Aftermath of War

It was seventy years ago this May
The "instruments of surrender" signed,
The noise of battle ceased,
Everyone rejoiced!
Well, most people...

There were families who would not see
Their fathers,
     their brothers,
         their sons:
For many, it would be weeks, even months,
before they were demobbed,
before they'd see their loved ones again.

Others would not return at all.

Of those returning,
many wounded,
faced with blindness,
or without limbs they'd taken for granted.
Having to learn the basic things again,

Those unseen wounds
Shell shock as it was known:
It's easier to sympathise when you can SEE what's wrong.
Many sang their triumphal Song
Some felt under fire,
reliving over and over,
the battle,
      the bullets,
             the blood.

The Prime Minister said
"We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing."
True —The enemy of freedom vanquished
But Europe, indeed Great Britain itself,
was tattered and torn,
And whole lot of building going on.

Rationing didn't suddenly end.
They knew they had to make do and mend.

It was the time to rebuild:
Buildings, bomb,
       Lives, broken
                Relationships, paused

And build, they did
And industry moved
from machinery of massacre
To factories and farms.
And things were beginning to look up,
improve.

Rationing ceased,
and in their relative comfort,
people forgot
what they'd been through,
Well most people. 

©J Fairlamb 2015

An audience with Jesus

On the night He was betrayed, Jesus shared a meal with His friends. It was no ordinary meal because it was Pesach — Passover — the night commemorated yearly when Jewish people remember...

Remember? None of them were there?

No they weren't, but they do remember, in the same way that we remember World War I and II and those who died, on Armistice Day, even though we were born many years after the wars ended.

Jews remember that God saved their nation from slavery in Egypt. How do they do this? By having a special meal and a special home service called a Seder.

It is remembrance,  with celebration.

Each part of the meal has special meaning: a roasted egg, bitter herbs, a shank bone (lamb), parsley dipped in salt water... All pointing back to aspects of the story — relating to how God rescued His people.

The unleavened bread (matzo) , the wine. The wine and bread.

This Passover was different: Jesus did not follow the script — the prescribed word order laid down by tradition from time immemorial.

Jesus said it differently, but then again He was not only talking about the Exodus out of Egypt.

He took the bread and broke it and blessed it. He said: This is my Body, broken for you. Take it; eat it and do it in REMEMBRANCE of me.

A little later, He changed the words again. He picked up the cup of wine and said a prayer of thanksgiving for it and then He said, as He passed the cup to His disciples, This cup is the blood of the New Covenant. Take, drink, do this in REMEMBRANCE of me.

This meal, the bread and the wine took on for the followers of Jesus a new meaning. The traditional of sharing the New Passover, became the core of Christian worship.

It takes many forms and has different names and many different understanding of what Jesus meant.

This is my Body, broken for you.

This is the Blood of the New Covenant, given for the remission of sins.

Do this in REMEMBRANCE of me.

How do we remember Jesus?

How do we remember something we never personally witnessed?

What is the connection between us and the person or event we are remembering? Even though we were not yet born when WWI and WWII took place, there are connections. Our relatives and ancestors were there, and were directly affected. My grandfather was a soldier in World War I, and my grandmother was in the Land Army. My friend's father was on the beaches on D-Day, June 6th, 1944.

The Jews celebrate Passover because it is their people, their ancestors who God rescued from the bondage of Egypt.

As a Christian, why do we participate in this meal, this tradition of eating bread and drinking wine in remembrance of Jesus?

Remembrance is at the core. We reflect on who Jesus is and on what He has done for us.

Jesus gave us some clues in what he said. He spoke about His body being broken and His blood being spilled. He was speaking about His violent death that was imminent.

Betrayed by Judas Iscariot; ambushed in the Garden of Gethsemane; subjected to illegal trials, lied about; pushed; pulled; mocked; beaten; humiliated; condemned to be crucified.

In many Churches, they have a series of fourteen images depicting His journey from the moment He is condemned to the point that he is taken down off the Cross and put into  a tomb.  These are a useful aide memoire, to remember what He went through on that day.

