Photographs help us travel back in time. This was taken at 8.15am on January 14th this year with a smart phone camera. The hint of a sunrise begins to fleck the sky with salmon light. This is the last photo I have of the four tall beeches I called the Gospel Apostles. Depending upon which gospel I might be reading at a particular time, I would think about which tree might be which! The three to the left are quite close together, so they might be the synoptic gospel writers of Matthew, Mark and Luke (so similar are they in their sources of stories and their overlap of chronology). Set apart and to the right is John. John is of course a profoundly different gospel, so full of stories and theological approaches which are at variance and yet add resonance to the other three. It is sad to report that it is John who suffered from Storm Doris. Who would have thought such a beautiful tree could have suffered so badly at the whims of such an innocuously-named storm wind?
More importantly even than that, this photograph is the last I have of Jess in the landscape she so loved. She is there sniffing away in the central foreground. As we begin to adapt to and accept a new dog in our household (the night almost passed peacefully - at 5am this morning we discovered Ethel has a voice!), we are in a kind of tender transition. Gently and cautiously, Ethel's character is beginning to settle into the space we share. She is not in any way ousting Jess from our affections. But she is adding new dimensions of furry mystery to our rhythms of life. She likes to sit and sleep in a corner and then, from time to time, trot out into the living area with quick little steps and just check on us, before retreating back to the comfort of life in a corner. Early days, very early days. Building trust has a lot of back and forth. Building trust requires many little encounters. Building trust takes time. Is this not like building faith, too?
One of the great messages of John's Gospel is Jesus' constant invitation to 'come and see'. He invited people to spend time with him. And he chose to spend time with surprising people (Nicodemus in the dark, Photina at the Sychar well, the man born blind healed by Jesus). Nicodemus was there at the end, caring for Jesus' body. Jesus spent two extra days with Photina and the Samaritan town and she went on to become a martyred witness to Jesus, even all the way to Rome. The man born blind, healed by Jesus and apparently abandoned by his parents, was sought out by Jesus and came to a deep sense of faith in him after suffering rejection from family and community. It took time. A lot of back and forth.
More importantly even than that, this photograph is the last I have of Jess in the landscape she so loved. She is there sniffing away in the central foreground. As we begin to adapt to and accept a new dog in our household (the night almost passed peacefully - at 5am this morning we discovered Ethel has a voice!), we are in a kind of tender transition. Gently and cautiously, Ethel's character is beginning to settle into the space we share. She is not in any way ousting Jess from our affections. But she is adding new dimensions of furry mystery to our rhythms of life. She likes to sit and sleep in a corner and then, from time to time, trot out into the living area with quick little steps and just check on us, before retreating back to the comfort of life in a corner. Early days, very early days. Building trust has a lot of back and forth. Building trust requires many little encounters. Building trust takes time. Is this not like building faith, too?
One of the great messages of John's Gospel is Jesus' constant invitation to 'come and see'. He invited people to spend time with him. And he chose to spend time with surprising people (Nicodemus in the dark, Photina at the Sychar well, the man born blind healed by Jesus). Nicodemus was there at the end, caring for Jesus' body. Jesus spent two extra days with Photina and the Samaritan town and she went on to become a martyred witness to Jesus, even all the way to Rome. The man born blind, healed by Jesus and apparently abandoned by his parents, was sought out by Jesus and came to a deep sense of faith in him after suffering rejection from family and community. It took time. A lot of back and forth.
This week I have been on a retreat with a group of people I had never met before. Trust between us needed to be built for us to feel free to explore and experiment together. I saw trust being built through beginning and ending each day, together, in the presence of God in a short and simple act of morning and evening prayer; through shared meal times when conversation more easily takes place; through space given to one another to be free not to chat and to be alone; through doing some physical activities together, sometimes for the first time and thus sharing a certain vulnerability; through sharing our responses to scripture and art; and ultimately through sharing Holy Communion. And as trust began to form some began to share their difficulties, disillusions, joys, frustrations, and honesty began to emerge. My experience is that when we are with those we trust our faith can deepen because we feel safe to try things out, ask questions, share our fears, expose our vulnerability, all beginning and ending in prayer for one another, and all cradled and united in the love of Jesus given and received in Holy Communion. It is a blessing to have companions in faith (even furry ones) that we can go back and forth to. God, always constant and steadfast, blesses us with the gift of faith as we go back and forth to him in our faltering prayer yet trusting that in his love he hears and answers our prayers.
ReplyDeleteGoing back and forth
ReplyDeleteWe do a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in our lives;
Back and forth from cot to mum,
Back and forth from home to school,
Back and forth to Church,
Back and forth to work,
Back and forth to the activities we take up in retirement,
Back from the dust which formed us, we return to dust.
Genesis 3:19
"...for from dust you are, and to the dust you will return."
Eccl 12:7
".. the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it."
What kind of gospel do we choose to live as we go back and forth?
Circulating on WhatsApp:
ReplyDeleteThe World calls this day (April 1) "All Fools Day" or "April Fools Day". But Who is a real fool according to the Bible?
Five times in the Bible Jesus chose to address people as "fools" in the gospels.
1. The Careless Fool - Mat. 7:24-27 (Those who do not put the Word into practice)
2. The Hypocritical Fool - Mat. 23:17-19 (Those who live double-standard lives)
3. The Sleeping Fool - Mat. 25:1-8 (Those who are unprepared for Jesus’ coming)
4. The Materialistic Fool - Luke 12:16-20 (Those who live for this world)
5. The Unbelieving Fool - Luke 24:25 (Those who do not believe in his promises)
Who else does the Bible say is a fool?
1. He Who Says There Is No God. Psalm. 14:1
2. He Who Trusts In His Own Heart. Proverbs 28:26.
3. He Who Is Always Right [In His Own Eyes.] Proverbs 12:15.
4. He Who Despises Wisdom and Instruction. Proverbs 1:7.
5. He Who Is Soon Angry. Eccl. 7:9.
6. He Who Slanders Others. Proverbs 10:18.
7. He Who Mocks At Sin. Proverbs 14:9.
8. He Who Talks A Lot. Proverbs 29:11
9. He Who Minds Others’ Business. Proverbs 20:3; 26:17
It's interesting reading someone else's way of looking at the woods. I've never looked at any of the trees so imaginately and I deliberately walked round to see the gospel group, enjoying the warmth and sunshine on the way. I sat on the Hemingway bench taking the long view of the meadow.
ReplyDeleteAs I was sitting a retired man and his dog came. He asked if he could share the bench with me and we started chatting. I didn't recognise him or his dog, but we just sat and chatted about dogs and the park. It's been one of the joys of walking round the woods that you can just stop and chat to people and gently and gradually get to know them. Just a "little encounters."