This post is another one of Fr. Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations. In this one he talks about living with faith, with trust and surrender, in the kingdom of God being something we’re beginning to experience now, not sometime in the distant future.

How do we live in faith now?

More than any other theme, Jesus taught the presence and availability of the Reign or “Kingdom” of God. All scholars seem to agree on this. He dared to say that you can live this full reality right now. Now that’s so extraordinary and counter intuitive, that most organized religion pushed the kingdom into the future and made it co-terminus with “heaven.” That is exactly what he is not saying! He is always saying it is indeed now, although not fully now (Luke 17:21, Matthew 4:17). Our only assurance for later is that we have begun to touch and taste it now. This is the peace and serenity of the saints, even under trial.

The word for living in this way, living in the in-between with trust and surrender, is called faith. Forget for the moment about believing in the Immaculate Conception, the role of the Papacy, any Atonement theory, or Biblical inerrancy. Those might be fine, but they’re not what Jesus is talking about.

Jesus is talking about the grace and the freedom to live God’s dream for the world now—while not rejecting the wounded world as it is. That’s a tension that is not easily resolved. It is the lovely, intimate, and spacious place that Jesus invites Thomas into when he tells Thomas to physically “touch” him in the very place of the wounds (John 20:27).

Adapted from Jesus’ Plan for a New World

Mantra:
Where there is doubt,
may I bring faith.

Oh, how easily I find myself thinking of the kingdom of God as something for the future, forgetting the biblical teaching of Jesus that is so readily accessible to me. Oh, how easily I find myself thinking of the kingdom of God as something for the future, and yet pray, at least once a day, and usually more, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven”. Those familiar words from the Lord’s Prayer, aren’t talking about a future event, but something for now.

I’m tempted to want to change the mantra slightly, so that it reads, “Where there is doubt, may I experience faith”. It seems to me that I have some thinking and praying to do about this.

The email this came from was one of Fr. Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations. If you would like to subscribe too, and I can recommend them, the website is here: The Center for Action and Contemplation. It won’t cost you anything.

Is there someone who has done you a wrong, in some way, and whom you just can’t forgive? Have you, yourself, done things that you can’t forgive? In this post from Lou Tice at the Winners Circle, he talks about the personal importance of forgiveness.

The Value of Forgiveness

Many people throughout the ages have spoken of the virtues of forgiveness. Today, I want to add my voice to theirs, and perhaps a special twist.

Against whom are you carrying a grudge? Is there someone who has done you a wrong, in some way, and whom you just can’t forgive? Have you, yourself, done things that you can’t forgive? Today I hope to impress upon you the incredible damage you can do to yourself, if you don’t let go of these hurts. You must learn to forgive and forget.

Confucius said that, “To be wronged is nothing unless you remember it.” He was absolutely right, and here’s why. Every time you remember something bad that happens to you, some wrong that was done to you, you feel those bad feelings all over again. You record the event in the neuron structure of your brain, and it plants itself in your subconscious.

Now your subconscious doesn’t know the difference between a vividly imagined or remembered event and the real thing. It is all “real” to your subconscious. When you subject yourself over and over again to painful, angry memories, eventually your system begins to break down. The poison of the not forgiven hurt and anger attacks you from the inside out.

12-step programs emphasize the importance of forgiveness, because they recognize that forgiveness is the key to action and freedom. Jesus forgave those who crucified him while he was still on the cross. When you forgive, you open yourself to wonderful new possibilities. Why not begin today? I know you can.

Lou Tice
The Pacific Institute

As Christians we’re taught to forgive others freely. It is an essential part of our faith. But it isn’t always easy to genuinely forgive those who have wronged us; and, in my experience, probably harder still to forgive ourself when we have done wrong. In this post, Lou Tice looks at things from a different angle, and talks about the harm we can do to ourselves by withholding forgiveness.

I think this is an important aspect of forgiveness. We can do ourselves a great deal of harm by withholding forgiveness from others as well as from ourselves. Our Lord put it at the centre of our faith for a reason.

Another great post from Lou Tice at the Winners Circle. His posts are always a great help, and encourage me to think differently about things: If you think you might be helped by reading many more of them, do please consider subscribing for the daily emails yourself.

When I think of phrases such as this one, “deepen our faithfulness to you”, from the Collect for The Second Sunday after Trinity, my thoughts are often drawn to another remembered phrase, “I believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

Jesus’ disciples had tried unsuccessfully to heal a boy with a spirit that put him in harms way and prevented him speaking. When the boys father spoke to Jesus he was told that, “All things can be done for the one who believes”. To which the father immediately responded with, “I believe, help my unbelief!”

