Category: John

Unexpected- Look, See, Pray

I don’t want to go on and on about it… but we’ve had a surplus of rain recently. There have been local floods (an inconvenience rather than a disaster) and the ground of Sussex is very soggy.

My photo shows what can happen if prolonged rain or a severe storm hits a mountain. Alpine weather is volatile!

Normally this is a small stream, trickling gently through the rocks. Overnight it changed. A sharp thunderstorm played “night light” music with flashes and booms- the next morning, the stream was a raging torrent. I used a slow exposure time of one-fifth of a second, which has recorded the water as pale veils ripping down the slope; spray “varnished” the rocks so they glistened moistly. The speed and power of the waterfall was quite intimidating (and the noise was high decibel).

How do we cope with the unexpected? It gives new motivation! Sudden and dramatic change, possibly a threat, dealing with the consequences of circumstances beyond our control?

Pretending we aren’t affected is silly. Relying on the time-honoured “stiff upper lip” of English stereotype may soften immediate panic, but doesn’t help us regain control. It also tries to hide vulnerability. Claiming exemption from consequences/suffering through faith may sound spiritual, but has little scriptural support!

Both Old and New Testaments promise that God will be with us:
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” – Hebrews 13:5

In the words of Jesus himself: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:20

Christian discipleship is about walking in the way of Jesus, seeking to grow closer to Him, and acting out the same kind of actions as Jesus. Even a brief read through the Gospels will show that Jesus did NOT evade the trials and tensions of life. He faced danger and treachery; he confronted the proud and comforted the struggling.

His last hours must have felt like the impact of a terrible storm, yet his love for humanity allowed him to face the Cross, even Death.

One final thing about waterfalls… further downstream, the water will bless many. The fields will be enriched, the thirsty assuaged, and Life will spring from the torrent.

So it is with Jesus: the life taken on a Cross gained Resurrection and became the hope of all the ages and all the world.

God-who-is-with-us stays alongside; Life bubbles up from within. Two final scriptures offer the most wonderful hope in the Universe:

John 7:38-39: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

Revelation 22:1-2: “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

Living water, the water of Life… the deluge of grace to the thirsty heart & soul. Drink deep!

Look for the Light- Look, See, Pray

I’m trying to teach myself the skill of seeing the signs of light and life in an unsettled world.

My photo is of bamboo- which can be VERY destructive if it gets its roots deep enough- and my eye was fixated by the one highlighted strip. The intensity of the light overexposed this strip: the camera couldn’t handle the contrast, so all the colour has bleached out leaving stems and leaves a silvery white. If you look closely, you can see some of these parts glow as they reflect glare which made the lens “flare.”

Bamboo, certainly many of the common varieties, can grow with extraordinary speed. Several inches in a day. Stems and shoots can force through soil, rock, or concrete: it can ruin the foundations of a building, or grow up through solid floors. At which point, it’s too late even to panic!

Bad governance, sometimes careless and sometimes evil, grows like bamboo. Ambition, greed and a lust for power afflict many of those who rise to prominence via wealth or political manipulation. It seems to me this process is clearly at work in the “great super-powers” and in many autocratic states.

Such darkness is not inevitable. The Berlin Wall was brought crashing down by people demanding liberty: Poland and the Czech/Slovak people shone a bright light of hope.

Putin will, one day, die. So will Trump. So will we all. Some of those deaths will make the world a better place for their passing! But ONE death makes the Light shine through Resurrection. Jesus, who was crucified by the “Establishment” of religion and Empire, inaugurated a new Kingdom of hope, of Love, grace, compassion, mercy, and justice: raised from death, Jesus reigns as Lord of all lords and will one day be acknowledged by all. Commoners, lords and ladies, rich and poor…

So if you see darkness growing in leaders, nations, and societies that do not show the values of the Kingdom of Jesus, don’t despair. Their day will pass. The Day of Jesus will never pass away. We see this Light in the actions of love and kindness, of bravery and boldness for the good, and in the transformed lives of those who are becoming like Jesus day by day. The light glows brighter against gathering darkness- and the darkness neither understands nor can overcome the Light of the World.

Please pray for leaders: not in blind approval of their actions, but that they be accountable to both God and the people they rule. Pray for any “outburst of light” you see, pray that Christ brings His Light into every dark place.

