Christmas creed

A Christmas Creed

I believe in Jesus Christ and in the beauty of the gospel begun in Bethlehem.

I believe in the one whose spirit glorified a little town: and whose spirit still brings music to people all over the world, in towns large and small.

I believe in the one for whom the crowded inn could find no room, and I confess that me heart still has insufficient room for all that He wants to do in my life today.

I believe in the one who the rulers of the earth ignored and the proud could never understand; whose life was among commoners, whose welcome came from the people of hungry hearts.

I beleive in the one who proclaimed the love of God to be invincible.

I believe in the one whose cradle was a mother’s arms, whose modest home in Nazareth had love for its only wealth, who looked at people and made them see what God’s love saw in them, who by love brought sinners back to purity, and lifted human weakness to meet the strength of God.

I confess my ever-lasting need of God: the need of forgiveness for our selfishness and greed, the need of new life for empty souls, the need of love for hearts grown cold.

I believe in God who gives the best of himself.

I believe in Jesus, the son of the living God, born in Bethlehem for me and for the world.

Amen

Said together in our church this Christmas.

Currently listening to Kate Rusby: Who Knows Where the Time Goes

Prisoner of hope

‘The categories of optimism and pessimism don’t exist for me because I am a prisoner of hope’ Cornel West (who might or might not have been commenting on the American political process). Being imprisoned by hope isn’t a bad way to start the new year. It also helped to finish the year in looking at the Magnificat, and Mary being imprisoned by hope of a bigger story.

Mary’s Song

And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.”

Luke 1
We said the Magnificat most days of the week in college chapel and it’s one of the first things I remember remembering as someone new to the stuff of Christian hope.

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Now playing: Findlay Brown – Come Home
via FoxyTunes

Tanssitossut

One of the posts I first wrote which wandered off the digital highway on its own was about the Pope’s liturgical shoes which looked like this:

But these are better for any dance, liturgical or otherwise. Tanssitossut or dancing shoes for the very small or very large to dance together:

Sala Shop

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Now playing: Madeleine Peyroux – You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
via FoxyTunes

Lent words and actions

Our Sunday gathering does liturgy lite, and Lent doesn’t feature much on our community radar. So it’s good to be reminded from time to time of seasons and why they’re helpful. The current season is brilliantly summed up in the Eucharistic preface for Lent:

in these forty days

you lead us into the desert of repentence

that through a pilgrimage of prayer and discipline

we may grow in grace

and learn to be your people again.

Through fasting prayer and acts of service

you bring us back to your generous heart.

Through the study of your holy word

you open our eyes to your presence in the world

and free our hands to welcome others

into the radiant splendour of your love.

Big cheer to Big Bulky Anglican

The Eucharistic words balance belief and doing, giving up and geting going, orthodoxy and orthopraxy, right thoughts and right actions . The mighty Ship of Fools has 40 Lent ideas to act on. Today’s, (31st of Lent) is for random acts of kindness.

Beatitude 1

Blessed are the poor, not the penniless,

but those whose hearts are free.

Blessed are those who mourn, not those who whimper

but those who raise their voices.

Blessed are the meek, not the soft,

but those who are patient and tolerant.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, not those who whine

but those who struggle.

Blessed are the merciful, not those who forget,

but those who forgive.

Blessed are the pure in heart, not those who act like angels,

but those whose lives are transparent.

Blessed are the peacemakers, not those who shun conflict,

but those who face it squarely.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for justice,

not because they suffer

but because they love.

Matthew 5

Alternative beatitudes from churches in Santiago, Chile

Until God’s realm comes

I used this (slightly amended from the original) at the end of the service last week.

maybe in this there has been a glimpse of the kingdom
a foretaste
a hint
a promise
let it hold us and let it send us
so we will not be completely at rest
until all are fed
until all know home
until all are free
until justice is done
until peace is the way
until grace is the custom
until love is the rule
until God’s realm comes
until God’s realm comes
until God’s realm comes…

Amen.

Cheers to hold this space

Prayer – Finisterre

Prayer
Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer -
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

Carol Ann Duffy

(From Mean Time)

This is both prayerful and liturgical. It’s hanging on to something familiar and snatching the wisp of blessing as it passes – a prayer that utters itself. The roll of the Shipping Forecast sounds prayerful – and like the best liturgy summons those things we need to keep remembering. It honours ‘Those that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters’ (Psalm 107).

Like liturgy it works best when heard and spoken (on Radio 4 at 12.01, 17.54 and at 00.48 or 5.36). The late night and early morning readings are the kinds of times you’re awake too long worrying or awake too early fretting. The kinds of times when it might feel like the ends of the earth.

And oddly enough, Duffy’s last word of prayer, Finisterre – finis terrae -literally the end of the earth – is where we end up in prayer. At the end of our known world.
The full liturgy of the daily Shipping Forecast is at the Met Office. The map doesn’t show Finisterre, which was once between Biscay and Sole. It was replaced in 2002 by Fitzroy.