Room to breathe… and geese

Today is the start of holiday that leads into study leave for me. So space to paint, garden, walk, drink coffee, as well as read and write.

I have 2 things I want to aim at in writing. One is to explore mission and piety, engaging with Calvin and Hans Urs von Balthasar. Both of whom come fromthe sdame grounding concerns as a minister  myself. The second is to delve deeper into the psalms and a little project to put together some writing on these for practical usage.

The other week I had a dream about geese (Celtic symbol of the Holy Spirit). I read this in the book “Iona: Images and Reflections”(wild Goose publications 2007)

Soaring high over the isalnd. Free, yet also disciplined in their flight formation. The wild geese are always powerful signs of the ultimate Spirit which brings life to every human being: the Spirit which enables us to walk in freedom – in the light and truth and possibility of the Gospel each new day.

The Caim- John 7 and preparing for Sukkot?

 Last night at The Caim we read from John 7 v1-13. A pressing of Jesus to attend the feast of Tabernacles and launch his big ‘presidential’ campaign in a way! But he remains behind in secret to make his way there without public demonstrations and show.  As we sat around the Table we considered this feast and what it might challenge us with today. We thought about how it was to prevent God’s people forgetting their wander, pilgrim life trusting in God; there was the joyful thankfulness in the singing of Hallel psalms(113-118); the priest would take water from the pool of Siloam and pour it at one end of the altar and another priest would pour wine at the other end; the Temple would be lit up with lights(candle and lamps) the powerful symbolism of all this and the awaiting of the Messiah, and yet sev=cretly in their midst was Jesus, the messiah, but it was not yet time. But we from our position cannot help but note how he is indfeed the water of life, the light of the world the awaited one. So how forgetful are we and what dramatic enacting do we need to remember ? Tempted to build a booth at church to remind us around our annual meeting that we too are a wandering, pilgrim people. We poured water at one side of the Table as we refelcted the story and poured the wine in readiness for Communion. Also we considered the thanksgiving and joy and hope that Communion similarly brings to us, the anticipation of Christ coming again! Anyway, we had Communion as a remembrance and anticipation- bread and a cup. We shared at Table, and read Psalm 118

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. 27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. 28 You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. 29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

And we sang Halle, halle, halle-lu-jah and some even danced out from Caim!

To the ends of the world… Reflecting on Acts

In recent weeks there have been daily readings in Acts.  As we have encountered some major shifts in reforming our leadership structures here at Highgate and are about to action this, among other shifts that we constantly keep encountering, I have begun to discern through our Sunday texts and more daily just how God is shaping us and preparing us for whatever is ahead still. Sometimes we can be short sighted and consumed by ourselves and needs internally that we forget what we have been called into. The otehr Sunday I preached on Joseph and his brothers getting rid of him. In the family crisis, the peace of the house of Jacob shattered, Jacob lamenting, brothers rooted and imprisoned in their hatred and hostility, yet we note the ‘dream’ challenges and stirs and upsets this family and indeed, the empire in the end. It si the dream that matters in the end and runs through all this. The brotehrs react badly to it, as their sight is on Jospeh; Jacob ponders and holds the message of the dream; Joseph has to live into it. No-one knows it fully or makes sense of it at the time. No major Godly intrusions/revelations just a family and a dream.

In reading through Acts recently each day too I am reminded of what we are a part of in some small way, the greater part of God’s Kingdom. It is always a little bit of a way at a time. We never know it all, it demands prayerful waiting and obedience, wisdom to know what to do. Acts is such a wrestling by folks to make sense and live into the ‘dream’ Jesus set out for the Church/Kingdom.

There is also a lot of journeying and encountering of different people. Reflecting aorund all this I was reminded of the following clip from Sigur Ros     IN a simple way if visually captures, I think, these rambling thoughts about Acts all the way to the ends of the world….

The Caim – a story

The Caim is a midweek reflective service. We follow simple liturgies and read one of the daily readings, we pray together. This year we have met around the Communion Table each Week.