The Early Church often greeted each other with “Maranatha” which means “Come, O Lord.” It’s a word in need of more use…

Revelation 22:20 (NLT): “He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon!’ Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”.

Frosted Clarity- Look, See, Pray

Frost has outlined these little beauties. Rims and veins have attracted icy crystals which accentuate the shapes and forms of flower, berry and leaf. It makes for a nice picture!

You may be surprised to know it can help us do theology too.

Theology is “God Knowledge/Thinking.” The information we have, the principles we hold to, and the interpretation of God’s revelation enable us to begin to comprehend God. We debate, discuss, argue, theorise, and write BIG books! (Wouldn’t it be helpful sometimes to have a simpler explanation, a short book or cartoon instead? If so, read on about the frosty rose!)

Christians have prepared summaries of what we believe: we call them Creeds. “I believe in God the Father…” is the beginning of the Apostles’ Creed (one of the mainstream standards). These Creeds have been agreed by many believers over many years, and are often familiar to most churchgoers.

Each Creed sets out statements of faith; the things we agree on as “standard” for Christianity. They set out a “map” of faith, rather like the frost on the rose petals. We see where each one fits, what’s “in” as a part of normal faith. (There are, of course, differences of emphasis and nuance between the churches! But bear with me on the main principle.)

We cannot fully comprehend God- but one central Christian belief is that God has been and is self-revealing. We can see the Divine in Creation itself- through beauty and awe. The Bible is a written collection of the history of God’s interaction with humanity, inspired by God and amazingly effective at teaching us about God and His Ways.

I suppose we could write different doctrines on every petal to make it even clearer. For example: the nature of God; Creation; Salvation; Bible; Ethics, etc., etc.

Theology is the whole rose- but the parts can be looked at separately. We can always discover and experience more of God; so our study is open-ended, and there are “mysteries” as well as plain and obvious truths. But even if the rose is a symbol for theology, God is above and beyond it- the Gardener who is greater than the rose (or the whole garden).

Do you get the idea? Just as the frost has highlighted nature’s beauty, so choosing particular aspects of faith to study helps to make sense of the bigger picture.

The best starting place?

The life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus. As set out in the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we are introduced to the best self-revelation of God.

As Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14 v9)

Start here: GO.

Now we wait… Look, See, Pray

It is all over, they think. The Romans, who are VERY good at killing. And the religious authorities- they found their traitor, rigged a trial, and persuaded Governor Pilate to do their dirty work.

Those in the crowds believed it is a “fait accompli”– some with sadness, others with patriotic pride. Rabbi Jesus is past tense.

Scattered to the four winds to hide, most of his special friends and followers are grieved, despairing that the cryptic words Jesus had spoken now have a HUGE cross-shaped full stop ending the sentence. Even the ones who actually buried Jesus were thinking of doing a “proper” anointing of the corpse after the Sabbath. A final farewell, instead of the rushed job of the Friday evening.

Now we wait.

Today WE wait in impatient expectation, ‘cos WE have read the ending of the Gospels. THEY wait in grief (or satisfaction) for the world to be “normal” again.

Perhaps Lazarus, raised from death by Jesus, had a tiny seed of hope? Perhaps also fearing the mob will come for him too…

We have no clue what the Hosts of Heaven thought or knew. Had they seen the plan? Do angels wait with bated breath?

Saturday will be weird as we wait.

And about 2,000 years forward from THEIR day of sorrows, a bright preacher is saying “It’s Friday- but Sunday’s coming!”

It is Written- Look, See, Pray

Before computers, typewriters. Before that, paper & pen; earlier still it was engraving stones or using papyrus. Humans love to write things down! An aid to memory, a splash of propaganda, and expression of the soul, a way to define facts and truth. Often, writing tells our stories, the values that we hold most dear.

We interpret things in Nature as “writing” or symbols or facts.

A crab leg left on the sand at low tide. Is your imagination at work? Relic left by a fisherman? The result of a crab squabble, or a seagull raid? Has our coastline been visited by seals, otters, sharks, or rays? A helpless remnant, pincers defiantly ready- but too weak or too late?

One hour later, and the inrushing tide will erase the story and the evidence. The crab leg will be gone, who knows where.

