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"Celestial Fire."

 

"What did he know, and when did he know it?" Many an inquiry into political scandal or criminal activity has sought to explain and evidence the process that led to the crisis or the crime. When I try to explain a finished tapestry those same probing questions seem important.

Most of my tapestries are attempts to give visual form to a written text. They are inevitably subjective in process, occasionally spontaneous in the turns and twists of how the finished piece turns out, and so, until quite late on, unpredictable. This one is no different. It is based on two texts, George Herbert's 'The Altar', and Charles Wesley's 'O Thou who camest from above'. Both writers use the image of sacrifice and altar, and in this tapestry the two coalesce in the one piece of art.

Informing the entire process is a personal history with these texts, which have had transformative influence on my experience of God. They have shaped my theological style which is intentionally and essentially ecumenical and evangelical. They continue to nourish my spirituality, which I consider a work in progress, and with no final blueprint that predetermines outcome – other than "my heart's desire" to grow in the knowledge of God, and the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Spirit.

From the start, my only fixed decision was to place the defining image of the altar in a central panel set against two contrasting landscapes. One would be reminiscent of my own native Scotland, the other an idealised garden with flowers and trees. This started as a simple contrast to set off the central panel, but what separates them is a ribbon of blue, a river. Somewhere in the working of that river my mind flipped to Eden, and the river that flowed through the garden. The contrast between a landscape I live with daily, and a garden which is more 'I wish' than reality, took on theological significance as reality and ideal. They acknowledge the way life is as I have to live it, and give substance to the turn of the heart in aspiration towards God. Taken together they represent both the discontent and desire that underlie spiritual hunger for God.  

Once I had decided on the contrast of untamed sky, mountain, forest, and moorland with a much more stylised neutral background with fruit trees and flowers, the overall setting became clearer.

The irises bottom left have long been symbols in the church of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, the doctrinal core of a Christian understanding of sacrifice. The bottom right has a vine laden with grapes, which is pure George Herbert, and one of his most powerful images for the sacrifice of Christ and the significance of the Eucharist for the church. The tree in the centre is actually one of two things! As a rambling rose it too recalls the Passion which is symbolised by the altar directly above it. As an apple tree (John Goldingay thinks an apricot tree!) it has its own significance in Eden as the place and time of confluence, when divine history and human history were moved purposively from creation towards redemption and beyond.

The altar is shaped exactly in imitation of Herbert's poem, and is done in plain stitch, but cemented in a way that indicates the layers of Herbert's altar-shaped poem. This was an exercise in counting the holes in the canvas and matching them to the lines and letters of the poem! The altar sits on pristine variegated green, behind it a darkened sky but with promise of dawn and new beginnings. The altar is highlighted with metallic thread, which spreads right and left to the rainbow circle, a faintly cruciform hint.

The flame was always going to be both central and focal, and is a representation of celestial fire, an inextinguishable blaze, and a flame of sacred love – the shape is roughly an inverted heart, the mean altar on which the sacrifice is offered. It was at this point, almost at the end of the work, that the full picture began to cohere around its theme, at least in my own mind. The circular border is a rainbow, biblical symbol of covenant promise, as the faithful and steadfast love of God is seen in the sacrifice of Christ as its defining and final revelation. 

So, what did I know and when did I know it? The main idea of the focal centre of altar and flame was there from the start, though how it would work out remained to be solved. The background was worked ad hoc, the colours chosen and the flowing lines roughly pencilled in but sometimes changed. The river ribbon of blue has its own symbolism both in relation to Eden, and as a colour often symbolising heaven. Once the lines of the top section were complete they gave the lines of the top of the second section – the river is both a line of demarcation, and a place of joining.

The flowers and fruits were developed in relation to the space. The vine as symbol of the Eucharist and the wine of the Kingdom of God have deep echoes in the poetry of Herbert, especially in the remarkable language of 'The Agonie'. It recalls Herbert's final lines:

O let Thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,

and sanctifie this ALTAR to be thine. 

Doing a tapestry like this is a process of contemplative and prayerful recall. I know the words of both poems by heart, and hope that, at the very least, they sometimes express my best spiritual intentions, however short of them I fall. The finished work, and the creative process before it,is also an exercise in giving an inner testimony visible form. In that sense it is deeply personal, in its own way prayer offered through the work of the hands.

