Day 20 of the End to End was Easter Sunday and it was somewhat strange to be walking along on a warm sunny day in Somerset rather than the usual churchy things associated with Easter Day. But did I miss those things? Not really.
Yesterday a friend reminded me of the words of a hymn published by the Iona Community: God who is everywhere present on earth. It is one of the cornerstones of my own faith. This I believe and this I will proclaim. So how did we get stuck in these dwindling inward looking holy huddles? Long story….
I love to visit the places associated with the history of the faith. I am a gyrovague (see the Prologue to the Rule of St Benedict to discover why this lot are a bad thing!), moving around, sampling the faith like some kind of errant bee. I sniff and sup and then I’m on my way again, taking the images and reflections with me.
But I also visit many other places where God is present: the well tuned fish and chip shop, the industrious farm shop selling local goodies, a wide open common, a village pub, the local heritage steam railway…. I could go on.
Well I could go on a steam railway if one was open. As it was there was an engine in the station at Bishop’s Lydeard when we stopped for some ice cream on this day in 2019. This was the prayer I wrote a year ago and it stills seems relevant this year:
In the heat of the day,
When the sun burns its way across the sky,
And news comes in of more inhuman acts
And suffering beyond enduring,
It’s hard to credit the notion
That a rock rolling God
Can move heaven and earth
To make all things new,
But Christ makes all ordinary things extraordinary today.
A bun, a breath, a life:
Hot and Holy.
Meanwhile, on line many well meaning folks are debating the future of the church. Some ask ‘Will we do church differently after this?’ I hate to spoil it for you, but some of us having been doing church differently a lot longer than a few months, and getting all sorts of persecutions and abuse for it. I’m not sure what version of church history you were reading that meant you hadn’t realised that the argument about how to do church is as old as the church itself, with the most powerful ones dictating to the rest, too often not just in arrogance but with violence, that proper church is done their way. My ancestors where 1662 dissenters, basically saying we retain the right to do church differently more than 350 years ago. Not being open to doing church differently, and too many seem not to be, is another sure sign the church is dying.
I do church differently. I count myself part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church, visible and invisible, by baptism. I make the promises of a Lay Benedictine linking me to the church militant on earth. I pray, in a small 33 year old camper van (and hope to once again take it on the road in true gyrovague fashion) and anywhere else where I am breathing in words borrowed from many different faith traditions and inspired in me by the Holy Spirit. I consider the things I eat and drink in memory of Jesus to be holy enough with his command alone to make that possible. On line or round the corner: God is everywhere present on earth.
From the remembered gospel
Jesus said ‘Go everywhere, tell everyone…’
And we’re off…
Risen Jesus, many things hold us back.
May your life affirming presence be the power
that gets us going everywhere to everyone,
today and forever.
JAL 21.04.2020 in Longdendale
Note: Gyrovague is defined as an itinerant or wandering monastic without fixed address or leadership …..