Part of some poetry written for Aoradh’s Pucks Glen meditation walk- another Cowalfest collaboration. If you are local- come along to the Glen next Saturday @ 2.00pm. You can book here.
The sun can only be seen in the light
Of the sun
And everything else is just
Reflection
~
Sometimes our roads lead through dark places
Places of uncertainty
Bridges between here-
And somewhere else
~
But darkness is often penetrated
From above
~
Like this falling silver water
William, Michaela and I set up a poetry/meditation walk in Morag’s Fairy Glen this afternoon- it will be up for the duration of Cowalfest– and is part of Aoradh’s contribution to the walking and arts festival.
It started out moist, and finished soaking wet.
Here we are, suffering for the Kingdom-
(Photos by William.)
Christine Sine has published a collected set of creative prayer resources on her blog- here.
It is worth checking them out, for use with families, communities and even alone. Lots of visual and creative things for those of us (Pauline!) who are wired like that…
At least it would seem so according to todays minimergent meditation-
Live it
Be a gardener.
Dig a ditch,
toil and sweat,
and turn the earth upside down
and seek the deepness
and water the plants in time.
Continue this labor
and make sweet floods to run
and noble and abundant fruits
to spring.
Take this food and drink
and carry it to God
as your true worship.
(c. 8 November 1342 – c. 1416)
A few folk asked about the use we put to images and other materials from our GB worship event.
I have uploaded them to Google docs and so they should be available here- https://docs.google.com/?tab=oo&authuser=0#query/vr?view=0&hidden=1&visibility=0
I have included a script and seperate versions of a couple of the poems used. The powerpoint doc was too big, but if anyone is interested, drop me a line and we will find a way!
Below are some of the slides of houses, which we displayed with the house beatitudes added.
Courtesy of minimergent-
In one sense we are always traveling, and traveling as if we did not know where we were going. In another sense we have already arrived. We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are traveling and in darkness. But we already possess Him by grace, and therefore, in that sense, we have arrived and are dwelling in the light. But oh! How far have I to go to find You in Whom I have already arrived!
Thomas Merton
The Seven Storey Mountain
Been doing more Greenbelt thinking- it is only a few days away after all! If you are going to the festival, Aoradh’s worship slot in the Worship Collective (Used to be called New Forms Cafe) is first up- 7.00pm on Friday.
The GB theme this year is ‘dreams of home’, and we have used this to consider something of the contrast between our house-obsessed culture, and the deeper things of home that we long for- resulting for most of us in a kind of yearning, that might be called ‘homesickness’.
For many Christians, this impulse seems to have resulted in a deliberate focus on ‘heaven’- as in some place that we go to when we die. In doing this, the danger is that we enter into that old dual thinking trap- we split into sacred/profane, temporary/eternal. What seems to have happened at times is that our religion became an escape pod from this doomed planet.
This is not the way of Jesus.
How might our homes reflect this then?
I turn once more to the Jesus manifesto from Matthew chapter 5…
Beatitudes for houses
Blessed is the house of the poor in spirit (for this home belongs to theKingdomofHeaven.)
Blessed is the house of those who mourn (for their homes will be places of comfort.)
Blessed is the house of the meek (For their house is bigger than the whole earth.)
Blessed is the house of those who long for righteousness (for their homes will be pregnant with grace.)
Blessed are houses full of mercy (for love will rest in them.)
Blessed are the house of the pure in heart (for God will be ever present.)
Blessed are the houses of the peacemakers (The sons and daughters of the Living God.)
Blessed are the houses that are broken because of Jesus. (The Kingdom of heaven is no earthly insurance policy.)
I like museums.
When we go to them as a family, I find myself falling into a trance like state. I stand and read all those pieces of writing and little bitty labels. I do not bother with most of the gimmicky interactive stuff- I just like to encounter things that carry with them meaning from the past.
The weekend was a case in point. We went to the stunning new Transport Museum on the banks of the Clyde in Partick, Glasgow. It was full of cars and motorbikes and trains. Everyone else soon gravitated towards the cafe but I wandered- intrigued by a model of a battleship or a 1932 Argyll motor car. I enjoyed it all.
And it occurred to me how we humans love to organise things- to place them in some kind of category and shelve them all away so we can make sense of it all. It is the very life blood of those who curate museums.
And perhaps too those who curate our experience of religion.
So here is a picture for you- you can make your own analogous links…
I have been thinking about our Greenbelt worship event- which will be entitled ‘Homesick’. One of the key themes emerges from a discussion about the nature of we humans- made a little lower than the angels, neither fully flesh nor completely spirit. An amalgam of both- or perhaps one on a journey to becoming the other.
It set me thinking about what it might mean for we Christians- how we live in the presence of the immanence- how our present is always lived in the belief that there is another reality- which Jesus described confusingly as ‘The Kingdom of God’.
I wonder if there is something in this life that will always be unfulfilled- always be tinged with nuance and compromise. This is no bad thing- it is the way of the pilgrim- how we learn through surprise encounters and hopeful longing as much as by certainty and knowing.
I came across this passage from the book of Genesis that says it as well as anything-
10 (C)Then the Lord said,
Why have you done this terrible thing? Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground, like a voice calling for revenge.11 You are placed under a curse and can no longer farm the soil. It has soaked up your brother’s blood as if it had opened its mouth to receive it when you killed him.12 If you try to grow crops, the soil will not produce anything; you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.13 And Cain said to the Lord,
This punishment is too hard for me to bear.14 You are driving me off the land and away from your presence. I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me.15 But the Lord answered,
No. If anyone kills you, seven lives will be taken in revenge. So the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who met him not to kill him.16 And Cain went away from the Lord’s presence and lived in a land called
Wandering, which is east of Eden.
Just back from our Pentecost bonfire meet on Ardentinny Beach. It was great!
We went all 80’s and did some parachute games! I have not done this for years, and it was a hoot!
Then we scooped the edge underneath and sat in our own flappy tent- whilst Paul told the story of the disciples in the upper room, and coming of the Spirit. A great gust hit our parachute tent just as he got to the mighty rushing wind bit too!
Then we put prayers on paper doves, to hang in the trees.
Then we read the passage from Galatians 5 where Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit- here are a few bits, with my emphases-
Galatians 5, 13-26
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows.
My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives.
Each of us is an original.
And recognising that we needed help, we then made a long prayer flag out of strips of foil with words from the passage above on- then flew it in the wind from a kite pole.
Finally, as a way of thinking about moving back into the world, we planted some flowers in tubs, and committed ourselves to placing them on other people’s doorsteps as a kind of guerrilla gardening project. Ours are already placed!
Oh- then we had a barbecue, and ate a lot.
Andy brought his camper van and gas barbie, so we ate well, and we ate in luxury!
this fragile tent 