Celtic Lent Day 12

Lord steady our feet when the world tries to rock and shake our faith.  When materialism beckons with coy hands, steady our feet. When lust sways within us, steady our feet. When fear tugs at our knees, steady our faith. Show us your goodness, and steady our hearts in you. Amen.
Show us your goodness, Lord; and steady our hearts in you.
Common Prayer for Ordinary Radicals

It's quite ironic to be talking about steady feet when there's a blanket of ice and snow outside, making my feet anything but steady! The thing about the snow is I know it'll eventually thaw and I'll be steady again. The times in my life I feel unsteady are like this, but like the snow I know they'll pass. Faith is something to help steady me; yes the rhythms and the rituals provide stability and security but more importantly it links me to a sense of divinity and the world and a sense of hope.

Scripture
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
   which cannot be moved, but abides for ever.
Psalm 125.1

Celtic Lent Day 11

Listening to the rain
What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk the rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows. Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. As long as it talks, I am going to listen.
Thomas Merton

There's something overwhelmingly spiritual about being immersed in nature, I never feel closer to God than when I'm outdoors. The connection to the patterns and rhythms of the seasons, feeling connected to something so much bigger and ancient than myself. My understanding is that this lies at the heart of Celtic spirituality; the never-ending relationship between humankind and creation.
Overnight (at work) I've watched everything be transformed by a blanket of snow; there's a silence snow creates which invites me to listen to its peace and find something in it.

Scripture
Deep calls to deep
   at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
   have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
   and at night his song is with me,
   a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42.7-8

Celtic Lent Day 10

Day Dream 
One day people will touch and talk perhaps easily,
And loving be natural as breathing and warm as sunlight,
And people will untie themselves, as string is unknotted,
Unfold and yawn and stretch and spread their fingers,
Unfurl, uncurl like seaweed returned to the sea,
And work will be simple and swift as a seagull flying,
And play will be casual and quiet as a seagull settling,
And the clocks will stop, and no one will wonder or care or notice,
And people will smile without reason,
Even in winter, even in the rain.
A.S.J Tessimond

If I could change something about my life it would be to live a life without hurry. I'm so consumed thinking about the next thing I should be doing that I can rarely give people or moments the time they deserve. I long to learn how to live in the present, not always hurrying ahead.

Scripture
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13.44

Celtic Lent Day 9

I have never been one to limit God to the scriptures, though the scriptures have nourished me well. My god is not imprisoned anywhere, nor in the bible nor the tabernacle.  Real Presence is everywhere, and those with the hearts if children revel in it. So much that I do not blush to call divine is revealed tome each day. The Word and the Bread! That's all there is. They continue becoming flesh. A crumb at a time!
Macrina Wiederkehr

My tradition has the bible and the Eucharist at the centre, but even more central are people themselves. The divine is in all people and in all places. The words of scripture can nourish faith but do not contain an uncontainable deity. My lived experiences, nourished by the word and sustained by the holy meal, teach me the most about God.

Scripture
While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’
Matthew 26.26

Celtic Lent Day 8

God’s soul is the wind rustling plants and leaves,
the dew dancing on the grass,
the rainy breezes making everything to grow.
Just like this, the kindness of a person flows, touching those dragging burdens of longing.
We should be a breeze helping the homeless,
Dew comforting those who are depressed,
The cool, misty air refreshing the exhausted,
And with God’s teaching we have got to feed the hungry:
This is how we share God’s word.
Hildegard of Bingen

A life of faith should be one that seeks to fulfil Hildegard's words. To be present to God in the here and now is to be present to the places where we see need; we should be an echo of God's soul in the world.

Scripture
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.
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.
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,
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.
Isaiah 41.17-20

Celtic Lent Day 7

The Bright Field
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
R. S. Thomas.

I think what R.S. Thomas' poem speaks of are those brief moments when we feel transcendent - connected to the divine, something outside of ourselves and much bigger than ourselves. Once you've felt that you want it to last forever.
Not hurrying to the future or hankering after the past means we must live in the here and now, the divine is in the here and now but like Moses we need to turn towards it and then have the curiosity to pursue it.

Scripture
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’
Exodus 3.1-3

Celtic Lent Day 6

The peace of wild things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry

Sometimes we need to just stop, step outside of our lives and take a moment to breathe. Lent gives us permission for this. If I think too far ahead I'm overwhelmed and anxiety creeps in. Some things need to be planned for and thought about but many things don't.
In training for the priesthood we were told to learn the difference between urgent and important; some things are important but not urgent, some things urgent but not important. Some things are both or neither. Spending this apart in nature helps me regain a sense of peace, and with that a sense of priority and of what really matters.

