The Hen

•March 13, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Immediately I saw this one of Stanley Spencer’s paintings, I thought of these words of Jesus:

37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Your people have killed the prophets and have stoned the messengers who were sent to you. I have often wanted to gather your people, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you wouldn’t let me. (Matthew 23:37)

Jesus longs to gather the people as a hen gathers her chicks, and they won’t let him.

Here we have Jesus gathering the hen itself.

It looks as though with his body he has built a wall around them – a defence, a shelter, a safe place.  A couple of the chicks are happily exploring, safe in his protection.  One is trying out its wings, seeing if it can fly.  Such is the protection Jesus gives us.  It is not suffocating and stifling – but it would keep one of those foxes away!

There are other hens wandering the wilderness, but this one has chosen to stay within Jesus’ surrounding arms.

mother hen

I’ll go on to see what Stephen Cottrell has to say.

These thoughts are reflecting on Stanley Spencer’s painting The Hen (seen here).

This year for Lent, I am reading Christ in the Wilderness by Bishop Stephen Cottrell, published by SPCK, reflecting on Stanley Spencer’s paintings of that title.

I’m not necessarily going to blog every day on it, just when something leaps out at me – and they will be thoughts rather than full blog posts

Posted in bible, faith, God, Jesus, lent, Religion, theology
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Knowing What Matters

•March 13, 2013 • 1 Comment

We all have things in our lives we could and should celebrate.

The important thing is knowing which of those is important.

Philippians 3:4-14

4  Others may brag about themselves, but I have more reason to brag than anyone else. 5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old, and I am from the nation of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a true Hebrew. As a Pharisee, I strictly obeyed the Law of Moses. 6 And I was so eager that I even made trouble for the church. I did everything the Law demands in order to please God.

7 But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. 8 Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ 9 and to know that I belong to him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. 10 All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did, 11 so that somehow I also may be raised to life.

Running toward the Goal

12 I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize. 13 My friends, I don’t feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead. 14 I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done.

We might have a good pedigree or have achieved great things.  We may have lived life by the rules, and done what we felt was required of us.  Or not… But have we done the things that really matter?  We find our way to God, not by who we are, or what we’ve done, but simply by believing in Jesus.  He accepts us just as we are, there is no test, no criteria to meet, no right background to come from – believing in him is enough.

But that doesn’t mean we remain static.  There is still a race to be run.  What has gone before is of no consequence, it is where we are going now with God that matters.

Thank you Lord

that to you

where I have been,

what I have done,

and what I think of myself

do not matter.

What matters is running the race with you now.

So

I put my faith in you,

and ask you to take hold of me,

and we run towards the goal

together

Posted in bible, God, Jesus, Lectionary, lent, Religion, theology
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God Has Done Great Things

•March 12, 2013 • 3 Comments

It seems the wrong time of the year in the UK to be celebrating the harvest, but it is the time to be thinking about planting seeds, which inevitably leads to musing on what will grow from those seeds, how well they will do, and how delicious the produce will be – so why not celebrate it.  Even as the ground is once again covered in snow!  It’s never a wrong time to celebrate all the produce we enjoy.

05292011

And as we do that, we also celebrate all that God has done for us, and ask him to continue to bless us.

Psalm 126

(A song for worship.)

Celebrating the Harvest

126 It seemed like a dream
when the Lord brought us back
to the city of Zion.
2 We celebrated with laughter
and joyful songs.
In foreign nations it was said,
“The Lord has worked miracles
for his people.”
3 And so we celebrated
because the Lord had indeed
worked miracles for us.

4 Our Lord, we ask you to bless
our people again,
and let us be like streams
in the Southern Desert.
5 We cried as we went out
to plant our seeds.
Now let us celebrate
as we bring in the crops.
6 We cried on the way
to plant our seeds,
but we will celebrate and shout
as we bring in the crops.

Posted in bible, God, Lectionary, lent, Religion, theology
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