Joy early and late

Psalm 64:9

‘The lands of sunrise and sunset you fill with your joy.’

Above all let there be joy first thing in the day and joy last thing in the evening. Joy every morning and every evening is the fruit of days filled with love. Life can be a succession of loving breaths, actions and thoughts.

I am always with you

‘… I am with you always. (Matthew 28:20)

Matthew 28:16-20 (Year B: Trinity)

                                            Pic: Apkxda.com

Each of us is called to a special service at this time in our lives whether as parents, children, workers, citizens or carers. It might even involve leadership which entails loss of comfort, some unpopularity and a lot of opposition.  At the best of times life is hard for most.  But, we can be sure of a presence of love in our lives. God never asks the impossible. Rather, God gently invites us to be open and willing one step at a time. He assures us that he is with us always every step of the way. Even still, as when the disciples met up with Jesus on the mountain, ‘some doubted’. Doubt is only to be expected. But, doubt is not the final word or conclusion.

We can and must throw our lives into the fray and proceed on the basis of trust. That is where baptism comes into our life story.

The late Pope John Paul II was once asked by a school student what his greatest day ever was. The Pope replied as follow: ‘the day of my baptism’. (Someone joked that it went steadily down thereafter!). The truth is that baptism is the starting point and the high point of a life of learning to be a disciple. Whether a lay person or ordained we have the highest of commissions – namely to

(i)                encourage others to discover Jesus in the first place through the sincerity of our loving lives (‘… go and make disciples of all nations’),

(ii)              live out our own baptism and lead others to do likewise (‘..baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit’), and

(iii)             spreading the teaching of Jesus by practically living out, together with others, the commandment to love as Jesus loves so that resistance to such authenticity and witness is futile (‘…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you’.

Life is too precious and too short to be wasted. While we still have the light of day let’s walk in the grace of the blessed Trinity witnessing to that community of loving persons in the way we treat others and ourselves. Amen.

Time attention

(Matthew 6:34)

How does one 'make time' for this and that?  Considering that Jesus compressed his entire public ministry into approximately 10% of his life then it is clear that he had a good way of 'managing time' and sticking to the essentials. Many of his stories stem from thoughtful observation of the natural world around him including agriculture and associated activities.

The best way to 'make time' is to decide what is essential and priority. Put these in to the jar of your daily life and they will rest there while the 'sand' is poured in.

Try filling a jar with sand and rocks together and you quickly run out of space. This way, there is time for all that is essential - some sleep and rest, time for laughter and tears, time for a prayer on the bus or in the quiet of early morning, time for a chat over a cup of tea, time for work (nearly forgot) and time to be in the restful hands of God morning, noon and evening.

A risky holy spirit

‘… he will guide you into all the truth’. (John 16:13)

John 15:26-27; 16:12-15 (Year B: Pentecost)

What about the Holy Spirit?..

The odd thing about Eastertide liturgy is that it ends with a bang!  After 40 days of Lent (plus a few days) and then 50 days from Easter through Ascension to Pentecost) the Holy Spirit ‘descends’ (after the ‘ascension’) and that’s it. There is no octave or no ‘SpiritTide’ following Holy Spirit (Pentecost) Sunday. It is straight into ‘Ordinary time’ or the time after Pentecost or a succession of Sundays including and following Trinity Sunday.

I sense that the Holy Spirit is a neglected person of the holy trinity in so far as we focus so much on God the Father and God the Son that the Holy Spirit – often explained as the mutual love between Father and Son gets a look in only occasionally. The sacramental practice of confirmation is a significant threshold moment in the lives of many young adults in most Christian traditions. Some observers remark, cynically, that it is a passing out ritual. There is some truth in that. However, the mark of the Holy Spirit never leaves us. This is especially true if at some point in our lives we have tasted and experienced a moment of intense light and joy that seems to come from deep within and touches us profoundly and stays with us in our conscious memory for the rest of our lives. If someone has not experienced this, yet, then that person has more living to do!

I believe in the Holy Spirit?..

Some years ago a famous theologian, Yves Congar, wrote a three part volume entitled ‘I Believe in the Holy Spirit’. He discussed not only the role of the Holy Spirit in transforming individuals but whole communities and, through them, the world.  Each time we recite the Nicean Creed on a Sunday we might take particular note of the words ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life….’

