I said in a previous blog that I was done with the God of fear, done with using God's name to scare people into belief and 'right' behaviour. I also said that at some point I would follow this up with some other thoughts and this is one of them.
This week has been filled with interesting instances and conversations that I have found difficult, things that I have not agreed with. But to be honest I love that in life because it makes me think, question and most of the time ultimately to grow in my understanding of myself, others and God. So when I tell you these instances please do not think that I am particularly criticizing, rather I am grateful for the chance to think something though. Here are the instances...
The first incident occurred last week when I had a conversation with someone who was very grateful for the generosity of one particular friend. She implied that the reason the friend had been so generous was because they are Christian. It was also implied that non Christians do not understand that level of generosity. This may well be the experience of this person so I am not questioning the truth of this statement simply using the conversation as an example.
The second incident was listening to prayers in Church, mention was made of the difficulties going on around the world in places like Syria and Ukraine and the prayers asked that Christians would pray to God for peace. Again nothing wrong in that.
The message talked about joy and implied that joy as it is understood by non Christians is nothing compared to the joy found in Jesus Christ, that Christian joy is different, better than non Christian joy.
All this got me thinking, are we not called to be a part of this world instead of aside from it? Surely Jesus came to be fully a part of us and not to separate us one from another? Was the joy he felt different to the joy that everyone feels? How about the pain, was that pain different? The simple answer is no. Generosity, love, a yearning for peace, joy, pain and so much more are no different, no better and no worse simply for being a Christian or a non Christian. There are generous Jews, Atheists, Agnostics, Sikhs, and Buddhists*, these same people feel joy and pain, love and hate, they pray for and work for peace, care for their neighbours and their planet. So why is it that we continually try and set ourselves apart from others simply based on the names they use for God, the understanding they might have of the world?
For me, my faith in God, which makes most sense for me through the story of Jesus, makes me want to be better than I was before, do better than I did before but it doesn't make me better than the next person who may or may not have a faith at all. The God/Jesus story is what I grew up with, it is a story that makes sense for me of many of the questions I have about life and the world and the way I relate to other people and the world around me. But we as Christians are not alone in our lofty Church buildings holding the monopoly on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness or goodness. Our faith should make us understand better than anyone that no one is perfect, let alone us. Our faith should make us see and celebrate the similarities in others, not the differences.
So may the God of your understanding, however you understand God to be, speak the words of love, joy and peace to your heart. For each person who chooses violence and hatred may there be ten others who are shouting loudly for love and peace. For each person who uses the name of God to justify hate and killing may there be one hundred more who choose to stand against it and call out the name of the God of peace. May we who profess a faith in Christ step out from our self appointed superiority and grasp the hands of others around us, asking not what it is that sets us apart, or makes us better than the other, but instead seeking out those whose hearts are singing the same song as ours. A song of love and joy that has but one source, a source that makes all things freely available to any who would choose it. Let us stand together.
*Not an exhaustive list
Sunday, 25 January 2015
Tuesday, 20 January 2015
like a child
Nearly two years ago our lives were turned upside down and blessed in equal measure with the arrival of our beautiful daughter. We decided a while back that the time was right to try for a baby. We chose a sperm donor who was also a friend because we wanted the baby to know their routes and several months of preparation later we began the process of actively trying for a child.
However, as with all the best laid plans, things did not go according to plan as in the same week we began trying for a baby we discovered that my partner had AML (Acute Myloid Leukaemia) It had been coming on for a while but we had no idea that either she was sick or in fact that I was already pregnant!
She beat the leukaemia once after four rounds of chemo and whilst I was pregnant. Some days I would take her into hospital for her treatment and then run down the corridor to be sick in the loo. Two weeks before the baby arrived we were told the leukaemia was back again and this time needed a bone marrow transplant. They gave us 2 weeks grace on the start of treatment to give her the chance of being at the birth and thankfully she was there and able to be at home for a week before going into hospital for her next treatment. Three rounds of chemo and then the transplant, during which Debbie nearly died, and we had a 10 month old baby and a massive battle ahead of us.
I tell you all this because I need you to understand what a miracle our baby felt like, she survived the early stages of pregnancy despite all the stress, she was a light of beauty and hope in a very dark time, and she arrived against the odds. I'm not saying it was easy, but one look at her beautiful face each day and we all felt like we could do it, like we could face anything. I learn so much from her despite the fact she is yet unable to even put a basic sentence together, and I want to share two things that she showed me just the other day.
Each day when we get up we go downstairs and we feed the cats, Emily (the toddler) helps me to give vegetable treats to the guinea pigs that live in our conservatory. Then every morning she runs to the large cat scratching post and 'hides' in between the posts and every day I pretend that I can't see her and try and find her. Then with great glee she comes out from her hidey hole and shouts 'boo' and I pretend to be all shocked. It doesn't matter how many times we do this she believes me when I say I can't see her and she loves playing this game. She has an unquestioning trust in me and our game that we play.
