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If you would like to comment on
Blogging for Beginners?
A blog, in the newspeak of the noughties,
is an abbreviation of web-log - in my case, it means an online periodic
burble, (sort of stream-of-consciousness thing) of daily/weekly/monthly doings.
So, here's
Ma tha Gàidhlig agaibh , bhithinn mi glè
thaingeil ma tha sibh a'cuir thugam
ceartachaidh mo iomrallan
Thursday 3 December 2009/Diardaoin 3 an Dùbhlachd 2009
Oh my goodness, not a peep for two months! In
between I have been in
Highlights of the week away – ‘Ecumenism
in the Spirit’ weekend at Lanckorona, full of worship, love, joy, unity…
visit to the Monastery at Tyniec on the Vistula, home
of the Polish Millennium Bible … singing Gregorian plain chant in Polish with
brothers at the Franciscan monastery church in Kraków,
and then tea with them after in the refectory.. meeting with Bohuš for a walk up to
Too much going on since return – and came
back feeling quite tired after the activity. 
However, I am really enjoying some healing from the
Lord of stressed chest pain, and sleeping better, since a fresh revelation of
His love for me as my Dad, and a new sense of being held by the Trinity in
their close embrace.
The tram lines are down on
Friday 2 October 2009/Dihaoine 3 an Damhair 2009
First time back on the blog for a month –
it will just be higlights then!
Just after the last entry, we had a wonderful couple
of weeks’ holiday in the English sunshine, real Indian summer, even too hot
some days. We rested (I slept for
Visiting
Returning
to
I read two books on holiday. I finished off
Ian Rankin’s Rebus series with ‘Exit Music’, meaning I have read all of his
Edinburgh-based novels about John Rebus now. The other book was one I felt
provoked by the Holy Spirit to read, having seen it in 
It’s ‘Proper Confidence’ by the late Lesslie
Newbigin. His theme is really epistemology, and how we know, particularly how
we know God. His thesis is that western man, in losing sight of the meaning and
purpose incarnate in Christ as the Word of God, and tripped up by Descartes’
proposals that we can know just by our human rationality, is headed for
nihilism and meaninglessness. Although science can provide us with facts and
things manufactured from knowing facts, it cannot tell us the meaning or
purpose. Newbigin says that ultimate reality is made personal in Christ, and
that we can only know the Logos, the meaning of the universe through
personal encounter with the one who is the Word incarnate.
This book grabbed me by the throat, and I read
it three times. I preached on it on Sunday 27th September at
Community Church Edinburgh, from where you can download my message, so I won’tdweel more on it here. Suffice it to say, that John
1.14 for me has had new light shone upon it, so that now I would render it And the Meaning became man, and lived among us… for
without meaning, the Word has no purpose. And in fact, we all need revelation
to understand purpose, for it cannot be shown to us by facts.
Coming back to
One lady told me a charming story from her
childhood of having been on the Crags one Sunday afternoon in the ‘30s,
following at a distance behind a party of walkers who turned out to be the then
Duke and Duchess of York, with their daughters the princesses, on an afternoon
stroll from Holyrood Palace, in days before they were
catapaulted by circumstances into the place of
monarchy. And there were no paparazzi hounding them, she said, for there was a
respect shown them which has now seemingly gone.
The Edinburgh Alpha course launch happened
last evening at the Roxburghe Hotel on
Lastly in this long entry, I was sent a
YouTube link yesterday from a Slovak friend to a video of an American woman
giving a talk in
May
the meaning of life made man in Christ be known to you and give you hope in the
midst of a broken world.
Thursday 3
September 2009/Diardaoin 3 Sultain 2009
Last Friday night was the second night out
with Street Pastors; another eventful night, although town was quieter. Some of
the moments of the night, calling an ambulance out to a young woman unconscious
with drink – first aid training came in handy, space blanket out for warmth
around her, and good teamwork between us; cleared up about forty bottles and
glasses off the pavement; gave out eight or nine pairs of flip-flops. One of
the enduring pictures I have in my mind of that night was one of our team
kneeling down in front of a young, shoeless woman, putting a pair of flip-flops
on her feet. I couldn’t help but think of Jesus kneeling and washing his
disciples’ feet at the supper, a moving moment. At one point, a drunk woman was verbally abusing a homeless guy we were in
conversation with, and our presence helped to defuse the situation, which could
have got ugly. Came home really encouraged and having had some good chats with
bouncers, taxi
Sunday was a good day, rather a lot to squeeze in to a
meeting though. At the beginning, our Polish Catholic friends presented us with
a copy one of their members had done of the icon of Divine Mercy, which was
such a lovely gift. The icon was painted after a vision given to St Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun
in the early twentieth century. The red and white rays coming from the heart of
the risen Christ symbolise the water and blood which came out of his side when
the spear pierced Him, and the words below say ‘Jesus, I trust in You’. It has
such an impact on me personally, because I see the risen Christ still with the
covenant wounds of
I was speaking this Sunday, rounding off our ‘Who is
This Jesus?’ series with the ‘last’ I Am of Jesus from Revelation 22 – I am the
root and the offspring of David, the bright, morning star. In the week running
up to sharing this, I had the experience twice in the week of seeing the mornig star, Venus, in the dawn sky form our home (right) . It is such a joyful sight, because it appears when the
other stars are disappearing, but just before the first crack of day appears;
it is such a sign of hope for the new day, as Jesus is to us of the age to
come, when heaven and earth meet at last.
We said goodbye to our youngest daughter
Abby at 4am this morning, as she joined the
Tuesday 25 August 2009/Dimàirt 25 an Lùnasdail 2009
My stint with the Festival Guides is behind me now;
over the last three weeks I’ve done five tours, taking people from
Donald and Ashley’s wedding was very happy
last Saturday; the new Mr and Mrs Duncan looked radiant together as they left
Dunbar Parish Church, overlooking the sea on a lovely, sunny afternoon. Their
service was packed with lovely things – Jo Mango singing ‘My Lung’ with an
African finger piano accompaniment as the bride entered, and an amazing modern
three-part song translated from a Verlaine poem by Ashley’s brother Peter,
called So Shall It Be, which left us all breathless with appreciation.
And there was another touching musical moment later at the wedding breakfast,
when Donald abandoned his prepared speech cards to take up his guitar, and with
his brother Peter’s accompaniment on violin, sang a
wonderful song to Ashley, about this being like coming home to where he should
be. A great day!
Sunday 23rd at Community Church
Edinburgh was also packed with good things. There was a real international
flavour to it, with visitors among us from Thailand and Minnesota, USA; we
heard a presentation and song from Maria and Ionna
from Romania, who are helping to end discrimination against disabled people
there, (they called us to be loving towards those disabled, as they are also
God's beloved children), and Fiona Hutchison shared with us who Jesus is for
her, in ther context of her time over the last year
in Malawi with her new husband, James.
Jonny Aspden led our worship sensitively, and again,
there was space for the Holy Spirit to speak and for contributions to come from
the body of the meeting. Joel Robertson then brought us his insights from the
Scriptures on John 14.6, Jesus as the Way, Truth and Life. He made two points
which really struck me; first, that we are seeing things far to narrowly of we
see what Jesus says as being just about the afterlife or ‘getting saved’.
Rather, Jesus is the way to his Father, and that has to be about family, since
the Father is not just an individual expression, but a family one. Joel
emphasised the reality of family which God has placed is into, that we are
really brothers and sisters of each other, and that the truth is seen when we
live out that life together in a distinctive way as community.
Wednesday
19 August 2009/Diciadain 19 an Lùnasdail 2009
Uill, ‘s ann air a trean a tha mi a-rithist, a’siubhal air ais bho Ghlaschu,
far an robh mi an diùgh airson choinneimh. ‘S e aimsir gu
math blàth a th’againn ach
gun ghrian ged a tha aig i
ceann a deas de RA. Uill, chan eil
sin anns ar
laimhean, feumaidh mi a’radh!
Last week at Community Church Edinburgh was
the Jungle Explorers holiday club from Monday to Friday, and about thirty to
forty primaries came along to have good fun in our King’s Hall rainforest,
beautifully put together by Kirsty Hook and the team. I was roped in to do
songs with them, and the themesong for the week was In the Jungle the Lion Sleeps Tonight
which they all managed in two parts admirably!
Becky was the mad Scottish explorer who introduced the
story every day, and on the last day, Kirsty told the story of Jesus calming
the storm on the lake, which they recreated with handclaps, banners and a
parachute – when the moment came to silence the noise they were making, it
seemed to hit many of them how powerful the word of Jesus was in calming the
storm.
Kirsty said how
good it was to have the glass doors open each day, and I agree.
Sunday 16th
at CCE we had a lot going on – praying with Donald and Ashley before their
wedding next week, saying goodbye to Dani, hearing
from Stephan Helfer who Jesus is for him– so good to hear from him – and then
having Paul Ede with us from Possil Park in Glasgow,
a partner with us in the Scottish Network Churches. He really touched a strong
note with me, calling us to be a
counter-culture for the common good, drawing from Nehemiah as an example of
one who sought the shalom of a whole
city, as we should be, engaging with our localities to serve what is happening,
living out Jesus before them in the context of our shared community.
There was also
a lovely freedom in the worship time – David H sang out in tongues, which were
interpreted by several, including by Laura in song, and Chris shared some words
of encouragement for people in the meeting. It was one of those times where
there were so many good things, there were almost too
many good things.
I’ve been
meditating again on the word justice/judgement. In Hebrew, it’s the same word –
mishpat – which means ‘right-wising’.
It’s interesting that both English words, justice and
judgement are renderings of the same Hebrew word. Somehow, justice is something
we all want, but judgement is something we don’t. Yet there really can’t be one
without the other. One of the killer letdowns of modern humanist liberal
thinking is that if the individual is free to do what feels good and right,
then otherindividuals are going to be adversely
affected by that. Those who shout for justice are most often the victims of
others’ exercise of their own individual freedom. In order for there to be
justice, there has to be right and wrong, there has, in fact, to be
discrimination – not in the negative sense, which is prejudice, but in
the sense that without boundaries, there is no justice, for no one can be
wrong.