I can almost imagine the disciples responding in a similar way when Jesus tells them later, after they asked him why they couldn’t cast the spirit out, “This kind can come out only through prayer.” (Read the full account in Mark 9:14-29.) It would seem safe to assume that prayer was always a part of what happened during the healing process; so perhaps Jesus was hinting about a specially focussed kind of prayer requiring even more spiritual effort. This incident happened soon after the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-13), following it immediately in Mark’s Gospel. Perhaps we’re to assume that Jesus’ time on the mountain was, for him, a time of particularly intense prayer, giving him on his return especially heightened power.

It looks to me though, that there was a quite a lot of belief being shown on that particular day. The boys father believed enough in all that he’d heard about the events surrounding this charismatic figure of Jesus to bring his ill son to him. He believed in Jesus’ friends enough to let them try to heal his son when he found them before finding Jesus himself. The disciples believed enough to try. All of this would have shown already a tremendous amount of faith. But it appears, not quite enough.

A couple of thoughts come to mind:

1. We frequently imagine that a person’s early years as a Christian pilgrim are the hardest, and that as we mature and grow in faith things become easier. But the opposite often turns out to be true. Just as we’re learning to walk alongside Jesus, we’re given harder tasks, which demand more courage and more spiritual energy.
2. I can remember the pain I felt when, a few years ago, some well-meaning friends told me that I wasn’t healed from my particular health issues because I didn’t believe enough. They equated “healing” with “cure”, which I think is wrong. I think healing can, and does, sometimes mean cure; but that isn’t always the case. Healing is more about learning to be at peace with yourself and accepting things as they are. In that sense I believe I have received a lot of healing, though recent events have shown I still have a way to go.

We will experience challenges to our faith and beliefs as we continue on our own journeys of faith. But we can grow through those challenges. When they do come our way, let us join in prayer with the father in this story, “I believe, help my unbelief!” Let us pray that our faith in God, and his Son Jesus Christ, will be deepened and encouraged to grow. And then let us take the next step on our own pilgrimages of faith.

Faithful Creator,
whose mercy never fails:
deepen our faithfulness to you
and to your living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Second Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

When I’m feeling particularly self-righteous and holier-than-thou, I sometimes think to myself that, had I been with Jesus before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-42), when the disciples were asked to keep watch whilst he prayed, I would not have fallen asleep as they did. But when I find myself thinking that way, I have to stop and give myself something of a reality check. Those that Jesus asked to keep awake and watchful were far better people than I could ever aspire to be.

Peter, James and John had walked the earth with Jesus, lived their lives in close proximity to him. And they’d left their former lives to be with Jesus. I always imagine that Jesus was an incredibly charismatic person, and those who were with him as he walked the earth would have been utterly devoted to him. And, yet, when he asked them to stay awake and watch, they fell asleep. If people who had experienced the sort of relationship with Jesus as they had could fall asleep in his hour of need, what chance would I have? I’d have probably slept through all of the traumatic events to come as well.

So, if, in reality, I would most likely fail on that part of the prayer, and fall asleep while watching through the night of suffering, I can only hope and pray for more success with the final part of the prayer — and be faithful. I know I’m not always totally successful at remaining faithful, but I do try very hard. Sometimes being faithful can cost us in various ways, but those costs seem so small compared to the price Jesus willingly paid for each and every one of us. I hope and pray, when it’s asked of me, that I will be able to remain faithful to Jesus, even when I fail to stay awake and watchful.

God our Father,
your Son Jesus Christ was obedient to the end
and drank the cup prepared for him:
may we who share his table
watch with him through the night of suffering
and be faithful.

Additional Collect for Maundy Thursday
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

Faith is an amazing gift from God. When the Candidates are Presented in the Common Worship Baptism service, we’re reminded by the president, as they address the whole congregation, that, “Faith is the gift of God to his people.”

We need the gift of faith to be able to know and appreciate God’s gift of love to each of us. It has to be said, though, that us having faith in God doesn’t cause him to love us; he loves us whatever we believe. There is nothing in heaven or on earth that can separate us from God’s love: as St Paul says, “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:38-39). But without faith, we wouldn’t be able to truly experience God’s love for ourselves. It would be odd to say, “I don’t really have faith in, believe in, your existence, but nevertheless, it’s good that you love me” — odd indeed, and probably somewhat ridiculous.

God loves each and every one of us; as much, and more, as if we were each the only one too love. God loves each and every one of us so much that he was willing to sacrifice himself on a cross for us, to die a hideous death, for us, each one of us — you, me, our families, friends and neighbours, even people we don’t like very much (yes, he died for them too).