But Jesus did not say "Remember what I did" but "in remembrance of me" so we need to remember WHO JESUS IS as well as what He did.

Jesus did not only die in that ignominious was, but having been placed in a tomb, which was sealed and guarded, on the morning of the third day, as was foretold, Jesus rose again. He was, and is still alive.

Remembering

We can remember in many ways:

• facts, things we learn at school, names, phone numbers, addresses, birthdays, anniversaries.
• events — Do you remember when...?

We also remember into the future, upcoming appointments, anticipating future events.

This meal is about future remembrance too, because we look look forward to Jesus coming back again.

When Jesus said Do this in REMEMBRANCE of me, He wasn't talking about a bittersweet nostalgia, but He wants us to call to mind,  not only the events, important and central as these events are to us as Christians, but the person, Jesus.

I've heard this tradition of having bread and wine called different things in different Churches. What is the correct title?

Yes, it has had different titles. As an Anglican, I prefer the name Holy Communion, or just Communion.

The words ends with, union, and I believe that Communion should unite us. It brings to mind words like community and communication.  Although every individual needs to make his or her own connection and have faith for themselves, Christianity is about community. When you're a Christian, it is no longer just about your own needs and wants. You become part of a family. The Bible speaks about us being adopted into a new family. When children are adopted, they don't only get new parents but new sisters, brothers, uncles, aunties too.

Passover is a family festival and everyone has a part to play — even the smallest child, so it follows that when we celebrate communion, it's a family occasion too.  No-one who is in God's family should be excluded* (If a person may pose a risk to others in Church, then it may be necessary for a period to serve that person separately, but the aim should never to be permanently exclude, )

Oblation — a very religious word. Highly likely you have not come across it before.  An oblation is something offered to God as a sacrifice.

Jews under the Old Covenant presented animals for sacrifice at the temple.  These were offered to cover people's sins. It's this system of sacrifices that forms the background of Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross for all our sins.  The words 'oblation' appears in the communion service in the Book of Common Prayer.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer upon the cross for our redemption, who made there (by His one oblation of Himself once offered) a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world; and did institute, and in His holy Gospel command us to continue a perpetual memory of that His precious death until His coming again.

I realise we don't call the meal "oblation" but it does help to remember that Jesus offered Himself. How else can we respond other than offer ourselves to Him.

We become His children,

we become His friends,

we become His disciples,

we become His servants.  

Another way that Communion is referred to is Mass. As Protestant, my knee-jerk reaction was to reject this term as the Roman Catholic "twist" on the Lord's Supper, and I believed that Mass meant "sacrifice" and that each time Mass is said they were sacrificing Jesus again — a concept I could not accept. Turns out, I was WRONG. Recently heard Bishop Peter Hill of Barking preach and he had a different explanation for that word. I looked it up, and the word comes from the Latin words that conclude the liturgy: Ite missa est. I found a website with these words for its URL.

www.itemissaest.org

It had its translation as its strapline: Go, you are sent forth. Followed by bible verse reference Matt. 28:19. That's the great commission — Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We seen then that not only is communion about our relationship with God and what Jesus Christ has done for us but it's also about our outreach: how we relate to those “out there”.

As I write this I am reading about the death of preacher, Robert Schuller. He has an interesting life story.

“He was driven by a missionary calling to reach people who had distanced themselves from traditional church going.”