The Holy Spirit is the ‘other side’ of God. It is that person (face) that breathes on us and re-creates us. Since God is, strictly speaking, neither male or female (appellations of Father reflect our understanding and tradition) would it not be inappropriate to emphasise the very feminine dimension of the Holy Spirit? She breathes on us from all eternity as over the waters and breathes gently through our lives today until we join our last breath with hers. It is said that we do not know where she blows and where she comes from (John 3:8). Much of life is like that. We can never see what is around the corner of our roadway that leads to unfamiliar places: sometimes scary places and sometimes very restful places. We are witnesses to the first breath after birth and we are witnesses to the last breath when our loved ones slip into the next room (and what a breath that is).

The breath or spirit of God is all over the sacred scriptures composed by human minds, hearts and hands. The very first two verses of the Bible read as follows:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Gen 1:1-2)

There are dozens of references to the breath or spirit of God coming upon us from the Psalms to the prophets to the Gospel of St John and the some of the apostolic letters. The breathing on the disciples is linked to the sending of the Holy Spirit:

And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20:22)

But how do we know if we have received the Holy Spirit? As we journey through life we hope to grow in the Holy Spirit and in the fruits of the spirit: joy, peace, wisdom, discipline, courage and insight (Galatians 5:22). But, the proof of the pudding is in the eating – as the saying goes.  If we are not developing in a climate of peace, contentedness and real freedom – notwithstanding set-backs, betrayals, sicknesses and worries – then we need to check in with our hearts and minds (and perhaps with the occasional help of a trusted person who is wise and skilled in discernment). Am I on the right path?  Is there something missing? What is the Holy Spirit saying to me through others, myself ? We need to go to the sources.

A tragedy in the lives of many is life not fully lived, potential not fully realised and fruit never borne. We do not live fully when we are stunted by fears, prejudices and false ideas about ourselves and others. We live more fully when we put our trust in God-who-is-love and see ourselves and the world as God-who-is-live sees us.

Many people (generally a minority nowadays) live in a prison of false religion with very incomplete notions of God, morality and tradition. They seek shelter in certainties, formulae and a particular literal and selective interpretation of some passages of the scriptures or tradition.  They seem to fail to see the bigger picture (but who can see the big picture? – we each catch only a glimpse).

Take five..

The culmination of Jesus’s teachings as reported in the Gospel of John is conveyed to us in five key pledges that we can trust and hang across our minds and hearts at the dawn of every day:

1.  We are not alone (the Holy Spirit has been sent and continues to breathe on us) – John 14:18
2.  We called to live in a new commandment of mutual love (that the world may see and believe) – John 13:34
3. The continuing help and presence of the Holy Spirit is guaranteed – John 16:13
4.  Joy and peace and with that freedom are the fruit of that Holy Spirit (marking such gifts out from all else) – John 15:11
5.  We will know the truth and the truth will set us free – John 8:32

The ‘New Commandment’ grounded in faith is key.  The origins of Pentecost (literally fifty days after the Passover) stem from the Jewish festival of Weeks – commemorating the giving of the law on Mount Sinai after the people wandered through the desert.  Today, the Holy Spirit gives the ‘Law’ and it is that we should love one another as God-who-is-love has loved us and dwells now in us. For God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him (1 John 4:16).  This indwelling of God-who-is-love means that his Law of love is written on our hearts and minds.  But, we must be open to the Holy Spirit in costly discipleship (D Bonhoeffer). Martin Luther once wrote:

‘The Holy Spirit is given only to the anxious and distressed heart. Only therein can the Gospel profit us and produce fruit. The gift is too sublime and noble for God to cast it before dogs and swine, who, when by chance they hear the preached message, devour it without knowing to what they do violence. The heart must recognize and feel its wretchedness and its inability to extricate itself. Before the Holy Spirit can come to the rescue, there must be a struggle in the heart. Let no one imagine he will receive the Spirit in any other way.’ (Sermon for Pentecost Sunday volume VII:329-336 of The Sermons of Martin Luther)

Counselling and legal representation for free!

Being open to the Holy Spirit means divesting ourselves of useless and destructive patterns of thinking and acting. It means – in a certain sense – being ‘empty’ ready to be filled. We need to let go; we need to let God act in us through his Holy Spirit. If we trust in God’s Holy Spirit to guide us then we will find freedom to live more and more in the present moment firm in the conviction that God will guide us, step by step, to that place or that decision or that response which will be right at the right time. It is not a question of receiving the whole picture or truth in one go. The Holy Spirit leads us gradually towards the complete picture (John 16:13). Not for nothing has the Holy Spirit been referred to as the ‘Paraclete’ or advocate (παράκλητος in Greek). When words and claims are fired at us we have the best of lawyers to defend us, argue for us, advise us, console us, urge us forward. Better still the service is for free! Add to that counselling.

