Moot Homily with apologies to Buechner

Had the pleasure of visiting Moot in London last night and partaking in their service. Below is the homily.



Presence Moot Service Sun 10th December with much culled from the many and varied writings of Frederick buechner.

So hallowed and Gracious is the time - these lines from the first scene of Hamlet in a sense say it all. Marcellus is walking on the cold battlements of Elsinore speaking to his companions of the time of Jesus Birth - its a hallowed time he says - a holy time - a time in which life grows still like the surface of a river so that we can look down into it and see glimmering in its depths something precious , timeless , other. And also a gracious time - a time we cannot bring about it is a time that comes upon us as grace - as a free and unbidden gift from God as we celebrate his presence amongst us. At Christmas time it is hard for even the unbeliever not to believe in something. Peace on earth , goodwill to men ; a dream of innocence that is good to hold onto even if it is only a dream ; the mystery of being a child ; thepossibility of hope . Do you believe .........

Let us clebrate the presence of GOD this christmas time and also our community - our communion - our presence with and in each others lives ..... gathered as we are here in the least of the churches of westminster .


It is good to be present with you tonight. I’ve missed being here physically for these services but I feel that in a way I havent really left at all. It reminds me in a way of a story that Henry Nouwen told of how a former student came to visit him after a year apart . They sat on the floor facing each other catching up on what had been going in each others lives. After an hour or so they feel silent but neither felt uncomfortable and they sat just enjoying each others presence and a deep peace filled the empty space between them. Finally his friend said “When I look at you it is as if i am in the presence of Christ .” Nouwen replied “ It is the Christ in you who recognizes the Christ in me.” HIs friend then replied with what Nouwne said were the most healing words he had heard in many years ....From now on wherever you go or wherever I go , all the ground between us will be holy ground.” And when he left I knew that he had revealed to me what community really means.

And I agree - its how I feel about Moot - there is holy ground between us and always will be ...sometimes it feels closer like when Gareth and Philippa came for the weekend or when I can make it over here ...but I know that wherever I go now there are parts of me that have been shaped by Moot and the people here .... And the Holy ground between us - thats what community is all about ....whether its family or friends .. you can kiss them goodbye and out miles between you but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart , in your mind , in your soul because we dont just live in a world ...but a world lives in us.
And as with any homily from me at some point Mr Frederick Buechner will be involved and as usual he says it better than me.

"When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.
For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I'm feeling most ghost-like, it is your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist. When I'm feeling sad, it's my consolation. When I'm feeling happy, it's part of why I feel that way.
If you forget me, one of the ways I remember who I am will be gone. If you forget, part of who I am will be gone. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." the good thief said from his cross (Luke 23:42). There are perhaps no more human words in all of Scripture, no prayer we can pray so well. " Jesus Remember me


Remember me - thats why we are here ...thats why we are present .....in the presence of each other and of God. Look around you from the oldest to the youngest ...we are here to remember Jesus - what we are a part of tonight is the communion of saints........ someone will walk to the altar and break the bread and bless the wine ...the rest of us will sit here quietly waiting to get in on the act.....we all have a part to play and its not just us - If the prayerbook is to be believed - Angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, cherubim and seraphim surround us - if we could really see it , it would look like the fireworks exploding over the London Eye on new years eve, it would sound as beautiful as the aria from Mozarts marriage of figaro and yet be as wild as the Atlantic ocean in the midst of a winter storm - and we are part of all the company of heaven- thats everybody we have ever loved or lost ...including the ones we didnt know we loved until we lost them. Its people we know and people we have never heard off . It means everybody who ever did or at some unimaginable time in the future ever will - come together at something like this table in search of something like what is offered at it.

Whatever other reasons we have for coming here tonight to this table , if we come also to give each other our love and to give God our Love , then together with Gabriel and Micheal and Brendan the navigator and Godric and the civil servant and the social worker and teresa in her ecstacy - yes even St Patrick himself ......... with all of them and us in this room we are the communion of saints ..... look at each other - enjoy each others presence and lets try to live the cornerstone of our faith ..... Love God and Love your neighbour - on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets ......

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord

ADVENT TOO

Was writing a homily for a MOOT service and reading some Frederick Buechner. This is a papraphrase from a longer and beautifully written passage in his book ' The Faces of Jesus.' It seemed somehow appropriate to the time of year.

So hallowed and Gracious is the time - these lines from the first scene of Hamlet in a sense say it all. Marcellus is walking on the cold battlements of Elsinore speaking to his companions of the time of Jesus Birth - its a hallowed time he says - a holy time - a time in which life grows still like the surface of a river so that we can look down into it and see glimmering in its depths something precious , timeless , other. And also a gracious time - a time we cannot bring about. It is a time that comes upon us as grace - as a free and unbidden gift from God as we celebrate his presence amongst us. At Christmas time it is hard for even the unbeliever not to believe in something. Peace on earth , goodwill to men ; a dream of innocence that is good to hold onto even if it is only a dream ; the mystery of being a child ; thepossibility of hope .


Do you believe .........?