In the prayer time thanksgiving was offereed for the dustmen. A story explained this. One of our folks had a pile of logs arrived and the rain was starting. Going as fast as he could ti get it in under cover a dustman tunred up on his way past. these guys are super fit and run behin the truck tossing recycling etc into the truck. Anyway, the guy stops and offers a helping hand. Then another arrives and the two stash away the wood in no time. Meanwhile our friend is left giving thanks for the help. They ran on their way wishing him a good day! A wonderful simple, thankful story. I thought it worth sharing. Sometimes God surprises us and provides in our need. Incidentally, that was something of the gist of the text we read.

Emerging within the Church of Scotland

Having been part of the New Church Development ministry at a stage of reform within the Church of Scotland when Church Without Walls was also happening it is encouraging to see that there is a sense at least of continuing reform even within this area of the life of the Church,. Indeed, it seems that some of those early lessons, while they may not continue to see new congregations of that sort created, there are out of the ‘old’ some shoots appearing and taking up call to mission in Scotland. But I am especially encouraged at the full report to Assembly regarding planting/emergening matters. see Report(here) 2.2 Building for the Future is especially encouraging reading. I may reflect on portions in the next few days rather than here for now.

Suffice to note that the General Assembly 2008 meeting this week is deciding to ‘financially‘ get behind the emerging mission shoots:

General Assembly 2008:
Ministries Council to unveil new £1.5 million fund At this year’s General
Assembly (15 – 21 May), the Ministries Council will outline their plans
to devote £1.5 million – over five years – to a new Emerging Ministries Fund. This fund, which is available from 2009, would be made available to Presbyteries and charges through a grant making process specifically for new models of ministry and the establishing of new approaches to church. (Section 9.3.3.1.3, Ministries report) As such, the Emerging Ministries Fund will be supporting projects that engage with people in new ways where they are. In many cases this may mean less of a dependence on buildings and getting people to come in.
The Assembly will hear that the Emerging Ministries Fund will support
work in three areas (Section 3, Ministries supplementary):
Missional: work
that focuses on new church growth alongside or beyond the existing
congregation;
Ecclesial: work which is about establishing church from the ground up and exploring what that means for the given demographic and cultural context;
Experimental: work that looks at experimenting with new approaches to ministry. The hope would be to spread the funding across a range of approaches to maximise the learning experience for the Church at large. The processing of applications and general management of the fund will be carried out by the Council’s Emerging Ministries Task Group,
who are dedicated to working with the other Funds of
the Church to ensure that applications are dealt with by the appropriate body.Emerging Ministries Fund grants would be made at a maximum level of £30K per annum for a three year period. In addition, Presbyteries and congregations will be expected to demonstrate that they have explored potential sources of matched funding – either private or public sector, or from ecumenical partners – although
there is recognition that such assistance cannot always be secured.
Ministries Council staff will be able to offer advice and support to applicant organisations at all stages of the process. It is anticipated that this substantial investment in local church work will have a
significant impact in the initial 5-year period of the fund, and beyond.

"As slow as possible" ?

Yesterday I caught this pieceon Concert Fm (New Zealand). it caught my attention and so I had to stay seated in the car having parked and I was fascinated. A man called Ryan Knighton was being interviewed.(listen here)

He speaks of John Cage, whom I recollected having read about in Jeremy Begbie’s book Theology, Music and Time (Cambridge University press, 2000). Cage shows an unease with control and sought to allow sounds to be themselves. One comment upon Cage notes how he only sees sound as a fragment in the time continuum.

Anyway, it gets quite technical, but Knighton explains it reasonably well. You can visit the John Cage Project and read more and explore.

“The slowest and longest piece of music in the world
John-Cage-Organ-Project in Halberstadt, Germany

Since September 5, 2000, which is the 88th birthday of the avantgarde composer and artist John Cage, the slowest and longest concert that the world has ever heard has been playing: ORGAN2/ASLSP As Slow aS Possible that means this piece of music, for the organ, will be performed for 639 years in the church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt.”