Now, if Jesus wrote stuff down, we’d want to know what He meant. But the only incident where Jesus wrote anything down was rather odd.

People trying to condemn Jesus as a breaker of the Law of Moses captured a woman engaged in a sexual relationship. Hoping to catch Jesus out, they demanded He tell them what to do with her… either Jesus would condemn her to be stoned to death (which would cause BIG trouble with the Romans who didn’t allow the Jews to kill their “sinners”) OR Jesus would be forgiving and therefore in breach of the letter of the Law (meaning He would be condemned as a denier of the Law).

Jesus said nothing. Then stooped to write something in the sand with His finger. AND WE DON’T KNOW WHAT HE WROTE! Aargh! How frustrating… Written in the sand, and blown away by the wind.

Then Jesus spoke. “Let the one without sin throw the first stone.”

Gradually the crowd disappeared- none of them was sinless. THEN Jesus said to her “I don’t condemn you- but change the way you live! Don’t do it again.” (Read the full story in John 8:1-11.)

Written in the sand, yet justice and mercy were lovingly engraved on that woman’s heart. And His words were ALSO written in letters of fire on the conscience of the crowd!

It is written. Pay heed to the Teacher lest we lose sight of Truth.

Light and Dark- Look, See, Pray

Two aspects of Light: the first photo is taken inside Linz Cathedral, showing the colours from the stained glass windows on the stone wall. It reminds the worshipper that God is Light, the Saviour who brings freedom and forgiveness. The cathedral is clean, peaceful, and beautiful.

Second: a memorial Cross made from the timber of the old barracks in Mauthausen Concentration Camp, a few miles up the road. What is left of the camp has been turned into a Memorial Centre which tells the stories of some of the 90,000 prisoners who died there. It is a place of grief and remorse- but the Christ who was crucified understands suffering. That cross belongs there.

So close together- a building designed for worship, and another building built for mass murder.

This is the human dilemma in a nutshell. We are capable of love- and also capable of immense cruelty. Some would prefer to have a faith without a Cross- others would like to cover up the evidence of brutality. Without these reminders, we could ignore the chilled conscience and say “I didn’t do it, I didn’t know, I’m not to blame.”

Jesus shines Light into the darkness, invites our response, and says “I have come to bring LIFE in all its fullness.” (John 10:10)

When we come to the Cross, we begin to walk in the Light.

Decisions! – Look, See, Pray

All the garden suppliers are sending their catalogues and special offers. It’s making me yearn for the glorious colours of summer! Shall I plant more gladioli? What about the older lavender bushes- time for a change? Is there room for another rose? Or two?

Decisions, decisions. And of course those marvellous offers involve spending money (no gardener ever has trouble doing that!!!) but some of them are offering enough quantities to fill Kew Gardens. If only they could see the restricted space available… where could I put 120 dahlias anyway? With the flowering cherry “designed for small gardens” which is tempting me? Or a dwarf crab apple, perhaps?

One decision is made. I would like a passion flower to climb along the rear fence. The old rambling rose already there only flowers for a couple of weeks- and I’d like more colour for longer.

Once the local water table drops a bit I’ll be “at it” tidying and designing… I’d say “watch this space” but there isn’t any yet.

If only I found it as easy to plan my spiritual growth! Questions like “how have I matured since last year” and “what about reducing that pile of books to read by READING some more” are very niggly. It is of course quite normal to have six or seven books on the go at once… isn’t it? Please say yes…

Jesus talked about us being part of the Vine and being fruitful. The process isn’t straightforward. Pruning gets mentioned… Gulp… And then Jesus says this:

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit- fruit that will last- and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”
(John 15 v12-17)

Writing with Light- Look, See, Pray

Enshrined in bronze… meet the Press. How astonished a Press photographer from the Fifties would be if they were given a modern camera. If that new camera were digital instead of film, I don’t think they’d believe it was real.

Old but beautifully machined; accurate shutters, decent lenses, lovely leather bellows for focussing. And that flash unit! Explosive combustion of glass bulbs- one blast of light which might singe your eyebrows. Then having taken a photo on light-sensitive plates or sheets of film, off to a lab for chemical processing and hard-won wizardry to produce expensive prints or glass slides.

Modern technology and engineering has changed the process of photography beyond measure.