In Praise II, Herbert promises God "Wherefore with my utmost art / I will sing Thee:" I guess a tapestry like this is a thread and canvas attempt to fulfil some of that loving intent.  

Of the thousands of hymns written by Charles Wesley, this is the one that found its way into my commonplace book of prayers frequently used. I've listened to it in multiple renderings, and sung it as often as I could reasonably choose it in Orders of Service. Yet it still retains its power to move and nudge me towards deeper awareness and responsiveness to the presence and the work of the Holy Spirit in the church, in the world, and in my own life. 

I'm in good company. Late in life, in 1781, Charles Wesley told the Yorkshire preacher Samuel Bradburn that "his experience might almost any time be found in the first two verses of this hymn." Not to be outdone, John Wesley in his later years said that the last two verses "were the answer he gave in a class meeting when he was asked about his own state of sanctification." ¹ 

We all have our favourite hymns and prayers. As a student of Wesley's hymns, familiar with the best of them, and a few of the worst of them, I confess this hymn expresses both my longing for a life more receptive to the fires of God's love (Charles) and more constant in both desire and practice in the service of Jesus. (John)

The hymn displays to great effect one of Charles' favourite hymnal wake-up calls. The entire hymn is composed of one or two syllable words, apart from 'celestial' and 'inextinguishable'. Both words describe the holy fire of the Spirit's coming, especially the polysyllabic 'inextinguishable'.This is a piece of literary holy mischief! The word goes on and on taking up most of the available syllables in the line, spelling out in a word of six syllables the prayer that the blaze of the Spirit will be perpetual, continuous – that is, in-ex-ting-uish-ab-le!

Beyond that the hymn gathers a range of biblical allusions to the tabernacle and temple, both places of sacrifice. The Wesleys habitually referenced the First Epistle of John, and especially the vocabulary of perfection and love, and these always rooted in the love of God revealed in the death of Jesus for the atonement of sins. Which brings us to verse 1 and the Invocation:

 O thou who camest from above
the pure celestial fire t'impart,
kindle a flame of sacred love
on the mean altar of my heart!

This is spiritual desire at its most outspoken and bold, not unlike the use of the word 'bold' in Hebrews, "“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb.4.16) The Christian has little to offer, only 'the mean altar of my heart!'

But to pray down the celestial fire, to kindle a flame of sacred love on the mean altar of the human heart, that's a prayer worthy of the unsearchable riches of Christ, such invocation is a radical trust in the dominical promise of the Pentecostal fire, and rests on the apostolic promise, 'this is the will of God, even our sanctification.'

Then the vision of an inextinguishable blaze of the presence of the Spirit of God firing the heart, is followed by the cycle completed and repeated as the flame of sacred love evokes humble love and fervent praise, which is offered in the response of worship. But this is not an exercise in affective joyfulness in the closed circle of devotional exchange, Jesus and me. The second half of the hymn balances the sacrifice of praise with the sacrifice of service. I can well understand how John Wesley the incurable activist looked to those two verses as the benchmark of a life set apart for the service of Jesus, and as the barcode verification of his own discipleship and sanctification. 

Jesus, confirm my heart's desire
to work, and speak, and think for thee;
still let me guard the holy fire,
and still stir up the gift in me.

Ready for all thy perfect will,
my acts of faith and love repeat;
till death thy endless mercies seal,
and make the sacrifice complete.

If I'm right about syllable counting in this hymn (and elsewhere in Wesleyan hymnody), then it is the word 'sacrifice' that is emphasised by its extra syllable in these closing verses. By the way, sung to the tune Hereford, many of the key words are elongated in the singing. Such emphases matter, because this is a hymn about sacrifice, an altar, holy fire and sacred love. It can only be sung by a heart serious about holiness, galvanised by grace, provoked by a longing whose source is traceable fully and finally to the Love that first loved us.

So, Wesley's hymn, and Herbert's poem, are the sources of the new tapestry, which I have still to give a final title: 'Sacrifice of Praise'; 'Inextinguishable Blaze'; 'Celestial Fire'; something else? How all this has worked out in the design of the tapestry, and the creative process of working it, will be the final part of these three posts.