The last couple
of days have seen interesting developments in
Does compassion
need to be linked to repentance? And does justice/judgement ever feel good for
everyone affected? If we make justice about feeling good, or about what feels
right, is that a true measure of justice?
It’s worth
noting that in the revelation of God's character to Moses, the Lord emphasises
His nature of forgiveness, compassion, loyal love and faithfulness. But then He
goes on in Exodus 34.6 to say, in the original Hebrew, ve’naqeh
lo yenaqeh
, literally ‘and as for
acquitting, He will not acquit.’ In
other words, God will not say evil is good, will not declare innocent what is guilty,
allowing the consequences of evil to have their full effect, rather than
removing them. Yet He is ready to forgive the repentant.
This is where
God's justice/judgement comes in, for God waits to forgive, to have mercy, to
rescue, but only when the wrong is acknowledged and repented of. So much of
modern liberal humanist and para-Christian religious
humanist philosophy wants to declare what God has said is evil as being good –
but that is not God's nature, that transgresses His holiness. That is only modern
man’s ‘feelgood’ drive.
And perhaps
that is why, for all Mr McAskill’s noble aspirations
and good intentions, the outcome is so dissatisfying, because a man convicted
of one of the most awful crimes of modern times, who has shown no remorse nor
repentance, is released, albeit on grounds of mercy, to be proclaimed
implicitly vindicated to the watching world on his return to Libya. Should he
have been kept to die in Greenock jail – not necessarily, but there must have
been a better way of serving the cause of justice and judgement than releasing
him to a hero’s welcome in
Wednesday 12 August 2009/Diciadain 12 an Lùnasdail 2009
Sunday 9 at CCE we took the theme of Jesus as
the resurrection and the life, in our summer series, ‘Who Is This Jesus?’ After
the opening song (Thine Be The Glory – originally a French Easter hymn, À Toi La Gloire, O Résucité) we shared the announcements, and then took
our offering as we went into worship with two beautiful worship songs – Kari Jobe’s Revelation Song and Misty Edwards’ You
Won’t Relent Until You Have it All, giving space to wait on the Lord in His
risen presence with us. (See YouTube clips of the songs.)
Becky
Symes shared with us her own experience of who Jesus is for her, from her
experience in working with the stories of Godly play. For her, He comes close
and covers her, like she does with the figurine of Abraham with her hand in the
Godly play story. You can hear Becky’s sharing by clicking on this
link to the CCE downloads site.
Then Ashleigh Dunn came and shared,
succinctly, tenderly, out of her life and experience, but anchored in the
Scriptures in John 11 and the story of Lazarus’ resurrection. Most moving for
me was her account of the funeral of her father last year, where the hope of
resurrection struck her in a new way, and she realised that the cemetery (from
the Greek, sleeping place) is actually the place of resurrection, where
we will rise to meet Him when He comes with His kingdom. Her full talk is
available for download by clicking here
or from the CCE website.
We sang ‘We shall meet Him in the air’ to
close, one which I’d already put into the pool of songs for Sunday before
Ashleigh phoned and asked if we could end with it – a great, hope-filled anthem
of resurrection, and a great way to tie up a good morning, as a number of folks
responded for prayer ministry.
It’s
been hard to get motivated this week – the tiredness is still around from the
last few months’ escapades. But we have now booked some days away in September
in
The Lord keeps speaking to me about
holiness, and about our being holy, unavailable to all other claimants and
allegiances. It’s not about being good, keeping laws or being religious. It’s
about having eyes only for Him, about being ready to do what He asks, not out
of reason – for human reason can conclude that God is non-existent! – but out of love and devotion to Him. So I’m unavailable for
drunkenness and avarice and lust, I don’t practice hatred and porn and drugs,
not because I’m good – ‘cause I’m bad, left to myself – but because I
have given myself to Him, unconditionally, wholeheartedly, irrevocably, come
what may – that’s holiness, and when we are tied and bonded to a Holy God, He
makes us holy, and we become who we are meant to be in His Creqative
purpose.
I choose to be holy, set apart for You,
Lord…
Saturday 8 August 2009/Disathairne 8 an Lùnasdail 2009
Uill, ‘s ann seachad a tha a’bhanais aig
mo mhac agus a bhean . ‘B e latha dìreach sgoinneil a bh’ann Disathairne 1 an Lùnasdàil, agus tha sinn cho
proiseil mu dheidhinn. Bha an t-aimsir
math agus bha an seirbheis blàth agus làn de dhòchas.
Ruith a h-uile latha seachad cho
luath, ach tha moran cuimhneachean againn bhon latha,
agus ‘s
ann taingeil dhan Tighearna a tha sinn air a shon.
A week has already gone by since the wedding, but it
feels like a century! It was such a wonderful day, and I feel so awed and
thankful to God for having had such an experience of His grace through His
watching over Ben and Jules and all of us during all that went on. I was so
aware of His presence upholding us, and the love and goodwill of people around
us was something not to be easily forgotten.
It was wonderful to be with my parents and
family from
On Saturday morning, Ben having spent his last single
night at home with us in his old bed here, we had a lovely morning preparing,
with Dan and Matt, the best men, and Chris and Ed the ushers round for
breakfast with us. Then all were kilted up and depatched
in the six-seater taxi to St Peter’s in plenty of
time to get everything ready.
Although Jules was delayed arriving, when she came,
she was stunning, looking so happy and joyful, everything a bride should be. I
always find it a privilege at weddings to be one of those who gets to see behind the scenes as the bride arrives, and this
was a particularly special treat.
My major fluff moment in the service was
when I was getting Ben to repeat his vows to Jules, but realised they had not
joined hands. So we just rewound the tape, and started them again, with their
hands firmly clasped. I’m so thankful we have such forgiving folks around us
who are not phased or shocked by such moments!
With the schedule signed, and everyone
having been photographed by June from Govan to her satisfaction, we repaired to
the
With a furious final Orcadian
Strip the Willow across the ballroom, the all-too-short cèilidh and the day
came to a close; it was an eye opener for my nephew, who wondered why we sang
‘Auld Lang Syne’ at the end, even though it wasn’t
Hogmanay! Apparently the traditional ending in Essex is singing ‘
On Sunday, the celebrations were complete as we got 
together as a family again for a superbly sunny
afternoon outside, the extension coming into its own as a real garden room,
patio doors full open, and barbecue on the go. Ben and Jules came to say their
goodbyes before going off to the airport for their plane to
It’s been something of an anti-climax
since; no preparing, no getting last minute details sorted. It was hard going
back to the desk on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Ann and I did have a very pleasant
drive down memory lane into the Borders, down over the Lammermuirs,
to Duns and back along a sunny Firth of Forth coast. We remembered how we
stopped with the children at Whiteadder Reservoir and
played by the river there, and how we fed the lambs at the little teashop by Cranshaws, where we bought pastel pictures which are still
on our walls, in days when the
But it has been such a wonder to be involved in the
process of Ben and Julia’s marriage, and we are now full of hope for them into
the future, and glad for their at last being together.
Thursday 30 July 2009/Diardaoin 21 an Iuchair 2009
Abair mìos bog fliùch a bha e ann an Dùn
Eideann! Thuit cha mhor
a h-uile là an t-uisge bhon speuran.
Tha mi an dòchas gum bith e nas
fheàrr airson a’bhanais aig mo mhac Ben Disathairne a tha a’tighinn. Ach chan eil mi cinnteach mu dheidhinn. Chì sinn mar
a bhitheas an aimsir a-maireach. Ach bidh
an là gu miorbheileach co-dhiù.
Last Thursday
July 23rd I was privileged to meet Rosemary Davidson and
Nicola Jones, chaplains to Cameron Toll shopping centre for a coffee. It
was great to hear about their work, and the links and friendships they are
building despite some challenges, and that there is a presence there listening,
caring and helping, backed up by the local churches in Newington and South-East
Edinburgh.
On Sunday
July 26th we rejected the prospect of a wet beach day at Yellowcraigs for a makeshift BBQ at King’s Hall. Having
made the decision based on the heavy rain forecast, at midday, the sun came
out, and it was a pleasant afternoon! The Met Office really aren’t
getting it right this summer…. We had a fun time, however, with dear Jenness
frying up burgers and sausages amid the smoke and heat of the King’s Hall
kitchen, followed by a couple of hours of board games – I ended up playing a
game of Carcassonne with some of the teens and twenties, after which I didn’t
play a game of Twister with them… Disappointing that more folks weren’t around, but it didn’t
lessen the enjoyment.
We’ve
been on a break this week, and have had a reasonably nice week of it, in spite
of the forecast’s doom-laden (and inaccurate) predictions of rain. On Tuesday,
Ann and I walked the Water of Leith
walkway from Stockbridge to Ocean Terminal, stopping for a coffee/beer at a
wine bar in
I ended up hunting Ocean Terminal for – and
not finding – a clothes brush. How can such a simple item not be had in a big
place like that?
Yesterday,
I discovered a little suntrap in the waste-ground at Good’s Corner,
(left) not far from our house, where the sweetest, juiciest brambles were
growing against a wall. It was a little bit of paradise for a few minutes, the sun
beating down, the heavy scent of buddleia everywhere in the air, as I gathered
big, black, shiny brambles for our tea.
We are
now almost hour-counting moments away from Ben and Julia’s big day on
Saturday. In between relaxing, we’ve been getting ready for my family’s arrival
Friday from
I came
again across J R R Tolkien’s poem Mythopoeia (which you can read
on my website by clicking here) in which he celebrates the story-teller as
the recounter of the One
great, true story. There is a part where he is bold enough to be a heretic to
the imperial orthodoxy of ‘progress’ as given by the powers that be – what he
calls ‘the Iron Crown’. This is what he wrote in 1938, towards the end
of his poem;
I will not
walk with your progressive apes,
erect and sapient. Before
them gapes
the dark abyss to which their progress tends -
if by God's mercy
progress ever ends,
and does not ceaselessly
revolve the same
unfruitful course
with changing of a name.
I will not
tread your dusty path and flat,
denoting this and
that by this and that,
your world immutable
wherein no part
the little maker has with
maker's art.
I bow not
yet before the Iron Crown,
nor cast my own small
golden sceptre down.