But without faith, we couldn’t experience God’s love. With faith, we can truly know his love, experience it, appreciate it, and share it. With faith, we can begin to love God too. And our love for God, tiny as it is in comparison to his love for us, will greatly magnify how we know and experience God’s love for us.

With that faith, and that love, we can be beside our Saviour Jesus Christ on the way of the cross, today, on this Palm Sunday, and on into Holy Week. We need not be afraid.

True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.

Additional Collect for Palm Sunday
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

This dropped into my inbox this week; and I thought it was a quite wonderful story, though story it probably is. It reminds us that we can never really be lost if we stay close to God.

Isn’t that the trust God looks for in us? Even when darkness closes in around us, if we remain close to him we can never be lost.

I hope and pray that my faith and trust in God will be as strong as that little boy’s faith and trust in his grandfather.

Jesus’ baptism marks for him much the same as baptism does for anyone. It marks a new stage in life, a beginning — a launching into a new life and ministry. That’s what all baptism’s signify, mine, yours, and yes, Jesus’ too. When Jesus went into the water he was an unknown carpenters son. When he came out of the water, he was a man with a mission, a mission to save the world.

In many ways, this Collect for The Baptism of Christ encapsulates many of the essentials of what we believe the Christian faith is all about. Jesus is shown to be God’s Son; we recognize him as our Lord; and because of that we can know that we are loved as children of God.

I don’t actually remember my own baptism, I was only four months old at the time, so no surprise there. But it did mark the beginning of my public Christian journey, just as Jesus’ baptism did for him. However, my journey into a recognized public ministry came many years after my baptism, many years after my confirmation when I was thirteen years old even.

One thing that is different for me than for many Christian ministers, though, is that my church-based ministry doesn’t take place many miles away from where my baptism happened. For I was baptised, and confirmed, in Godmanchester Church, the same Church as, half a century later, I’m a Licensed Lay Minister (Reader) — it’s the only Church I’ve worshipped at regularly throughout my life.

In many ways, because of that lifetime connection with a single Church, I feel as though I am a child of that Church. There are people in the congregation who were there before me, who remember me as a baby, remember me as a rebellious teenager, missed me when I left the Church, and welcomed me back with open arms when I returned.

I’m very fortunate. I know myself as a beloved child of God through my faith in his Son Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour. But I also know myself as a beloved child of the Church that I love, too. And that means a lot, because, for me, the Church is an important part of my faith.

Heavenly Father,
at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognize him as our Lord
and know ourselves to be your beloved children;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Additional Collect for The Baptism of Christ
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

You call us to fullness of life

In today’s Collect, for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, we’re reminded that we are called to fullness of life. But what is it, what is the “fullness” we are all promised in this Collect and in the words of Jesus, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10)?

It’s a gift of God. It’s the love of God revealed in Christ (John 3.16). It’s the call of Christ to be his disciples (John 1.35ff).

Fullness of life enables us to live as one of the flock of the good shepherd, Jesus Christ. Contrary to the popular way of thinking, fullness of life isn’t the increasing accumulation of rights, freedoms, joys, resources, and opportunities, although it’s true that it may lead to some of these. Fullness of life isn’t an add-on operation.

Fullness of life is rather an invitation to faith in the midst of, and in spite of, death and limitation. It is a confession of our sins, but it’s mainly the confession of our faith, which leads us to believe in the One, “who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead; on the third day he rose again…” (from the Apostles Creed).

Fullness of life is in Christ and through Christ and “from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1.16). It’s Christ’s coming to us that allows us to work towards a better life for everyone. With his fullness we’re empowered to give breath to the exhausted. With his fullness we’re able to be in communion with each other. With his fullness we’re given the spirit of celebrating life, despite all threats and forms of death.

With Christ’s fullness we can look for new ways of working together, both locally and globally, while accepting our differences in a spirit of faith, love and, honesty. Our unity is found in Christ Jesus, who is our peace and has broken down the dividing wall, and the hostility, between us.

With Christ’s fullness our anxieties can be banished. And we can revel in the liberating love that is Jesus Christ our Lord.

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council

The Surgeon

Here is another one of those tales that may or may not be true, and probably doesn’t matter either way. I don’t think I can even begin to imagine what it must be like for doctors when there’s nothing more they can do to help a patient, especially when that patient is a child.

Test of Faith

This is supposedly a true story told by one of the first missionaries to enter Russia. It asks us a very difficult question concerning how strongly we hold our faith.

Would you pass? Would I?

Could you pass such a test of your faith? I know I’d like to think I could, but if push came to shove, I’m not sure how I would react.