Beloved, show me the way

The readings First, the desert. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom.Dry: lonely, forlorn, ultimately dead.Very little wants to live there. Very little actually can.Desert gives either deepest roots, or no roots at all; things stay and survive forever, or they learn to adapt speedily.Like the crocus, […]

unspoken

i’ll speak of recipes, autumn tang in the air, the first yellow strands in the birch-green, starling songs inappropriately sharp for the time of the year; of all small things packed with the promise of bigness, significant only because it’s a background to the elephant not in the room; i will discuss pottery, maybe, poetry, […]

of gods and cats

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who […]

Samson

When it rains, The little cat sits in the window, Watching. The choices are ours to make And some are honest mistakes Like the rain falling in sheets. He does not know how Vapour rises, how long It takes for the clouds to grow heavy. The love we fall for, that Strikes like lightning, so […]

warbling

the voice, over the green, beyond the smell of a stale river, a clear flute of the evening come early enter the leafy temple: the alders will give way, the aspens rejoice, the birches, smile and say — listen to lindens lisp see how the osiers preen up to be seen by you — the […]

Doors to forgiveness

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth (Rev 1. 4b-5a). God is our beginning and end (Rev. 1.8), the first and the last letter […]

The perfume incident

Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Jn. 12.3 NRSVA Some years ago I came to a church vestry. It was November-ish. There was a distinct smell of spruce and candle-wax in […]

Ambassadors in silence

The readings are here. Silences. So much can be said about silences. First of all, because silences are, well,… silent. They do not speak back. There are silences huge as houses, and silences so tiny they go unnoticed. There are awkward silences and companionable silences. The elephant in the room, and shared happiness. The silence […]

Divine horticulture

The reading is here. There is no nice way to say this. We are all going to die. And that is that. Lent is a little about thirst and hunger. People discuss what they may eat and what not, how to fast and why, compare notes and feelings. And people want to know — or […]

Grow established in the Lord (by little things)

The readings are here (NRSV). The most annoying things in the multiverse are the small things. The most comforting things in the multiverse are the small things. A grain of sand in one’s eye, for instance. Or that grain of sand (together with its many, many relatives) on an icy pavement. Or the sound of […]

The unveiling

When Moses had finished speaking with them [the Israelites], he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the […]

unpunctuated

empty, I resonate with the song of the trees when the white swans mutely pass high and northwards like a drum, tight and trembling I open my self to the stick that will percuss me and further my air to the other side I’ll roll empty along Ðunnor’s path the hard heaven above into the […]

at Güstrow

polished pollen shy away from mother catkins to greet the starlings thronging above, round and round, fresh from the stars that bore them dancing through late winter each unaware of the other and so engage with the copper beeches unable to shed their seed as the autumn fell to early flutter along the willow’s white […]

adeste, be present

God waits. In His world the time is. In our world, the time flows. His is the tide, and ours, the time. The ancient is tomorrow. God waits for the perfect moment in our rivers of time, to sink in his fishing line. God waits alongside our imperfect flows of time for the perfect ripple […]

Of trees, axes and water (and fire)

By the river Jordan, John the Baptist spoke good news to the people. ‘Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’ .. As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in […]

maranatha

Adverbum sum, my love, an adverb, modified by countless acts of being seen, and truth, and those who walked the path before me. Made right by the verb, I exist, to be — not taken seriously unless the action is performed in your perception. Ad te sum, my love, you breathe my life, sparkling, sprinkling, […]

the delusion of idolatry

does christianity deny the fullness of life before death? is it really more about life after death, or the future, than it is about here and now, and the things we do and choose? i really do not know. if one reads the media perspective, the published reflections of those that have lost their illusions about […]

the taboo words

and so i said – i will die one day, that’s a fact. and my colleagues at work went berserk with ‘shush, don’t say so’ and ‘you do not mean it’, and ‘how can you say so, we must think of living forever’. and i thought – why should i succumb to the cult of […]

a brief meditation on John 6:68-69*

Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God. (Jn. 6:68-69 NLT) Jesus stands in the middle of the road and looks at those who find his words offensive. They are the same people he fed, healed and […]

when the sun shines long enough (a limp allegory)

when the sunlight comes into my room, and i, too, am at home, i see cobwebs in the normally dark places. some are ornamental. some are dirt. ultimately even the originally ornamental cobwebs turn to dirt. who’s to blame for that? the spiders, who have laboriously woven their little webs to catch whatever insects happen […]

good friday 2015

for those who wonder – i live because Christ does. there is no other way, no alternative, however crazy this sound. every good friday, for the past 20 years or so, i think of Christ’s death. of the narratives that are read and repeated endlessly for at least 15 hundred years. whom he met. who […]

give god a place

the purpose of advent is to prepare for christmas. the purpose of christmas is… what is the purpose of christmas? one answer, rather unpopular, would be: to remember that god came into the history as Jesus, and did all those great things. another answer, slightly more popular, would go thus: christmas is the time for […]

not out of tune

there is a strong undercurrent in creation stories. it insists that God created the world by singing. and all that is, visible and invisible, was contained in that singing. (of course, the best ever description of that was made by the old Professor Tolkien in his Silmarillion) and even now, incomplete and dissonant as we are, […]

Monteverdi. Sing a new song

consider the lilies*

they are, well, plants. they do not move, nor speak, nor can they defend themselves against loads of things. maybe some parasites, and that only because they have this chemistry going inside themselves. that all said, lilies come in various shapes and sizes, fragrances and colours. they are tall and royally white or purple like the […]

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