Depart in silence!

Let's start with an unapologetic trip down memory lane.

I have been thinking recently about the use of and meaning of silence in church and prayer groups. At men's prayer group we have been experimenting with silence in a group setting.

Depart in silence! That's what the instructions say for the Catholic liturgy on Maundy Thursday. At St Gerties, in the 1990s we had a bit of a campaign to try and make that happen. It's not because we were trying to "harsh anyone's buzz" but it's just extremely fitting to have a reverent or even stunned silence after you have determinedly remembered and tried to make yourself present at the last meal Jesus had before his execution. When you consider the enormity of the situation for the disciples. The mixture of the Thanksgiving meal, Jesus talking like he was going to die and Judas betrayal. The instruction should say "depart in stunned silence."  But I forget the number of times we explained to people, if you are being true to the events you don't have a hymn at this point. You should leave the church in total silence or stay praying until midnight. It's one of the times where there should be a sense of grief almost in a church setting. A time where there should be no chitter chatter in the church afterwards. Reverent silence. But does modern man or woman do reverence? Of course some do!

Silence can be surprisingly instructive if we can dare to expose ourself to it. Although watch out! God can speak in the silence, so if you weren't planning for that to happen it can be disconcerting. I have experimented with silence in my prayer times and found that sometimes it can be energising or even powerful. There are different kinds of silence. For me silent prayer usually comes after I have said some psalms and I have set my heart to listen to God. There then follows minutes of what I think of as 'struggling silence.' It is the struggle to not stop and think about something else like the shopping or the dripping tap. Or the cat. If I can get beyond the struggle I can reach a stage of contented silence. Where "God looks at me and I look at him" - like friends, we don't always need to talk to each other. This is content silence. If you are really fortunate you can then go beyond this and God will speak. Not audibly of course. The God speaking silences are more frequent the more you practice the praying with silence. Today in the silence God asked one question "did you refuse to prophecy in my name?" His questions can be disturbing. Sometimes he can tell you that he loves you. It's not all challenge. He is after all a tender hearted God.

Sometimes I pray in tongues in the prayer time. This can help. It can lead to one of those loaded silences where God is present in all of his glory.

I don't normally talk about this stuff. But I think sometimes there is a time to share what's going through your head. Prayer is like an acorn. Hard to tap into. But once the right conditions are reached. Growth happens. The picture is of one we found in the back garden.

Dear God, let me go deeper. Help me to hunger for the peace of Christ. Send your Holy Spirit to renew my life. Let me welcome you! Amen

James 1:21-25 NIV
...... humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.   Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Bidden or unbidden God is present

I have been thinking a lot recently about the nature of God. I think he is far less harsh than people give him credit for. And far more creative. And far more elusive. I will try not to machine gun you with quotes but I want to explain that I have some basis for making these statements.

The bible is a kind of love story collection of writings about God. It ranges from stories about God in a huff, and believe me lovers do get in a huff sometimes, to accounts of God the tender hearted loving creator of each one of us,  with all sorts of tones in between. It's easy to get hung up on one aspect. But to see God properly needs an understanding that he or she is very elusive. "We can't put God in a box" as the saying goes.

God is just there! Existing! Regardless of any action we might take but at the same time he wants to call us into a love relationship.

Some Australian friends used to have a bronze plaque in their Hall. It fascinated me and it had the words on it "Bidden or unbidden, God is present" which apparently is a translation of a Latin saying. It is a beautiful reminder that God is like a very persistent lover, who persists in making overtures to the beloved regardless of how they are received. Persistent, foolish perhaps if we turn our backs on him. But God is so caring for us that he continues long after a human lover would have given up. He provides our earthly life. Oh that we could but realise. "in him we live and move and have our being" as the apostle Paul puts it.

Have a pause and a think over the words in this passage for example:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8 NIV

That was written by John, one of Jesus closest companions.

I got in a taxi the other day and got into conversation quite easily with the driver. We ended up discussing that very passage. I asked the driver to imagine how he felt on seeing his own children when they were born. God's delight in us his children is greater and more continuing.

Today I invite you to remember God your creator. Let him speak gently into your life. Ask him to bless you and change your heart.

And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6:3 NIV

On love!

Today is a day for celebrating love. Artificially selected by the makers of greetings cards it strikes terror in the heart of those dying to express love for someone. I well remember as a young lad the angst of buying and sending anonymously my first valentine card and then being surprised at not getting a response. Doh! I was so diffident then that she probably didn't even know I existed.