The golden
scepter he speaks of is his role as the ‘sub-creator’ to make known the ‘true
myth’, as he described it to C S Lewis, of God’s great artwork of history.
Tuesday 21 July 2009/Dimàirt 21 an Iuchair 2009
At 6pm last evening, I found myself queuing
outside Glasgow Elim in Govanhill
to get a seat for a meeting starting at 730pm. I am not usually given to being
found among ‘God's groupies’ who might follow around celebrity speakers, but I
felt provoked to go and hear Heidi Baker last night, and am so glad I did. The
building, which is modern and bright, was packed to capacity, with an overflow
meeting in the ancillary hall. The worship was Jesus-focussed and very
intentional, no padding or filler.
The verse that came to me as Heidi got up
to speak was the one where Jesus speaks about John the Baptist, in Matt. 11.7,
and He asks the people, ‘What did you go out to see? Tall
grass blown in the wind? Someone dressed in fine clothes?’ Just a wee
woman, ‘a little woman in the dirt’ as she calls herself. But able to be real,
to just listen to the Lord’s voice and pass it on.
Becky,
my daughter, had said to me before I went, ‘She’s not a speaker, Dad, she’s a presence-ministry,
a servant of the presence – I liked that description. But she touched the
hunger and thirst in us, or the Lord through her did. And the message was
straight, simple missional, incarnational love. ‘Love looks like something’ she
said, as someone came and loaned her their reading glasses so she could read
the Scriptures. In other words, we are not being filled and transformed to be
kept in a box, but, as Heidi said, for the ‘body of Christ to be broken to feed
She spoke on the Beatitudes from Matthew as
a ‘self-portrait of Jesus’, who Himself was poor in spirit, meek, mourning over
loss and brokenness, pure in heart and the peacemaker extraordinaire.
And that we are to look like Him, to be Christ-like, as we are given to the
people of the land.
It’s such a simple message – we are to be
dependent, because we do not have the resources ourselves to meet the need. She
spoke of the thousands of children they are caring for in
I
travelled home with Chris and Lisa, who is going out to
Monday 20 July 2009/Diluain 20 an Iuchair 2009
Tha mi air an trèan an-dràsda a’siubhal gu Glaschu
airson choinneimh a’nochd le Heidi Baker, ban-soisgeular
bho Afraga. Tha an trèan a’dol
air a shocair, oir tha sinn air cùlaibh
an trèan slaodach.
Ach tha tìm gu leòr agam, co-dhiù, oir cha toisichidh an coinneimh ach aig 730u feasgar.
An update on the last few days, then. It has been
wedding, wedding, wedding all the way. With Ben and Jules’ marriage only two
weeks away, we have been shopping til dropping,
planning and thinking, mailing and writing order of service.
On
Saturday, we drove up to
On Sunday
20th we had a different kind of meeting. In our series, ‘Who Is
This Jesus?’ we looked at the saying of Jesus, ‘I am the Bread of Life’. As a
living aid to our meditations together, Barrie and Alison Walker made a loaf of
bread, inviting people to come and help knead and be involved. We then waited
for it to rise, considering the place of yeast in the story of God’s kingdom,
(Matt 13) and then baked it, considering the place of fire in our lives.
Lastly, we used the sweet-smelling bread just out of the oven to break for
communion together.
We
watched together a clip from the movie ‘The Gospel of John’ around John 6 and
Jesus’ declaration as Bread of Life, found here.
In
the midst of our worship, we had sharing from Alison and Brian Donaldson on
what Jesus means for them. For Alison, reading a poem she had written, she
opened up the whole nature of Jesus as a 
non-conformist,
and one who was other than the meek and mild nice person of Sunday School stories. Brian took inspiration from a book he has
been reading, ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ in which an old
man in his dying days decides to ‘have a ball’ with life, something which Brian
felt we should be having with Jesus as well.
Despite
feeling a bit scared that the whole bread thing would be a disaster, I think
the morning was quite memorable, being able to work together on something which
then had a very positive communal outcome in the sharing of the bread. I was
particularly touched when Jan Barfoot took the bread and wine and came served
us all in the band and singers with the elements, to enable us to continue
leading.
The
Holy Spirit also showed me something quite new, which I had never thought
before, about holiness. We so often see being holy as just being good,
being moral. But I saw in the word holy the picture of the wedding
couple, exchanging rings with each other. At that point, they become ‘holy’ to
each other. The band on their finger says to everyone, ‘hands off, I’m taken’, and repells all-comers for their affections. When we are holy
to the Lord, we are unavailable for other allegiances and demands, inaccessible
to other gods or spirits. He makes us holy, makes us His bride.
And He
too is holy; He is the only true God, there is no other, no one to be compared
to Him. He brooks no rivals and shares none of His glory with another. In days such
as now, when the pagan empire wants a ‘new syncretism’, it is well for us to
remember the utter holiness of our God, and ours for Him flowing out of that
reality.
Wednesday 15 July 2009/Diciadain 15 an Iuchair 2009
St Swithin’s Day
– if it rains today, the myth has it that it will rain for forty days after.
It’s thirty years ago this week that I donned gownie and got doffed on the head with John Knox’s cap on
graduating Bachelor of Divinity from New College, University of Edinburgh
(apparently, the cap is actually made from his breeches !) Seeing begowned students with mums and dads wandering about the
city centre, it seems like yesterday I was there with them. The photo (left)
was taken at the Martyrs’ Memorial in the north-east corner of Greyfriars’ Kirkyard.
Speaking of kirkyards,
I walked this morning by the new cemetery at
I’ve been rediscovering the gift of tongues in prayer
recently. I have been aware in a fresh way of their value as addressing God, as
prayer which comes, not from the mind, but from the spirit. Paul in 1
Corinthians 14 describes the one who speaks in tongues thus; he who speaks
in an unknown tongue speaks not to men, but to God (v 2) and further on, If
I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unproductive.
(v.14).
I’ve found through this an inner connection
with the place of contemplation. In the silence of meditation, the mind is
stilled, while the spirit is engaged. Christ, not emptiness, is the beloved
object of this exercise. But I am discovering further that to speak in tongues
out of that same contemplative inner place is to discover a new depth of
‘detached’ prayer. It is possible to express yearning, hope, desire through the
emotions, which do not engage the mind, but which still yield a deep sense of
closeness to Christ’s presence in the Spirit.
While silence is a rich contemplative
instrument, and the ‘silent Christ’ is an awesome companion to be beside,
nonetheless, the Spirit has given His gifts to purpose, not for just a sign of
His presence which is His grace, but as a means of expression to the Godhead
which engages our bodies also in a way which takes us beyond the limitations of
our finite minds, and gives us a vocabulary of adoration and intercession
imparted by the Spirit Himself.
I am very aware of how cerebral our western faith is, and how the gift of tongues can be dismissed as irrelevant, mostly by those who are afraid of its mystical nature, or unable simply to let go of the western, mind-dominated culture. Many are happy to take on a sub-charismatic form of spiritual practice, with its spontaneity and lessened role for liturgy, while skipping over the gift of tongues as an embarrassment to rational people. But that is precisely the point. Tongues is the simplest of the gifts, because it requires a simple trust in Christ that the babbling brook of the Spirit’s speech in our mouths is from Him, even though our minds stand impatiently wondering on the sidelines.
Tuesday 14 July 2009/Dimàirt 14 an Iuchair 2009
Chuala mi os chionn
ghoirid an oran sgoinneil seo seinnte
le Karen Nic Mhathain, ‘O Mo Dhùthaich’
agus dh’iarr mi ionnsaich e mi-fhìn. Is urrainn dhuibh a bhith ag èisteachd
ri chlàr aig Karen Nic Mhathain an seo air You Tube
Agus a nis is urrainn dhuibh a bhith ag eisteachd m’oidhirp
an seo – tha mi an dòchas gun cordaidh e ruibh gu leòr.
http://www.colinsymes.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/omodhuthaich.mp3
An update on the last week or so
On Monday 6th a number of
us gathered in the small hall at King’s Hall with crisps and popcorn to watch
the amazing movie, The Finger of God, a recording of various signs and
wonders which the Lord is doing around the globe. I loved how it’s emphasis was
on love. There’s a clip of it on You Tube from one of the most moving parts of
the film, footage of the underground church in
On
Thursday 9th I dropped in on some old friends at the Southside
Heritage Group in the Nelson Hall, to visit the wee
Sunday 12th was a good gathering at Community Church Edinburgh.
Shirley Gatt led us in worship, and I was particularly impacted singing that
old hymn which has such truth in it
My hope is built on nothing less/ Than
Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,/ But
wholly lean on Jesus’ name
On Christ, the solid rock I stand/ All
other ground is sinking sand/ all other ground is sinking sand.
I watched the BBC programme on Maximilien
Robespierre and the Reign of Terror in France in 1793/94, broadcast on Saturday
evening 11th July, and was set to contemplating the fact that this
awful carnage, in which 55,000 died was an outcome of the so-called
‘Enlightenment’ and the liberalism of Rousseau and Hume. The refusal to believe
in man’s inability to overcome evil unaided, and the massive deception which
led Robespierre to assert that virtue can only be achieved when imposed by
terror, leaves a dark stain on the claim of liberal humanism to be a real fount
of freedom.
The programme sought to equate the outcome
of the Council of Guardians’ terrible rule with modern state terror such as
Stalinism and Maoism, but the fact remains that even in the UK today, with
threats to curb free speech and religious liberty urged by humanist radicals,
who would suppress dissent from their politically correct orthodoxy, the ghost
of Robespierre and the shadow of the guillotine are still in the background. If
you are quick, you might catch the programme on i-Player
at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lrcy4/Terror!_Robespierre_and_the_French_Revolution
In an age in which the Enlightenment is
being hailed as exemplary of human achievement, when Hume and Voltaire are
praised as heroes, it is necessary to remember the revulsion in Britain at that
time against the liberalism of France, which actually succeeded in keeping such
bloody excess from engulfing our shores also, giving space for the spiritual
awakening of the early nineteenth century in the UK, producing such social
transformation here compared with the terrible politics of French humanism and
the subsequent Napoleonic dictatorship.
