Seeker

Easter Day 2020 feels like no other I have experienced. I am not yet feeling an overflow of Easter joy as I have experienced on some Easters in the past. I am feeling tired and conscious of others I know who are completley exhausted. I am feeling grief, some of it is my own and some is the grief of others who are recently bereaved. These feelings will pass, the long period of lockdown, of hiding away at home, will pass. There is hope. Once again, I am drawn to my favourite gospel account of the resurrection of Jesus, from John's gospel. I am struck again with the emotions which are there or implied - fear, bewilderment, grief. And then the slow dawn of recognition, that something not yet understood has changed. Death does not after all have the last word. Even through tears it is possible to see Jesus and know his prescence and love. "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from t...

On this 6th day of Advent the #AdventWord2018 word is 'sprout'. I don't know about you, but 'sprout' makes me think about the sprouts that are a traditional vegetable at Christmas dinners in the UK. Sprouts are hated by some. I like them, especially when raw or nearly raw. Sprouts grow and reach their best at the coldest time of year and are best harvested after the first winter frosts. They provide a fresh green vegetable that can be grown without artificial heat and do not need to be imported into the UK. They sprout from hard stems in the cold winter. As such they could be seen as a sign of fresh new life. The image I've chosen to place at the head of this post is not the vegetable, as I hope you realise. The image is of a green plant sprouting in an unlikely place, shooting up through the hardness of asphalt. As I look at this image of new life, it reminds me of a reading from the Hebrew Bible that is often read at Advent and Christmas carol services...

The Advent Word for today is 'renew'. So why the image of a soaring eagle? (Scroll to the bottom to find out.) Renewing things can be hard work. It can involve mending, cleaning, sanding, polishing, painting, taking apart and reassembling. To me, 'renew' can never mean replace the old with something completely different. I think of 'to renew' as meaning 'to transform', to create something better out of the material already there. That piece of furniture for example may look tired and worn out but in skilled hands can become like new. People can become tired and worn out, especially in difficult situations like facing illness, anxiety, uncertainty and grief. Rest may help, but is not always enough to give the strength needed to keep putting one foot in front of another each day. Hope is something that most certainly helps to keep going, the hope of finding new strength, renewed faith. In the Advent season, Christians read and hear many promises...

'Light'  is the Advent Word for today. In Advent, Christians look forward to the coming of light into darkness. And in Advent, Christians celebrate the fact that the true light has come, is coming and will come into the world.  The coming of true light is cause for hope even in the darkest days. As I wrote in 'What is Hope? ' in Advent last year, hope is not wishful thinking or a denial of reality. On the contrary: "Hope, like faith and love, are gifts of God, so do come from outside of us. Hope come from God who is other than us. We may discover hope within and cultivate hope by our actions. The challenge in times of despair is to open our eyes to small green shoots of hope and nurture those wherever we find them. In doing so, it helps to remember that God, who is the source of hope, is not only outside of us, but also behind us, before us, beside us and within us." Nancy Wallace in 'What is Hope? ' a post on Seeker John's Gospel ...

It's the shortest day here in the northern hemisphere, with the winter solstice this year falling at 10.44 am GMT. Every year I long to get past this day. I don't like reduced hours of daylight and I long for the hours of daylight to increase, as they will soon. Darkness is not only a physical phenomenon that affects us physiologically and emotionally. Darkness can be political, societal, ideological and spiritual. Humanity has great need of true enlightenment, the light of true wisdom that bears the fruit of love, joy and peace in a world ruled with justice and mercy. The Christmas celebrations are about light coming into the world. Christians celebrate that Christ the Light of the world enters our spiritual and physical darkness. God comes where we are. Light shines in the darkness. These words of the prophet Isaiah are often read at Christmas services: "The people who walked in darkness  have seen a great light;  those who live in a land of deep darkness ...