Robert Schuller had his detractors within theological circles, and  people who were critical of what they perceived to be easy Gospel, but we see in this man, for all his faults, a zeal to see people brought to Christ. If you go to a variety of different churches you will see Communion done in many different ways. Obviously the basic elements are the same - the bread, the wine and the narrative that relates the events of that nights when Jesus told us to do it in remembrance of Him. But different churches will approach the whole thing in many different ways. This is, in my view a good thing. I really believe that every aspect of the way we do Church, including the Holy Communion, should be with a perspective on how passers by will get it - is it inclusive and welcoming? Jewish people have a firm tradition that says that even on holy feasts of Passover that they should always be willing to make a place at the table for the visitor or “outsider”. Many Jews believe that Elijah may visit them in the form of a stranger, and that they are to welcome him especially to their Passover Feast, which was not merely a religious observance in the synagogue, but meal in their homes. I realise that a Communion service is for many a “religious observance “ done in church buildings, but we must not forget the context in which the Holy Communion was established was a Passover feast in the upper room of a home. When We are at Church, we can be at home, and like the Jews welcome the stranger to participate in the feast, we should welcome the stranger, and invite them to share in our “feast”. Jews may be hoping that Elijah would visit them, but as Christians we know that whatever we do for the “least of these” we are doing for Jesus.

Eucharist - means Thanksgiving

Why do you participate in Communion? Is it religious tradition? Jesus says "Do this" so you do it? One hundred points for obedience but is that all there is to it?

Why do I take Holy Communion? It's not a chore, something done under duress, as a "means of grace", but for me, it's a joyous gratitude for the marvellous Salvation work of Jesus. Gratitude — thanksgiving — Eucharist.

eu = good; charis = grace.

Holy Communion, or Eucharist is entirely about God's good grace.

Some people believe that Holy Communion is a way of accessing God's grace. Like a key to a safety deposit box, but I don't believe that is biblically sustainable. Holy Communion is not a means of grace, it IS grace. It illustrates or exemplifies in the pictures of the bread and the wine, the Salvation work of God. So as we take the bread and the wine, we remind ourselves and one another, that we are part of God's family, because Jesus died for and instead of us, and He still lives.  We have this not because we deserve it, we don't, but for no other reason than His amazing unconditional love.

Those four words together:

• Communion
• Oblation
• Mass — mission 
• Eucharist

COME

"Come to me, all who Labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt 11:28

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat

Why spend money on what is not bread and your labour on what does not satisfy.

Listen,listen to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

Give ear and come to me. Hear me that your soul may live. Isaiah 55:1-3

Here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me . Revelation 3:20

A meditation on Psalm 51

A MEDITATION ON PSALM FIFTY ONE.

This week, I went with my friend , Gary, to a "More Worship" event at St. Luke's. The theme was Lent, and a big part of Lent is repentance and Psalm 51 which we read through.

As, you may know, this Lenten period, I have focused on Joy. Now Psalm 51 isn't a psalm that springs to mind when thinking about Joy, but Joy does feature.

So let's reflect on this. The psalm is David's prayer to God and it is a SONG. Do we sing when we pray, or do we keep the singing for church? I think God likes it when we sing to him. We don't only have to sing when we're happy and everything is going great. The psalmist tells us (probably in song) to sing a New Song to the Lord.

David comes as a broken man to God and he cries out for forgiveness, appealing to God's mercy and lovingkindness.

Blot out — The sins had been recorded. They could legally remain there for every. But David appeals to God to intervene and remove it completely. God did it for David, and He does that for us too. He does it legally as His Son, Jesus paid the penalty for all our sin.

Wash me — David was not just concerned with the legality in the ledger, but He wanted to be rid of sin's hold on him. How it affected him personally. David asks God to wash him completely.

I was asked to paint an old garage door. It had been painted before, but the paint was peeling off and the looked patchy. The paint work needed renewing. Before I could apply a new coat of paint, I needed to remove the old one. I will tell you that that took a long time. People made suggestions as to how to deal with it. Some suggested chemicals to eat away at it, one person even suggested I use a blow torch to burn it off (an idea I dismissed immediately as I am not convinced I could do it without burning the garage downb). I went at it with a scraper. It did the trick. Well God doesn't take the easy way out he goes to work on that "old paint" and he removed every spot — leaving us spotless. Then He paints on the righteousness, thick and even.

It interests me that David appeals to God to "Let me hear joy and celebration AGAIN" (verse 8) and "RESTORE to me the joy of my Salvation".

