Category: Uncategorised

Six Haiku:“On Being Good to Your Self.”

 

Lists are false charge sheets,

conferring permanence on

sins of omission.

 

No!

 

Lists are promises

of rest, laughter, gifts, and time

we make for ourselves.

……………………………….

 

It isn’t a crime,

to be towards our own hearts,

gently generous.

 

So

 

Love your neighbour; yes,

but learn to love yourself too;

be your own heart’s friend.

……………………….

 

If caught beneath an

unexpected avalanche,

you can’t move mountains.

 

Thus

 

Being overwhelmed,

trust your friends; your personal

mountain rescue team.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

This is the kind of photo I like to take when I have time to look after myself

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Captions please? This road sign is down at St Cyrus beach car park.

The Typepad platform has been down for a couple of days. Seems to be back up and running. More laster. Meantime a wee prose poem from Rebecca Elson's notebook, which currently sits between the bookends on my desk:

"We observe the universe, predict it, calculate it, expose it to rationality, we ask it carefully phrased questions. We ask the reason for the universe, and look for the answer in the state from which it came, not the end it serves…."

 

This poem by George Herbert is the best poem I know for Holy Saturday. The rich use of the stone / rock image is fully exploited in biblical image and allusion. In Helen Wilcox's magisterial edition of The English Poems of George Herbert she offers a running commentary on all of the poems in the form of Notes and review of Modern Criticism. No point in duplicating that here. If you love the poetry of George Herbert then  buy the paperback from Amazon for around £25 – 700 plus pages of literary illumination!

“SEPULCHER” – by George Herbert

Oh blessed body!  Whither art thou thrown?
No lodging for thee, but a cold hard stone?
So many hearts on earth, and yet not one
                                      Receive thee?

Sure there is room within our hearts good store;
For they can lodge transgressions by the score:
Thousands of toys dwell there, yet out of door
                                      They leave thee.

But that which shows them large, shows them unfit.
Whatever sin did this pure rock commit,
Which holds thee now?   Who hath indicted it
                                      Of murder?

Where our hard hearts have took up stones to brain thee,
And missing this, most falsely did arraign thee;
Only these stones in quiet entertain thee,
                                      And order.

And as of old, the law by heav’nly art,
Was writ in stone;  so thou, which also art
The letter of the word, find’st no fit heart
                                      To hold thee.

Yet do we still persist as we began,
And so should perish, but that nothing can,
Though it be cold, hard, foul, from loving man
                                      Withhold thee.

 

One of the stitches I learned while developing this tapestry is the crossed gobelin. The bronze circle which overshoots the frame and is therefore only partially visible is worked in various threads, and is a surrounding circle of strength which contains the background panel, worked in crossed gobelin. This background is deliberately pastel, but with some parts of it showing stranded red.

The close-up shows the crossed gobelin is exactly what it says, a stitch in the shape of a cross; and some of them coloured red. The intention is clear enough; against a background that is formed in cruciform stitches, held in the golden bronze circle of divine power, the redemptive love of the Triune God is shaped in a circle of light, creation and suffering, and at the centre the co-inherence of Father Son and Spirit, an eternal kenosis of grace and love, overspilling in creation, redemption and reconciliation.

Much of this is now interpretation of a work which at the start was developing much more naively, and yet with a repeated reading of the text, and a  continual searching for colours and shapes which conveyed the essential power of Colossians 1.15-20. From then on the work became more intentional, responsive to what was already worked, new ideas coming in the process. The blue canopy of eternal life at the top, and the foundation red of suffering love at the base, complete the imagery. It is surrounded by a ribbon of gold blocks, and a border with variations of key colours, especially blue which brackets the whole.