Part of it theologically is the way ijn which this note sounds and hanges over the years according to the score. In particular it is Who changes the note? Who will come along, get involved? Assumptions of song they never strated . Message of hope, but first note is a rest. Story beyond the scale of our own span, a bigger idea of the future. As radio raises these questions, I thought of the way Sabbath rest as the initial movement out of Creation and then I consider the ways in which we are part of a bigger, hopeful story that God has for us in the now and eschatologically.

Further it is always sounding, even if are not present in that monastery in Halberstadt. You can listen! Fascinating that it plays on even if no-one is actually present sounding out. Anyway, maybe this is dull for you and I apologise, but it intrigued me and stopped me enough to pause and listen and ponder about what it may teach uis about faith.

Silence

General reading on Prayer has led me to Merton’s ‘Contemplative Prayer’ .

Some quotes and…

“In the way of prayer, as described by the early monastic writers, meditatio must be seen in its close relation to psalmodia, lectio, oratio and contemplatio. It is part of a continuous whole… not so much a way to find God but as a way of resting in him whom we have found, who loves us, who is near to us, who comes to us to draw us to himself.” (p29)

In particularly I also noted the ways in which the Psalms are, in Calvin’s words an ‘Anatomy of the soul’ in prayer. Merton reminds us that meditation is above all meditatio scriturarum. The words of the Bible made their own, memorising, repeating them. Additionally, a life of prayer, praying always, are united to the entire days activities in an organic whole and further has a corporate context. Undertaking this daily is a part of the daily dying and rising, mortificatio and vivificatio of the Christian’s life in Christ.

The “healing and creative work of [the monk], accomplished in silence, in nakedness of spirit, in emptiness, in humility. It is participation in the saving death and resurrection of Christ. therefore, every Christian may, if they so desires, enter into communion with this silence of the praying and meditating Church, which is the church of the Desert.”

Of course there is a challenge to such rhythms of silence, indeed the world’s anti-silence. I am reminded in anotehr way of Arvo Pärt (Composer) whose music emerged anew after some self-imposed silence, re-emerging with his music radically transformed. The technique he invented, or discovered, he calls “tintinnabuli” (from the Latin, little bells), which he describes “I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements —with one voice, two voices. I build with primitive materials —with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells and that is why I call it tintinnabulation.” The first public appearance of this was in the short piano piece, Für Alina. I recommend it.

I am no musician and have little understanding of the technicalities, but this music is audibly a means to appreciate the balances and interplays between a sound note and silence, yet it is silence that is somehow of the essence to allow the note to be heard. A prayerful life in the every day no less is built from ‘primitive materials’ – our lives and person – and the rhytms of our life are as much determined by the ‘communion’ with silences. Daily broken, daily reshaped.

In the midst of confusion there is great need to place ourselves -restful in God in silence, and meditate daily upon Scritpure and especially the psalms. Here is Merton’s famous prayer:

My Lord God I have no idea where I am going. I do not
see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I
really understand myself. And the fact that I think I am following Your will
does not mean I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please
you Does in fact please you. And I hope I have the desire in all that I am
doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know
that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing
about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in
the shadow of death. I will not fear for you are ever with me and you will never
leave me to face my troubles alone. (Thomas Merton)

Easter Sunday- Dance of the Merrymakers

Dance of the Merrymakers

A day of surprises. We had someone sit up front in white simply sitting in front of everyone. The music from Runrig – Solus na madain (The Morning Light) played with loop video. Then opening responses based around our own arrival in worship at an empty tomb.

Readings were Jeremiah 31 v1-6 and Matthew 28 v1-10

We began by considering the deathliness of Friday and Saturday, indeed, much of life is coloured and shaped by still. We thought of the deathly places and ways of the world we live in and that shape us still. We dared to note and confront death today as a reminder that resurrection flies in the face of death, it is the death of death. SO we read from 1 Corinthians 15, Romans 8, passages/texts that reshape us for life now and eternity. A resurrection people, hopeful, promised as Jeremiah’s exile people so much more – we were encouraged to join the dance of the merrymakers(Jeremiah) on this Easter day!