But let's think about love today. I can't help smiling to myself having written that. The definition of love itself is nigh impossible but we know it when we see it. One saint put it "to love is to will the good of another" and that is my preferred working definition. C S Lewis adds to that by pointing out that there are four types of love in his book The Four Loves.

Eros
Philia
Agape
Storge

Today's love celebration is all about eros love. Passionate love declared! Passionate love acted upon! Passionate love felt!

It's interesting that the Bible describes God's love vividly in all four ways. It's like God wants us to fully comprehend that he loves in stereo using four speakers instead of dreary old mono.

They say that when the Holy Spirit comes into our life he makes our hearts more tender for one another. We start to, more frequently, desire good for other people.

On the way to the station this morning I remembered that God is described sometimes as a jealous lover. He wants us to love him wholeheartedly in the school of love. We can then express our love more perfectly to others. He doesn't want us to love, or make, other Gods. He is jealous in that sense. He is jealously angry when we seek the face of another God.

He wants us to be bold and courageous in all our loving. He doesn't want us to be watered down and insipid. Or for us to dilute our love with lust. He wants us to be completely sincere too and not lead people on if we can't return their love.

Think on this

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Proverbs 3:3 NIV

Dear Lord, I pray a blessing on this day. So that whether single, or in a relationship, our love is blessed. Amen

For reflection:
1 Corinthians 13
1 John 4. 7

Lead a Lover's Life

I had the privilege yesterday of being on the door at church whilst two baptisms were going on. These were two adults who have chosen life in Christ.

It seemed that everyone at church yesterday was moved by the "testimony" or life story that was shared by Gavin and Shirley.

There is something that brings people to that kind of decision point.

For some people it is the discovery that there is a spiritual side to life. That we are body, soul and spirit. That our hearts are hungry. Thirsting for the things of God.

We have a free will of course. But God through his son Jesus and through the prophets has invited us to "choose life" instead of "choosing death" - this is about choosing life in the Holy Spirit. Instead of choosing things that kill our spirit.

Some of our Feet for the Street visitors went through the glass door so they could see and hear things better. My side of the door was a bit muffled. So I missed some of what was said.

I found myself remembering an email sent to me by a friend. He sent me the following verses and said that he had felt prompted by God to do so.

So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

As we go through life different phrases get added to the interior soundtrack of our lives. Some are the trigger for jokes we have with the family or friends. Silly little phrases that still make us crease up and we have half forgotten when they were first used and why. 

Some have a more useful role as almost "self talk" little reminders and way markers that are good for us.

For me the phrase "Live a Lover's Life" has become a way marker. A sign post for my life. Reminding me to keep on track. To always choose life, to choose life. To put to death the way of hate.

So the above passage is very important to me it is a 'way marker' for me telling me 'go this way follow the way of wisdom!' I go back to it quite regularly and read it and ask myself "am I doing that?" Of course I wouldn't say I ever succeed in loving like that but it gives me inspiration and a point to aim at.

Dear God, help me to recognise the things that are good for me. Help me to find the things and people who can help me. Send your Spirit to teach me love. May I be tender hearted towards other people. Amen

Follow Jesus

I have been a bit quiet again as I am currently preoccupied for the whole of November see www.nanowrimo.org - but I have broken off for some moments to cast my mind back to this passage.

I have been thinking of how Jesus called Matthew out of his tax booth. See Matthew 9: 9-13 (link)

Matthew left his job to follow Jesus. He didn't work out a period of notice. His encounter with Jesus was enough to knock him off the normal course of his life. Bless him, he was a tax collector, in those days fairly despised individuals known for their corruption and for taking an extra cut from those that they were collecting from. It says in the JB translation that he was by the 'Customs House'. This is a mistranslation. He was by his tax collectors booth! This was a portable construction that was set up where he was collecting his tax. All a bit more vulnerable than we at first think. He must have been challenged by Jesus to leave this and also torn. Do I hang on to the money or follow the Holy Man? Well he became one of the twelve - so he must have opted for the life changing option to follow Jesus. What would we do I wonder? What would I do - if the messiah came walking by?

To encounter Jesus at that time was something that knocked people off the normal course of their lives. I believe this was because Jesus personality was so arresting that you had to stop in your tracks and say to yourself. Who is he? Is he for real? What is he offering?

Well what Jesus offers is something that is contrary to the material world's values. The Good News is something for our spirit, something for the inner man or woman. That lifts us up and alters our lives and changes them for the better. To live outside Christianity is to live a life without hope. To live as a Christian implies a commitment to change.