Today is Good Friday, when once again, we remember "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their tresspasses against them". It is a day when the historic realities in all their ugliness were on display, an exhibition of human ingenuity in the pursuit of power, self-interest and the alleged safeguarding of 'the truth', 'the nation', 'the faith'. The betrayal and the violence, the cruelty and indifference, the mob and the cowards, the political expediency and religious zeal, all the mechanisms of social organisation which crush the life and humanity out of those who dare oppose a status quo which will not be questioned. And yet…"though him the reconciliation of all things, making peace by the blood of his cross". These are words deep dyed with the blood of God in Christ. And on this day, we bow our heads in gratitude, worship, and wonder. Because in Him, incarnate, crucified and risen, "in Him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…."

The inner circle continues the Trinitarian theme but the colours take on deep christological significance. There is a liturgical ambiguity, even disagreement about purple, which when used of Advent proclaims welcome for the royal king, but also forebodes and  foreshadows the Passion. In some traditions it is more frequently the colour of Lent and therefore is an Easter pointing colour. Advent is followed by, is even given purpose by, Easter. The King born in poverty, will suffer and die as a blaspheming criminal.

"In Him was life, and the life was light of humanity….the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it" Purple merges into gold, and from the Passion comes the light of life. The resurrection is too easily eclipsed by the sorrow of Good Friday; theologically the resurrection is the completion of Good Friday, the triumph of God, Christus Victor, "light and life, to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings…"

Green completes the circle, linking the lifegiving risen Christ and the crucified royal redeemer. Green is the colour of creation, the masterpiece of the God whose eternal communion of love overflows in love, bringing into being all that is. "All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made". John's great hymn echoes throughout Colossians, whether Paul knew of this tradition or not. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all thinmgs in heaven and on earth were created….".

Holy Week is the time when the Church remembers the Passion and the Resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel narratives give historical witness to events of eternal significance, freighted with vast theological realities. During Holy Week, Christians rehearse and re-live the story of creation, incarnation, redemption, and resurrection, as these are held within the life of the Triune God. God the eternal communion of love is the Creator whose love ever overflows in reconciling grace, whose holiness finally judges sin and redeems and renews a fallen creation, and whose life and light come to us as the promise of the future in God of all that is.

"For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or heaven, making peace through the bloos of the cross."

One further thought for Maundy Thursday. A friend pointed out something unseen and unintended by me. The topmost blue image in the centre hints at a chalice.

"All things were made through him and for him…in him all things hold together…"

The trinitarian structure of the central circle moves from blue to a kaleidoscopic effect merging the colours but with three discernible colour groups. I decided when doing this central panel that this beautiful shade of blue, chosen to convey trinitarian and christological significance, would be woven throughout the centre circle. Nearly every stitch in this section has one strand of blue in every six…"in him all things hold together". This was one of those decisions made after reading the text, and recognising that though not every stitch shows its blue strand, it is there, woven throughout. If I may dare say so, an attempt in art to suggest something of the mystery and beauty of perichoresis. The purple red and green are conjoined by this strand into a theological unity of creative love, mutuality and redemptive purpose.

Holy Week rightly focuses on the passion of Jesus. But the Christian tradition of  Trinitarian Christology sees in the specific, particular events of the Passion of Jesus, the eternal kenotic and passionate love of God. In other words, the Passion story of the death of Jesus, tells of events in history by which the broken heart of God reaches out in holy love and merciful judgement to redeem, reconcile and renew a recalcitrant, rebellious and ruined creation. Salvation is by the grace that gives itself in Christ; redemption is through the love that surrenders the Son; reconciliation is being called into the fellowship created by the Holy Spirit.

When we say "The Grace" in worship, therefore, it is not, manifestly not, a way of reminding us to be nice to each other. Grace, Love, and Communion are the defining theological realities of the Christian understanding of God. They are words of grateful wonder to the God who is an eternal communion of gracious and loving fellowship, reaching out in creation and redemption to fulfil the eternal purposes of Holy Love, by which all things exist, subsist and persist. Such I think is the theology that is woven through the Colossian hymn, with its climax that through Christ God is reconciling all things to Himself, making peace by the blood of His cross."