We sang Lord of the Dance, while the image by Elizabeth Rollins-Scott, provided a beautiful reflection for us too. As we sang though one of our senoir folks – a dancer all her life – came into the aisle and began a very beautiful dance offering in worship, in one verse she took a little girl and they danced to the front and returned to seats. It was a natural response on this day and something that ebvefryone will remember the day for this year. Unplanned, rehearsed and simply wonderful to see. It was no look at me, it was all I’d spoken about dramatised before our eyes.

Blessing
Go forth in the dance of the merrymakers
Resume your singing,
On your feet go,
Join the dance of the Father, Son and Spirit.

God’s Friday

Drinking the Cup

A CUP OF SALVATION

Drinking the cup of salvation means emptying the cup of sorrow and joy so that God can fill it with pure life.
(Henri Nouwen, Who can drink this cup?p97)

Reading of the day – Matthew 27 v45-61

We spent some time exploring the image Spencer potrays and began to wonder how we might have the Cross portrayed here on Highgate. The Crucifixion by Stanley Spencer we set alongside the reading for today confronting us with the reality of this painfully disturbing scene. We came to the Table, sharing in the Cup of Salvation.
We closed with these words of assurance:

Romans 8. 31 What then are we to say about these things?
If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own
Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we
are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we
are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Table – Thursday

Lifting the cup

fOR A GREAT SHORT VIDEO LOOP VISIT http://www.sgmlifewords.com/easter/video.php
(daY 5)

Lifting the cup is an invitation to affirm and celebrate life together. As
we lift up the cup of life and look each other in the eye, we say: “Let us not
be anxious or afraid. Let’s hold our cup together and greet each other. Let us
not hesitate to acknowledge the reality of our lives and encourage each other to
be grateful for the gifts we have received.”…to Life”
(Henri Nouwen, Can you drink the cup? p 61-2)

Reading of the day – 1 Corinthians 10:15-17

Tonight we came to Lift the cup. Paul in writing to the Corinthian church speaks of the dnagers of compromise with ‘idols’ and more His response though is somewhat surprising. HE bases it upon the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. In the few verses there is much emphasis upon ‘TAKING PART, Koininos – partnership, partakers together in Christ and consequently one another.

The Cup of Blessing then is more than a mere memorial, it is an active, ever present now activity in the life we have in Christ, through the Spirit. We also read Luke 22 and the ‘institution, the inaugurating of the Supper’ All aroudn that ATble were themes of alienation, abandonment and betrayal, yet there is also community, love and trusting relationships within the body of Christ. Jesus offers a cup to be passed among them as a symbolic reminder of their unity. (We passed a cup around as we heard more among those gathered in worship at this point). This invitation to dif=vide the common cup among them, to ift and share in it together must have been powerful as each would already have their own cup in front of them. THEN, he bvreaks bread and then they share the cup of blessing. The referneces time and again to fellowshiup, community as well as the pre-figuring of the final banquet. William Willimon says of the meal” A ritual for meeting in which an individual who feels isolated and unaccepted may discover the possibility for community and incorporation.”Fred Buechner also says that it’ involves our need not just for food but for each otehr’ in the midst of our own emptiness, alienation, forsakenness, weariness, betrayal and death we come to this Table as here, despite such rokenness and pain – holding cups of suffering, sorrow, we find Christ accept us, we find in one another acceptance and fellowship, partnership, we partake together.. We also discover at this table that we are never abandoned.

We came to the Table.

PSALM 63

O God you are my God alone,
whom eagerly I seek,
though longing fills my soul with thirst
and leaves my body weak.

Just like a dry and barren land
awaits a freshening shower,
I long within your house to see
your glory and your power.

Your faithful love surpasses life,
evoking all my praise,
through every day
to bless your name,
my hands in praise I’ll raise.

My deepest needs you satisfy
as with a sumptuous feast.
So, on my lips and in my heart,
your praise has never ceased.

Throughout the night,
I lie in bed,
and call you Lord to mind,
In darkest hours I meditate,
how God my strength is kind.

Beneath the shadow of your wing,
I live and feel secure;
and daily, as I follow close,
your right hand keeps me sure.