Scripture
Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
Matthew 6.26-27

Celtic Lent Day 5

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to remember, to attend. In fact, to awake. Still more, to remain awake.
C.S. Lewis

There is no escaping from God. Lewis reminds us we can, and often do, ignore the presence of our creator, but the Psalmist below reminds us there really is no hiding place even if we would wish it. There is no place, no darkness, where God cannot reach us and sit with us in that darkness. I find this comforting. In Lent we're joining God in the wilderness but in our lives God joins us in ours.

Scripture
Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.
Psalm 139.7-12

Celtic Lent Day 4

The secrets in God
There is a place in God himself, into which no-one can enter but that one person alone. From that room, from that unique place inside, the individual has to bring revelation and strength for others. This is what that person in particular was made for: to reveal secret things that are from the father.
Every one of us is something that the other is not, and therefore knows something- maybe without knowing that they know it- which no one else knows: and it is everyone's task, as one of the kingdom of light and an inheritor of it all, yo give their portion to the rest.
George MacDonald

I think the most important thing I learned during my years training to be a priest (and this is an on going revelation) is that God has called me as me, just as I am. I would see other people with gifts or a way about them I wished to possess and I thought something magical would happen during training, that I would become holy. It didn't, because I'm not. That's not my gift, nor what God wants from me. My gift isn't holiness, although it might be someone else's. I'm called to be Fi because no one else can be. By answering God's call I'm not someone special as we're all called to something and the trick is to try and figure out what. You can start by knowing, by believing, that you are called to be 100% you.

Scripture
Keep your tongue from evil,
   and your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil, and do good;
   seek peace, and pursue it.
Psalm 34.13-14

Celtic Lent Day 3

Since God is at the depth and centre of your soul, why not then pause from time to time at least from that which occupies you outwardly, even from your spoken prayers, to worship him inwardly, to praise him, petition him, to offer him your heart and thank him? What can God have that gives him greater satisfaction than that a thousand, thousand times a day all his creatures should this pause to withdraw and worship him in the heart.
Brother Lawrence

Lent is the perfect opportunity for me to concentrate on the much neglected inner life, to step away from the busyness and noise of the outward life - all the distractions - and make a deliberate space to connect with God deep within myself.

Scripture
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances
1 Thessalonians 5.16-17

Celtic Lent Day 2

Earth's crammed with heaven,
and every common bush afire with God;
but only he who sees takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I think the thing is to not only see God in every common bush and wonder in it but see God in those blackberries too. I believe there is no sacred/secular divide, all things belong to God as God is in all things, making our entire lives sacred and miraculous.

Scripture

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’
Exodus 3:4-5

Celtic Lent Day 1

After last year's mystical Lent, this year I'm having a Celtic Lent, using the Northumbria Communities Daily Prayer Book Two. I'll be working from the Eata series, using the readings and reflections for May (Contemplative Awareness) and July (Reflecting Celtic Thought).
Alongside this I'm using the Lent prayers from the Lindisfarne Scriptorium.
Today's meditation reflects upon what we can learn from a monastic way of life:

Pray constantly, in order to have a pure heart, in order to see God everywhere, in order to pray constantly...may we have eyes to see and hearts to respond to Christ's presence in the here and now
Christopher Jamison

Today being Valentine's Day as well as Ash Wednesday feels rather odd but both ultimately celebrate love. It's out of love that we have this day set aside where we're reminded that our days are limited as an encouragement to use the time we've been given wisely. In the words of Gandalf the Grey, all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. Becoming more present to the here and now helps us the discern how to do this. Where are we being called to? What work have we been given to do? Who has been sent to us to love?

Scripture
Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
Philippians 4.5

Talking your language

Sermon based upon Proverbs 8.1,22-31, Colossians 1.15-20 & John 1.1-14

Credit to Jane Williams for the thread of thought about communication, Richard Rohr for his meditation on dualistic thinking and Kermode & Mayo for the Denis Villeneuve interview

I want to transport you back to December 2000. Mike and I were visiting the Christmas markets in Hamburg, back before the German markets ever came to Manchester. I was determined not to be a typical English tourist and knowing we’d be getting a taxi back from the town centre to the harbour I had practised the German phrase I needed to get us to our boat.

We hailed a cab and clearing my throat I confidently said "der Hafen bitte", the driver looked blank. I tried again, less confident but sure I had the right phrase, "der Hafen bitte..??" Still blank. Once more, rather weakly, I tried "der Hafen bitte???: Still blank. Defeated I tentatively said “the harbour please…?”, “Ya” the driver replied and 10 minutes later we were there.