Monday 6 July 2009/Diluain 6 an Iuchair 2009
Cha sgriobh mi an seo ‘sa
Ghàidhlig airson miosan! Ach tha
mi ga ionnsachadh fhathast. Mar eiseimplir, sheinn mi beannachd Ghàidhlig aig a’ choinneamh Didòmhnaich a’Chaingis air a’mhullach Cnoc an Ath Dhubha
ann an Dùn
Eideann, agus sgriobh mi facal no dhà dha charaid
ghearmaltais agam a tha a’fuireach ann am Florida an-dràsta. Chan ann sàmhach a tha
mi gu dearbh leis a’Ghàidhlig.
A
quick catch-up on this week’s events;
On Monday
29 I met with Peter Clark of the 
chaplain. I was
bowled over by the statuary in the building there, some of it from ancient
classical times; a great frieze takes up one wall, and although damaged by
time’s passing, it most impressive still. I also had the chance to have a new
perspective on the
On Tuesday
30th, we met as city church leaders to pray and lunch together. About
thirty leaders from different denominations were at the Edinburgh City Mission
venue off
Tonight,
the air was very heavy and humid, in a way I don’t remember it before in
The
regular monthly trip to
Getting
off the train on the way back at
For me, the
highlight of the week was Friday night 3rd July. This was the
first full night’s turn of duty for me on Street Pastors, and what
memorable one it turned out, and one of the warmest of the year to boot! I was
apprehensive to start with , but the three of us on the team, Sarah from Centre
Point leading, Juliet from Ps and Gs, and yours truly wandered up and down the
Greenside area, soon finding conversations to be had with people about who we
are and why we were there. Having been briefed at 1130pm at West End Police
Station in
-
Cleared about 30 glass bottles off the
street, many in a spot where fights are known to break out.
-
Sought to mediate in a dispute between
two beggars over pitches held, which had led to aggression.
-
Assisted and called an ambulance for a
young man who had been attacked and robbed on Calton
Hill, staying with him until paramedics arrived
-
Gave directions to visitors needing to
find their way
-
Gave out a dozen pairs of flip-flops to
girls coming out of clubs barefoot, to protect their feet.
-
Chatted with doormen and women, making
our presence known
-
Helped ensure people safely got away
home when the pubs and clubs closed down.
-
Alerted the council to a
non-functioning pedestrian signalled crossing outside one of the clubs, making
crossing Leith Walk a dangerous pastime for those the
worse for drink.
As I
stood watching out for those trying to cross at these non-exsistent
lights, a young man began chatting with me about what we were doing and why,
and was fascinated that we would be out at 3am out of care and concern for the
community. He then began talking to me about his search for meaning and
purpose, and asked if I knew anything about the Alpha Course. In a way, it was
a bit surreal , with the dawn just beginning to glow in the sky over Leith, surrounded by gay and straight clubbers in various
states of intoxication to be standing talking to someone about my faith. But it
seemed so much the right place, too, and I left him with an email contact and
details of the city Alpha launch at the Roxburghe in
October.
Driving
back at 415am through the city streets, in the beauty and quiet of an
We
continued our varied summer format on Sunday 5th July at Community Church Edinburgh; Liz Dixon did a
superb job of hosting us, swiftly batting the notices into the slips, and
making way for worship, led by
Helen Stark
shared with us who Jesus is to her, and how she has become aware of Jesus truly
with her at every step of her life. We than also heard from Candace Stimpson,
who told us about a word she had received from a friend about being like the colt
that carried Jesus on its back into Jerusalem – the glory is for Him, not for
us. We prayed with Candace as it was her last Sunday with us for eight to nine
months as she goes back to the States for a season.
We
then moved into a time of letting the 
Scriptures
speak for themselves; grouped around tables, with an ad hoc facilitator
at each, we studied John 15, I Am the True Vine, comparing also
with Isaiah’s parable 
of the wild
vine of
This
kind of community listening to the Scriptures is in a good radical reform
tradition, where it’s not left up to a ‘clergy’ preacher to mince the meat and
spoon it to the people; rather, together we ask the Holy Spirit to bring the
words alive as we listen to him and each other, helped by scholarly guidance
notes to keep us on track with the context of the Scriptures being studied.
Monday 29 June 2009/Diluain 29 an t-Ògmhios 2009
On Sunday 28 June at CCE, we kicked
off our summer series on ‘Who Is This Jesus?’ with ‘Before Abraham Was, I Am’
from John 8.59. There were much smaller numbers around, being the first Sunday
of the school holidays in Edinburgh, and so Jules and Moira kindly laid out
just ninety chairs, in the round, making our gathering feel more intimate and
together.
We also rang the changes on the format, and
after an opening song, got the notices kicked into touch, before taking up the
offering in the first song of the following worship time. Iain A was hosting,
and lead us sensitively through, with prayer for the nation and nations, and
then Ben Gordon shared on what Jesus means to him; personal, winsome and
relevant, it was great to hear from him. I then came in with the address,
introducing the whole series with a short video clip gleaned from the
Foundations21 online discipleship course, setting the sail for our voyage
ahead.
We
saw that Jesus’ words to the Jewish leaders in John 8 leave no chance for us to
see Jesus just as a moral teacher; as C S Lewis has it, in his Mere
Christianity, Jesus is either mad, bad or God.
If we recognise Him as God, that draws from
us a response; first, worship, as the God who is in man, then surrender, giving
ourselves to Him as Lord which is our ‘obvious service’; and thirdly,
reflecting Him in transformed actions, as He lives in us by His Spirit, asking
ourselves not so much ‘What would Jesus do?’ but, as God resident in us ‘ Would
Jesus do this?’
The weather has been, to use the Scots
vernacular, dreich, for June. Cool and damp,
though we made up for it this afternoon by settling down on the sofa with a
book each. (I’m reading Andrew Martin’s railwayman’s murder mystery, The
Necropolis Railway. )
Saturday 27 June 2009/Disathairne 17 an t-Ògmhios 2009
A speed blog this time, updating what’s
been happening;
Sunday 21st , I was speaking at Gateway Community Church Perth, a
sister church of the Scottish Network. Saw quite a few folks from former ECF
days, doing well. Great seeing their kids who are teens and twenties actively
involved in worship and community life there. Over the summer, they will be out
in the local park on Sunday mornings, as they were last summer, taking church
outdoors.
Had a good and encouraging day with Allan
Cox up from Eastleigh New Community; the weather was lovely, as we sat on
the new deck, enough to drive us later into the shade. We had a walk up through
Tower Mains farm at Liberton, where we stopped to
chat to the farmer who was enjoying the lovely day on his hand-made log bench
overlooking the city and sea. And this just fifteen minutes or so from home !
On Wednesday evening, attended the
induction to Priestfield Parish Church, Dalkeith Road
of Dr Jared Hay, formerly of Balerno Parish. In spite of its robed formality, there was a
lovely warmth to the proceedings, and a sense of hope for the days ahead of
Jared in the charge. It was good to meet him afterwards at the social part of
the evening, and realise that he had come along last December to the Brian
McLaren seminar at King’s Hall. We will no doubt be catching a coffee together
after the summer hols.
Thursday evening was a milestone for us;
our last child leaving school, as Abby took part in St Margaret’s School
closing concert. The music was very special, with my proud Dad’s heart beating
loud hearing Abby perform her saxophone solo of Ravel’s Pièce en forme de Habanera, my favourite of her repertoire,
before the packed-in audience at St Cuthbert’s Church, West End. (see clip
below – not great sound quality, but you get the drift.) There was a torrent of
tears at the end of the concert, as girls in white formal blouses and kilts
hugged their long goodbyes to each other, the end of an era. We went for pizza and ice cream after to celebrate
at Ciao Italia, home late after a pleasant and fitting evening.
Wednesday
17 June 2009/Diciadain 17 an t- Ògmhios 2009
I listened this evening to
the second of Prof Michael Sandel’s Reith Lectures
2009 on Morality and Politics. Really riveting stuff, and thoroughly
recommended – download or listen at http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/reith/
Today, I was in Glasgow for a meeting at
the Evangelical Alliance offices in
Cowcaddens, as a follow up to the Brian McLaren tour
last December, and we are moving towards a ‘roadshow’
of Scottish thinkers and responders to the questions raised by Brian, probably
in November this year, in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
<<
Before that, I enjoyed dropping in on Anne McGreechin who is the community development worker at the
Open Door in
Yesterday, Tuesday 16 June, I
was involved in an ideas workshop put on by the West Crosscauseway
Assocation at Southside Community Centre in
It was good to meet new faces and to
refresh acquaintance with some older ones; a number of the Southside Heritage
Group were at the day, a group I had been along to some ten years ago or so.
Also there were representatives of local architects, the Living Memory
Association and the Southside Community Centre.
We spent the first part of the day together
at RCAHMS (Royal Commission on Ancient and
I was a little waylaid by discovering the
architect’s details for the King’s Hall. David Cousin was a Free Church
architect, and a student of William Playfair. He not
only designed the original
<< The site on 1891 map
Going from RCAHMS we gathered at ‘the
Causey’ (pronounced locally as the Caussey –
it was paved early on, and retained the name thereafter). This space is also
known as The Guse Dub because at one time,
there was a pond here with geese. We also recalled that
in the photographs we had seen a horse-trough, which
some of the group actually remembered being there in their living memory.
The Crosscauseway
is an ancient street, now somewhat demoted in importance since the building of
The intersection is overlooked by two
considerable buildings; Buccleuch - Greyfriars Free Church built in 1856 and the former Chapel
of Ease, built in 1755 to serve the expanding St Cuthbert’s Parish. The burial
ground behind the chapel is the last resting place of, among others, the
infamous Deacon Brodie, in an unmarked grave, as well
as Mrs McLehose, who wrote the famous lament, ‘The
Flowers of the Forest’. We also noted
that 56 North, a nearby café, has tables out on the pavement, although the
environment is particularly café-culture friendly.
After lunch, we got to work looking at how
the Causey could be transformed into a space for people rather than for a
cut-through for cars with three parking spaces. At the end of the workshop,
some common themes emerged from all four workshop groups – cutting or
prohibiting traffic, creating a relaxed and calm environment, possibly with
water feature and sculptures depicting the trough, horses and/or geese.
