Is there anyone else?

•July 12, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Michael Portillo’s excellent BBC series Great British Railway Journeys, has, so far, one glaring omission in its choice of truly great rail journeys – well in my opinion anyway!  That is the Sheffield to Manchester line, through the Hope Valley.

It is a route that for many years was a regular route of ours, but the view from the window has not lost its sense of majesty for that.  The same view is also available from the car, but it’s not as easy to watch it!

I never fail to be moved by the mountains that always look like they have been lovingly sculpted by hand and a green cloth smoothed over them.  I personally find it hard to believe that anyone can look at that scenery and deny the hand of a creator – and a very good one at that!

Isaiah invites us to look around and see God:

Isaiah 44:6-8

6 The Lord, who rules and protects Israel,
the Lord Almighty, has this to say:

I am the first, the last, the only God;
there is no other god but me.
7 Could anyone else have done what I did?
Who could have predicted all that would happen
from the very beginning to the end of time?
8 Do not be afraid, my people!
You know that from ancient times until now
I have predicted all that would happen,
and you are my witnesses.
Is there any other god?
Is there some powerful god I never heard of

Isaiah invites us to look at everything God has done, in his world and in his people.  His times of care and provision, his love for the world – and comes to the conclusion –

How can there be any other God but me?

Of course, people have got in the way of what God has done.  We have been selfish and destructive.  We have stopped God’s care and got in the way of the things he wants to do.  We have undone some of his good work.

And yet we are invited to look around us, to reflect and consider.

Could anyone else have done all the good stuff?

And if the answer is no, then in God is our hope.  For he remains a powerful God.

Lord, as I look around

I see your hand everywhere.

I see your love,

your care,

your creating power.

And yet I also see

the places

where humanity has broken what you made,

or spoilt it,

or tried to stockpile it for ourselves.

But you are a great God,

the best,

the number 1.

Restore your earth we pray,

restore your people

to be your agents

of love and hope.

May we see you

in everyone

and everything.

Posted in God, hope
Tags:

Seeing the trees for the forest

•July 11, 2011 • Leave a Comment

On Saturday I found myself in Sherwood Pines, part of Sherwood Forest.  Mr Pamsperambulation had gone to try out his new bike – and I tried out the coffee.

I was awe-struck by the lines and lines of trees.

And yet, the forest is made up of individual trees, and that must not be overlooked by the vastness and awesomeness of the forest as a whole.

Our study group at church has just started thinking about Church Community.

We have been reminded again and again that though the church is one, it is made up of individuals, each with our own gifts, all very different, that we need to be allowed to share.

1 Corinthians 12

14Our bodies don’t have just one part. They have many parts. 15Suppose a foot says, “I’m not a hand, and so I’m not part of the body.” Wouldn’t the foot still belong to the body? 16Or suppose an ear says, “I’m not an eye, and so I’m not part of the body.” Wouldn’t the ear still belong to the body? 17If our bodies were only an eye, we couldn’t hear a thing. And if they were only an ear, we couldn’t smell a thing. 18But God has put all parts of our body together in the way that he decided is best.

So, let’s not miss the trees for focussing on the forest.

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

Sowing the seeds

•July 6, 2011 • 1 Comment

Planting seeds is a risky and sometimes surprising business.  You plant them, and yet you never know when or how they will come up.  Seeds grow very much dependent upon heat, water, quality of the soil, and the pecking of the birds.  We can do what we can to help the growing conditions, but unless you sow the seeds, they have no chance to grow at all.

Jesus tells us about a sower going out to sow.

Interestingly, although he tells us about the success or otherwise of the various places the seed lands, he doesn’t use that as a reason to sow very carefully, to choose what look like fertile places to plant, not even in his explanation.

Wondering whether the crop will grow or not is not an excuse not to sow seeds.  It may be a reason to take more careful care of the seeds we do sow, to tend them, keep adding to the soil, keep them free from weed and try to keep the birds from pecking – but not to stop sowing.

You never know what surprises you might get.

We have one poppy come up in our front garden – actually it looks like nearly everyone on our road has!  I didn’t plant it, I assume it was blown there by the wind.  I can’t even claim to have tended it lovingly and carefully, I didn’t notice it until it was flowering, but it is a beautiful and wonderful addition.  The sowing, even if done by the wind and rain, was not in vain.

Neither can we as the sowers dictate what the growth might look like.  I tentatively pulled up some of our carrots at the weekend to see if they had grown big enough.  This is what I found:

Carrots – but not as you know them!

They wouldn’t be accepted by any supermarket, the wouldn’t meet any directives for straightness, they may not even be seen as appropriate to serve – but strange-looking or not – they tasted great.  Their way of growth did not stop them being carrots all the same.

We are called to sow, not to dictate growth, style, place to grow, colour of the flower or anything else – just to sow the seeds.

So we should keep sowing, anywhere and everywhere, and who knows what will grow and where?  What surprises we might get?  And what will be produced?

Oh – and I think Jesus was talking about sowing his word, his ways, by what we do and say.

 

 

Posted in Jesus, Lectionary
Tags: , , , ,

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »