of us.

Love Goes Where It Is Needed

Mon, December 13, 2021 Published by

Yesterday I was reading a book by Evelyn Underhill. She was a nineteenth century poet, novelist, and a theologian. One bit of this book in particular stood out to me. She wrote this about love, that “Love is creative. It does not flow along the easy paths, spending itself in the attractive. It cuts new channels, goes where it is needed. Love goes where it is needed.” In the New Testament scriptures, we hear something else about love – that ‘God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them’. Paired together these two insights make a remarkable statement: That God is made known to us as love when we need it most.

So where do we need love most?

Well perhaps we need love most in the parts of us that are broken, or hurting, or afraid; the parts of us that we often don’t want to acknowledge ourselves, and sometimes struggle to share with God. But that is where God is. Exactly where we need Love to be,
– with us in our vulnerability, where and when we need God the most, cutting new channels into our hearts. Abiding with us. Staying with us always. Evelyn Underhill knew that love went where it was needed by the person of Jesus, and the first letter of John explains how she could know that; “God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which we are made whole. Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another” So let’s go and do that – let’s go and love as we know that God is loving us.

Mercy’s Beam I See

Tue, December 7, 2021 Published by

Advent has always been my favorite season in the Church calendar. Singing in all of those Advent Carol Services as a child whilst holding a flickering candle clearly made an favorable impression… despite the piercing cold!

The theologian Walter Bruggemann reminds us that while Advent is a time for getting ready, “getting ready time is not mainly about busy activity, entertaining and fatigue.” He goes on to explain his thought on how to be prepared in a spiritual sense for the coming celebrations of Christmas is about also being “abrasive, in that our preparation is also linked with asking, thinking, pondering and redeciding”. Abrasive is at first glance a curious choice of words, but by “abrasive” he means that the season of Advent is best approached by making a conscious and perhaps even uncomfortable decision to rebalance and reorient our lives, refocusing on how we can live our lives fully in tune with God. When experienced with an open heart and mind, the season of Advent aims to provide insight and perspectives for us to welcome God’s light into our lives in the person of Jesus. Over these past couple of years, carving out that space for pondering upon how God’s light shines into the darkness and difficult parts of our lives becomes even more vital. And so instead of being unbalanced in a perpetual state of getting ready so as not being really ready for anything – I hope you may join with me in being mindful of how we use or time between now and Christmas. To find the right balance of preparation and contemplation as we ponder, watch and wait. Perhaps I’ll start by revisiting the words of Charles Wesley’s Advent hymn ‘Christ whose glory fills the skies’; “Dark and cheerless is the morn unaccompanied by thee; Joyless is the day’s return, till thy mercy’s beams I see, till they inward light impart, glad my eyes, and warm my heart.” May we all see beams of mercy and light this Advent season.

Pilgrimage Socks

Sun, October 3, 2021 Published by

What do you think of when you read the word ‘pilgrimage’? Websters Dictionary offers us two definitions; ‘a pilgrimage being a journey undertaken by a person to a shrine or a sacred place’, and also and perhaps more interestingly, ‘the course of life on earth’. Whether we think of pilgrimage being to a particular place, or within the wider sense of life itself being a constant journey towards finding enlightenment and joy, it remains clear that by necessity pilgrimage (even a metaphorical one) includes change, and importantly, a change within the person undertaking the journey.

Some time ago, while listening to a Rabbi speak about Jewish values relating to aging, I heard this quote; “I have reached an age when, if someone tells me to wear socks, I don’t have to”. Perhaps some of you can connect with that sentiment, and if you can then you are among illustrious company because that quote comes from Albert Einstein. I’m not sure how often Einstein wore socks, but there is something wonderful and refreshing about anyone who in growing older has also grown bolder.

The pilgrimage of aging is a journey, a journey to allowing us to know ourselves and God in a new light, accompanied by the wisdom of our years. That journey might be difficult, but if we look around us there will be people to help us on our way. If we approach aging as a pilgrimage to greater understanding rather than just the nuisance of ‘getting old’, then we open our hearts to learning, self-appreciation and freedom- even the freedom of not wearing socks if you don’t want to. May we all know that on our pilgrimage of life we do not journey alone. We all as fellow pilgrims journey with God as our guide. Perhaps this is best put by Sidney Carter in his hymn One More Step Along The World I Go; “You are older than the world can be, you are younger than the life in me, ever old and ever new, keep me traveling along with you: And it’s from the old I travel to the new; keep me traveling along with you.” So let us journey on together.

@nina_p_v via Twenty20

One Step Enough For Me

Fri, August 20, 2021 Published by

And yet his words are a prayer not for supernatural problem solving, nor even to grasp the entirety and complexity of whatever befalls us, but simply for the guidance and support to simply take one more step forward on our pilgrimage of life.