As participants, it was agreed that the day
had been very worthwhile, and before we left, I had liaised with the secretary
of the Southside Heritage group to host them one Thursday morning for a tour of
King’s Hall, looking at its history and its possible future.
One thing that came up in the course of the
day was the fact that both the Free Church and the Chapel of Ease are divided
off from the street by black, spiky railings. Many folks commented how divisive
these seemed, and one member of the Free Church taking part in the day pointed
out that it was ‘theologically unsound’ to make such a distance between
community and church. It made me think about the spikes which guard King’s Hall
: could it be, in the recasting of our own building, that we need to open up
the front to serve the surrounding area rather than proclaim a separation?
It was a valuable and worthwhile engagement
together as ‘Southsiders’ ; hopefully good things may
come of it. A video record of the day was made, and this should appear on the
Causey website in due course.
Monday 15 June 2009/Diluain 15 an t-Ògmhios 2009
Feedback from Sunday June 14 – quite low numbers out at CCE this morning; we’re
running into holiday time, and just around 70 were in attendance. However, the good
news is that about a dozen folks turned out for the ‘inconvenient prayer
time’ at 915am, in the coffee bar, with accompanying croissants and coffee.
That was encouraging.
Chris led the worship time, introducing the
new song ‘We won’t stay silent any more’ – hear it on Spotify
or the worship central training video on YouTube. It’s a call to prayer, ‘Could
we be a prayerful people?’
Malcolm hosted, and led us in
thought-provoking prayer after the saddening increase in people voting BNP last
week in the European elections – he encouraged us to look at the ‘Hope not
Hate’ website as one which is resisting any drift towards fascism.
We looked together at Daniel 7, the last in
the series, and saw from it that Jesus, in his applying the title ‘Son of Man’
to Himself in Matthew 26.64 was using the very Aramaic term that Daniel uses
here in Daniel 7. We homed in on the reality of who Jesus is, and the fact that
He is the centre of all things, and a relationship with Him is the key, rather
than the formulation of abstract principles. (See the Jacques Ellul quote below
under 6 June entry.) It is to Him that the kingdom is given in Daniel’s vision
of chapter 7.
We shared bread and wine together in
closing, inviting folks to gather around the table and share with each other.
Thursday 11 June 2009/Diardaoin 11 an t-Ògmhios 2009
Southside Community Council EUSA
Presentation Weds 10th
Yesterday evening I dropped in for a very
short while to the regular meeting of Southside Community Council at the Nelson
Hall in Bernard Terrace. I was fortunate to catch a very informative
presentation by James Wallace, Vice-president of Services for Edinburgh
University Students’ Association on a Southside survey the association has
conducted. One of the figures which was impressive was that of both students
and non-students interviewed for the survey, 92% were satisfied or fairly
satisfied with life on the Southside of Edinburgh. The main negatives of living
there were street noise and vandalism, but it seems that large numbers like the
area.
When it came to noise, a perennial issue
for people, a fair percentage of students seemed to think they were noisy,
while only around 10% of non-students interviewed thought students were
responsible for nuisance noise levels, showing students are harder on
themselves, perhaps. There was also a feeling both from council members and
EUSA that there could be closer working together of university and community to
mutual benefit. A very worthwhile and interesting presentation.
Canon Fred Tomlinson, St Peter’s
I hurried from the CC meeting round to St Peter’s in
The St Peter’s building has been recently
redecorated, and with new chandeliers looked a real picture for the
celebration, which was both joyful and dignified. Rev Frances Burberry, the
curate gave the sermon, speaking from words of a former Bishop of Durham,
encouraging Fred to ‘go in the company of Jesus Christ, relying on his grace’
in spirit, soul and body. After the service, Fred was presented with a stole to
commemorate the occasion, which was blessed by the Bishop of Edinburgh, Rt Rev Brian Smith.
The service followed the Scottish Liturgy
1982, and I was moved and lifted up in my spirit by the depth of the worship in
its words, an example for me of accessible and meaningful crafted prayer which
is full of Jesus Christ and His presence.
Tuesday 9 June 2009/Dimàirt 9 an t-Ògmhios 2009
Cold water baptisms, Prayer and a
Landing-Strip for the Kingdom
Sunday 7th at CCE was memorable
for one major reason – the baptistry heater broke down! But the brave souls
being baptised and baptising (Jonny, Brian and
In speaking on Daniel 7, my focus on Sunday
was on Daniel as a man of prayer, and the need for us to see that as a church,
no prayer= no progress. John Wesley said God does nothing except through
believing prayer. – obviously not meaning that God is paralysed if we don’t
pray, but rather that He looks for our engagement with His purposes through
prayer. I gave a picture which might help, quoted here from my notes from Sunday
(available as a download from the CCE website
)
On June 6th 2009 there were celebrations in
I also highlighted that prayer is never convenient, will never ‘fit
in’ with our schedule. It has to be given space, and won’t be comfortable –
warfare is not comfortable nor convenient….
Jacques
Ellul’s The Presence of the Kingdom
I am
reading a book I picked up at
We must be convinced that there are no such things
as ‘Christian principles’. There is the Person of Christ, who is the principle
of everything. But if we wish to be faithful to Him, we cannot dream of
reducing Christianity to a certain number of principles (though this is often
done), the consequences of which can be logically deduced. This tendency to
transform the work of the Living God into a philosophical doctrine is the
constant temptation of theologians, and also of the faithful, and their
greatest disloyalty when they transform the action of the Spirit which brings
forth fruit in themselves into an ethic, a new law, into ‘principles’ which
only have to be ‘applied’. The Christian life does not spring from a ‘cause’
but it moves towards an ‘end’; it is this which completely changes the outlook
for humanity, and renders the Christian life different from every other life.
Ellul J, trans Wyon
O The Presence of the Kingdom (London: SCM Press, 1951) p52
BBC’s
Reith Lectures 2009 – Morality and Markets
I just listened to Prof Michael Sandel, Harvard
Professor of Political Philosophy give the first of the BBC’s Reith Lectures for
this year, on ‘Markets and Morals’ in a series entitled ‘A New Citizenship.’ It
made fascinating listening, especially his critique of the tendency to ‘marketise’ everything in our lives. It put me in mind of
Jesus’ words to the merchants in the Temple according to John 2.16, ‘you have
made my house into a market-hall’ – are we doing the same thing with the good
news of Jesus?
The
lectures can be heard for a while on BBC i-player, or
are downloadable in mp3 format at http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/reith/
Sunday 7 June 2009/ Didòmhnaich
7 an t-Ògmhios 2009
On retreat last Thursday at the Bield in
First, He is Our Father; the prayer
only makes real sense when it is prayed together in community – in the first
person plural, not singular. That doesn’t mean we can’t pray it individually,
but Jesus said when you plural pray – He anticipated we would pray
together, saying Our Father.
Secondly, the prayer is about Him, not us.
So often when we pray, it is because we are in need, or want a successful
outcome. But the prayer focuses on Him – Your Name be made holy, Your
Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as in heaven. And the end
of the prayer echoes the beginning – Yours is the Kingdom, power and
glory, forever. So, praying together, we are making a landing-place for the
King to come and for His intentions to be realised among us.
Unfortunately, much of modern British
Christianity has seemed to be about God ‘okay’ing’
our basically liberal, democratic, humanist-individualist lifestyles, where
prayer is about getting more things from God – comfort, peace, prosperity,
convenience.
William Wordsworth, whilst not a great
Christian theologian, expresses something of the problem in a sonnet;
The world is to much with us; late and
soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our
powers;
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given away our hearts, a sordid
boon!
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all
hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping
flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of
tune;
It moves us not. - Great God! I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses which would make me less
forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
Whilst I don’t go along with Wordsworth’s
assumption that ancient paganism would be preferable (his romanticism),
certainly his cry for something more in balance with the world around us, and
more with the heart of God is one echoed in hearts longing for His Kingdom to
come.
Christ’s Kingdom is not another political
theory, nor a system of behaviours or rules. It is the King-ship of
Jesus Christ, personally with us, walking, talking, eating with us, guarding
our nights and filling our days, and overflowing into a life which has Him as
the priority.
Saturday 6 June 2009/ Disathairne
6 an t-Ògmhios 2009
An update of the last week or so
Friday 5 June 2009
At last, after months of training, Street Pastors were
out on the streets of the city for the first time, in uniform.
As we went off duty, walking back to the
car for home, we missed the opportunity to hand out a pair of flip-flops to a
woman running like a marathon runner along
The teams start out from next Friday,
properly, working into the wee sma’ hours around
Greenside. Anyone who feels they want to join for prayer can come to
Wednesday 3 June 2009
Travelled through to Glasgow for the Scottish Network
leaders core team and prayer lunch in Bishopbriggs; it’s so good to have a
bunch of fellow leaders with whom one can meet nationally without getting on a
plane or living in a hotel. There is something about this monthly gathering
which is so vital to me, for its sharpening, its encouragement and its sense of
working together to see Christ’s kingship made known in
It was also good on the train back to catch
up with Bill Nisbet of North Berwick, and hear news
of their fund-raising for
Sunday 31 May 2009, Pentecost, Global Day
of Prayer, Edinburgh
A glorious, sunny weekend; temperatures at in the
balmy low 20s, and perfect for the Global Day of Prayer happening in the
Scottish capital this year up on Blackford Hill.
After Sunday meeting at CCE ( feedback from Poland team, prayer with student
team heading off to India to help in schools, latest instalment of Daniel,
chapter 5, Belshazzar’s Feast – ‘Partying as the Empire Collapses’ /download of
talk available from www.cce.uk.net ) some of us headed off for a picnic under a
cloudless blue sky at the Royal Observatory, then took a leisurely climb up the
spine of the hill to where about 200 of us gathered to worship (led by John
young and the worship band from Liberton Kirk) , to
pray the Global prayer at 3pm, (led by, among others, Kenny Borthwick,
Alan Colley and Paul James-Griffiths) to hear the Scriptures (Psalm 23 sung by
St Columba’s Free Kirk choir) and to bless the city, which lay in the sunshine
at our feet.
