The paradox of God!

...in a song...



And the paradox of the prophet...

And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ Isaiah 6: 5-8

There's something scary but enlivening about being totally aware of your real self in God's presence and then responding to His love and grace as Isaiah and the other prophets did. We must die in order to live more fully in God.

And when you do respond, this is what you often find...

"O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughing-stock all day long; everyone mocks me.

For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’
For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.

If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name’, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." Jeremiah 20: 7-9

Oh which way to turn next?!
Paradoxes everywhere!
The joy and despair, the peace and pain, the love and hate,
the rest and restlessness, the life and death.
Oh the relentless pursuit, the endless dance!

All you can do is keep throwing yourself on His grace and mercy again and again, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute...

Ignatian Spirituality: Set the World Ablaze: The Our Father - translated from Aramaic by the Na...

Ignatian Spirituality: Set the World Ablaze: The Our Father - translated from Aramaic by the Na...:

"O cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration. Soften the ground of our being and carve out a space within us where your Presence can abide.

Fill us with your creativity so that we may be emboldened to bear the fruit of your mission.

Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire.

Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share what each being needs to grow and flourish.

Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us, as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes.

Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose, but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment.

For you are the ground and the fruitful vision, the birth, power and fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again. Amen."

When head and heart are in different places...

...life can get quite intolerable.

This is where I'm finding myself this week. My heart is telling me that God is still very much 'there' - it's just a knowing awareness.

At the same time, my head is screaming 'how can He be?' I don't know why, but today I was drawn back into the age old question of suffering - God could prevent or at least stop it, so why doesn't He?

Just to add salt to the wounds, the New Testament reading at Morning Prayer this morning included these verses from Romans chapter 5:

"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

For the first time ever, it infuriated me! Its verses like these that can give 'pious' Christians a warped persecution complex - you know, the kind who scream "whoopiedoo, bring it on, I'm being persecuted therefore I must be a good Christian!"

Hope? Hope is futile for this life when you're hanging on the edge of oblivion - because where is the proof of God's love? It certainly isn't visible.

And yet still...

my heart knows that my head is getting it all wrong about these verses. My heart knows from traumatic experience that what Paul wrote is very true - I wouldn't be who I am today if I hadn't gone through what I did in the past.

And as for hope, well it is just that - hope.

Hope for better times.
Hope for a brighter future.
Hope for release from suffering.
Hope for a life spent with God in eternity.

Now "I'm home enough to know I'm lost..."

Litha

Brother Sun and Mother Moon,
Day is longest now.

Energies of the brilliant Sun
Aid all at work or having fun.

Longest day, a blessing is,
From rise to set supreme is the Sun.

Fueling growth and passions bright,
Strong and true is the solar light.

Bounty grows and river flows,
As Earth is warmed and lighted.

Creative energy reaches zenith
on this day of shortest night.

Crops grow high and excitement grows,
with each new ray of Sun.

Every day, all creatures play
and hail the mighty Sun.

Ancient solstice,
Fires burning,
Honor the Sun and feed the light.

Druid, Indian, Norse, and Celt all danced
on Summer Solstice,
joyously felt.

Solar winds and solar flares
Wash away our hunger and our cares.

Mighty Sun,King of warmth,
Makes humans to frolic and bees to swarm.

Keep this day in memory bright,
To warm you on long winter nights.

May the rays of solstice keep us warm,
All through the year.

The Sun has kissed flower field and tree,
The Sun is supreme.

So mote it be.

Abby Willowroot

Living it...

God calls us to action, not to hide behind Him or expect Him to solve everything. Living the Gospel life - life to the full means using our God-given gifts and talents to serve our brothers and sisters - all who sojourn with us through life.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes all we can do is pray, but I do wonder how many opportunities to make a real difference in the world ourselves have passed us by whilst we knelt and prayed, even pleaded with God to 'fix' those problems.

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." James 2:14-17

What's your gospel?

Happy Birthday and Rest In Peace Tupac “2Pac” Shakur. Your legacy lives on forever in song.

Pentecost - Come Holy Spirit!

"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:12-13

Lyrics

Man gets tired, Spirit don't.
Man surrenders, Spirit won't.
Man crawls, Spirit flies.
Spirit lives when man dies.

Man seems, Spirit is.
Man dreams, the beautiful Spirit lives.
Man is tethered, tied, bound, Spirit is free.
What Spirit is man can be.

He with body he waged a fight;
the body won and it walks upright.
And then he struggled with his heart
and innocence and peace depart.

Then he wrestled with his mind
and his proud heart he left behind.
Now his wars on God begin
and on the stroke of midnight...
God shall win - Oh God shall win!

Fear is a black tower built by man,
brick by brick and deed by deed,
it is the fuel on which our faint hearts feed.
Love is just a whisper a breath and nothin' more
but love will win;
because love is coming from an endless store
- Yes love is coming from an endless store.
That's all you need.

It ain't why - it just is.
Right now.
If you runaway - I will follow.
Swing low low low sweet chariot
oh coming for to carry me home.

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." 1 John 4:18

Life goes on!

I hope I'll head into eternity jumping in puddles, having mud fights and sticking two fingers up at death and the grave!

"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: Death has been swallowed up in victory.

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 15:54-57

When the old meets the new...

...or should that be 'when the new meets the old'?!

Sometimes there is a tendency to think that the two can't mix and work together. For example, even in my day to day life, work colleagues express surprise that, in spite of my age (although nowhere near retirement age yet, the Brokenlegged one is no spring lamb!) I still quite enjoy listening to 'dance' music in its various genres! I mean - my generation invented it so why wouldn't I like it?!

I tend to view Christianity - the Gospel, worship, liturgy and doctrine as a continual process of the new meeting the old; the original tenets are being overlaid, retimed, sampled and mixed as time goes on.

What is important though is that just as Pachelbel's original Canon in D is still clearly recognisable above, we can still recognise the same message of the Gospel coming through clearly regardless of how the surrounding 'melodies' have been altered.

God's Word was never intended to be a hard and fast set of instructions, rules and regulations held in a book for all time. If it is viewed and treated as such, it soon becomes meaningless and quite dead - irrelevant - just as modern secularism and atheism have decreed.

God's Word understood and interpreted in the light of the Spirit on the other hand is a living, moving, changing and evolving entity which ultimately draws us closer to the One who speaks it - it embraces both the new and the old. even though the newer 'version' might seem irreverent, the ultimate Truth will speak through as the keynotes. Even now, when looking at the Bible as a whole, even though there appears to be contradiction, non-historical and unpalatable texts, the essential truth of God's love and plan of salvation runs throughout - you might just have to look harder to appreciate it at times!

Old and new together? Of course it works!

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4:12