Don’t Be Frightened

•April 15, 2015 • Leave a Comment

What has happened?
What is happening?
So many strange rumours,
appearances,
feelings
all swirling round
inside me.

I don’t know what is happening
any more.

And then he’s here.
Or is he?

Is it Jesus,
our friend,
our Lord?
Or a vision?
Wishful thinking?
One of those things
when you feel someone who has died
is there next to you,
only to realise
of course,
they are not.

This is all playing with my emotions,
messing with my head.
Why did I get mixed up in this?

~~~

But wait,
he’s speaking –
that familiar, gentle, affirming voice.

He’s inviting me to look,
to touch,
to feel,
to know.
To no longer wonder,
but to be sure,
to experience Jesus
as he is now.

He is not dead,
he is alive.

This is what it’s all been about.

This is God,
love,
life,
presence.
And he stands here
in my life
now.

Luke 24:36-48 (CEV)

What Jesus’ Followers Must Do

36 While Jesus’ disciples were talking about what had happened, Jesus appeared and greeted them. 37 They were frightened and terrified because they thought they were seeing a ghost.

38 But Jesus said, “Why are you so frightened? Why do you doubt? 39 Look at my hands and my feet and see who I am! Touch me and find out for yourselves. Ghosts don’t have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

40 After Jesus said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 The disciples were so glad and amazed that they could not believe it. Jesus then asked them, “Do you have something to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of baked fish. 43 He took it and ate it as they watched.

44 Jesus said to them, “While I was still with you, I told you that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Books of the Prophets, and in the Psalms[a] had to happen.”

45 Then he helped them understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them:

The Scriptures say that the Messiah must suffer, then three days later he will rise from death. 47 They also say that all people of every nation must be told in my name to turn to God, in order to be forgiven. So beginning in Jerusalem, 48 you must tell everything that has happened.

Posted in bible, Easter, faith, God, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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Reach Out and Touch Faith

•April 10, 2015 • 2 Comments

I just can’t grasp it.

You tell me he’s alive,
that you’ve seen him,
but that’s not working
for me.

I saw him die,
I know he’s dead.
Your experience says different,
but I’m just not getting it.

I need to know,
I need to see,
to touch
and be touched.

I know that makes me weak,
my faith dependent on seeing
not believing,
but that’s what I need.

~~~

Oh how you know me Lord,
you know what I need
and you supply.

You allow me to see,
to touch,
to know.

How I wish I had the faith
to just believe,
but now
in reaching out
and touching
I know.

I believe.

You are alive

and you come to me in my need.

You invite me to reach out
to you.

I come now.

Thank you Lord,
for your presence,
your risen presence.

Thank you for not
writing me off,
but coming to me.

Thank you
that you are there,
whether I feel
I can reach you
or not,
ever present,
in my life,
in your world.

John 20:19-31 (CEV)

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

19 The disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, and on the evening of that same Sunday they locked themselves in a room. Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the middle of the group. He greeted them 20 and showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they became very happy.

21 After Jesus had greeted them again, he said, “I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they will be forgiven. But if you don’t forgive their sins, they will not be forgiven.”

Jesus and Thomas

24 Although Thomas the Twin was one of the twelve disciples, he wasn’t with the others when Jesus appeared to them. 25 So they told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But Thomas said, “First, I must see the nail scars in his hands and touch them with my finger. I must put my hand where the spear went into his side. I won’t believe unless I do this!”

26 A week later the disciples were together again. This time, Thomas was with them. Jesus came in while the doors were still locked and stood in the middle of the group. He greeted his disciples 27 and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands! Put your hand into my side. Stop doubting and have faith!”

28 Thomas replied, “You are my Lord and my God!”

29 Jesus said, “Thomas, do you have faith because you have seen me? The people who have faith in me without seeing me are the ones who are really blessed!”

Why John Wrote His Book

30 Jesus worked many other miracles for his disciples, and not all of them are written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you will put your faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. If you have faith in him, you will have true life.

Posted in bible, Easter, faith, God, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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Love Your Neighbour #GE2015

•April 9, 2015 • Leave a Comment

I am the archetypal floating voter.  Child of the sixties who has seen it all, well a lot of it.  Knowing that promises made in elections are soon broken; having lived the good and bad of many a government; lived in different parts of the country where different parties had the majority; having the privilege of getting to know some politicians and what they actually stand for.  I have, in my time, voted for many different parties, because I believe in people and communities.

I believe passionately in voting.  People suffered so that I could have the vote, and ultimately if I don’t vote I have no right to complain and no opportunity to change things.

Which brings me to this years General Election, but the same applies also to local elections, and the dilemma of how to vote.

I find myself living with the despair that a coalition didn’t bring a more measured and balance government, unlike my hope.  I find myself living day by day with the repercussions of one of this governments policies.  I am fed up of hearing ‘they will do this’, whilst never actually hearing what you are going to do – or how you are going to make your fanciful ideas work.

So the question remains, how to vote.

I’m not going to make any pontifications about that.  But I am grateful to the Joint Public Issues Team for their strapline and logo, which at the end of the day is the only thing that makes any sense – and what we will all have to answer to.

I am called to love my neighbour – as much at the ballot box as anywhere else.  My responsibility is to vote, not for my favourite, the one best before the cameras, the one with the sound-bites, or the party that will make my life better (or say they will) – but for the ones who truly work for the love of neighbour.

Now, if the politicians could just stop one upmanship and scaremongering and actually tell us what THEY are going to do, that would really help.

Oh and if you’re not registered to vote – do it, and if you are use it – for the love of your neighbour. Please.

Posted in community, faith, hope, justice, life, love, Rants and Ramblings, theology
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