There was also a real African prayer, full
of God, from Pastor Peter Omwanda from
Banners flew in the breeze above the city,
and drums and a shofar sounded out blessing for many.
A great day, and I’m already looking forward to 2010 as the culmination of the
decade of global prayer day.
For more go to http://www.edinburghprayer.org/gdop2009.php
Wednesday 27 May 2009/Diardaoin 27 a’Chèitein 2009
A round-up of the last week’s happenings:
Weekend in
A team of five of us, Chris and Lisa Hall, Alan
Colley, Ashley Foggitt and yours truly spent a weekend sharing and leading
worship with around eighty people at the En Christo
Centre for Evangelisation and Christian Life in Lanckorona, Poland; Lanckorona
is about twenty miles to the south west of Kraków, in
the beautiful Beskid Hills, and a few miles east of
the birthplace of Pope John Paul 2, Wadowice. The
centre is run by Andrzej and Sanita Sionek; Andrzej
spent about six months with us in 
renew friendship, which was wonderful.
On arrival at Kraków
airport, we were whisked straight to an open-air event being held by some of
the young people from Lanckorona outside the halls of residence of
We had some time on Friday to visit the Old
Town of Kraków, before the weekend Worship in the
Spirit started, with a session on the Friday night on What is Worship? On Saturday and Sunday morning, we split into
two tracks,
On Saturday evening, we shared in an outdoor mass in
front of the house, which, while it grew
colder as the evening grew darker, didn’t stop us worshipping and sensing the
Lord’s presence with us. Warm words of love and reconciliation were spoken by
the priests who had ministered, and prayers for a restoration of the whole
church one day.
We came home again Sunday evening grateful
for this opportunity to reconnect with some old friends. There are
opportunities for ongoing connection with Lanckorona in the days ahead.
And there’s a video clip here of a flavour
of Saturday night’s outdoor worship, singing ‘His love endures forever’
Debate
at the Church of Scotland on Monday 25th May
I listened in to the webcast of the debate
on the ‘Overture’ of the Lochcarron and Skye
presbytery to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on Monday
afternoon, appealing to the assembly to establish the Biblical rule that
ministers should not be in any sexual relationship other than a monogamous,
heterosexual marriage. It seems that the assembly was unable to do this,
leaving the question to be resolved by a special commission of the Kirk left to
report back in 2011.
This was the Church of Scotland at its most
arcane and Byzantine, redolent of the bad old days of late eighteenth century moderatism ; this procedural obfuscation must leave most of
her members in constant frustration at the slow pace, and no doubt, many of
them will be angry at the assumption that the Kirk now permits openly
homosexual ministers to practice in its congregations, even though this has not
yet been established. My prayer is that the Kirk will remain confessing its
Christ-given adherence to Scripture, and reject the spirit of the age which has
led to so much brokenness and despair already in the nation.
National Scottish Prayer Breakfast Wednesday
27 May
Some two hundred of us, up at the crack of
dawn were privileged to hear the welcome by Alex Fergusson, presiding officer
of the Scottish Parliament to the 21st Scottish National prayer
breakfast, held at the Houston House Hotel, Uphall. Among
others participating were Ross Finnie, former Scottish Government minister,
Ruth Box from Bishiopbriggs, singing for us, and Sir
Tom Farmer, who led the prayer for the nation, with an exhortation to ‘target
the values rather than value targets.’
The speaker was Andy Brookes, from
Wednesday 20 May 2009/Diardaoin 20 a’Chèitein
2009
We have been in a big build since
February, hence the scarcity of the blogging. To a design by David Hewitt, we
now have extra rooms on the back of the house and a superb view of the old
garden has resulted, for which we are very thankful for God’s provision. The
team of builders from DOM construction were speedy, friendly and accomplished,
and Polish – I have had a mini-Polish-improvement course in all things builder,
from skirting boards (listwy) to girders (bełka), but it’s been fun having Poland come to
Liberton!
Now we are
settling back into life, albeit with a lovely peaceful setting which I have
been making the most of for morning prayer, the garden forming the backdrop to
the daily liturgy which is really refreshing and inspiring. There are still a
few finishing touches, like painting, but we are well into the swing of garden
life!
Here are some
speed-blog updates;
Tuesday 19 May Fascinating visit with Street Pastors training to the city’s CCTV
monitoring centre at
Monday 18 May
There has been some amazing steam action
around
Sunday 17 May
Good Sunday meeting at CCE; Paul Ede was meant
to be with us, but was unable because of bereavement, so we majored on worship
and prayer, in the round, with bread and wine. Malcolm C was hosting, and led
the liturgy for communion sensitively and thoughtfully. We opened up with a
simple chanting of the ancient Jesus Prayer, (Kyrie Iesou Christe, Yie tou Theou, eleison me, ton amartolon - Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.), then moving into Alleluia,
(Agnus Dei). There was space for prayer and words during the morning, which
should be posted on the CCE members’ site.
Alan C also led us in an instrumental meditation on images of the
vastness and beauty of space, which was very creative, with Adam’s sax somehow
echoing the haunting beauty of the planets and stars. We also said goodbye to
Hamish and Miriam as they return to
Wednesday 13 May Had the privilege of visiting the new Addiewell prison, near Livingston,
Monday 13 April
Steam (diesel and electric) heaven! – I turned up Easter Monday to
see A4 Pacific 60009 pass Craigentinny, hauling the
Great Briton back to Peterborough, and unexpectedly found a couple of locos
already in steam, having hauled the previous day’s train down from Dundee. I
videoed the ensuing movements, including, fifty seconds into the vid below, the A4 screaming past to a chorus of whistles
from the other two locos – this was just a gricer’s
dream moment!
Monday
March 9 2009/Diluain 9 a’ Mhàirt 2009
Feedback on Visit to
I went last week with Allan Cox to visit the New Community French
base at Le Vay, near Maisoncelles-la-Jourdan,
Tues 3rd March
Left Edinburgh by plane to Gatwick,
thence train to
Wed 4th March
At 730am, had breakfast with Christian
and Monique Vives; they are leaders of the Assemblée Evangélique Protestante at Bretteville-sur-Odon,
a suburb of the city of
From Caen we drove out into the beautiful Norman country south of
the Channel, and found the tiny village of Heurtevent,
a short step from Livarot, south of Lisieux, and well-known for its fine local cheese. Here
Bill and Jan Gordon welcomed us to the Centre Chrétien at Bethanie,
a converted farmstead, now used for retreats, Alpha weekends and ecumenical
fellowship. Bill is Catholic and Jan protestant, so they are an icon of unity,
and we had a very lovely afternoon sharing and talking with them. Bill went to Heriot’s School and knew
After a convoluted drive west from Heurtevent, through sun, rain and snow, with Allan’s satnav sometimes showing us as driving through fields, or
giving us helpful instructions like ‘turn west’, we arrived thankfully at Le Vay, to be welcomed by Peter and Marianne who look after
the house at the moment, and by a roaring wood-burner and a roast meal.
Thur 5th March
Time over breakfast chatting with Peter and Marianne; Peter is
English, but Marianne is of German parentage, and we talked of some of the
issues of living in an area so ravaged after WW2, with its ongoing woundedness and some anti-German feeling.
We looked around the property, saw the
goats and chickens, and the potential for growth in the house and its
outbuildings. We then visited Mortain, a hill with a
great view across to Mont-St-Michel, 42 miles away, where a famous tank battle
had taken place, and then visited Collette Usser in Gers, in her lovely converted schoolhouse, which has
potential for serving the community of ex-pat Brits and French locals. Collette
herself is a widow, based in St Malo, but remains in
the house at Gers to be near her daughters.
We then moved on to lunch in the
village, at a restaurant filled with lunchtime farm-workers (all male!) tucking
into their five-course lunch, which suited us down to the ground as well.
We then moved on to visit Vire, a bustling market-town with old castle keep and gate
house. The sad story is that on 6 June 1944, it was bombed 
by the Allies, and 500 of its citizens died; leaflets had been
dropped by the Americans to warn of the attack, but they blew off course three
miles, so no one knew it was coming. There is a memorial to the dead in the
church, and in the local war memorial.
We even braved the local Andouille de Vire, a
smoked sausage made from pig’s intestines – and it was OK, for a local
delicacy!
Fri 6th March
Early departure from St Malo, and then once in Portsmouth, a flight up from
Bournemouth, after dropping in on Allan’s wife, Lizzie back at Southampton, who
kindly drove me to the airport.
Overview
It was great to connect with French
believers. I felt very impacted by the Lord in prayer there about the need of
I would love to think we could find a
small team of intercessors and/or outreachers to go
back, maybe to do some Scottish cultural stuff to bridge-build with the local
community. Also, Le Vay is available for visits,
holidays and retreats, and with a hire car from
Monday
February 9 2009/Diluain 9 a’Ghearrain 2009
Talking
about the Kingdom…
Oh, it’s a month and more since I put anything on this
blog… I hope I have no regular readers! Anyway, something has been bothering me
about the way in the English speaking world we use the word ‘kingdom’ when
talking about the ‘kingdom of God’ or the ‘kingdom of heaven’: because of our
political experience of ‘kingdom’ in our everyday lives, and of our history of
kings and queens, we tend to have a very political view of what the kingdom of
God is. That is, we see ‘kingdom’ as an abstract construct, a system of
governance with protocols, rights and behaviours which differentiate us from,
say, a dictatorship, republic or federal state. Those of us living in the
It’s a linguistic issue primarily. Kingdom is a place to us, a geographical, social entity with a whole panoply of
connotations – from Richard III’s cry, ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’ through to Disney’s Magic Kingdom which millions of kids visit annually. Yet the Greek
word is basileia (basileiva) denoting the quality of being a King – king-ship or kingliness. Put simply, in Jesus’ terms, this kingship cannot be
experienced without an experience of, a relationship with the King. Yet
often I hear people, especially in new and radical church circles speaking of
kingdom as an ideology, a set of principles or, particularly, behaviours, which if engaged in will
bring the Kingdom in – common jargon
for our aspiration for Christian ideological impact.