Yet the goal is the same: to capture the “decisive moment” of an action or object, recording it for posterity. Photography aids our memories, records moments of history or newsworthy events; it preserves beauty and can tell a powerful story of life events and relationships.

OR the photographer may cut off the head or feet of the subject, blur or shake the image, or just take mind-numbingly boring pictures that no-one else wants to see! (Taking a photo of a statue of a paparazzi taking a photo, for example…)

Photo = light, graphy = writing… Writing with light. Isn’t it a shame that photography hadn’t been invented when God started “writing with Light” at the incarnation of Jesus, the Light of the world!

To see pictures of Mary & Joseph, scruffy shepherds, assorted Wise Men, and a sulky Herod? To record forever the angels who told of the Blessed Child, and then gathered the legions of Heaven to rejoice over Bethlehem… and, of course, the baby pictures of Jesus at birth, one day old, a week, a month. If only.

If Jerusalem had newspapers and a horde of reporters… has God missed a trick? If Jesus were born today, the news would be all round the globe as soon as the broadband was switched on!

But since the media frenzy has the attention span of a gnat, the story would be dumped by Tuesday. Instead, Almighty God sent a messenger with Good News and a promise. Luke 2:37 says “For no word from God will ever fail.”

Two thousand years later, the story is still current. “In the beginning was the Word… and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” is how John’s Gospel begins.

No photos- but a Living Word.

Justice! Look, See, Pray

Screwed to a tree, long enough ago for the bark to start covering it, this sign proudly states “Community Payback- Offenders working for the community.”

Hasn’t worked too well- some objectionable oicks have tried to vandalise the sign. At least they didn’t damage the tree any further.

“Oh if only there was some justice!

Someone to punish!

Bring back the stocks!

Let’s transport someone to Australia…” (or Rwanda?)

How quick the cry for justice. Especially when it affects “our” safe life. Someone ought to be made to pay for my stress and loss.

Now, fair do, society needs rules that can protect the innocent and punish-or-reform the offenders. At least this sign speaks of the offenders having to make good on their crime: and perhaps it helps the miscreants to reflect on choices and attitudes for the future.

But the heart of the human problem is…… the human heart.

Who or what can remake our hearts? Or teach us to take responsibility for our actions, and so learn to have compassion and respect for others?

Willpower can go so far. Self-help courses may work for some. Prison may allow us to feel safer because “they” are locked up. All these have some virtue. Yet I am more and more convinced that humans need an encounter with God if we are to “live right.”

Jesus faced a challenge when a crowd brought an adulterous woman “caught in the act” (Funny they didn’t bring the bloke as well. How’s that for a double standard.) You can read the whole story in John 8 v1-11.

Two statements by Jesus are worth reflecting on.

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” The accusers shamefacedly walked away.

So He said: “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Being eager for “justice” or vengeance is natural- as long as we are just. But where is the mercy or grace that can bring forgiveness and a fresh beginning? I only know One person who does that freely.

Love casts out fear. Light drives away darkness. Jesus gives Life.

Shame in Tears? Look, See, Pray

Overnight rain has passed, memories of the storm still rumbling through our senses, and leaving teardrops caught in the alchemilla leaves.

Sparkling like crystals, these tears are for the passing of summer. It was the first of a wave of storms heading our way- and weakened by the drought, trees have fallen and the leaves of the survivors have been persecuted to the point of giving up. Autumn will seem short this year.

Many of us work hard to conceal our struggles and try to “be brave” by bottling up our feelings. Yet tears are a safety valve; crying is a reflex to help us process strong emotion, grief, and pain.

Charles Dickens makes this point: “Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before–more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.” ― Great Expectations

We are improved by our tears! The apostle Paul made another point about the way our crying may help us let others know how much they are loved: “I wrote that letter in great anguish, with a troubled heart and many tears. I didn’t want to grieve you, but I wanted to let you know how much love I have for you.” – 2 Corinthians 2:4

Tears can even be a form of prayer. Having run out of words, having reached rock bottom, facing problems and sadness… what better way to express ourselves and communicate with God? There is even a verse in Psalms (Ps. 56 v8) that says the Lord “treasures” our tears as a keepsake of love.

Even Jesus wept at the passing of a friend. (John 11:35) After His tears came a miracle…

I wonder how the Lord values- and could use- OUR tears?