And so often we fret and worry about how we will perform or what we will say whether in a situation of a written examination, or a very difficult conversation with someone (e.g. breaking the news of a serious illness) or an interview for a job. The list is endless. Each time, we can slow down, rest in the present moment, breath easily and let the breath of God emerge in our thoughts and actions.  As Jesus is reported as saying by Matthew:

But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say. (Matthew 10:19)

In that moment of trial we will be given the words and means to bear witness as we should. Trust! But we must conclude with a warning: be alert and ready because we don’t  know where the Holy Spirit leads us. We only have the light of today and of this moment. Walk in that light.

Getting the main point

‘… that all of them may be one.’ (John 17:21)

John 17:6-23 (Year B: Easter 7)

Unity is the point..

The evangelist John opens his Gospel by declaring:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

And he closes the gospel by confiding (John 20:31):

 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

At the risk of stretching matters, verses 20-21 of Chapter 17 are added, in this blog, to the set Sunday liturgical piece for today which terminates at verse 19 (John 17:6-19):

Mid-way between the introduction and the Logos (Word) and the end (the promise of eternal life) is prayer for unity found in Chapter 17. The whole point of this chapter and what has come before and what is yet to happen – death and resurrection – is unity; unity of God in the trinity and unity of us in the family of God.  It is a call to communion with and for. We can confuse this as a call to unity under and against. Unity in a hierarchical structure of power is not desirable. Unit of some against others for the sake of conflict and domination is not desirable either.

Jesus’ prayer ‘that all may be one’ can be misunderstood as a call to homogeneity and dullness. It is most definitely not a case of saying that we can have any colour car as long as it is black! To be one is the point of salvation in Christ.  The disciples of Jesus who experienced his transforming power in the months, years, decades and centuries following the events recounted in the gospels knew a unity of purpose and living that astonished the world. This, more than anything else, drew many others into the family of God (fellowship is the technical term used but it has connotations that might be off-putting !).

What does it mean to be one?

Does it mean having the same ethnicity, politics and social status? Most certainly not!

Does it mean blind obedience within a hierarchical structure? Definitely not. God invites us to love him with ‘all our minds’ while not breaking unity where that is essential.

Unity is about a balance of respect, inclusion and sharing of common purpose and values. In matters of doctrinal belief it requires discipline on what is essential and charity in everything else. In matters of ‘church discipline’ it requires respect, tact and loyalty where essential combined with courage, flexibility and initiative where questioning and change is required. If people stood still in the 1^st century or in the 19^th century in matters of how to articulate their beliefs and work within the complex cultural and social environments of their time then the reality of gospel would be greatly diminished and denied to countless numbers of people. ‘For God so loved the world ….’ (John 3:16). We only have to think of the question of the role of women in the Christian churches to realise (i) how much distance has been travelled in recent decades and (ii) how much distance remains to be travelled.  The paradox facing many is that in order to maintain unity of the Christian family it is necessary to suffer disunity for a time and with some others in order to move forward. However, it is not the case that anyone can presume or take it upon themselves to innovate without a lengthy period of reflection, study, debate, consultation and deliberation. 

At the same time, there is an urgency of proclaiming the good news and witnessing to a world that views the messengers of this good news with some criticism and distrust. Trust needs to be rebuilt, gradually, on the basis of a genuine and sustained concern for the what is true and what is in the common good. We should be wary of those who claim certainty. In claiming certainty about the meaning of scripture or tradition we may risk ending up hijacking the message and basing our lives on a false premises of self-confidence. In practice, people who appear to be most certain are – if the truth be told – deeply insecure because they desperately do not want their comfort zones disrupted and opened up to critical scrutiny. Deep down they are unsure and they crave certainty in signs, miracles, proofs, cut-and-dry answers to set questions and creedal type formulae that admit of only one set of language and philosophical framework.

And lest we think that we are immune from all of this we should reflect on how our values are constantly challenged and how, perhaps, in the course of a lifetime we have had to review, modify or enlarge our understandings and views on various matters of personal, spiritual, theological,  social and political concern.

But unity comes with a price

Unity comes at a price – we have to be ready to listen to others including the wisdom of those who came before us and we have to be ready to use our own God-given reason and life-experience to ‘work things out’ in harmony with the scriptures and the broad thrust of tradition. But tradition – or if you like the lived experience of the Christian community – is not static. It evolves and is re-expressed in every era.

It may help and it should help to share this process of critical engagement with other whom we can trust in the various walks of life.

Jesus prayer for us that we might be one in the love of God-who-is-love. His Name or Word is revealed for what it is; ‘He-who-saves’ because God-who-is-love is alive and working and united with ‘He-who-saves). By choosing to live openly and courageously in this love there is every possibility that others will join us in a larger community of witnesses and believers. This is the point of chapter 17 of St John’s Gospel. Amen!