He does not ask God to restore salvation. Salvation is ours, and remains ours from the time of our conversion. But because of our humanity, we have times in our lives when we move away from God. This may be a few minutes or last for many years. The effect this distancing of ourselves from God has is that we lose that true JOY.

There are things that may lift your spirits and bring a smile to your face, but JOY that lasts is found in our relationship with God. Also, when we seek our joy in other places, we find that though it may have us smiling, the after-taste is revolting and leaves us in a worse state than we were before.

Two people, poverty stricken, sleeping rough, being moved on at in convenient times, being soaked through by pouring rain, and cold because of a blasting wind. One of the two is extremely grumpy, swearing under his breath at the person who gave him a sideways glance. The other, greets the person, and smiles? It turns out the grumpy one lost a fortune and was once well off. The more cheerful one, has never had much and was on the street longer. The fact that the first found comfort and joy in his money means that now that that is not there, leaves him more bitter.

When we found we have lost touch with God, we may feel drained of joy. We can ask God to restore that Joy, and renew our spirits.

One remaining thought. It is not that God wants to spoil our fun and "kill our joy" but quite the opposite. When we are in a right place with our Lord, we can experience joy as we've never known it before.

The bones that were crushed under the weight of our sin will sing for joy.

My Wilderness

Forty years I wandered!

I wondered "Who am I?"

Do I belong

Or am I a stranger

Looking on

I went through the waters 

Like of every other

Carried on the arms of my mother

I had the sense I didn't fit in

Because my heart was "infected by sin"

Unclean, unclean!

They had me call.

And live outside the camp

Heal me, heal me, make me whole

Rid me of this curse of difference!

Oh my God, why am I condemned?

When I found you and you found me.

I cleaned you up, out and in

I did not leave a speck of sin

There is no reason to feel condemned.

I was all alone in great despair

When I heard Him say to me

John, my child, why are you there?

Don't you know I set you free?

Who I set free, is free, indeed!

Autumn

This post was written in October 2012:

Thought I'd share it again. Please feel free to comment.

Autumn

An acorn falls to the ground,

By natural processes it becomes embedded beneath the soil.

It's Autumn and the yellow, red and brown foliage blankets the land,

Like an electric blanket, emitting its own heat,

11As they mulch the piece of earth that is the nursery bed for a great oak.

Rain moisten the soil and the dead leaves give off a heat of their own.

Winter comes,

Everything dies back.

The colours fade and the world becomes a monochrome, black, white or grey.

Animals hibernate.

The wind blows, it rains, it pours, then it snows.

ALL DEAD?- NO.

Underground, and too slowly for any eye to perceive,

The seed germinates and starts to grow.

Spring arrives, the sun rises earlier, and thaws the snow,

White covering gives way to green,

Shoots break through and greet the new day.

It's no longer a seed - it's a sapling.

Over time, it grows, and the stem becomes a trunk.

Thicker, more sturdy,

Ultimately it's a landmark,  providing shade.

............................................................................................................................................................

Today,  we had a time of CREATIVE PRAYER. Fred announced the theme. Autumn and a verse of Scripture that seemed unrelated, but most definitely fitted with that that theme: 2 Chronicles 7:14 I concentrated on the phrase in that verse, "My People" and reminded me of another verse that I went to look up, though I had the wrong book in mind, the right chapter and verse. I looked up Joel 2:23:

Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the Autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both Autumn and Spring rains, as before.

24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

25 I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten - the great locust and the young locust,  the other locusts and the locust swarm - my great army that I sent among you.

26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.

27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.

Hoses 2:23 which is what I was looking for in the first place, says:

I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one.' I will say to those called 'Not my people,' 'You are my people'; and they will say 'You are my God.'

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that  He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.

Insidious

Insidious

It's insidious, they say,

the way

it catches us unaware.

How do I prepare

to avoid

agreeing with the enemy of my soul?

It's insidious! The thing seems so right!

It might

be the very thing that brings me down.

What are the warning signs that

flag up

that things are not as they should be?

It's insidious! Just a bit of fun;

a joke,

I didn't realise it would hurt.