Our Joy That Hath No End

Sun, April 4, 2021 Published by

A Happy Easter to you all! It was wonderful to join with others in our Campus community at our Campus Easter Sunrise Service this year as we heard and rejoiced in prayer and praise; “Jesus Christ is ris’n today, Alleluia! Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia! Who did once upon the cross Alleluia! Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!”

The Blame Game

Sun, July 14, 2019 Published by

The Rev. Brad Munroe, the Executive Presbyter of the local denominational body of which I am a part (part of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A), has rewritten the Serenity Prayer for the 21st Century. 

God, grant me the serenity to accept that others
may misunderstand, misinterpret, and misjudge
my motives when hearing the narratives I speak,
the courage to listen with grace, humility, and compassion
for other’s motives when hearing the narratives they speak,
and the wisdom to know when to speak and when to listen,
always seeking charity, clarity, and conviction from all.

In a recent article, Brad writes about the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAR) which is a term psychologists use to describe the phenomena of attributing ill motives to others while assuming pure motives for oneself. For example, if someone cuts us off while driving, our first thought might be “What a jerk!” Conversely, consider the last time you were suddenly honked at for drifting into a different lane.  You may have had an immediate alibi (e.g. the sun was in my eyes, my kids were distracting me) that explained your behavior based on a situation.  You didn’t immediately come to the conclusion that you were an inconsiderate or incompetent driver. Because of the Fundamental Attribution Error, we tend to believe that others do bad things because they are bad people. We’re inclined to ignore situational factors that might have played a role. 

A particularly common example is the self-serving bias, which is the tendency to attribute our successes to ourselves, and our failures to others and the situation. You might have noticed yourself making self-serving attributions at times. How often do we judge others harshly while letting ourselves off the hook at the same time by rationalizing our own unethical behavior? The Fundamental Attribution Error is so pervasive that I guarantee you will see it in action over the next week if you keep your eyes open.   If we were to add up how many times the FAR is made in the meetings we attend, the gatherings we go to, the conversations with family and friends, we would likely find reasons why our life together needs an injection of “the courage to listen with grace, humility, and compassion.”

Some helpful remedies and things to consider are:  watch out when you make generalizations and don’t be too quick to draw conclusions about the character and capabilities of others, assume the good will of the other person, and envision yourself in the shoes of the other person and imagine their challenges. Unquestionably, there are genuine jerks and incompetent people we run across in life.  Given our inherent tendency to ascribe negative traits quickly, we will be better off by considering alternate explanations before we jump to conclusions.  Those folks that are truly deserving of negative labels will have ample opportunity to validate our suspicions!

Lost and Found Again

Mon, July 8, 2019 Published by

This past week I read about an international research project conducted by Science Magazine. Hundreds of “lost” wallets containing large and small amounts of money were placed in locations around the world where they could easily be found, with the aim of the experiment being to see what would happen next. Would one nation be more honest than another? Would a particular age demographic be more honest than another? Would anybody turn in any of the wallets at all? Well the results have been surprising to read. Fascinatingly, the study revealed that the more money there was contained in a lost wallet- the more likely it was to be handed in to the fictitious owner, whose contact details were also left inside. For those of you wondering, Switzerland had the highest overall wallet return rates. China had the lowest, and the U.S. ranked around the middle of the 40 countries, at 21st place.

The project reminded me of those various parables that Jesus told about things being lost. Jesus’ teaching using allegorical stories is recorded in all four gospel texts, including stories about lost sheep, lost coins and lost children, with his intent and focus being to help us to understand the joy of God in the lost being found, and the rejoicing in heaven over those who find true fulfillment and joy in their lives by living fully into a relationship of faith and love with God.

According to the Science Magazine study, and contrary to what many might suppose, it would appear that civic honesty is still alive and well. It’s easy to be despondent about a perceived decline in what one might refer to as neighborliness and honesty, but the research certainly suggests that, when it comes to our society, all is not lost. And as we read in Jesus’ parables about the enduring and boundless love of God, it becomes clear that neither are we. May all who walk the pilgrimage of faith, and who search for meaning and purpose find voice for our hearts desire in the words of Martin Luther King’s favorite hymn; “Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand. I’m tired, I’m weak, I’m alone. Through the storm, through the night lead me on to the light, take my hand precious Lord, lead me home.” May all those who feel lost find a home amidst God’s love.

