Reflections from the belly
I absolutely love words, and I just found an absolutely lovely one. Uhtceare, pronounced oot-key-are-a, means ‘lying awake before dawn and worrying.’* It may be Old English, but it’s a word for our times as so many of us are doing just that: tossing and turning as we fret about tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. Continue reading “Matthew | Slow reading | A remedy for uhtceare”
And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. (Luke 13:11)
When I was in the seventh grade, we did drama at school. One day, each of us had to walk like somebody else. One girl walked slowly across the room. Her hands were folded in front of her. Her back was curved over, her shoulders were hunched, and she stared at the ground as she walked. It was the saddest thing I’d ever seen. I said something to the kids next to me about how awful it was, and wondered aloud who walked like that. The kids laughed. “Are you joking?” they said, “Don’t you know? Anyone can see that it’s you.” Continue reading “Luke | Standing tall”
Jesus is not asking us to intellectually agree with a set of propositions, but to entrust our hearts to him in love. (Listen.)
Many years ago, I left home and went away to university. I came from a background where people talk about faith and science and politics and everything else, and perpetually wonder and ask questions. At university, I expected the same. I hooked up with the first Christian group which presented itself, but soon felt totally bewildered. I found myself in conversations I never wanted to have, in which the acceptability of women in leadership, the theory of evolution, questions of sexuality and gender, and many other issues were put under the microscope, and my position was always shown to be wrong. Continue reading “John | Born again into self-giving love”
As Western consumer capitalists, it is difficult for us to feel intimately connected with each other, let alone the wider creation. Ancient schools of philosophy have taught us to think of ourselves as separate beings distinct from the created order; and dominant agricultural and economic models distance us from the rest of the natural world. Thus our industries tend towards extracting, reducing and damaging, rather than sustaining and improving, the atmosphere, the biosphere and the hydrosphere. Continue reading “Healing: Being reconciled with all creation”
It is impossible to read the gospel accounts without being struck by the number of healing stories. Everywhere he goes, Jesus heals; and healing is central to his self-professed ministry. “Tell John,” he says, “that the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” (Matthew 1:4-5). Later, Jesus commissions his disciples to engage in this same ministry—but what is it? Continue reading “On healing”
Over the next few months, we’ll be looking at healing. Of course, healing takes many forms, but underlying them all is the experience of being made whole. The Greek word for ‘demonic’ means ‘tearing apart’; and so something which is demonic tears apart bodies, minds and spirits, people and communities. Physical or mental illness, damaging and abusive relationships, racism, sexism, war, shame: these are just a few of the demons which tear people apart. Continue reading “Healing: Bringing together things torn apart”
If you want an earthy faith which embraces all our materiality and mess, look to Jesus Christ. For he is Emmanuel, God-with-us: and he points us to the human. (Listen.)
I’ve been browsing the app store lately, and it is simply marvellous how many apps there are to help me with my spirituality. There are apps for meditation and prayer. There are apps for devouring the whole Bible in a year, or for memorising passages, or for reading one verse very slowly. Continue reading “Gettin’ down and dirty with Jesus”
Acknowleding our brokenness and need is the path to wholeness. (Listen.)
When I was fourteen, our family moved to Washington, DC. I will never forget the day we arrived. We drove downtown, and everywhere I looked, I saw tents and tarpaulins, refrigerator boxes and flapping plastic sheets. ‘What’s happening?’ I asked, ‘I mean, what’s with all the tents?’ I had never seen a homeless person before, and I didn’t understand that this is how many people live. And I never became accustomed to it: that, in the capital city of the richest country in the world, thousands of people live on the streets. Continue reading “Luke | Touching the untouchable in you and me”
How do you pursue peace? The Shalom group has begun meeting, and has already been struck by the active verbs associated with peace in the Bible. It’s clearly not a passive state, nor something that simply happens, but something that involves a lot of doing. As the Psalmist writes, “seek peace and pursue it” (Ps. 34) — but how? Continue reading “Seek peace and pursue it: Five steps”
Healing leads to responsibility and conflict. (Listen.)
You are lying by the pool, daydreaming a little. Clouds are scudding across the sky. Your eyes are gently closed; the sun caresses your face; shades of dark and light flicker across your eyelids. You’re half awake, half asleep. As you doze, you hear the gentle lapping of water against the pool wall. You hear the click of a cane as someone shuffles past. You hear the murmur of low voices. Every now and then, there is the rustle of cloth and a soft sigh as someone rearranges their aching limbs, trying to find some ease. Continue reading “John | Not me, Lord!”
Alison and the whale 