It's insidious! I knew it wasn't quite true —

The lie

I told to get out of a fix

Before I knew it, I'd told six.

It's insidious! He was bringing me down

With his criticism and comments.

I was tired

I snapped and ...

He was on the ground.

Temptation does not come

as a bolt out of the blue,

but rather

Like a silent serpent slithering stealthily,

Seeking the second it should strike.

Like a lioness, crouching in the long savannah grass,

Focused,

For that moment to pounce,

before her prey can get away.

Like a crocodile, lurking, looking like an innocent log in the shallows of the waterhole.

Beady eyes,

Watching for its chance to spring into action —

tail swinging,

teeth snapping

on that tasty morsel that stood innocently sipping on the shoreline.

—-------------------------------------------------

Thinking about this poem, I  realise that temptation doesn't come upon us, all-at-once, suddenly like the strike of a serpent, the pounce of a lioness, or the crunch of the crocodile. That's more like the moment when we've succumbed to the temptation and do what, in our better judgment, we would not have done.

Temptation is more like the moments before that strike, the crouching, the lurking.

The encouraging thing is that predators don't always catch their prey. Sometimes even when they catch the animal, it manages to escape and live to tell about it.

We may have been caught, lured into sin and seemingly defeated, but realising our predicament, we CAN escape, maybe wounded, but not destroyed. We can't do it ourselves, but if we call on Jesus, confess our sin, he will bring us out. It's called repentance, which means turning around.

Philomena

I wathced Philomena, the film based on Martin Sixsmith book.

If you haven't watched, I highly recommend it. Though prepare for an emotional roller-coaster.

For me the issue was that the nuns were effectively stealing these children away from single mothers and selling them to rich American Catholic families. They judged the women, or in some cases girls who became pregnant and treated them cruelly. They did not even give the mothers the chance to say good by to their children. They lied to get out of facing the consequences of their actions.

The Catholic Church and other churches too are facing a legal actions because of the child sex-abuse by clergy and many people seeking compensation. However, it strikes me that they also should be facing the consequences of this type of crime against unwed mothers and their children who were forcibly parted and who were deprived of the chances of reuniting. This should be called what it is - CHILD ABDUCTION.

You, reader, are hopefully not responsible for actions as extreme as those described in this film, but it strikes me, that at the root of these actions was the view that sex was sin, and so the nuns believed that what they were doing in the belief that it was justified by the supposed sinful actions of the "girls". One wrong is not corrected by the perpetration of another wrong, and in the grand scheme of things, I believe that what the nuns did in the name of Christ and the Church was FAR MORE SINFUL than the supposed sin of the "Philomenas" - even if they enjoyed the sex. I hear someone saying - one sin is as bad as another and they all make us unworthy of Salvation - to which I say - that is nonsense. Are you really saying that someone who steals a few items from a shop is as bad as a mass murderer?

My concern is that we feel justified in our assessment of the perceived wrong of others to justify our own actions - we perceive someone to be lazy and thus deserving of their desperate situation, and refuse to give them anything, even though we could afford to. We make assumptions about a person based on the way they dress, their accent, or some other peripheral issue and then judge them. Not long ago I saw an article in the Evening Standard about a man who due to undignosed bipolar disorder, was singing a Rihanna song out loud on a tube train. Other passengers though it was hilarious and without his permission recorded a video which they posted and which went viral on YouTube. Them man fortunately was subsequently diagnosed and is getting the help he needs, but that video was an embarrassment to him. I wonder how the original poster would have felt if the man had been so mortified (the word comes from the Latin mors - death) him that he commit suicide? Maybe the poser felt entitled since the man was in a public space, and in the apparent opinion of the poster, deserving of ridicule.

This morning in Church there was an interesting prayer of confession which really struck me - I'd like to share it with you. (Slightly modified)

Forgive me, God of healing and humility, when I use the power of the crowd (or any other leverage at my disposal) to isolate and demonise those who are different, vulnerable or unwell. 
May I never exclude where I can embrace, or hurt where I can help but follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Lord of all. Amen