The second thing that day came when we were playing with her new set of bricks she got for Christmas. They have horses and fairy princesses in the set and she discovered the joys of building with them rather than knocking things down. The thing is what she built, to her it seemed completely plausible that brick on brick on horse on brick on unicorn with a baby horse on top was a perfectly normal and acceptable thing to happen.
Oh if only our relationship with God could be so, unquestioning trust and not restricted by the limitations of our mind. The time in our lives when we learned the most was before the age of five, not just because there is so much to learn but also because we explore and question and try things with abandon and trusted our care givers without question. Our minds were sponges and we took in every detail and just found the world to be a wonderful place.
I know this is simplistic and that life is far more complicated than this, that we have all been shaped by our experiences, damaged by life's twists and turns. But maybe when Jesus said you must become like children in order to enter the New Realm of God I think he may have had something. As I believe that the Realm of God is in fact here and present and is available to us, approaching being a part of it like a child makes complete sense. That sense of openness and trust, a sense of adventure and experimentation, the more I learn from the way our little girl looks at the world, the more I feel I am growing and deepening my relationship with God. I fully believe that children can see things that we cannot and that over time we shut down and see less and less of the Sacred in the world around us. But let us take a leaf out of the book of a lively toddler, stack unicorns on horses on bricks, hide in full sight yet believe we cannot be seen, I am sure that we will see so much more of God if we do.
I may be teaching Emily colours and numbers but the truth is that she is teaching me far more about life and the world than I am teaching her and I am loving every moment of this new and exciting perspective.
Stay blessed
Rev R x
However, as with all the best laid plans, things did not go according to plan as in the same week we began trying for a baby we discovered that my partner had AML (Acute Myloid Leukaemia) It had been coming on for a while but we had no idea that either she was sick or in fact that I was already pregnant!
She beat the leukaemia once after four rounds of chemo and whilst I was pregnant. Some days I would take her into hospital for her treatment and then run down the corridor to be sick in the loo. Two weeks before the baby arrived we were told the leukaemia was back again and this time needed a bone marrow transplant. They gave us 2 weeks grace on the start of treatment to give her the chance of being at the birth and thankfully she was there and able to be at home for a week before going into hospital for her next treatment. Three rounds of chemo and then the transplant, during which Debbie nearly died, and we had a 10 month old baby and a massive battle ahead of us.
I tell you all this because I need you to understand what a miracle our baby felt like, she survived the early stages of pregnancy despite all the stress, she was a light of beauty and hope in a very dark time, and she arrived against the odds. I'm not saying it was easy, but one look at her beautiful face each day and we all felt like we could do it, like we could face anything. I learn so much from her despite the fact she is yet unable to even put a basic sentence together, and I want to share two things that she showed me just the other day.
Each day when we get up we go downstairs and we feed the cats, Emily (the toddler) helps me to give vegetable treats to the guinea pigs that live in our conservatory. Then every morning she runs to the large cat scratching post and 'hides' in between the posts and every day I pretend that I can't see her and try and find her. Then with great glee she comes out from her hidey hole and shouts 'boo' and I pretend to be all shocked. It doesn't matter how many times we do this she believes me when I say I can't see her and she loves playing this game. She has an unquestioning trust in me and our game that we play.
The second thing that day came when we were playing with her new set of bricks she got for Christmas. They have horses and fairy princesses in the set and she discovered the joys of building with them rather than knocking things down. The thing is what she built, to her it seemed completely plausible that brick on brick on horse on brick on unicorn with a baby horse on top was a perfectly normal and acceptable thing to happen.
Oh if only our relationship with God could be so, unquestioning trust and not restricted by the limitations of our mind. The time in our lives when we learned the most was before the age of five, not just because there is so much to learn but also because we explore and question and try things with abandon and trusted our care givers without question. Our minds were sponges and we took in every detail and just found the world to be a wonderful place.
I know this is simplistic and that life is far more complicated than this, that we have all been shaped by our experiences, damaged by life's twists and turns. But maybe when Jesus said you must become like children in order to enter the New Realm of God I think he may have had something. As I believe that the Realm of God is in fact here and present and is available to us, approaching being a part of it like a child makes complete sense. That sense of openness and trust, a sense of adventure and experimentation, the more I learn from the way our little girl looks at the world, the more I feel I am growing and deepening my relationship with God. I fully believe that children can see things that we cannot and that over time we shut down and see less and less of the Sacred in the world around us. But let us take a leaf out of the book of a lively toddler, stack unicorns on horses on bricks, hide in full sight yet believe we cannot be seen, I am sure that we will see so much more of God if we do.
I may be teaching Emily colours and numbers but the truth is that she is teaching me far more about life and the world than I am teaching her and I am loving every moment of this new and exciting perspective.
Stay blessed
Rev R x
Monday, 12 January 2015
Why? Why? Why?
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Why do you exclude me and the speak of a God of unconditional love?
Why is only one Holy book important when the God story spans eternity?