Sitting at the end of the living room with the patio doors, I can hardly see the computer screen for the early morning sunshine. My face is warm, eyes are dazzled and my instinct is to move across the other side where I can write more easily and see without squinting.

Last night I read one of Miroslav Volf's essays where he tells of his fascination for the phrase "the Lord make his face to shine upon you". That is enough of a reminder of how the sunshine is one of the great metaphors for the delight and grace of God. "He makes his sun to shine one the righteous and the unrighteous…." "From the rising of the sun, to the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised…"

So rather than seeing the dazzling sunlight as a nuisance to be avoided by migrating to the far end of the room, instead of putting on sunglasses indoors which would look ridiculous rather than cool, I stay and enjoy the sunlight, and let the brilliance of light and the radiance of warmth on my face, bathe me in awareness. So I sit here writing this, nearly blinded by morning sunlight and say the Aaronic blessing.

The Lord bless thee and keep thee

The Lord make his facce to shine upon thee

And be gracious unto thee

The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee

And give thee peace.

It's Holy Week. When Christians can become morose and solemn, thinking more of shade, shadow and darkness than the searching, life-giving brightness of light. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not comprehended it; has not overcome it; has not, and will not extinguish it. Yes this week leads to the cross, when once again darkness was upon the face of the deep. But it ends in a new beginning, "Early in the morning, as the sun was rising, they came to the tomb….."

Christian theology is irreducibly Christological, and Christology is Christian only insofar as it is Trinitarian. At least, so it is in my own understanding of what Paul means when he says 'in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…", and "He is the image of the invisible God…"

I'm well aware that Paul offers only hints and glimpses of the  developed Trinitarian theology of later theological credal formulations. At best he throws out trajectories towards a theology in which the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit were conjoined in the confessional worship of the earliest Christian communities.

The rich tapestry of ideas and images that make up the Colossian hymn provide some of the most far reaching New Testament claims about the divinity and Lordship of Jesus. Early on I started working with light blue, a particular shade which is somewhere between sky blue and marine blue. The three emerging shapes at the centre more than hint at the fullness of the Godhead as the eternal loving communion of Father, Son and Spirit, and while this wasn't pre-planned, my own theological presuppositions made some such emergent Trintarian image inevitable. The central circle took on a threefold merging of clolours, but merging and overlapping. The result is a "perichoresis" of colour. One of the intriguing joys of stranded cotton is separating them and reconfiguring them into an endless variety of permutations, allowing for a kaleidoscopic effect of intermingling colours.

Today is Palm Sunday. I've just preached this morning on the question of the crowd, "Who is this?". The King who comes gently to Jerusalem is the One in whom "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell"; and the One who "though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped and possessively clung to, but emptied himself….", … and "came riding on a donkey".

No wonder the crowds cried "Hosanna", the Scribes demanded silence, and the mob later howled for blood, 'Crucify!'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture is a close-up of the recently completed Christology tapestry. The idea began partly, and playfully, to answer the question, "What colour is Christology?" It wasn't meant to be a serious question, but it wasn't trivial either.

The whole work was to be based on Colossians 1.15-20, printed below. Each time I took it up I re-read this passage and allowed the images and ideas to soak into my way of thinking for the next 2 months. I read and translated it, worked through several commentaries and went chasing in lexicons and elsewhere. I kept notes on a text layered with profundity, and in which, to quote my theological hero James Denney, 'we hear the plunge of lead into fathomless waters'.

There was no pre-planning, no pattern to follow. I would start at the centre, work outwards, and try as best I could to allow the colours and images to grow out of prayer, reading, exegesis and contemplative stitching!

Over Holy Week I would like to offer a daily reflection on the Colossian hymn and link it to the tapestry. I'm not attempting to explain 'the meaning' of the tapestry, merely to reflect on what I see there, now that it's finished. Explanations are ways of reducing things, and there is something essentially irreducible in all atempts to 'explain' how 'all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Him' – whether in theological formulae or stranded cotton! 

Colossians 1.15-20

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; ¹⁶ for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.