The 3rd of the Advent O Antiphons (refrains) sung with the Magnificat (song of Mary) at Evening Prayer today is 'O Radix Jesse' meaning 'O Root of Jesse'. If you don't know what the Advent O Antiphons are take a look at the 1st post in this daily 2016 series for the last week of Advent.  What's the 'Root of Jesse' got to do with the run-up to Christmas? Why refer to Jesse in this last week of Advent? Who was Jesse anyway? Many hundreds of years before Christ, Jesse was a sheep farmer in Bethlehem and father of many children. Jesse was faithful to God and is significant as the father of his youngest child David who was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be King over Israel. (You can read that story in 1 Samuel 16: 1 - 13 ). Both Jesse and King David are listed in the Gospel of Matthew's genealogy of "Joseph the husband of Mary,   of whom Jesus was born,   who is called the Messiah." ( Matthew 1: 1 - 17 ) By the time of...

What is hope? If you are looking for a dictionary definition of hope, you won't find it here. What you will find are ideas about hope that have helped me recently. I chose  this image from October 2016 of a Syrian refugee child in Istanbul, Turkey, to illustrate hope. I love the hopeful expression on her face. I wonder what this child hopes for? A child is for me a sign of hope, of new life-enhancing possibilities, even in the middle of desparate situations. 'Hope' is an important word and theme of the Advent season . This year hope feels especially needed when so much has happened in 2016 to increase a sense of despair in many people. On the 1st Sunday of Advent this year I wrote about Entering Advent with Hope and about the truth that enables hope. Here are some further thoughts about hope. What is hope? Hope is the antidote to despair. Hope is not a denial of reality. Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope transforms darkness to light In her book 'S...

Advent is here. It starts today, the 1st Sunday of Advent. In the Northern hemisphere Advent always comes at a gloomy time of year, but for Christians this is the start of the Christian Year, a time for new beginnings as we hear again the Bible stories and prophecies about light coming into darkness, hope for those who wait in despair. In spite of all that has happened so far in 2016 that may increase a sense of gloom, pessimism or fear, how can we enter Advent with hope? In an age that some people are labelling 'post-truth' what is the truth that can bring hope where there seems little hope?  What truth can bring hope against hope? What truth brings hope for all people? Daniel Berrigan (who died this year) gave an answer in his book Testimony: the Word made Flesh: "It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss -- This is true: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes ...

“Great things have small beginnings. Every downpour is just a raindrop; every fire is just a spark; every harvest is just a seed; every journey is just a step; because without that step there will be no journey; without that raindrop there can be no shower; without that seed there can be no harvest.” William Wilberforce A Parable of Jesus He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’   Mark 4: 30 - 32 Image Credits: Sprouted acorn: Flickr, CC License Raindrops: Public domain Images Spark: Pixabay, public domain Harvest: Pixabay, public domain Journey: Flickr, CC License

T his Advent I am reading Stephen Cottrell's book 'Walking Backwards to Christmas'.  It is written for those who thought they knew the Christmas story well. Each chapter has a key character telling the story from that person's point of view. The 'backwards' element is immediately apparent in the first chapter in which Anna the prophet tells her story. Anna does not appear in the birth narratives until after Jesus' birth and the church usually remembers her story after Christmas. She was a faithful old woman who lived in Jerusalem and spent all her time in its temple. Along with Simeon she met baby Jesus when Mary and Joseph brought him for ritual observances after Jesus' birth. Her name is the Greek and Latin form of the Hebrew name 'Hannah' and means 'grace' or 'gracious'.  Only 3 verses in Luke's gospel tell us something about Anna: "There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. ...

Today is the Christian Festival of 'The Transfiguration of our Lord'. As every Harry Potter fan knows, 'transfiguration' simply means a change of appearance or form. The transfiguration of Jesus we read about in the gospels is not magic, it is miracle - by which I mean something only God can do. This particular miracle is also revelation, an epiphany. Although we cannot see God, God is revealed in many ways - for Christians God's revelation is supremely in Jesus Christ. The story of the transfiguration of Jesus is recorded in  Matthew 17: 1 - 9 ,  Mark 9: 2 - 10  and  Luke 9: 28 - 36 . It is also recollected in 2 Peter 1: 16 - 18. The event of the Transfiguration is a glimpse of glory, a window into something so wonderful it can only leave us silent. After the event Peter, John and James "kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen". Luke 9: 36 NRSV They must have felt completely out of their depth when the appeara...