Yes, Jesus comes to sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes to the shock and dismay of the Pharisees, but it is so that he can bring the healing power of God's love. As he says he comes as a doctor into their lives. He doesn't feast with the Matthews of this world to pick up tax collecting hints. He doesn't feast with prostitutes in order to pimp. He is at the feast because he has something of real value to give he is offering rescue. REAL RESCUE..

To the Pharisees he says 'Go and learn the meaning of the words what I want is mercy, not sacrifice.'

The irony is that the Pharisees were sinners too. The difference between them and the others were that they didn't know it. They were too busy looking at other peoples lives to assess their own.

If you look at the passage again you will see that Jesus is ministering to everyone including the Pharisees.

This is why his ministry is so effecting. It speaks to everyone and to us - even now across time. The quote he offers the Pharisees is from the Bible. From the book of Hosea.  Which says 'What I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts.'

That is interesting isn't it? In OT times they used to try and appease God by killing and burning animals as a sin offering in the hope that this would put them right with God. Hosea says that God doesn't want this kind of material response. He wants us to change so that we love more. This requires a change of heart - are we ready?

Here is a quote from Rick Warren
"No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love."

Dear Lord, help me to leave the things I do that are the old way of living. Allow me to follow you. Please give me the spiritual strength in order to do so. Amen

The sea is so wide!

Protect me, dear Lord!
My boat is so small,
And your sea is so big
(Bretton fisherman's prayer)

The above is one of my favourite prayers. I am fond of the short ones that go straight to the heart of the matter.

Debs and I watched Fiddler on the Roof last Sunday. A film that always moves me. The final scene is a definite "ending" as all the lead characters of the film have been driven out of their village. They are leaving mainly on foot. Finally, Terkel looks back and sees the Fiddler playing his tune on the road behind him...

As I watched that ending, this time, a fleeting thought went through my head, how lucky am I that I have never had to journey at short notice into the unknown. Travelling with only that which I could carry.

To be a stranger in a strange land, as Moses was, as so many people are (even now), is a vulnerable scary thing. When we travel we rely so often on strangers. Dependant on their goodwill and hoping to God that they will not show us ill will. Fear is something that people have to deal with. Hope is something that they definitely need to hold onto.

The only way to cope with change is to embrace it. I know it's not easy.

People sometimes have said to me "it's easier for you because you have faith" - it doesn't feel easier but maybe it actually is!

However, even though brought up in a Christian church, I don't consider that I really believed in God until I was given the gift of faith. Yes I do mean given! As in getting a present from someone. I remember someone praying for me, saying "please give Simon the gift of faith"

So I see faith as within God's gifting to give somebody. We need to be bold enough to recognise this. And to ask. A relationship with God is possible.

If we are facing uncertainty then that is the time to ask, to even plead with God. God is our rock and our stronghold, he gives us peace and hope in times of difficulty. Step up to meet him. Be the one to move towards him. As it says in the scripture "when you seek him, when you seek him with all your heart, then you will find him"

Dear Jesus, I pray that I may come to know you. Please increase the gift of faith within me. Bless me today and always. Amen

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you

The Watchman Blog has been silent through out September. To be truthful my thoughts have been elsewhere for a while following a bereavement. But it is time to write again now I think...

The last month has shown me God's capacity to touch our lives even in someone's dying moments. Our God reaches down to touch us when we call to him. He is ever present and ever loving. We make ourselves absent to him sometimes. But that can be mainly through the distraction of every day life but only very occasionally through deliberate intent.

God is love and he commands us also to love, to "live a lovers life" in all purity. Sometimes it seems difficult to love. But the commandment is about us changing our way of life to that which makes us more whole.
Love.

Love nourishes us in our Spirit.

The commandment to Love is a command to live out love in our lives. To love God, to love our neighbour, to love ourselves. Although it is a commandment it is actually "best policy" advice from our creator about how to have a full and happy life. Choose love and you will find joy and peace. Choose hate and you will feel forever jagged. It is a daily choice.

Think about Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) words quoted below :

"If you wish,  you can keep the commandments, to behave faithfully is within your power. He has set fire and water before you; put out your hand to whichever you prefer.  Man has life and death before him; whichever a man likes better will be given him. For vast is the wisdom of the Lord; he is almighty and all-seeing. His eyes are on those that fear him, he notes every action of man. He never commanded anyone to be Godless he has given no one permission to sin."

Peace to your hearts this day!

My prayer is that you may be blessed this day to the core of your being. That God will be evident to you. May you come to know peace. Amen