What I want to say, loud and clear, is No King – No Kingdom. We cannot mediate
‘Christian values’ to church, world or society without personal encounter with
the King Himself, Jesus Christ. In this Kingdom, the King does not stay in His palace and let His
subjects get on with life, as our Queen does. The King Himself comes to live in
our homes, in our businesses, is at our desks and production lines with us as
we work, study, live; he travels with us as we commute, He eats with us as we
sit at table, He is present where His ambassadors are present.
In studying Daniel 2, I have been struck by
how unequivocal Daniel in speaking to Nebuchadnezzar about His reliance on God
for His wisdom and insight. Even in a hostile environment, Daniel doesn’t
conceal his source of inspiration. We
need to be wary, in a world which wants religion kept out of the marketplace,
of hiding the King behind ‘a veil of flannel’ about principles and objectives
which deliberately hide the source of our life, and make us out to be the
clever ones.
Last year, I did an essay on the subject of
Servant Leadership, looking
particularly at the works of Robert Greenleaf, who popularised for western
culture this concept as a method of improving relationships and productivity in
society. I had thought it would be a chance to study the ways of Christ and
their application to leadership today. However, I found myself gripped by a
deep antipathy to Greenleaf’s approach, precisely because, though acknowledging
Christianity as one of the major sources for his work, he treated servant
leadership as an ideology which could be imparted while being divorced entirely
from the God who Himself put on a towel and washed His creatures’ feet.
When I hear the word kingdom these days, particularly in Christian teaching and
preaching, I check it in my mind against the word King to see if there is a cross-match. When I pray, Your Kingdom come , am I picturing a
system or a person, an ideology or a relationship? When I say I want to see the kingdom established am
I thinking of a lifestyle choice or a living Spirit guiding all I say and do,
infinitely creative, an adventure with the King himself?
To paraphrase Matt. 6.33, Seek first to relate with God as King (the
Kingship of God) and His ‘right-side-up ways of doing things’, and everything
else will fall into place.
Monday
January 5 2009/Diluain 5 den Fhaoillteach 2009
So the new year is in, and it’s back to auld claithes and parritch . Over a restful holiday, I read two more Rebus novels by Ian Rankin (Let It Bleed and Black
and Blue, the latter, to my delight, having a scene set in the Royal Commonwealth
Pool, where I swim. DI Rebus chases a suspect into the Clambers children’s play
area, and ends up sticking a plastic ball in his gub!
I love the way Rankin has Rebus running round the streets of
Hogmanay was fun, at a cèilidh, kilted up
and swinging the light fantastic… and fireworks after, this year not from seven
hills, but just two, Castle and Calton. Ben’s band
were playing the gig, and it was a very enjoyable time with the six score who
turned up to see the year out and in with us. So, happy new year to you, - have
a sublime ’09!
Bha Oidhche Chaillein
gu doigheil againn anns an Talla an Righ aig
a’ Chèilidh le comhlan aig ar Ben, mo mhac. Thàinig sia
fichead neach air a shon. Chaidh mi ann leis an eileadh agam agus
bha sinn a’dannsadh agus an deidh sin chaidh sinn airson nan
cleasan-teine aig meadhon oidhche, ged nach robh
iad ach air dhà cnuic am bliadhna, Cnoc a’Chaisteil aguis Cnoc Calton.
Ach bha iad breagha gu dearbh.
Bliadhna mhàth ùr ’09 dhuibh uile!
St
Stephen’s Day, Friday December 26 2008/Latha Naoimh Stephain Dihaoine 26 den Dùbhlachd 2008
Meditating on the martyrdom of Stephen
today, I am reminded that Christ calls us to adventure, even an adventure to
death, because the pseudo-home we create here in our present physical lives is
not the city we truly seek. At the moment of his death, Stephen was given a
glimpse into the realm of God, where the risen Christ, who has overcome death,
is seated and at home with His Father in the city that is to come. We are
called to adventure, not to comfort, to quest, not to settle. Stephen’s
martyrdom is one aspect of that adventure that draws us on.
The carol Good
King Wenceslas is connected with this day, as the ‘Feast of Stephen’. It is
a legend from the
In the carol, if we can get past the
schmaltz of the familiar English verse, there is a challenge to Christ’s
apprentices today. Just as Stephen, Václav adventured
for Christ, leaving behind the comfort of royal privilege, and ministered to
the poor, the jewel of God's heart. His ministry took him into hardship, and
also to death, but, like Stephen, his service of the marginalised and his
ultimate sacrifice have been recorded in our memories through the story of him
we remember today.
Christmas
Day Thursday December 25 2008/Latha na Nollaige Diardaoin 25 den Dùbhlachd 2008
Happy
Christmas to you !/Nollaig Chridheil
dhuibh!
I have
been meditating this Christmas on the French carol, which in English we know as
‘O Holy Night’. The French have a saying, traduir, c’est trahir, ‘to translate is to betray’, and in the case
of this song it is certainly true, because the English version loses much of
the power of the original. I wonder if it is because the French, known as Cantique de Noël was thought
too revolutionary and not deferential enough for the class-bound British? So,
to liberate the meaning for us Anglophones, here are the last two verses in the
French and my (non-scanning) translation, to let you see the power of the words
as they were given.
De notre foi que
la lumière ardente May the
burning light of our faith
Nous
guide tous au berceau de l’Enfant, Lead
us all to the child’s cradle,
Comme autrefois une étoile brillante As once a shining star
Y conduisit les chefs de l’Orient. Led the rulers of the East.
Le Roi des rois naît
dans une humble crèche; The King of Kings born in a
humble manger,
Puissants du jour, fiers de votre
grandeur, O,
Powers that be, proud of your greatness,
À votre orgueil, c’est de là que Dieu prêche. It is from there that God
addresses your arrogance,
Courbez vos fronts devant le Rédempteur! Bow your heads before the
Redeemer!
Courbez vos fronts devant le Rédempteur! Bow your heads before the
Redeemer!
Le Rédempteur a brisé toute entrave, The Redeemer has
broken every shackle ,
La Terre est libre et le Ciel est ouvert. The earth is free and heaven is
open.
Il voit un frère où n’était qu’un esclave,
He sees a
brother where once was only a slave,
L’amour unit ceux qu’enchaînait le fer. Love unites those whom iron
chains once bound.
Qui lui dira notre reconnaissance? Who will tell Him of our
gratefulness?
C’est pour nous tous qu’il naît, qu’il souffre et meurt. For all of us He was born, suffered and died,
Peuple, debout! Chante ta délivrance. People, arise! Sing of your
deliverance.
Noël! Noël! Chantons le Rédempteur! Noël ! Noël ! Sing of
the Redeemer!
Noël! Noël! Chantons le Rédempteur! Noël ! Noël ! Sing of
the Redeemer!
Wednesday
24 December 2008/Diciadain 24 den Dùbhlachd 2008
I was prompted to update my blog somewhat by
someone who complained that they were looking for news of me on it, so it’s
nice to be wanted…
Highlights of the time since the last entry
in October
-
Two
weeks in
-
A
weekend in the middle of the study leave to visit Podolínec, to be there for
the First Sunday in November, which was greatly refreshing. I spoke to them
about my conviction that theirs is a testimony of adventure with God, which is
the theme of my essay on ‘biography as theology’ (still in train as I
write.)
-
On the
Tuesday of the second week of study leave, we drove from 
Sobotište, near Trnava, where the Baptist Federation
owns a house which belonged to an Anabaptist community there in the 17th
century (pictured left) . We had the privilege of going into the house, and
seeing where these disciples of Christ lived in community, (right) sharing all
they had, working the land. We also witnessed the evidences of their
craftsmanship in pottery and other manufacture which were in the town’s museum.
It was unusual for me, having spent so much time among Roman Catholic friends
in
-
We then
crossed back over the border (now unguarded and unpatrolled since Jan 1st
this year, as part of the Schengen agreement) to
visit Mikulov in Czech Republic (formerly Nikolsburg) where Balthasar Hubmaier had led many to Christ and baptised them here
before his burning at the stake in Vienna in 1528 for his baptist ideals. We
also visited the castle of the Dukes of Lichtenstein, one of whom is said also
to have followed Christ under Hubmaier. His lands
became a haven for anabaptists fleeing persecution in
-
At the beginning of December, a weekend with Brian
McLaren, (left) including the NETS theological forum in
-
Ann was
in
-
Christmas
Eve is here again; At 6am I was swimming with my new swim buddy, Alan Colley,
who is training for the quadrathlon next year, so
he’s doing 1.5km each time, since that is what he’ll have to swim across Loch
Tay before other punishing tasks. This has spurred me to extend myself a little
more, and I now swim 1300m rather than my previous 1000m. Then, feeling a
little prayerless, I went off to morning communion at
Old St Paul’s at 8am, which was so peaceful and God-filled. I met there the new
curate after, and we agreed to meet up in the new year for a coffee and catch
up.
-
Tha Feill na Nollaige
comhla rinn a-rithist. Aig 6u an diugh bha mi a’snamh
le mo charaid-snamh, Alan, a tha
a’treanadh airson an Cuadrathlon an atha bhlaidhna, agus mar sin bidh e a’snamh 1500m oir snamhaidh e Loch Tatha san Iuchair a tha tighinn. Agus
tha mi a’snamh 1300m an aite 1000m a rinn mi gu h-abhaisteach, agus tha sin màth
air mo shon-sa!
Tha mi a’guidhe oirbh a-nis Nollaig
Chridheil agus bliadhna 2009 mhàth nuair a thig i.
That’s the last
couple of months summarised for you,then! Have a wonderful Feast of the Incarnation,
and a very fruitful and happy 2009 when it comes.
Tuesday 14
October 2008/Dimairt 14 den Dàmhair 2008
A linguistic theory has come to me, which I
have been meditating on. In preparing a message on 1 Corinthians 13, I was
wondering about the use of the word agape
(a*gavph) for love in
this chapter. (Pronounced to sound like the English a gappy ) Many have assumed that this is
only a New Testament Greek word, and I myself have spoken of agape as the special word to denote the
uncaused love of God, as opposed to the eros
and philia
of the Greek concepts. But I’m having to rethink this – and to rethink the 
Greek categories that go with it.
When the Hebrew Scriptures were translated
into Greek, around 200BC under Ptolemy II, traditionally by a committee of 70,
hence the name for this version, the Septuagint
(from Latin 
for Seventy), eros
and storge
were shunned in favour of the word agape.
