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Before all greatness,

           be silent—

                      in art,

                             in music,

                                   in religion:

                                                    ………..silence.”

Baron Friedrich Von Hugel, Letters to a Niece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.”

Mary Oliver, Evidence. Poems 

I did this once before.

To try to say each day, in one sentence, something worth saying, reading, hearing.

This time with something worth looking at as well.

The photo was taken 3 miles from our house, looking over Loch Skene. on a sunny day – yes we do get them, now and again…..

"Love does not consist of gazing at each other,

                     but in looking outward together in the same direction."

(Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince).

Confessing our Small-Mindedness

We
confess to you our Father,

our small-mindedness and limited appreciation of
your greatness.

We
confess that we scarcely consider

your mighty movements at the beginning of
time,

creating the heavens and the earth;

nor do we even barely notice

the potential purposefulness of ordinary moments.

Lord we have sinned:

Forgive us and enlarge our
understanding.

 

We
confess to you Lord of Life,

that the life and death and resurrection of the Word made flesh,

do
not expand our thinking as they should:

we are hemmed in by transitory
interests and temporal pursuits,

and afraid oir unaware of the essential and eternal.

Lord
we have sinned:

Forgive us, and deepen our
love,

 

We
confess to you Spirit of God,

that we do not value

and seldom welcome

the gift of your Holy
Spirit

to liberate our tongues to praise you

and energise our lives to serve you.

Lord
we have sinned:

Father forgive us for our
failures and our sins,

Through the love of our Lord
Jesus:

And help us by the power of
your Holy Spirit, Amen

((c) Jim Gordon: Please feel free to use for yourself or in worship services)

One of the more expansive minds in my poetry canon is Denise Levertov. In her poem Candlemas, economy of words contrasts with the enlarging images of open arms, light, new life, deep faith and illumination. But the theological jolt of the poem is the final turning of Simeon, who held in his arms the Light of the World, towards that deeper darkness where the ineffability of God remains eternally secure from human prying.

A recovery of apophatic humility is now an essential dimension of a spirituality capable of withstanding the ephemeral, endlessly articulated imprecision of the noise and chatter of information, connectivity, immediacy of communication, transience of contact and superfluity of trivia. In other words, perhaps God is calling for a recovery of depth in our feeling, attentiveness in our hearing, reverence encouraging reticence in our speaking, and a reacquaintance with silence as the sign of a soul that, before God, knows its place.

 

Candlemas
By Denise Levertov

With certitude,

Simeon opened

ancient arms

to infant light.

Decades

before the cross, the tomb

and the new life,

he knew

new life.

What depth

of faith he drew on,

turning illumined

towards deep night.

Luke 4.1-13 -  ‘If
you are the Son of God…..’

The word if is
a destabilising word.

It corrodes trust, it undermines confidence, it slackens
our hold on our certainties.  

If.

‘If you
really cared about me…..’

If you were
really serious about…..

If it had
been me I would have…..

If.

A word that, used with precision and cunning,

calls
our integrity,

     our identity,

          our intentions,

               our motives,

                    our core values,

                        our
moral priorities into question.

If you are the Son of God……

Three times, ‘If
you are…’.

Three times an interrogation of the soul,

     a sifting of the heart,

          a
politely framed enquiry,

               disguising the fear and panic of self-promoting evil

                   encountering the obedient self-giving of the Servant and Son of God.

If you are
– prove it!

If you are – live it!

If you are – test it!

 

And throughout Jesus
ministry his response to the If you are
question will be

I AM….

So why
test a certainty?

Why prejudice implicit trust?

Why prove in time, what is eternally true?

 

And that
drama in the desert, the drama of If.

It
becomes also the drama of Christian obedience.

If you are
a child of God……

If God is
to be trusted….

If what you
say you believe, you really believe, then……..

If, has
consequences.

 

In the end our obedience is rooted in the obedience of Christ.

Our
faithfulness in small things is made possible by his faithfulness unto death.

Our
victories are won, only through the final triumph of Christus Victor.

Three final
‘If’ statements, which with disciplined grace, and obedient faithfulness provide
the tension points of Christian existence:

I am the vine, you are the
branches…

            if you remain in me
and I in you, you will bear much fruit….

You are my friends  

            If you do what I command you….

By this everyone will know you
are my disciples,

            if you love
one another……

(The photo comes from here – and captures exactly the ambiguities of those disturbing questions that call our Christian identity into question. Thanks to Pastor Kyle Huber).

There are different ways of reviewing a book. There is the speed read filleting that gives the gist of the argument, homes in on a few illustrative quotes, then writes about the general theme of the book with sufficient reference to the text to make it all sound credible. Such a review is a disgrace!

By contrast there is the conscientious reading of the book, with annotated margins / and or notes in notebook or laptop. The review is then presented as an essay that shows the book was given a fair hearing, by someone qualified to appreciate and critique, caution or commend. Such a review is a courtesy of scholarship.

Between these two is the quickly read book, but approached with enough care for the subject and respect for the author that the review is by and large fair, and helpful to those who want to know – is this book worth my money and my time? Such a review is useful.

In reviewing John Swinton's book Dementia, I want to do something different from these. A series of reflections or brief essays in which the overall thesis of the book is explored, and its contribution to a Christian theological understanding of dementia weighed and listened to. Make no mistake – this is a book of Christian theology, a constructive attempt to place the profound human challenge dementia poses for our understanding of our humanity, of God, and of what it means to live in the life and love of God.

This approach inevitably means I will be responding and making comments before the whole story is told, before the thesis is stated, defended and established, before the book is read through. But bear with me. That will enable conversations in which questions asked may encounter their answer later, and before such questions allow a more patient listening.

