Can you tame God, pin God down,
Make God do the things you want?
As the wind whips the branches in a wild dance,
Can you stop God dancing on her own grave?
As the water rushes headlong over rapids
Can you stop God rushing in where angels fear to tread?
As the hailstones sting like arrows
And the lightening forks the earth
Can you stop the sting of God hitting home
Or the blast of light that comes from God’s truth?
If you can do none of this,
but stand naked in God’s eye
Knowing that this wild untameable God,
Creator of the cosmos,
Is also the renewing Spirit that remakes everything in her image,
And calls you to bear witness to the fury and the majesty
As the gory sun declares her glory day in and day out,
Then you too can take up her offer,
To wear the marks and the Crown,
To hold out your arms,
Ready, waiting, embracing,
On the tree.

In our life and our believing
The love of God

JAL 28.10.2018

We who know human power,
Who have seen it used and abused in the world,
Pray to you, cosmic God, power beyond power.
We are not stupid but we are sometimes silent:
Silenced by the strength of others,
Silenced by shame.
As our silence meets your fathomless silence
May it hold and heal us,
So that silence becomes the crucible from which truth emerges.

As we regain the power of speech
In the swirling cauldron of the Living Word
May we be reborn as truth tellers, peace pioneers and justice joy dealers
Swinging through the universe
On the coat tails of the Holy Spirit.

And when justice and peace come together
In lip smacking affirmation,
May we be there to bear witness
To the struggles, the challenges, the sacrifices, the love,
And embrace the glory of that endless kiss,
In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer, Revevealer.

In our life and our believing
The love of God.

14.10.2018 Psalm 85, verse 10.

Here I fly and so do you;
Where the ash holds the key
And hawthorn red berries dot the path.
Dappled light strikes stray leaves,
Dry sticks break under each footfall:
Here I fly and so do you.
In the circle of contemplation,
The ring of reflection, I crouch
As the small ones dance before my eyes.
A wing beats, a throat swells,
A brush waves along a branch:
Here I fly and so do you.

In our life and our believing

The love of God

JAL 28.09.2018

It’s my daughter’s 25th birthday today. 

From the microscopic to the philanthropic;
From the ovum, small, to the amazon, tall;
From dividing cell to a stunning belle;
From a tiny fetus to one who can teach us;
After nine months gestation to a real sensation;
From a babe in arms to a singer of psalms;
From a roller, a crawler, a walker and a talker
For two decades and a half, I could cry and laugh;
At the quarter of a century since you made your entry;
From a small seed sown to a woman grown!

JAL 26.09.2018

God is shepherding me,
Watching me in the landscape,
Meeting my needs,
Anticipating my moves.
Here is abundant pasture:
This is where God takes me
To enjoy a generous peace
And I am restored.
There are deathly places,
Spaces where life sucks,
But I am not afraid to frequent them,
Even if I’d rather not.
God is with me: holding out
The essential tools of shepherding.
Whatever I need to thrive,
God comforts me,
Setting a table to nourish and entertain me,
So that even my enemies
Are taken by surprise.
Surely Gods goodness will continue
To flow all around me,
And this homecoming will go on and on
Forever.

In our life and our believing
The love of God

JAL 10.09.2018

Autumn begins when the plums ripen. That’s also when jam making begins in my kitchen. Jammin’ is one of the most satisfying activities I know. It is prayerful, it is mindful, it is panful and potful. It is stirring for the soul.
Take equal quantities of fruit and jam sugar in a large thick bottomed pan. Warm the fruit and sugar together so the sugar melts. Raise the heat a bit to cook the fruit gently, depending on the fruit you are using. When happy with that, boil the jam hard for four minutes. It’s described as a rolling boil. If using plums it should look like a cauldron of molten copper.
Check the setting point by dripping a little from your wooden spoon on to a cold plate. The so called wrinkle test is passed when the small puddle of jam does just that; wrinkles on the plate.
Skim off the stones if you were using stoned fruit. Pour into sterile jars and cover. If possible think of a witty label to apply to your jam.
In some places jam may be frowned on for its high sugar content. But you aren’t supposed to eat a whole jarful at once, after all. Eat on fresh bread or scones.
Making jam has become for me something of an end of summer ritual. Also, I once used it to fund a community group visit to Jamaica, but that’s another much longer story.
I find jammin’ an excellent self-care strategy. It’s really stirring for the soul.

In our life and our believing

The love of God

My upper lip is salty as my tongue tip touches it.
My forehead is leaking and small flies lap at my hairline
What use is humidity?
Some plants on seaward slopes in desert areas drink the clouds (1).
Here I am lapping up the love of God as I walk beside the Eure,
Bathed in the breath of the clouds, like a plant in the desert,
I am reminded that all God requires of me
Is that I do justice, love mercy and walk humidly (2).

In our life and our believing

The love of God

Notes
1. Thanks to @therevbobw for reminding me of this.
2. From my remembered Bible

My walk along the river Eure and Ripon canal today crossed over the route Bob walked on his End to End in 2003.
JAL 20.08.2018.

By tradition,  the Magnificat is sung at Vespers. So here is a version, written from the Mobile Chapel of St Scholastica that you might like to try. It refers to a hermit that lived by Warkworth castle on the river Coquet and in my version that hermit is female.

Once a lone hermit lived by the Coquet,
Right in the shade by the bank you see,
And she watched and prayed and sang her magnificat
God gets bigger and bigger in me

Chorus
God gets bigger
God gets bigger
God gets bigger and bigger in me.
And she watched and prayed and sang her magnificat
God gets bigger and bigger in me.

Oh how my spirit rejoices in God on high
Just like the mother of God you see,
As I watch and pray and sing my magnificat
God gets bigger and bigger in me.

Down go the rich and up come the humble:
God always sides with the poor you see,
And I watch and pray and sing this magnificat
God gets bigger and bigger in me.

JAL 19.07.2018, Warkworth and 19.08.2018, Roecliffe.

Tune is Waltzing Matilda

Yesterday I noticed two women park their cars near my house. It’s common at this time of year: we live near the park. One car was dark blue with a dent on the offside wheel arch.
They had several children of different ages with them who chattered on the pavement. The women got out. They both wore the niqab. The children wore summer clothes, pale colours, short, light, airy. The children spoke to each other in English. The women did not.
They all went to the park and a little while later when the rain started, they came back, got in the cars and drove away.
When I see women locally, if I know them or not, whatever they wear. I smile and say hello or good morning or something similar. I thought about these two women and their families.
What if it was really scary to come out of your house. What if the street outside seemed like a trap or a place of hate and fear. What if just going to the shop or the park was a huge undertaking but you just had to do it for the chattering children were demanding to go out to the park. What if you’d rather not go, not face the stares, the comments, or any of it. What if it was not like you had hoped or expected or wanted. What if…
Of course others might struggle to leave their home for many reasons and might expect a more or less sympathetic response. We each deal with our anxieties differently. I remember a time when wearing sheep brooches was part of my armour against anxiety. I’d put on one or two or seven or eight. Only a few people worked it out.
But even so I was a powerful woman by comparison: a white university educated, career woman. And it is about power. A white university educated male politician, more powerful than me, can liken a small number of women to street furniture and by doing so ramp up anxiety. And make going out even more challenging.
I go out to the park most days. I say hello to people whether I know then or not. I smile whether I can see their face or not. I try to love my neighbours.

In our life and our believing
The love of God