Author: mrgsponderings

Meeting God in Scripture

Thoughts on Bible Sunday

When I was at Junior School I remember John Garnett telling our teacher that he had just completed a reading of the entire Bible. He was quite smug about it and I suppose for an eleven year old boy it was quite an achievement. Not to be outdone, I decided that I also would read the Bible from cover to cover. I set off eagerly through the pages of Genesis and Exodus and all went well until I got to Leviticus when, sadly, I abandoned the project. Trying to read the Bible from cover to cover as a way of beating John Garnett rather missed the point of why we read the Bible. I know that now!

When we read the Bible and especially when we pray its pages we enter into a loving relationship with God. As Christians, we are part God’s story and it remains a continuous story of God’s Love Affair with His people – with us! We don’t read the Bible in order to chuck quotes at others, still less to prove some argument or opinion we hold – though sadly the Bible has been used and continues to be used by people in just such a way.

The Orthodox spiritual leader, Kallistos Ware, wrote that:
The real purpose of Bible Study is to feed our love for Christ, to kindle our hearts into prayer and to provide us with guidance for our personal life. The study of words should give place to an immediate dialogue with the living Word himself – with God, with Jesus Christ.

To be reminded that the sacred words of the Bible lead us into an encounter with Christ is very important. We are in relationship with a Living God, and not just a book. An Orthodox Saint, St Tikhon, said that Whenever you read the Gospel, Christ himself is speaking to you. And while you read, you are praying and talking to him. This conversation must never be rushed.

A friend of mine once said that we should read the Bible in digestible bits rather than indigestible chunks! Modern translations of the Bible helpfully divide the text up into sections rather than chapters and one section at a time can be enough to feed our praying..

Today, we keep Bible Sunday and it is a reminder of how very important the Word of God revealed in Scripture is for our life of faith. How can we tell God’s story and be part of that story if we neglect the Bible? I love this quotation from Richard Carter, Associate Vicar for Mission at St. Martins-in-the-Fields, London. I offer it as a little Ponder Point.

“Sometimes, you just have to read the Bible with your heart.
It’s not a theory, it’s not an argument, it’s not a weapon, it’s not words.
It’s the Word made flesh.
It’s God’s love deeper and wider and more expansive than your dreams.”

[Mr G]

Holy ground

Autumn at Auld Bridge, North Ayrshire photograph by my friend Heather Upfield.

Holy Ground

Sometimes it feels like our world is simply falling apart, or to be truthful, humanity is proving to be a big threat to the earth God made and of which we are supposedly stewards.
Ukraine, for example, is where the demonic, in the shape of Mr Putin, is threatening to destroy a land which doesn’t belong to him and a people who, for the most part are innocent. There is little that most of us can do about that. Some of us feel powerless to change things for the better.
Meanwhile, we in England are spectators to a different kind of power struggle which is, nevertheless, upsetting.
Our ruling party in Parliament is engaged in what can be described as in-fighting, warfare, and a pitiful attacking of each other. What they are not doing, it seems, is actually governing. It has been going on for months and there is no clear end in sight. Meanwhile many of us feel powerless at the futility of it all.

So, I was pleased that my friend Heather sent me the above photo of an autumn scene in North Ayrshire.
It gave me a different perspective. I was reminded that there is a different view of the world, and creation provides it. Whilst there is much to do and hearts and minds to change about the care of creation, the world continues to move through the seasons showing us beauty and freshness and hopefully joy.
Autumn is such a definite season of both dying and rebirth. As the autumn coloured leaves drop silently to the ground, they leave behind a space for new buds to form and new life to burst forth in due season.
Some in the animal kingdom hibernate or slow their pace at this time of year. Would that humanity might imitate! We might do less damage!

All of us are looking expectantly towards the movement of Autumn into the Christmas light of the Christ-Child, once again illuminating darkness – Diwali for the Hindu people on Monday, Hanukkah for the Jewish people in December, (Eid – Al-Hada for Muslims at a variable time). Light penetrates darkness and reminds us of our dependence on the Sun. Also, perhaps, we may re-discover the importance of the delicate balance of the Cosmos as well as of our own Planet.

Seasons are good moments to repent – to turn away from all the things we are doing wrong to Creation, the world of Nature and to ourselves. A time to turn back to God and look forward to better things; to do better; to be better people.
A time to try to be more Godly and to remind ourselves that all life is gift and that we are given, also, a planet to care for, including each other, and therefore we are on God’s Holy Ground.

I came across this prayer recently and I share it with you. It deserves to be prayed with joyful repentance.

Loving God,
We praise you for the miracle of life and growth: for the smell of flowers, fresh vegetables
and an autumn morning,
for the taste of crunchy apples and warm porridge,
for the sound of running streams, Mozart and a school playground,
for the feel of warm soup, smooth velvet and loving arms.

Particularly, today, we thank you for trees:
for the beauty of their shape and form,
for the freshness and life they bring to our streets,
for their essential contribution to the cycle of nature.

Loving God, forgive us:
when we don’t notice this wonderful world in which we live,
when we don’t think about the impact of some of the things we do,
when we deliberately contribute to the destruction of your world.
Let us remember;
that the ground we stand upon is holy ground
let us keep it, guard it, care for it,
for it keeps us, guards us, cares for us.

Amen.

A task of hope

A Task of hope.
My friend Gill Henwood has offered us a meditation from the Lake District:

Acer palmatum dissectum
Century old trees that have grown through the pergola, turning vermilion scarlet and glowing with fire across the fields.

Thomas Mawson, garden designer, and his team completed the garden (near Hawkshead in the Lake District) in 1922, after the First World War. When we replaced the pergola we left off the cross pieces in the centre having pruned back rampant rambling and climbing roses that were entangled in the trees. A task for two of us, kitted out with leather gauntlets, thorn proof jackets with hoods up! I seem to recall it was pouring with rain too…

Pruning and cutting back in the autumn is a task of hope, that there will be new growth and new flourishing in the Spring. This autumn, our Japanese maples are singing a Gloria in Excelsis for their light and airy home, facing east in the chilly, wet Lake District but absolutely thriving, 100 years on.

When I feel I’m being ‘pruned’ by life’s ups and downs, challenges and opportunities, I’ll look at the photo and remember the maples’ absolute triumph, giving such joy to those who hike the footpath below – and maybe even to the sheep, safely grazing in the field!

Gill.

A Gardener’s Prayer

Heavenly Father, creator of all things,
help us to realize that we are custodians of the wonderful heritage
with which you have so generously endowed us.
Give us the minds and the hearts to rejoice in your creation,
and to walk through your beautiful world with seeing eyes.
Help us to save the good earth, the stately trees, the dainty wildflowers,
the birds and all things that have no voice to protest against destruction.
We thank you for your bounty and pray we may be worthy of it.
Amen