^{1. From A Collection of Hymns for the People Called Methodists, Eds. Franz Hildebrandt and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, (Oxford: OUP, 1983), page 473.}

 

George Herbert is one of a triumvirate of writers in whose company my faith has been deepened, and whose poetry has enabled me to interpret much of my own spiritual experience. I first encountered George Herbert in several of his hymns.

At the prayer meeting in the Baptist Church in Carluke, in the late 1960s, we sang hymns of devotion and consecration. One of them was 'Teach me my God and king, / in all things Thee to see…' I still remember as a very recently converted teenager more used to lyrics from the Rolling Stones, The Hollies, The Who and The Beach Boys, raising my inner eyebrows at the phrase 'drudgery divine' – not least because during much of my childhood on the farms I wielded a byre brush, a barn brush, a whitewashing brush, and any other brush needed to keep a farm tidy! I knew about sweeping rooms, and I called it many names, but never 'drudgerie divine'!

On a memorable June evening in 1982, in the vast and spacious beauty of Thomas Coats Memorial Church where I was minister, we sang 'Let all the world in every corner sing', with a full choir, a Hill organ, and late evening sun streaming through the plain glass windows. Four decades later I still feel some of the holy hush when the hymn finished. The photo is of the chancel in Coats where the choir stood, and we sang God's praise with a quality of music Herbert would have approved and appreciated. 

Then there is Herbert's clever but lovely play on John 14.6, 'Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life', still included in the Church of Scotland Hymnal (CH4). This and the two subsequent verses form a beautiful prayer of invocation, Christ centred in their devotion, their simplicity of faith evident in the choice of words, and all bar one, words of one syllable. Some time early in my ministry this poem found its way into the small commonplace prayer folder I have collected and curated over several ministries.  

The point is, through those hymns George Herbert had sneaked into my head, and I wouldn't forget him. By the 1980s I had a copy of his poems and began to read them, alongside several other poets who became important conversation starters, interrupters of my inner status quo, and companions on the journey of faith seeking understanding.  

In 1992 I presented a paper to a group of theologians on Herbert's sonnet, Prayer I, later published with the title, "Significant Stuttering About the Inexpressible."¹ Some years later I taught a three-week intensive course, Cruciform Spirituality in a Broken World, in Hanover, New Hampshire, on George Herbert, Charles Wesley and Julian of Norwich. By then I was well into all three writers, and they were well into me, shaping and reshaping my spirituality, helping me articulate my own faith, oscillating between resting and wrestling, and providing deep sustenance in the demands of both pastoral ministry and academic leadership in theological education.

More than quarter of a century after teaching that course, and what now feels like a culmination of all those years of reflection, reading, teaching and writing on those three very different Christian theologians, my indebtedness to their work has been expressed in my own preferred art form – tapestry. The Julian tapestry, 'Benedicite Domine', completed in 2022, I've explained in the post for January 20. 

Since the start of Advent 2023 I worked on a tapestry dedicated to the other two, George Herbert and Charles Wesley. I knew from the start what poem of Herbert's, and what hymn of Wesley's, I would try to expound in colour, tone, image and symbol. The tapestry is finished and with the framer, and will be collected within the week. 

The Herbert poem woven throughout the tapestry is The Altar, the first poem in ''The Church' section of Herbert's The Temple. The last line of 'The Altar' leads into the next poem The Sacrifice,  Herbert's long, powerful meditation on the atonement. The Altar is one of only two 'shaped' or 'pattern' poems', the other being Easter Wings. 

From the outset, The Altar is concerned with the poet's strong sense of human inadequacy in the face of divine holiness. The poet recognises the recalcitrance of his heart, the hardness and impenetrable spirit of resistance which has the character of stone. And not just any stone, but like flint, granite, or any other stone with an adamantine quality. Such a heart of stone nothing but divine power can break, nothing but grace can soften; and nothing but love can reframe such a heart and will towards praise. 

The last two lines ambush the devotionally complacent, who may be lulled into thinking the poem is all about the sacrifice of the broken heart, the believer's transformation by grace. Readers of Herbert will quickly become familiar with such theological rigour and poetic irony, and the well laid ambush of the last lines, often employed to startle the reader awake to deeper truth.