Lifted up from the pits

‘… he was taken up into heaven’. (Mark 16:19)

Mark 16:15-20 (Year B: Ascension Thursday)

Preparing for the Holy Spirit..

When I was at school, Ascension Thursday was a special day off. It was a holy day in which the requirement was to participate in the mass. Nowadays the feast is, typically, transferred to the following Sunday. A curious feature of certain secular jurisdictions in mainland Europe is that Ascension Thursday is a public holiday.  Religious traditions endure even if for very secular reasons.

One of the benefits of remembering the Lord’s Ascension on a Thursday rather than a Sunday is that it leaves exactly 9 days (instead of 6) in which to prepare for Pentecost! After all, following the ascension the disciples made for a quiet place in which to pray and prepare –probably as much out of fear and a concern for safety than any other consideration:

‘They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.’ (Acts 1:14)

It is clear that what happened in the Ascension was in the context of Easter and the following event of Pentecost. The details given in Matthew, Mark and Luke are patchy. There is a distinct abruptness to each of the three gospels as if the writer(s) was/were cut short and inserted a few sentences about Jesus speaking with his disciples and giving them a commission to go forth and spread the good news and then – suddenly – he was gone. He was lifted up and taken away in a ‘cloud’ (Acts 1:9) reminding us of the very divine presence in a cloud by day (and a fire by night) in Exodus 13:21.

Speaking of ascending and descending is very much rooted in scripture.  There are plenty of stories about people ascending up to heaven (e.g. Jacob’s dream of angels ascending and descending in Genesis 28:12, Jesus’ conversation with Nathanael in John 1:51, Elijah being taken up in a ‘whirlwind’ to heaven in 2 Kings 2:11).  In many different cultures of the ancient world people had a three-tier idea of the universe: the heavens up there, hell down there (a hot place!) and the earth right here where we stand. Over time, other categories were stitched on such as limbo and purgatory to meet various theological conundrums (necessity being the mother of invention!).

The evangelist John speaks of Christ lifting all peoples up when he is lifted up from the earth (which means on the cross but it could also refer to his glorification through his death, resurrection and ascension). In a mysterious way, the act of departure and being lifted up from the earth in the ascension is necessary to complete the work of the Holy Spirit and her outpouring on the disciples (the Hebrew word for spirit or breath is ruah which is feminine – Irish Gaelic it is anáil or breath which is also feminine).

‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself’ (John 12:32)

Being lifted up from the pits..

The notion of being raised or lifted up is a frequently used one in the scriptures. Traditionally, we think of God as being ‘on high’ and we think of Jesus lifting us up to God. Indeed a standard definition of prayer from the Roman catechism is a lifting of the mind and heart to God.

In common parlance we uses expressions such as ‘that experience was an uplifting one’ or ‘he is feeling a bit down at the moment’ etc. However, there is another side to being lifted up or being on high. You have guessed. It is being brought down and finding yourself in the pits. A verse in the ‘Apostle’s Creed’ which is said to echo Ephesians 4:8-10 (but only very indirectly) speaks of Jesus descending into hell after his death after which ‘on the third day’ he rose again. This is also linked to another passage found in Psalm 67:19:

‘You have gone up on high; you have taken captives, receiving men and women in tribute, O God, even those who rebel, into your dwelling, O Lord.’

The idea of God descending into hell is challenging! But that is what the tradition says (and most Christians subscribe to all three catholic creeds – Nicean, Athanasian and the (simple) Apostle’s Creed even if the precise scriptural basis for descending into hell is less than clear.  Let’s face it – a lot of people live through hell – whether in some part of the Middle East or next door to us or even this side of the door.  Hell can take many forms and we should never underestimate the depths of bodily, mental, spiritual and psychological hell that people are living through, near and far, as we share these thoughts.  We can be sure – through faith – that God-who-is-love has descended to these places of hell. Like the testimony of Elie Wiesel about the child crucified by the Nazis in a concentration camp:

Behind me, I heard the same man asking: "For God's sake, where is God?" And from within me, I heard a voice answer: "Where He is? This is where--hanging here from this gallows..."

What could ascension and ‘descension’ mean for us today?

God must descend before he ascends – and us along with him. Let us live in hope and in love trusting in the power of the one who was crucified and rose again.

Fruitful in all seasons

‘… I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit’. (John 15:16)

John 15:9-17 (Year B: Easter 6)

Always fruitful..