The Introduction plunges immediately into the depths of human experience by posing questions about the nature of our humanity. Identity, "who am I", is a far from straightforward question. Related to who I am is who loves me and what that love might mean. If I change over the years, or some decisive intervention such as dementia changes the way I am, in what sense can those who loved me be expected still to love a person who is no longer who they were? Swinton insists it is the divine recognition of who we are that is theologically decisive in questions of human identity. This is a crucial move in Swinton's approach. The book is self-consciously theological, and the question it addresses is fundamentally theological. While acknowledging the important role of other disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, psychiatry and neurology in the understanding of dementia, he is offering a different perspective. What does dementia look like, and how is the response to the person with dementia shaped by presuming  "a world created by God, broken by sin, and in the process of being redeemed through the saving work of Jesus"?

Central to John Swinton's theology, both here and in other volumes such as Raging with Compassion is this paradigm shifting concept of the redemptive purposes of God. Swinton has professional experience as a psychiatric nurse, a mental health chaplain and as an academic theologian with an overt Christian commitment. That is why he offers not a disclaimer, but a claim that he spends the rest of the book justifying:

"dementia is a thoroughly theological condition. It makes a world of difference to suggest that dementia happens to people who are loved by God, who are made in God's image, and who reside within creation. The task of theology is to remind people of that distinction and to push our perceptions of dementia beyond what is expected, toward the surprising and the unexpected"  (page 8)

Reconfiguring the relation between such a theological perspective and the multi-professional perspectives derived from other disciplines will be one of the challenges of the book. Another is the need for Christian theology itself to reconfigure how to articulate the relation between God and each human being. Swinton rightly interrogates a prevalent assumption in theological writing, that the one addressed is an "individuated, experiencing, cognitively able self, perceived as  a reasoning, thinking, independent, decision-making entity". A theology of salvation based primarily on such assumptions has such far reaching consequences of exclusion and inclusion that a more viable approach is required when dealing with human beings who may be cognitively impaired. That is the theological challenge for a Christian understanding of dementia.

Who am I when I've forgotten who I am? Who am I when others have forgotten who I am? Into such frightening questions comes the Christian good news that God knows exactly who we are, in the divine recognition there is no forgetting of us, ever.

 

Malala Yasufzai is well enough to leave hospital.

This is news that rejoices my heart and adds to the celebration of Good News.

Her courage and determination, the professsional exp[erience and care of nurses, the skill and resources of the surgeon, all made available for this one life at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

She is an inspiration and a symbol of hope to millions of women.

She has learned to talk again, walk again and wave her hand again – and much restorative surgery still has to be endured.

A young teenager's desire to learn, and her intelligence and hopefulness, outweigh the entire weight of Taliban hatred, violence and religious vengefulness.

The Lord bless her and keep her; the Lord make his face to shine upon her and be gracious unto her; the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon her and give her peace.

Went to one of our favourite places for a cappuccino.

No loyalty cards there, just good coffee, an off the street ambience, and lots of folk talking, sipping and reading.

Waited more than  10 minutes for the coffee – short staffed, and those who had turned up were hassled trying to keep things going.

When it came, the part time barista was apologetic, out of breath and showing early signs of work related stress.

Then the first sip of anticipated heaven – but beneath the aesthetic beauty of the chocolate topped froth the coffee was cold.

Gently and pleasantly I explained to the now near tearful student trying to make ends meet with extra work.

Genuine apologies, immediate promise to replace them and off she went.

Second cup came, as wsonderful to behold as the last one – it too was cold.

There comes a time when you realise that someone else's day is more important than your own.

Asked if this one was OK I lied and said it was just as I liked it.

If drinking tepid coffee with a smile and a fib prevents tears, what the Heaven?

Now as to loyalty cards – they don't do them.

But I don't go there for the loyalty card and the chance of a free coffee – I go for the lovely people who get upset if they don't get it right.

And I will be back 🙂

In the space of two days –

Went into Marks and Spencers for a coffee – presented the loyalty card and got a free coffee.

Went into the UWS Canteen for a coffee – presented the loyalty card for a free coffee next time.

Went into Cafe Nero for a coffee – presented the loyalty card and got a free coffee.

Went into Costa at Waterstones – nobody mentioned loyalty card. Might not go back there!

As an habitual theological reflector I sat and thought about the profound implications of retail adultery, indeed retail promiscuity.

Just how many people can you be loyal to for life, if those people are competitiors and rivals?

And is loyalty conditional on reward or should faithfulness be that which we give to those we value, love and want to be with?

Are some loyalties limited and non-exclusive of others, and if so what does it mean to be loyal if there is, to put it nicely, a clash of loyalties – presumably someone gets dumped?

In Theistic terms, a Monotheist is faithful and loyal to one God, whereas a Henotheist is faithful to one God at a time, and can therefore be a serial monotheist. A matter of personal convenience and expediency which sounds like the kind of religion just made for consumers.

In ethical terms, is the loyalty card an invitation to a monogamous relationship, or an incentive to self interest? If so is it really a bribe which allows both retailer and consumer to benefit, to the exclusion of others?

In human terms, there is the comedy of standing at the till, flicking through the wodge of loyalty cards to find the right one, and the barista waits patiently because there's nothing new here – just customers after a free coffee, a good deal, and doing what everyone does.

These are reflections of a coffee drinking theologian wondering if churches should issue loyalty cards.

And then remembering that maybe that is what Baptism is –

a lifetime act of loyalty and only one card,

and at the Eucharist, every time, the bread and wine are free.

Because the card is stamped, the heart is given,

we love Him because he first loved us,

we are no longer our own but are bought with a price,

water has become wine,

bread is broken and we are fed,

and there are still twelve baskets full.

If any one will come after me,

let them deny theirselves,

take up their cross,

and follow me.

For what are we advantaged

if we gain the whole world,

and lose our own soul?