The poet isn't praying out his own sacrifice, He knows that such devotion is only possible for a heart broken by a power such as only God can wield. And divine power is revealed and wielded on the cross, in the death of Christ, where "He who knew no sin was made to be sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 

 

O let thy blessed sacrifice be mine,

and sanctify this altar to be thine. 

Whose altar is it? Mine or Thine? The poet builds the altar, but of stone so hard it can't be shaped and fashioned by human hands or tools. Not only so, but hard as the stones are, the human heart is harder still. What breaks the stony heart is the power of God, and that power throughout Herbert's poetry is cruciform, energised by holy love, and in the nature of sacrifice for sin. The death of Christ is the true sacrifice, which opens the way for Christian sacrifice in response: 'we love because he first loved us.' Only when the sacrifice of Christ is received by faith upon the altar of the human heart, only then can that heart be sanctified, set apart to belong to Christ alone.

The Sacrifice is the long, sonorous, poem that follows The Altar. Sixty three stanzas, spell out in graphic detail, the tragic Theo-drama of the crucifixion, sounding the unprecedented and incomprehensible grief of the God-man, Jesus Christ. The poem The Altar, is not unlike a precis of what follows, in which its key emphases are to be be woven throughout the epic-scale telling of the Passion. 

In the next post I'll explore in similar personal vein, 'O Thou who camest from above', a hymn by Charles Wesley, also concerned with how it can be that the stony human heart might be reshaped to become a place on which the new life in Christ becomes a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

^{1 Available online: https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eq/2001-2_155.pdf}

^{2 Tapestry photo is a detail of the work in progress. The iris is traditionally a symbol of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. The church interior photo was taken by Charlee Maasz, now Chief Executive of Glasgow City Mission.}

Monday

Psalm 145.14 “The Lord upholds all who fall, and lifts up all who are bowed down.”

Throughout the first half of Psalm 145 the power of God is described and affirmed. It is power on behalf of those who trust God. The second half of the psalm describes the results of such powerful, compassionate love. Like a parent picking up a child who falls, or a friend helping to carry a heavy load – God is the Uplifter of those bowed down by sorrow, anxiety, overwork, unfair expectations, and whatever else drains us of energy, joy and a sense of our own worth. “The Lord upholds…lifts up.”

Tuesday

Psalm 145.15-16 “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing”

From such affirmations of faith come familiar words, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Yet all over the world are those for whom this verse seems unfair and unreal. People starve, cannot feed their children, and millions suffer under-nourishment in an ill-divided world. One response is to pray the Lord’s Prayer with the emphasis on “Give us”. The first person plural, is inclusive enough to be a prayer for our world. Who is ‘us’? It is the human family, it cannot only be the church, or our country. The Lord’s Prayer is about God’s will being done on earth, for “every living thing.”

Wednesday

Psalm 145.17 “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and loving towards all he has made.”

Verses 16-17 are about universal providence, God’s intended provision for all in a world that is fertile and fruitful. Because human behaviour threatens that balance, part of God’s call to his people is care of creation and pursuit of Shalom, towards the flourishing of all God has made. The righteous love of God is shown in God’s faithful continuing yes to his people. God is dependable, faithful to His covenant promises to creation, to his people, and his own intended final purpose, to “make all things new.” 

Thursday

Psalm 145.18 “The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call on him in truth.”

Truth and trust are very closely connected. When we trust someone we are depending that they are who they say they are, that they have integrity. God comes near to those who genuinely and sincerely call for help, strength, encouragement, comfort, guidance, wisdom – that long list of human experiences when we fell the need of power beyond our own, and help in time of need. “The Lord is near” is one of the most reassuring things to hear, to believe, to know in the heart.

Friday

Psalm 145.19 “He fulfils the desires of those who fear him, he hears their cry and saves them.”

Fear is better understood as awe, reverence, that inner frank acknowledgement that God is God – not our pal, not our personal assistant, not our speed dial emergency, nor our get out clause from life’s knocks. “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise” is the takeaway one liner in this Psalm. We bow before God’s greatness, and discover God’s greatness is in his hearing our cry and saving us. Jesus is the revelation of God hearing the cry of the human heart, and coming to save from sin, death and the futility of human life severed from divine grace.

Saturday

Psalm 145.20 “The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.”

