Isis dancing with Old Father Thames. Leaded glass sculpture by Kay Gibbons. This panel has been produced in a ‘kintsugi’ fashion, after the Japanese art of bonding broken ceramics with gold. Beauty in fracture.. Broken beauty...
A Poem for Trinity Sunday, selected by Piers Northam. Written by the Persian poet , Hafiz. (1325-1390) and gently amended by Piers to refer to the Three persons of the Trinity. The invitation to ‘dance’ is based on an early Church theology of ‘perichoresis’ – rotation or circular movement (hence dance) within the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (The Holy Trinity of God). The early Greek Theologians of the Church, led by St. Gregory Nazianzus – one of the Cappadocian Fathers- helped Christians to discover the relationship of pure love between the Father, the Son(Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. This Love energizes all that God has created as it pours itself in the sheer joy of life. It becomes a dance which carries us into the fullness of the joy of God and therefore leads us to see that love and joy at the heart of our own life. So we are invited to the dance of life in which we are encompassed with the swirling love of God.
Created for Joy – Hafiz
I sometimes forget that I was created for joy.
My mind is too busy, my heart too heavy for me to remember that I have been called to dance the sacred dance of life.
I was created to smile, to love, to be lifted up and to lift others up.
O Sacred Three disentangle my feet from all that ensnares. Free my soul that we might dance – and that our dancing might be contagious.
This poem was inspired by Peyton Salmon, who when she was just 4 years old, answered a question in Family Church about Pentecost in a profound way. (Piers Northam.)
‘How do we know God?’ She asks. ‘We feel it inside us.’ says the child. ‘And what does it feel like?’ ‘It feels like breath…’
It feels like breath: the engendering, enlivening breath, the rushing wind, the gift of life…
This child, just four years old, speaks an ancient truth – a truth not learnt but lived.
She knows the One who knit her together in her mother’s womb: recognises in a way that can’t be taught.
There is a saying in the North of England (some say it originates in Lancashire, others Yorkshire but I know where my money is!) – it’s neither nowt nor summat. For the benefit of those not familiar with northern English dialect, it means that it is ‘neither one thing nor the other’.
It is very tempting to say this is what it feels like after Ascension which the Christian Church celebrated last Thursday. At the feast of the Ascension We were led to the end of the Gospel of St Matthew when Jesus gave his last instructions and final blessing to his followers. Then, before their very eyes, he disappeared into the heavens. Jesus had told them that they were his witnesses and the task before them was to proclaim His Good News to all Nations. (Matthew 28: 16-end) In the nowt nor summat time they were to wait until they have been clothed with power from on high (Luke 24: 49). Jesus was, of course, referring to Pentecost when the power of God’s Spirit came upon them in the dramatic way Christians will remember next Sunday.
So we are between the Ascension and Pentecost. We are caught up in what I call a mathematical moment . From Easter Day to Ascension Day is 40 days. The same length as Lent. But Easter is the great Festival time of the Church so it must be the longest season, the ‘jubilee’ season of great rejoicing. So it has been given 50 days. The extra 10 days are those between last Thursday and next Sunday. So we are still in Eastertide! So this is not quite the negative time I’m suggesting.
According to the New Testament the disciples, together with the women who were special to Jesus, returned from Mount Olivet to the upper room where they devoted themselves to prayer. They also attended to the matter of choosing a successor to Judas. Matthias (whose feast day is May 14th – today) was chosen by lot. When I was younger I used to read in the Acts of the Apostles that the lot fell on Matthias! Not being familiar with this form of voting, I wondered, Did it hurt?
Through this sacred vote the disciples were thus ‘complete’ in the number of those who were destined to lead the infant Christian Church. (The sacred number 12 equating to the 12 tribes of Israel in the Old Testament.) The ‘ordination’ for this Leadership—their setting apart for the task, would come at Pentecost. For now they ‘waited’ and they prayed. Those being ordained to the Church’s ministry today go into ‘retreat’ just before they are commissioned by the Holy Spirit. The ‘nowt nor summat’ period is a time of getting oneself prepared. It is an inner activity in which God pours out his blessing. The importance of prayer as a time of being prepared by God for some work in His name cannot be over-emphasized. It is a time not of nowt nor summat but of expectant waiting. If God is to act through us, he needs us to be receptive to his Will, his plan. Which is why waiting in prayer is an important part of bringing a new and loving vision to a world (and a Church!) in great need.
I think in such moments of the lovely prayer of St. Teresa of Avila.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.
Christ has no body now on earth but ours….
[Mr G]
PS>
There are a few versions of the prayer on YouTube under the title Christ has no body now but yours. The one by the Exultate Singers is rather beautiful and there an interesting one featuring Josh Garrels.
This poem was written in the 1930’s by a dear friend of mine, Nan Northam It seems good to celebrate Rogationtide as a way of a rite of passage in Spring and a thanksgiving for creation.
O GOD, we thank you for this earth, our home; for the wide sky and the blessed sun, for the ocean and streams, for the towering hills and the whispering wind, for the trees and green grass. We thank you for our senses by which we hear the songs of birds, and see the splendour of fields of golden wheat, and taste autumn’s fruit, and rejoice in the feel of snow, and smell the breath of spring flowers.
GRANT US a heart opened wide to all this beauty; and save us from being so blind that we pass unseeing when even the common thornbush is aflame with your glory.
Mr G's Ponderings 