I thought I’d tried really hard and that the driver would understand me, I thought I was talking his language but no matter how hard I tried he just wasn’t getting it. Communication is so fundamental to our lives. It’s part of everything we do and most importantly key to our understanding and learning in almost everything.

If communication isn’t clear or effective for us, if people aren’t talking our language we might misunderstand, only partly understand or miss the point completely.

I was listening to an interview last week with the French film director Denis Villeneuve. His decision to make films in English, not his native language, struck me, I was intrigued by his career choice, like when I work with overseas nurses, with all the complexities of medical language.

The pauses in the interview were at times noticeable as Villeneuve tried to find the English words he was after, presumably quickly translating in his head.

Whilst contemplating all of this I remembered that communication is a central theme of Villeneuve’s most well-known film, the Sci-fi drama Arrival. Somehow I keep writing sermons about films- but they are one of my biggest passions.

In this film 8 alien space craft have arrived in 8 different locations on earth and the US military are trying to figure out their intentions. They enlist the help of Louise, a linguistics professor whose job it becomes to interpret the complex circular symbols of the life form’s written language.

This may sound a little similar to the set-up of other earth invasion stories but what follows is quite nuanced and emphasises the importance of nuance in our own communications.

When Louise figures out how to ask why the aliens have come, they answer "offer weapon". However, a team in China translates this as "use weapon". Louise argues that the symbol interpreted as "weapon" might mean "tool”. “Use weapon” or “offer tool”.

These are very subtle differences in interpretation but completely change the meaning, a reason why interpreting the bible can be so problematic.

Biblical interpretation and translation is quite an art. It’s generally recognised that the classic King James Version is quite a poor translation of the original texts, many original meanings or inflections are altered, lost or changed entirely. One disciple even changes gender. One reason why the Church of England favours the NRSV translation is because it’s considered a more scholarly text, the interpretation more closely matching the meaning of the earliest copies of the scripture.

This brings me to today’s readings, which individually are beautiful and poetic but together they might form a narrative which for me is one of the greatest entries in the entire 3-year readings cycle.

The message flowing through each of them is that Christ has been the Creator’s eternal companion, whether called wisdom, Jesus or Word, each of these texts refer to the same being, in relationship with God throughout time, as much as time can relate to God, and throughout our written history of humankind’s relationship with God, even before the living person of Jesus, Christ has been the sign of God’s love and his way of communicating with us.

In Proverbs we see the presence of Christ as Wisdom at creation and in companionship with God before creation. We’re told wisdom leads to understanding, but you could read this as Christ leads to understanding.

The Colossians reading details Christ as the person of Jesus, all things created by and for him, God’s co-creator through whom God reconciles all things to himself, all things, including us.

Finally, in that beautiful prologue to John’s gospel we have Christ the word, who was with God and is God.

Here we have, written throughout history, how God has used Christ as his way of communicating with us, his way of helping us to understand and to know who he is, what he’s like and of his drawing us nearer, to make us all part of this too.

God delights in us and longs to draw us nearer, to have us understand ourselves and our purpose by giving us a way of understanding God and God’s purpose.

In these three readings we see that God’s whole purpose from beginning to end is to communicate with us and allow us to enter into that dialogue, to learn to speak God’s language. This is about a reciprocal relationship, not a holy dictatorship, which is why we get a choice, why God never forces himself upon us, and why God still reaches out to those not in communion with him and tries to re-establish a dialogue.

We have Jesus dwelling amongst us, as a way of helping us to learn God’s language, but like learning any language- like my failed attempts at German- it doesn’t always come easily. It takes time and we get things wrong. And like in the film Arrival sometimes we lose the nuance in the interpretation.

Mankind like to make things dualistic, people are good or bad, right or wrong and our bible gets used to back this up, when in truth life has way more nuance than that.

We’re nuanced and complex and we all live in the grey areas where not many things are either black or white, but do you know what? God delights in us anyway. God made us, loves us and wants us to be part of the conversation.

By moving away from a language of duality we’re more able to process things like infinity, mystery, grace, suffering, sexuality, death and love; the issues most people struggle with.

By spending time learning God’s language, exploring what a gift we've been given in Christ, we learn about God's true nature, which is love and compassion.

God’s language, God’s word can be alive in each of us- and by that I mean the same as St John did; The Word, Jesus embodied in each of us, the living word, embodying the loving and compassionate nature of God in all that we do. I believe that’s what God has tried to communicate to us from the beginning and throughout creation, and what we need to do is chose how we respond to that.