I guess we can become complacent and over-familiar, and think of God as an indulgent and easy-going super-friend. But not if we read and pray the Psalms! To those who fear, love, extol, and praise God, recognising and trusting the righteous love of God, there is God’s emphatic ‘Yes’. But to those who couldn’t care less about God’s will and call upon their lives, God says an equally emphatic ‘No’, because they choose to turn from the real source of their life and wellbeing. The balance of the whole psalm is between God’s greatness and God’s goodness. If you despise God’s greatness, how will you ever be open to God’s goodness?   

Sunday

Psalm 145.21 “My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name, for ever and ever.” 

The last word is a personal confession of praise, of faith, and of life direction. Starting with me, my own heart, my own direction of travel in life, I will speak praise, give thanks, rejoice and be glad in the kind of God that God is! God is the source of life, the fountain of goodness, the bread that nourishes, the One who sees and hears and comes near. Praise is a way of life and the inner environment of the heart. Praise expands the mind and widens the heart’s affections. It opens our eyes and arms to the world – “Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.” Everything. Everyone. For ever and ever. Always, always praise. “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise, his greatness no-one can fathom.”

Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

God of peace, we pray for all places, and all people who are victims of conflict and violence

Places where there is no freedom, where people are persecuted for their faith and beliefs – may they know the compassion and care of others.

Places where citizens are always in danger from guns and bombs, missiles and drones. – may those who use weapons to destroy others stop and work towards a just peace

Places where it is not safe to stay, and people flee for refuge and to try to stay alive. – may they find a home and a place where they can flourish and belong.

God of peace, in Christ you are the great Peacemaker, and we your church are the Body of Christ – teach us to seek peace and pursue it, to be peacemakers, peace-talkers, peace-builders and peace-givers.

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy

God of mercy and compassion, we pray for all those for whom life is hard, each day difficult, and who sometimes feel like giving up.

Those who are away from home, family, country and all that is familiar – in your mercy, give them strength and hope that life can begin again.

Those who are struggling with mental health, low mood, chronic anxiety, those inner forms of pain that are not always seen but are life crushingly real – in your mercy touch their wounds of mind and heart and emotion, bringing peace, shalom, new hope and the deep surprise of being loved.

Those who struggle to make ends meet, caring for children or elderly parents, worrying about food, heating, clothes for school, basics just to live without fear – in your mercy, may they know the kindness of strangers, and in your wisdom give wisdom and compassion to those who make the big decisions about social welfare and benefits so that the most vulnerable are cared for properly.

God of peace, and mercy and compassion, hear our prayer in the name of Jesus who showed us your peace, mercy and compassion in human form

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship and Letters and Papers from Prison are two of the enduring Christian classics of the Twentieth Century. When the definitive collection of Bonhoeffer's Works were published in English the volume on discipleship was given the title he himself intended, Discipleship. 

Nevertheless, the title English readers had become used to is an inevitable sub-title; The Cost of Discipleship. What makes Bonhoeffer's book powerfully transformative for its readers is the relentless question, "What does Jesus want of us today, here and now? In this world, at this cultural moment, in these circumstances that circumscribe the life we are given to live, what does Jesus ask of us, require of us, command us? 

That urgency took on an even more astringent note in The Letters and Papers from Prison. By then Bonhoeffer probably knew his own fate, and what would be the cost of his own discipleship, his own attempts to answer the questions he had posed to his fellow Christians. Here are some of the words he wrote

"Only those whose final standards are not their reason, their principles, their conscience, their freedom, or their virtue, but who are  ready to sacrifice all this when they are called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive  allegiance to God – the responsible ones, who try to make their whole life an answer to the question and call of God." (A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. January 30, page 32.)

The disciples of Jesus, now as then, are "the responsible ones, who try to make their whole life an answer to the question and call of God." What makes Bonhoeffer such a hard read is that uncompromising interrogative mood – what is God's question to us, and what is God's call, and what is God asking of us?

In a letter to his friend on the occasion of his son's baptism Bonhoeffer described the life of the baptised disciple: "We can be christians today in only two ways, through prayer, and in doing justice among human beings. All Christian thinking, talking and organising must be born anew, out of that prayer and action." 