Why won't you reach out and touch me, when God loved the leper and the lame?
Why would you think God won't love me, when She knows me and calls me by name?
#rethinkingourgod
Friday, 2 January 2015
Better because of you
I have to say that New Year means very little to me. The most it affects me is that I will spend the next four months or so trying to remember to write 2015 rather than 2014 whenever I need to write the date down. I don't do New Year's resolutions; I have never stuck to them and since having children I have not stayed up late to celebrate in any way, because children do not conveniently sleep in the next morning just because I'm tired. Please understand that this is no hum bug story. If any of these things work for you, then wonderful and I rejoice with you. But New Year is the subject of this blog because it is significant for most people and does mark a divide in time between the last and the present year.
Over the past three years I have had a similar conversation with one particular friend, well I say conversation, it is more like:
Me: "Well next year has to be better than last year! Nothing could be worse than that!"
My Friend: "Absolutely! Here's to a better year than last year. "
And yet, each year we said that, things seemed to get progressively worse for our little and damaged group. We have been through the loss of our community, followed by leukaemia (twice) and then the death of a wonderful woman to secondary breast cancer. Year after year we wondered how we kept going, how we survived, although battered and weary. But as I was reflecting on all that had happened I found myself not wondering how we got through but knowing how.
We LOVED each other, we HELPED each other, we HELD each other's hands. We called each other on the phone, sent little notes of care and hope, we cooked food for each other, offered lifts to those who needed it, we used social media to update, to ask for prayer, we lit candles and just generally did whatever we were able to no matter where we were!! We wore funny hats to cheer people up and held Christmas in August for someone who would not see this Christmas gone. No one asked us to, no one scripted it, we just did the little we could, in anyway that we could, and this is what made the difference!!
So this year you will not hear me say, "Next year has to be better" Instead I will make a promise I intend to keep and I ask you also to make this promise too....
No matter what the next year brings, in times of joy or times of sadness, through rejoicing and difficulties, I will do my best to be there with you. You may be close by or farther away, I may not know you yet, this may be the year that our stories collide. You may not even meet me or even know my name, I might be a friend of a friend who somehow touches you in a way I do not know, but I will do all I can to hold you, sing for you, touch you, pray for you....if that is what you need. For I know now, thanks to those who have done so for me, that the tick of a clock from one year to the next means nothing. It is given meaning by the sharing of ourselves, our love and our care! This is my promise to you!
With much love in this moment!
Rev R xx
Over the past three years I have had a similar conversation with one particular friend, well I say conversation, it is more like:
Me: "Well next year has to be better than last year! Nothing could be worse than that!"
My Friend: "Absolutely! Here's to a better year than last year. "
And yet, each year we said that, things seemed to get progressively worse for our little and damaged group. We have been through the loss of our community, followed by leukaemia (twice) and then the death of a wonderful woman to secondary breast cancer. Year after year we wondered how we kept going, how we survived, although battered and weary. But as I was reflecting on all that had happened I found myself not wondering how we got through but knowing how.
We LOVED each other, we HELPED each other, we HELD each other's hands. We called each other on the phone, sent little notes of care and hope, we cooked food for each other, offered lifts to those who needed it, we used social media to update, to ask for prayer, we lit candles and just generally did whatever we were able to no matter where we were!! We wore funny hats to cheer people up and held Christmas in August for someone who would not see this Christmas gone. No one asked us to, no one scripted it, we just did the little we could, in anyway that we could, and this is what made the difference!!
So this year you will not hear me say, "Next year has to be better" Instead I will make a promise I intend to keep and I ask you also to make this promise too....
No matter what the next year brings, in times of joy or times of sadness, through rejoicing and difficulties, I will do my best to be there with you. You may be close by or farther away, I may not know you yet, this may be the year that our stories collide. You may not even meet me or even know my name, I might be a friend of a friend who somehow touches you in a way I do not know, but I will do all I can to hold you, sing for you, touch you, pray for you....if that is what you need. For I know now, thanks to those who have done so for me, that the tick of a clock from one year to the next means nothing. It is given meaning by the sharing of ourselves, our love and our care! This is my promise to you!
With much love in this moment!
Rev R xx
Thursday, 1 January 2015
The kissing stone
Bend at the waist and turn of the head, eyes aligned with
horizon’s bend.
Stone in the hand, smooth and flat, perfectly rounded and
carefully picked.
The mist that rests upon the water like glass, so still and
clear you could see your face.
Then arm pulled back and the eyes narrow as stone, propelled
towards the lake,
gently kisses the water….again….and again…until its flight
dips below the surface
as gravity pulls it down.
Yet hidden from sight, still the ripples it makes, spread
out from each kiss
making ripples and patterns that overlay and mingle
together.
Sacred One, makes ripples in our settled soul, disturb our
stayed and set out ways.
As the skimming stone flies across the water stir us up to
gather together,
to collect our carefully chosen stones and throw them again
into the water.
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