Big Tech, Big Brother and a Bigger God

Sun, May 26, 2019 Published by

George Orwell’s novel, 1984, was so successful at creating an imagined yet potential future reality that seventy years later, one of its most famous phrases ‘Big Brother is watching you’, continues to be used when describing the potential for governments and business to use technology to intrude into our daily lives via technology. This past week, that phrase was used by many journalists writing about another breach of technological security. This time, the text messaging service WhatsApp had been hacked by people who had installed spyware, turning users’ cell phones into a surveillance system by activating its camera and microphone, tracking users movements and extracting information from messages that were sent. As Orwell envisioned, that potential in the hands of those seeking to cause harm or to control others has some very serious consequences and implications. If someone hacked my phone, I suspect the most interesting thing they would find would be my wife and I discussing our dinner plans, but the incident is another reminder of how much we value our privacy. Technology has created a double bind. It facilitates communication to an amazing degree. We can send a message to anyone, anywhere, anytime. But it seems to be coming with an increase in surveillance that makes private communication risky. What are we to do? Throw away the phone and return to sending letters with the Pony Express? I hope not. In Psalm 139, traditionally attributed to King David, we hear a half-complaint and half-rejoicing in the truth that he is unable to escape the omniscient God. ‘Where can I hide from your spirit?’ he asks. He answers his own question by saying that he can’t and that perhaps it doesn’t matter. He knows that God’s gaze not only penetrates the rock of the cave in which he hides, it sees into his very soul. God is able to read his life, decrypt it end to end. To use a modern idiom, David knows he has been soul-hacked. The idea of being soul-hacked would be appalling if the one knowing the secrets of our hearts was a malignant force out to mine the data of our lives and use the information for their own ends to crush and oppress us. But as the Psalmist goes on to say: ‘Your eyes have seen my unformed substance.’ ‘Created my inmost being.’ The God who cracks the encryption of our hearts, created that heart and gives us the code to open it. The One who is watching us, in this instance, is not against us but for us.

One Wild and Precious Life

Mon, May 20, 2019 Published by

Much-loved poet, Mary Oliver, died recently at her home in Florida at the age of 83. She lived for many years in Provincetown, Mass., with the love of her life, the photographer Molly Malone Cook. Oliver got a lot of her ideas for poems during long walks — a habit she developed as a kid growing up in rural Ohio. She wrote about one such walk in her poem “The Summer Day”:

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean-

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

A friend of Oliver’s described her as “a visionary poet, and she’s also the quintessential tough old broad who finds traces of awe in, for example, scooping out the shining wet pink bladder of a codfish, or getting down on all fours with her dog out in the woods and, for an hour or so … see[ing] the world from the level of the grasses.”  What I particularly appreciate about Mary Oliver is that she knew the rewards of paying attention.  As Jesus encouraged, she seriously considered the lilies of the field how they grow. Her essay called “Staying Alive,” is about escaping from her difficult childhood into nature and literature.  Her work speaks directly to us as human beings in lines such as: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” In her poem, When Death Comes, she beautifully says, “When it’s over, I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement.” Writer Ruth Franklin says her work is infused with a deep spirituality. “The way she writes these poems that feel like prayers, she channels the voice of somebody who it seems might possibly have access to God. I think her work does give a sense of someone who is in tune with the deepest mysteries of the universe.”  As we move into the dog days of summer, I look forward to reading more of Mary Oliver.  What will you be reading?

The Songs We Are Called to Sing

Mon, May 13, 2019 Published by

Later this month, the parliament of Uganda is due to debate, and potentially pass, proposed laws designed to censor some of the country’s most prominent artists. The proposed regulations include vetting new songs, videos and film scripts prior to their release.  Musicians, producers, promoters, filmmakers and all other artists will also have to register with the government and obtain a license that can be revoked for a range of violations. Not surprisingly, the proposals have been condemned as an intrusion into artistic freedom, and interestingly, the proposed legislation has inadvertently sparked a global recognition of the actual influence of what they are seeking to restrict. It is nothing new for the arts to make those in positions of power and control feel uncomfortable, and yet the power of what is sung, and what we ourselves sing, is easily overlooked. It can give a voice to our deepest emotions – and it can help shape our whole approach to life. The Old Testament psalms reflect almost every human condition – anger, grief, despair, illness, desertion, betrayal, and often a deep desire to see justice done. But alongside the lament, we also find praise, thanksgiving and celebration. All life is seen in light of a God whose ways might be beyond our recognizing, but who is to be found even in the darkest of our days.

It was this ability to keep on singing about a liberating God which helped sustain many slave communities in this country during the evil of slavery. Their voices blended in harmony to reach out beyond the drudgery and the misery to a promised land ‘Way over Jordan’. The singing encouraged, motivated, and articulated an important truth which these people had grasped, and were eager to declare with robust passion. What song are we called to sing? Are we singing it, or have we been silenced into submission by those who would prefer not to hear? The Ugandan government might succeed for a while in controlling what’s to be sung. But the song of truth won’t be silenced forever. As Sam Cooke wrote; ‘There have been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long, but now I think I’m able to carry on. It’s been a long, a long time coming but I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will’. May we all find in God the words to our songs, and the strength to keep singing.

 

A Phoenician Easter

Sun, April 21, 2019 Published by

In our Easter celebrations, we find the truth of that victory in ourselves and the world around us, which sets an undying flame of faith within our hearts. May that flame burn brightly today and always. Alleluia.