A Poem for Easter

We give thanks for the night,

Because in the night

The seeds of hope were planted.

Whilst we couldn’t see,

You were there,

Accompanying us through pain,

Planting life in the barren places.

We give thanks for the night.

 

Let the morning bring light. 

Light that pours into our eyes

And reaches our souls.

Light that wakens the seeds of hope.

Beckons them to push their way through the soil

And break the surface.

 

Let the morning bring life.

Life that warms and wakens us,

That seeps into our bones

Renews and invigorates.

Life that expands inside us

And lifts our gaze.

 

Let the morning bring love.

Love that reaches out,

Builds bridges and connects.

Embraces.

Love that reaches down

And roots us to the earth.

 

 We give thanks for the night.

But let the morning come.

With its nourishing light;

With its tangling life.

Let love be born in us again,

Because the morning is here.

The morning is here.

 

The Blessing of the Mist

Let the mist descend,

And bring its blessing:

Muffling the noise of the world,

Stilling the voices echoing in my head.

 

Let the mist descend,

With its gift of quiet calm:

Softening the hard edges.

Allowing the doubt.

 

Let the mist descend,

So that my next step engages faith

and fosters trust.

Sense not certainty.

 

Let the mist descend,

And in its mingling

Let me step into the unknowing

And find oneness in its blessing:

The blessing of the mist.

 

Sermon: Mark 1:9-15

Theme: The Beginning of Jesus’ Ministry

This talk is from February 2021.  Do you remember that time?  In the UK we were in our second lock-down of the Covid Pandemic.  It was not an easy time and we were not meeting as a church – this talk was for an on-line service.  There is still so much pain in the world: we still live in confusing and distressing times.  This short passage from Mark tells us about the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry with the encouragement to ‘change our minds’.  This is not something that happens quickly for most of us.  Hopefully these words can come as an encouragement and give us hope: we have not been abandoned; Love still calls us.

The passage is within the talk but can also be found by following this link:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201:9-15&version=NIV

This reading from Mark is very short, and yet what happens in it is very significant.  In a sense it feels like Mark wants to rush on to tell us all about Jesus’ ministry – he is in a hurry to get to the action – but before he can start that properly he needs to mention these three things: Jesus’ baptism; his temptation in the desert; and the first words of his ministry.

So, a few observations:

Verses 9, 10 and 11: In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan.  And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.  And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

If we read the verses just before this we find that John is talking about Jesus, describing him as the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.  But Jesus doesn’t come to John saying, ‘that’s me – I’m the one you’ve been waiting for’.  He comes to John in humility and obedience.  He submits himself to John’s baptism which is not in the temple but out in the wilderness.  He does not go to the religious authorities but to John with his message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  In the Message version of the Bible, John’s message is described as ‘a message of life-change that leads to the forgiveness of sins’.  The word repentance carries some quite heavy baggage with it I think.  The original word that was used was ‘metenoia’ which literally means a change of mind.  John’s message was calling people to ‘change their minds’, change the way they were seeing things, to turn around and see the whole picture.  It was this transformation and renewal of their thinking that would lead to the forgiveness of sins.  It is this that Jesus re-aligns himself with (the word religion literally means to ‘re-align’) and God was pleased with him and opens up the heavens and speaks to him.

Verses 12 and 13 cover 40 days of Jesus’s life – 40 very important days.  In the Message version of the Bible they say: At once, this same spirit pushed Jesus out into the wild.  For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by Satan.  Wild animals were his companions, and angels took care of him.

It is worth noting straight away that it is the same spirit that falls on Jesus as a dove as he is baptised, that leads him into the desert or the wilderness.  When we are in the deserts of our lives it is easy to think that God has abandoned us.  God does not abandon us, and sometimes it is God’s spirit leading us into those desert times.  These 40 days, covered in these two short verses in Mark, were surely a critical time for Jesus.  A time of testing, yes, but also a time of learning.  Note that Mark mentions three things about Jesus’s time in the wilderness: he was tested by Satan, he found companionship with the wild animals and the angels took care of him.  Jesus entered the silence of the wilderness and, though he was tempted by Satan, he also found God there – through creation and through the care of angels.

We are in ‘desert days’ at the moment and many of us are taking solace in nature – recognising God in his creation.  I am sure that we are also being tempted – distracted by things that make us fearful, that bring out our anger and hatred, things that numb our love and bring out our selfishness and greed. But GOD IS WITH US – through his creation, in his creatures, and through angels if we will only let them minister to us. 

Through submitting to being baptised by John, Jesus ‘changed his mind’: he allowed himself to be transformed and blessed, enabling him to find companionship and angels in the wilderness.

The last two verses of our reading, 14 and 15: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, and saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.”  Or in the Message version of the Bible: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here.  Change your life and believe the Message.”

After those 40 days in the wilderness Jesus’ message is the same as John’s – metanoia – change the way you are thinking, turn around and see in a new way, because the kingdom of God has come near, or is here (depending on the translation you are using!) 

To know Christ is to know that God’s kingdom is here, now.  It is among us and within us.  This is the precious gift we have been given – a gift which is not given to us to cling onto but to share, and in sharing it to let it grow.

It takes a ‘change of mind’ to see this – a transformation – which is not a one-time thing but a gradual awakening, punctuated with euphoric glimpses of ‘heaven’.  Heaven is already here, and the angels already attend to us.  Let us pray that in our on-going desert days we can open ourselves up to the companionship of the natural world and all its creatures, the care of angels – however you see that manifested – and the love that is our God.

God bless you.

 

Musing #7: God as a slippery fish

I have an image of God in my head as a slippery fish. Let me try to explain! I believe that God is mystery and beyond our comprehension – our words and our thoughts will never capture who God is.  But words are what we have.  So, in our human-ness and our desire to understand we try to explain God: we pull him into our perception and, in so doing, we fail to see who he really is.

I’ve never held a fish that is still alive but, in my head, I see a fish thrashing around as I try desperately to hold onto it.  Until I realise that if I continue to hold onto this beautiful creature, it will die.  I will have the fish, but it will have lost its life.  My experience of God is that when I hold onto him too tightly – when I think I have understood and can explain God – he ‘dies’.  God becomes something else – a set of beliefs and rules - and is no longer alive.  I need to hold on to God lightly and let him slip out of my hands.  The thing with God is that we will never fully understand him.  The point is to keep seeking.

Free from our hands God, the fish, slips back into the water.  Water that spreads and seeps into the tightest of corners.  Water that is deep and broad and holds treasure beyond our imagining.  When God slips out of our hands he doesn’t want us to walk away: stay at the water’s edge and seek him.  As we stare into the depths we may catch a glimpse – the flick of his tail as he dances beneath the surface.  If we keep gazing, he may leap like a flash of silver to capture our attention again. 

Contemplation is in the gazing and the seeking.  Contemplation is coming to realise that God is not just the fish but the whole expanse of water.  And as I seek God I may also paddle in the shallows of his very being. Or take a deep breath and dive into him. Or feel, as I gaze, the spring of his spirit rising up in me.  God can not be held tightly and understood but he is constantly inviting us to dance with him in the waters of his spirit.

Photo by Mael Balland on Unsplash