A fox slipped under the gate,
having crossed the high street,
brush sweeping the floor;
Street lights made orange pools,
reflected back in random puddles.
I took the climb, the switchback
up to the top and then down;
darker here, lights up
no visible eyes shone back at me.
The return journey was just as dark,
but no critter to leave its mark:
the night I passed the same gritter,
twice!
In our coming and our going,
The Peace of God.
Creed for a School Chaplain: I actually wrote this at the beginning of 2016, and it was used during the service of Hallowing that we held in Chapel on my birthday.
I believe in Jesus,
in whose footsteps we follow;
born like us,
challenged by life,
alone in death.
He rose again
in unlikely circumstances,
inspiring our forebears
to remember his stories, words and actions.
I believe in this community
of not quite saints,
who daily undergo challenges
to develop and grow
in faith and love.
We tell his story with our lives,
not perfectly but winsomely.
I believe in the Holy Spirit
who inspires me everyday
with the reflection of Christ’s glory
in each person here:
who surprises us
in classrooms and corridors
with the unlikely signs
of God’s presence with us.
This is the God in whom we believe:
one who waits for unlikely moments,
creates unexpected opportunities,
listens and observes
the smallest details of our lives
and makes them count.
I believe
and by God’s grace will go on believing,
that the church is bigger than we have made it,
that our neighbours are closer than we dare think,
and I understand I am called to share these things with you all,
modifying and sculpting together our responses
to God active in us and the world around us.
In our life and our believing
The Love of God
JAL: 06.01.2016
The Feast of the Epiphany.
O Mary:
did you say ‘O my God’
when the journey began?
Did you say ‘O my God’
when you realised the city was full?
Did you say ‘O my God’
when you saw the stable?
Did you say ‘O my God’
when the labour pains started?
Did you say ‘O my God’
when his head was crowning?
did you say ‘O my God’
when the chord was cut?
Did you say ‘O my God’
when you laid him in a manger?
May we who say ‘O my God’ now
at even the slightest thing,
look with you and wonder
as around the world today,
women follow this same journey
to motherhood and beyond.
In our life and our believing
The Love of God
O God, we who are not with it, need you with us.
We’ve got lost in a maze of our own making;
Preferring trivia and ephemera, we’ve lost our focus.
We think Justice means when we get what we want;
Mercy we confuse with people being kind to us
And humility has fallen out of the dictionary,
To be trodden underfoot as irrelevant.
We need you with us to restore us to a fuller understanding
Of the way of Justice, Mercy and Humility.
Come and be with us, not temporarily,
But on permanent loan, as a native,
Knowing what being human means from the inside.
That way, maybe we stand a chance
Of doing justice, loving mercy and travelling humbly [1].
In our life and our believing
The Love of God
[1] Micah 6:8
On a clear day,
Maybe we could try some blue sky
Thinking about nations and kings.
Partitioning the globe,
Drawing lines on a map,
Invasion, conquest, uprising:
All of these and more
Feature in the formation
Of human notions of nations.
Kings have been crowned and beheaded,
Lauded and vilified, others abdicated.
If there’s a place where the ideas of human power
Meet and are found wanting it is here,
In the nexus of kings and nations.
Longed for One,
We want you
To transform our global glories,
Our personal power trips,
Our eutopian understandings
Of our common life.
There’s a place, O King of Nations,
Where we live together differently
Because your rule makes the difference
To life lived in the communion of love.
Even so come then Lord Jesus
In our life and our believing
The love of God
Go through the park, on into the town….
Before the light comes we are just shapes
In the darkness, feeling our way.
A wet nose touches my hand
To confirm this as a common path
For early morning companions.
Bare winter boughs are reflected
In leaf littered pond water.
The park gates keep the traffic out
As I step from one world to another.
In the underpass the same graffiti
Urges on one team or another.
The empty cardboard boxes
Have no occupant today.
The people of darkness are needing a friend….
Come then Dayspring,
Brightest of all lights.
Come to the park and the underpass.
Come to the commuters on the 8.08.
Come to our anxious minds and crowded lives.
Come to platforms both busy and bare.
Come through the grey and heavy air.
The light of the world is risen again….
The sky is touched by the first signs.
The bare branches whisper and sigh
Recognising the moment of miracle
And all the birds in every corner sing
To God, creator of the Universe:
Even so, come then Lord Jesus.
The sun still shines on it never goes down….
In our life and our believing
The love of God
Today’s reflection includes lines in italics from the hymn Colours of Day, 572 in Rejoice and Sing, by Sue McClellan, John Paculabo and Keith Rycroft.
Earth was the only meeting place….
Earth was the only meeting place for the work of toil and seed.
Earth was the only greeting place for the winged one and womankind.
Earth is the only dwelling place for those who search the skies.
Earth is the only birthing place where the newborn one cries.
From a root comes a shoot,
From a shoot comes a leaf,
From a leaf comes all life;
A miniscule molecule making energy from sunlight.
Come then, O Root of Jesse,
Come and be our Son-light,
Born of root and shoot,
Bursting from the earth
To fill the skies.
In our life and our believing
The Love of God
O Lord, O Lord, O Lord
Our common exhortation;
Save us, deliver us, help us.
O Lord, O Lord, O Lord
Save us from trivia,
Deliver us from lost deliveries,
Help us with our on line dilemmas.
O Lord, O Lord, O Lord,
Save us from the common place complaints,
Deliver from the frequent ditherings,
Help us to get in tune with you.
O Lord, O Lord, O, Lord
Save us, deliver us, help us.
Come down and meet us here.
In our coming and our going
The Peace of God.
Wisdom we need you,
to discern, to distinguish,
but not, as we fear, to judge.
We need to see you on street corners,
in supermarket aisles and at railways stations,
on motorways and in board rooms
in our homes and neighbourhoods.
O Wisdom, only you can help us
to discern the truth and face our fears.
In these days of untruth and of false news:
come to the rubble of the world’s conscience,
that we may distinguish truth
and follow the Way of Wisdom
In our life and our believing
The Love of God
All of this term we have been thinking about Aleppo and the children living there under seige. Here is a song for Aleppo. Please sing it – the tune is Forest Green (the tune we use for O little town of Bethlehem).
O broken city of Aleppo,
Before our eyes you die.
We see the dust we see the blood,
And hear your wretched cry.
But we are too distracted,
Can’t think of what to say;
We turn you off, we block you out;
Will you survive today?
O shattered city of Aleppo,
We hear your weeping still;
As bombs and bullets everywhere
Seek out children to kill.
We see your tweets and videos
Not sure what to believe;
But unlike you besieged, denied
We can turn off and leave.
O ruined city of Aleppo
For you I sing lament;
For you I pray now every day,
My intentions are well meant
For Christ was born in Bethlehem
Two thousand years ago,
But every day on your cruel streets
Children all hope forgo.
Copyright: Janet Lees
Tune: Forest Green
13.12.2016