(The word philia
does also occur in the OT Greek, but only in eleven places in Proverbs, and
tends to do with kisses.) Agape was
not a commonly used Greek word for love, being found only in verbal forms in a
few places in Greek literature. But going back to the Hebrew that agape translates, something clicked; the
Hebrew word for love is ahavah (hb**h&a^) and there is a definite similarity linguistically in
the two words, in their makeup. In consulting that fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia, on agape, under its heading Ancient
Usage, it asserts that it is not beyond possibility that the Greek word was
a transliteration of a Semitic word earlier in the language’s development.
It would make sense, therefore, when the
Seventy came to translate ahavah into Greek, to use a word which was close in sound
and value to the Hebrew root. It is worth noting that neither eros nor storge, other Greek words for
love, appear in the Bible at all. Agape
is used, both in Greek Old and New Testaments, for the love of God, but also
for the love of man and woman (notably in Song of Songs, a higly
erotic poem) and of brother to brother (of David and Jonathan, for instance, in
2 Sam 1.26).
There is something key in this realisation.
While Greeks sought to categorise and classify types of love, there is one, unitive love which runs through the Bible. It is sourced in
God, but pervades human relationships as well. It then makes sense, in 1
Corinthians 13, for Paul to highlight love as so indispensable, for it is God's
character expressed in us. And when John says God is love, He is not separating agape off from other forms of love, but is making God, making
Christ the heart and source of all true love which exists.
Thus, eros
does not enter the running. It is a Greek idea, not a Biblical one. And it
perhaps behoves us, in a day when Eros
seems to be worshipped among the nations again, that we reject the pull of
base, pagan definitions of erotic
love, and resort instead to a Godly agapic approach full of integrity and life, one which does
not allow for the separation of sex from love, but which holds them together in
creative, dynamic relationship. To recall C S Lewis’s words in The Four Loves, ‘Love (eros) begins to be a
demon the moment (it) begins to be a god.’ Our God, on the other hand, says John, is Agape.
Tuesday
30 September 2008/Dimairt 30 den t-Sultain 2008
Hardy’s Tess and the Romantic Myth
I was musing again on Hardy and on my
dissatisfaction with his pessimism in the story of Tess of the D’Urbervilles (see yesterday) when it hit me, that the
novelist is espousing that ancient tradition of the myth of romantic love.
In the first volume of his systematic
theology, Ethics, J W McClendon, Jr
entitles the fifth chapter, Eros – Toward
an Ethic of Sexual Love. He traces the literary myth of a love that is
always thwarted, back to the mediaeval idea of ‘courtly love’ which he defines
as never love for one’s spouse, ..seldom
to be consummated, reaching its height only
in an unfulfillable eros or desire considered valuable for its own sake – which
ultimately ends in the tragic
consummation of death for the lovers.(1)
Applying this to Hardy’s Tess,
it is not quite the classic myth, for the one that Tess is shackled to is not
her lawful husband, but her abuser, and the man she actually marries is the one
she cannot consummate her love with, even though they are wed. The story ends,
however, with a brief time of erotic encounter, inevitably cut short by death,
as happens with Tristan and Isolde, or, using McClendon’s example, Oliver and
Jennifer in the classic film of the 1960’s Love
Story.
McClendon highlights the lack of good literary
examples of the celebration of erotic marriage from a Christian perspective,
and its transformative quality, albeit through struggle and suffering. He
writes;
The resurrection may seem to some the least likely
prospect for any sort of guidance toward the erotic Christian life. It turns
out, on the contrary, to be indispensable. While the romantic myth moves
inexorably from its kind of love to death, the Christian master story moves
(through death) to newfound life – in the body. The risen Christ conveys hope
that transforms our present life and erotic love at its best turns upon such
episodes of transformation. Rosemary Haughton, in ‘The Transformation of Man’
(1980) tells the story of two lonely and almost loveless, thought otherwise
decent people, a man and a woman, who meet, become friends, in time become
lovers. In the process, they become for one another and for themselves new
people. Haughton wants us to see that there is in this erotic encounter a power
of transformation that, because it changes everything for them, is analogue and
sign of the transformation that awaits us each in the salvation Christ offers:
their falling in love is not irrelevant to anyone’s ‘falling’ into Christ’s
way…(2)
On the costliness of this transformational
love, McClendon has this to say;
Unless the role of faithful, costly and redemptive
suffering in Christian love is ingredient to erotic love also, our analogy
breaks down at its centre. Yet it does not break down; while the romantic myth
exults in deprivation and ultimate loss, the Christian way of love has its own
tale of a different sort of costly suffering, and though that may sometimes
issue in loss that seems irreparable, the assurance of the gospel is that
suffering that remains faithful to the Master is destined to be both redeemed
and redemptive.(3)
Perhaps some of the best examples of a
literary celebration of eros from a Christian perspective are found in Jane
Austen’s novels . In contrast to Hardy’s Tess,
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice find redemption and
transformation through suffering and love, which leaves us with a very
different outcome to that of the romantic myth. The danger is, that the Hardy
version of reality is perceived as the ‘real’, and Austen’s as the ‘fantasy’;
yet, as Christians, we cannot settle for the pessimism of this age, seeing that
we have a Lover who has reconciled all things to Himself, and who will take us
to Him as His bride in the consummation of the ages. As McClendon observes,
We exist as a tournament of narratives; nowhere is
there a story-free ‘love’ to be discovered; our Christian hope lies rather in
finding that banner of true stories of love that can liberate us from the half
true and from the false.(4)
(1)
McClendon,
J Wm Jr, Systematic Theology vol I, Ethics (
(2)
Ibid
p156
(3)
Ibid
p156
(4)
Ibid
p149
Monday
29 September 2008/Diluain 29 den t-Sultain 2008
Hardy
Revisited
I have been following the BBC dramatisation
of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the
D’Urbervilles over the last three weeks, and have found it quite impacting,
for a number of reasons. I studied Tess as a seventeen-year-old for English
A-level at school. When I say, studied, I probably mean crammed enough facts
and quotes into my head about the novel to pass an exam! However, I remember
being very angry with Hardy’s representation of the church and Christian faith
in general, depicting it, as he does, in the setting of ungracious Victorian
highbrow, middle-class attititudes and mores.
But watching it now, thirty odd years later, and then
going back to the novel itself, I find myself in a very different place, and
with a different reaction. The story is of Tess Durbeyfield,
a peasant girl raped by her employer, Alec D’Urberville,
a self-styled nobleman. She becomes pregnant with his child, with loss of her
virtue and eventual death of the baby. The local vicar refuses the child burial
in consecrated ground, and her mother advises her never to tell of her past
shame. She falls in love with Angel Clare, a clergyman’s son, in a happier
phase of the novel, and marries him. On their wedding night, she confesses her
past, but he rejects her, and separates from her. She then falls into hardship,
labouring on the land; it is at this point she meets Alec again, who has
experienced Christian conversion and is preaching in a barn. However, the old
lust for her overcomes his new-found faith, and he pursues her, abandoning
Christ.
The novel ends in tragedy, with Tess going
back to Alec, for the sake of her impoverished family’s survival. A brief
respite from the pain comes when a
remorseful Angel and Tess do make it back together for a brief few days
together, but the outcome of the tale is fatal.
I remember ranting in my essays at school against
the biased treatment I felt Christian faith was receiving from Hardy, and got
to such a level of preachiness, that I remember my
English master marking me down for my unmeasured words! I just hadn’t seen what
Hardy was saying, nor experienced the reality of the fallenness which runs
through even the body of Christ in its more enthusiastic expressions. I return
to Hardy, therefore, more chastened and reproved, rather than insensed.
As I mused on the novel today, a phrase
came back to me from my days in the classroom at
As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods,
They kill us for their sport.
It’s from Shakespeare’s King Lear, the tragedy we studied for
the same exams, and things began to nag at me; I’m sure we linked those words
with Tess of the D’Urbervilles in our
discussions in class. It seems that
something in Hardy’s own experience gave him such a grim view of life, that
it framed his writing, particularly of Tess. And researching his biography,
some key factors come to light. Early on, he was involved in the Plymouth
Brethren, a renowned Evangelical grouping. Later, he became an agnostic, and
also suffered tragedy in his marriage, separating from his wife, Emma. His
philosophy developed into pessimism and naturalism, clearly manifest through
his writings. (His later novel, Jude the
Obscure is deeply morose and caused uproar at its publication.) He wrote
his belief into his characters in Tess,
an unrelenting, lowering fatefulness which sets the tone for the whole book.
My one quibble with the otherwise excellent
BBC production is their omitting the scene in the book where the troubled Angel
Clare sleepwalks, carrying the terrified Tess through the waters of a river, to
lay her in a stone coffin in an Abbey church near their troubled marriage-night
lodgings. Perhaps it was deemed too melodramatic, but for me it was one of the
most memorable scenes of the book. Ho-hum, dramatic licence!
And my reaction now to Tess ? One of anger at the hypocrisy of some Victorian middle-class
religion, and also of commitment to see the love and grace of Christ overcome
such unkind and un-Christlike attitudes depicted in
this novel. While I am heartened that the Christendom Hardy rails against is on
the wane, I am so aware that the finger-wagging evangelicalistic
culture of today can at times be little different at heart to its Victorian
predecessor.
Friday 5
September 2008/Dihaoine 5 den t-Sultain 2008
On the last evening of the Slovak team visit, we were
at the Festival Fireworks, Sunday 31 August. They were quite amazing, an hour
of fireworks, synchronised with Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, and Dvořak’s Slavonic Dances – appropriate for friends
from central
Watching them put me in mind of the last day of August
651ad, when St Aidan leaned against a beam in the church at Bamburgh,
and yielded his weary spirit to God. That night, Cuthbert, a shepherd on the Lammermuir Hills, was watching the skies as we were, and
saw, not a transient burst of gunpowdered colour, but
a faithful soul being carried to God; this was the night not only of Aidan’s
death, but of Cuthbert’s call. The youth’s later ministry would bring him here
to the northern borders of
(illustration from Bede’s Life of
Saint Cuthbert)
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