So following faithfully after Jesus is both responsible obedience to the question and call of God, and living that question and call as our summons from God to pray and serve the world for the sake of Christ. The call to discipleship and the cost of discipleship are inextricable, and they intersect at the cross. His closing words to the Preface of Discipleship invite us to ponder what being a follower of Jesus means for us, and what it will cost us, and this viewed in the light of the cross of Jesus, which already carries the infinite expense of divine love.

"Is it a few or many, who belong with Jesus? Jesus died on the cross alone, abandoned by his disciples. It was not two of his faithful followers who hung beside him, but two murderers. But they all stood beneath the cross: enemies and the faithful, doubters and the fearful, the scornful and the converted,  and all of them and their sin were included in this hour in Jesus' prayer for forgiveness. God's merciful love lives in the midst of its foes. It is the same Jesus Christ who by grace calls us to follow him…"

"Only Jesus Christ who bids us follow him, knows where the path will lead. But we know it will be a path full of mercy beyond measure. Discipleship is joy. May God grant us joy in all seriousness of discipleship, affirmation of the sinners in all rejection of sin, and the overpowering and winning word of the gospel in all defence against our enemies."

Whenever we begin to feel scunnered, weary of the relentless cascade of human pain and suffering, angry at the mixture of evil and complacency in the face of cruelty, impotent to change the structural and systemic sin woven through human institutions, cultures, organisations and corporate power in the service of the powerful, Bonhoeffer's no nonsense seriousness about the cost of discipleship offers us a direction of travel, a path to walk, and a reminder of the question and call of God.

Bonhoeffer finishes the Preface to Discipleship with the words of Jesus, which are, in fact, the preface to our own discipleship:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matt 11.28-9)

 

Monday

Psalm 145.1-2 “I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever.  Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever.”

When it comes to praise the Psalm writer doesn’t do thing by halves. “For ever and ever…every day.” It’s a commonplace comment that the atheist’s worst moment is when they are grateful but don’t know who to thank. The Psalmist-poet knows perfectly well who to thank, and practises gratitude as the fuel of praise, every day and always! This psalm is a praise list. It’s not a prayer list of what we want, but a praise list of who God is and what God does.

Tuesday

Psalm 145.3-4 “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.  One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.”

Every culture has its gods, and they are not all good for us or to us. Whatever comes first in our lives, takes up our time, energy, money, and captures our heart, is well on its way to being an idol, a God who demands but never gives. Not so the Lord who is most worthy of praise. The God of Israel is a God of mighty acts of mercy and judgement, bestowing a depth of love and grace we can never fathom. The true God we know in Jesus Christ draws us to wonder, worship and witness.

Wednesday

Psalm 145.5-6 “They speak of the glorious splendour of your majesty—and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They tell of the power of your awesome works—and I will proclaim your great deeds.”

What God is – “the glorious splendour of your majesty” – and what God does – “your wonderful works.” God is what he does, and what he has done in creation and redemption is seen most fully in Jesus Christ. The generations proclaim and live and embody the glory of Christ as the good news of God. Mission is not the Church’s burden or strategy, it is the natural outflow of a community renewed in Christ. We speak as visible saints, and live by God's grace as signs of the glorious splendour of the majesty of God in Christ.

Thursday

Psalm 145.7-8 “They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.”

Whatever else the Christian community is, if it reflects the New Testament church it sings and dances to the music of God, it celebrates joyfully the  reality of who God has revealed himself to be in Christ – “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” It may be that the church best reflects the good news of Jesus if we are also known as those who are slow to anger and rich in love, and shown to be less about condemnation and more about mercy, gracious and compassionate and slow to anger!

Friday

Psalm 145.9-10a “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All your works praise you, Lord…”

Three times the poet uses the all-encompassing word "all". For people of faith in this God who is good to all and has compassion on all he has made, this is argument enough for environmental concern, love of creation, conservation of the natural world, resistance to the wasting and laying waste of God’s creation, from the rain-forests to the oceans, the snow leopard to the honey bee. If all God’s works praise him, we have no right to silence that praise by our greed, neglect or indifference.

Saturday

Psalm 145.10b-12 “Your faithful people extol you. They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendour of your kingdom.”