Fruitfulness is the result of following Christ. If only we trusted at the outset of our lives He would lead us in ways that we might never have imagined in our wildest dreams.  And it is never too late to say yes and trust in his love no matter what stage of life we find ourselves in.

There is an unhelpful trend and characteristic in our culture of relegating persons over a certain age to a state of ‘retirement’.  It is almost a matter of ‘what is the point’, ‘he or she is too old’, ‘time for him to move on’ etc. This mentality is not only apparent in the way people are required to stop ‘working’ at a fixed age consistent with life expectancy in Germany in the 19^th century when the late Otto Bismark introduced the modern pension!  The mentality is also apparent in such diverse fields as education, health care and volunteering. Some wonder and question about the gains from investing in someone whose life expectancy is such as not to warrant an investment of time and money.  ‘Lifelong learning’ is spoken of as crossing from cradle to grave but is often confined to the ‘working life’ of someone fixed as spanning 20 to 65 or a little more. 

This is regarded as a fixed point after which it is ‘time to move on’. However, length of days, health and better opportunities for travel, education and exploration mean that our notions of ageing, retirement and winding down need radical revision.  God calls men and women at all stages of life to things that may commonly be regarded as impossible or even unwise. We need to re-think the assumptions, values and mind-sets of our time. The key to God’s call is to remain in his love through mutual love.

A narrow-based calculation of benefits net of cost over a remainder of a lifetime may induce a ‘retirement mentality’ both among the retired as well as those make sure others retire. But, is this calculus the way God sees matters?

We are living longer….(on average)

Even the psalmist declares that ‘Our span is seventy years, or eighty for those who are strong.’ (Psalm 90:10). 70 to 80 years would have been exceptional 2,500 years ago but not today in much of the world (excepting Methuselah who – according to Genesis 5:27 lived to be 969 years of age – just disappointingly 31 years short of 1,000 although in deference to the author(s) of Genesis it must be admitted that the notion and term of ‘year’ might have been defined differently in ancient societies!).  Indeed, some analysts expect that babies born today can expect to live into their nineties if the maintain reasonable health such are the improvements in health care, nutrition and other factors.  Hopefully, bar some environmental or political calamity or a further escalation in obesity, most babies born today will have the opportunity for a long and very fruitful life. But, in keeping with fruitfulness at all stages of the lifecycle there are opportunities for all of us no matter what age or condition of life we find ourselves in.  A person incapacitated and highly dependent may be able to offer a smile, a word of encouragement, a word of wisdom, a listening ear or a quiet prayer. Even when this is not possible due to bodily or mental infirmity the very presence of someone, now incapacitated, who evokes memories of kindness, wisdom and practical support is a blessing for others.

The story of the vine once again..

This Sunday’s passage from the 15^th chapter of St John’s Gospel follows on from the story of the vine and the vinedresser last week. A single living organism involves many parts living off each other. It also involves indwelling.  The idea of indwelling and mutual dwelling – the Father in the Son and the Son and the Father in us as we live in each other united in a single love is a powerful one.  It is based on a love that goes beyond mere sentiment or philosophy. It is a practical, living and never-ending concern for each other and ourselves that moves us to think, act and move as members of the one body (or the one Vine to use that parable). We need only remember one simple and overriding truth in all our searching and struggling: ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:16). As a direct consequence ‘whoever lives in love live in God and God in him’. Believing that God is love and acting out this love in a practical way as part of a Christian community of believers and strugglers is our passport to fruitfulness.  In this way we discover our true calling and we are indeed equipped and called to be fruitful where we are and, perhaps, in other places too.

Joy is the fruit..

The result of all our seeking and all our yearning and all our serving is joy; not just any old joy but that fullness of joy that God alone can give for Jesus says these things to us again today, here, now that His joy may be in us and that Joy may be complete (15:11). Joy is the fruit of our discipleship amidst many trials and tribulations; not only the fullness of joy but peace (John 16:33) and the fullness of life (John 10:10)  also.

Through following in the way marked out by Jesus, the Face of God, we experience a quiet inner peace and joy.   And ‘the fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.’ (Isaiah 32:17).  In that unmistakable lasting quietness and confidence will be your light, your guidance and your decision.

Joy, peace and life – these are the fruits of true discipleship. And we can experience these fruits at any time in our lives if we are open to these.  In living as disciples we can be channels of joy, peace and life for others.

When all else fails

Deep is calling on deep in the mighty roar of waters’ (Psalm 42). We go to the sources in the word only to find that these sources call out to the depths of our own sources. The word was already deep within us but we needed the written and spoken word to call it out again. And in the crucible of great suffering and trial we have the possibility of flourishing in insight, understanding and wisdom.