This is called bearing witness, giving testimony, with patient and persistent faithfulness to the Gospel we believe and the Saviour whose love we celebrate. The kingdom of which we tell is the Kingdom of God, the reign and rule of God which Jesus demonstrated and proclaimed. Luke 4.18-19 describes what Jesus is about, and what his faithful people are about. Read it again, this is the good news of God’s Kingdom. It was demonstrated and established on Calvary, confirmed let loose at the resurrection, and became our commission at Pentecost to tell of the glory of God's kingdom.

Sunday

Psalm 145.13 “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.”

This verse is about faith taking the long view. The purposes of God are seldom short term. But however long it takes in our human time frame, the Lord is trustworthy and faithful. Isaiah said much the same: “My word shall not return to me empty, but will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55.11) In all the changing circumstances of our lives, despite the flux and turmoil of the world we live in, it is God’s Kingdom that will come, and God’s purposes that will eventually be fulfilled. For that we pray; meantime we live obediently towards God’s will being done on earth as in heaven. And remembering, “The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.”

Monday

Psalm 84.1-2 “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”

Homesickness is that deep longing for the people and the places we love. As someone said, “Those away from home love and long for it; those who stay there criticise it.” But to the human heart, God is the true home, and there is in us a deep longing, an inner ache for God that gives edge to our prayers and devotions. “Thou has made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

Tuesday

Psalm 84.2 “Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.”

There are reasons some of us are birdwatchers. Their life is often fragile, filled with risk, and, lived day to day. And yet. For Jesus birds were an everyday parable of the providence of God. Not a sparrow falls to the ground but the Creator God sees it. And the Psalmist has noticed every time he journeys to the Temple, there are birds. The swallow nest in the eaves, he sparrow at home near the altar – such is the hospitality of God. And if God welcomes the birds home, how much more…

Wednesday

 Psalm 84.3 “Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

‘Blessed’, means ‘to be congratulated’ or considered well off in life. This Psalm writer knows from experience that to give God his place and time in our lives is the sure way to blessing. More than that, to regularly praise God is to concentrate on blessing rather than misfortune, to be grateful instead of complaining. ‘Blessed’ is an important word because it changes the way we look at the world. That’s why Jesus spoke the Beatitudes – because to know our blessedness is to change our attitudes!

Thursday

Psalm 84. 5-7 “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.”

Life is a journey for all of us. Much of it seems straightforward. But there are steep braes, tight corners, barren places and even dangers to be faced. Like those long ago pilgrims to Jerusalem, in the strength of God we do what we can to stay faithfully travelling towards God – we dig for water in Baka! But also like them, autumn rains come from God who provides when our own resources run dry. Following faithfully after Jesus is a journey, at times hard, other times a joy. Either way we go from strength to strength, and are blessed because our strength is in the Lord.

Friday

Psalm 84.8-9 “Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob. Look on our shield, O God; look with favour on your anointed one.”

It’s one of the most common petitions in the Psalms, “Hear my prayer.” And just to be sure, the more urgent plea, “Listen to me!” The One to whom he prays is Almighty, that means power. But also the God of Jacob, that means plan, purpose, and promise. Jacob is one of the names used for the people of God, all those whose trust and dependence is on God. Prayer, urgent, believing and persistent, is how we express our trust and our dependence on the God who gives hospitality to birds!

Saturday

Psalm 84.10 “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

It’s about what we want from life, and how we judge what is good, and what is best. One day in worship in the presence of God is better than a thousand doing our own thing with no thought of God. Many a time those who are on the welcome rota either quote, or have quoted to them, about being a doorkeeper. To be at the entrance of God’s house, welcoming others in fellowship, prayer and worship is better than being at the very centre of things elsewhere, where God is either unwelcome or rendered anonymous and obscured in the busy grasping that often passes for a successful life.

Sunday

Psalm 84.11-12 “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

The sun gives light and life, and the Lord is like that. A shield protects from harm, and the Lord is like that too. But the condition is clear and demanding, ‘those whose walk is blameless’. This is about integrity, that honesty of heart and mind that is made obvious by our behaviour and character; for Christians, being conformed to Christ. Other Psalms ask the question about who is worthy to stand before God.  “He that  hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” (Psalm 24.4) Our Psalm finishes with another Beatitude: “Blessed is the one who trusts in you.” Praying ourselves inside this psalm helps us understand what it means to live in the sheltering hospitality of God.