ADVENT

ITs that time of year again and from the National Gallery an advent calender for art lovers.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/collection/features/advent/default.htm

blessings

Atonement

This guy has been blowing my mind with a theology which seems to articulate a lot of what i've been feeling for a long time without properly being able to express it .

check out this on the atonement

http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng11.html

and may it rock your world[view]

blessings

The Holy Ground Between Us

I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.
Walt Whitman
US poet (1819 - 1892)

Have been musing about friendship since my recent north american sojourn and return home to live in Belfast. CS Lewis said that people need not so much to be taught as to be reminded. The last little while I’ve been reminded just how many amazing people I can call friend. Within a few weeks I reconnected with a lot of incredible people both in Canada and in Nashville. And honestly wondered what I’ve done to deserve to be part of their lives.

And yet the strangest thing is that those who I admire the most and have learnt from - people who have shaped my life and thinking - are perhaps the ones who need your friendship most . It is a scary and humbling thing and one I’m very thankful for. To the good people of Nashville you have my love and respect. There is holy ground between us and always will be. Thank you for continuing to live generously.

Back in Belfast realising how much our community needs each other is reassuring and makes me feel I am in the right place now. The right place to give and to recieve, to push the boundaries and break out of the old ways of thinking ....to listen to our lives and realise what incredible things they are.

I leave you with this from Papa John O’Donohue. May it lift your morning and rain upon your day.

Matins

I
Somewhere,out at the edges,the night
is turning and the waves of darkness
Begin to brighten the shore of dawn

The heavy dark falls back to earth
And the freed air goes wild with light,
The heart fills with fresh, bright breath
And thoughts stir to give birth to colour.

II
I arise to day

In the name of silence
Womb of the word,
In the name of stillness
Home of belonging,
In the name of the solitude
of the soul and the earth
I arise today

Blessed by all things
Wings of breath
delight of eyes,
wonder of whisper,
intimacy of touch,
eternity of soul,
urgency of thought,
miracle of health,
embrace of God

May I live this day

Compassionate of heart,
Gentle in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in Love .



Amen says me .......... blessings

Yay Yeats

I've always been a fan of the WB -Irelands greatest poet [in the english language] . My good friend Mister Tumnus ( http://mistertumnus.blogspot.com/ )reminded me of this poem recently on her blog and It resonates deeply within the foul rag and bone shop of my own heart . Enjoy




The Circus Animals' Desertion

I
I sought a theme and sought for it in vain,
I sought it daily for six weeks or so.
Maybe at last, being but a broken man,
I must be satisfied with my heart, although
Winter and summer till old age began
My circus animals were all on show,
Those stilted boys, that burnished chariot,
Lion and woman and the Lord knows what.

II
What can I but enumerate old themes,
First that sea-rider Oisin led by the nose
Through three enchanted islands, allegorical dreams,
Vain gaiety, vain battle, vain repose,
Themes of the embittered heart, or so it seems,
That might adorn old songs or courtly shows;
But what cared I that set him on to ride,
I, starved for the bosom of his faery bride.

And then a counter-truth filled out its play,
'The Countess Cathleen' was the name I gave it;
She, pity-crazed, had given her soul away,
But masterful Heaven had intervened to save it.
I thought my dear must her own soul destroy
So did fanaticism and hate enslave it,
And this brought forth a dream and soon enough
This dream itself had all my thought and love.

And when the Fool and Blind Man stole the bread
Cuchulain fought the ungovernable sea;
Heart-mysteries there, and yet when all is said
It was the dream itself enchanted me:
Character isolated by a deed
To engross the present and dominate memory.
Players and painted stage took all my love,
And not those things that they were emblems of.

III
Those masterful images because complete
Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder's gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.

The Power and The Glory [of Broadband]

I apologise for my absence. It was mainly due to a lack of internet access at home. That has now been remedied by the good people of NTL who have installed broadband in my humble home. Since my time in North America I have been musing much on the nature of friendship and one quote keeps popping up again and again.

I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.
Walt Whitman
US poet (1819 - 1892)

The last month has made me sure of that . I have to go to work now but the next post will develop that thought more .

Blessings.

The Eagles Are Coming

So screamed Bilbo at the end of the Hobbit during the battle of the Five Armies.

I'd never seen an eagle in my life before and then last week on Vancouver Island I saw 2 . Different days, different beaches, different sides fo the island but equally stunning. The second time the eagle circled round a few times before settling on a tree just behind us. The Elvish Princess and I stopped our picnic and looked in awe - it was so close we could hear the beating of his wings. If i was a poet I would write a verse but even now I just find myself filled with silent awe at the beauty. Luckily Gerard Manley Hopkins had a smiliar experience a century and a continent apart from mine but his words on seeing a falcon flying one morning are still beautiful and i offer them to you.

blessings


The Windhover
I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.

-- Gerard Manley Hopkins

O CANADA

Dont worry not all my posts will be this long - Just a little something i wrote on the ferry last week going from Vancouver to Vancouver Island.

Vancouver was amazing - a city of contrasts - sea and mountains and my favourite season. Crisp autumn mornings with a nip in the clear mountain air. Sitting drinking coffee and watching the seaplanes taking off from the harbour warmed my soul. Its a big city but didn't feel overwhelming and closed in like London - there was always a sense of space and from almost everywhere you can see the mountains or the sea. Clean and healthy feel , travelling on the electric buses - all human life is here ... it feels good and of course good banter with femininefeminist.

Meantime I’m feeling alive - there is a still a hint of the new world here,its spirit is still felt.The spirit of carving a new life out of the harsh but beautiful wilderness around. We are passing sailboats and forested islands ....there are seaplanes landing, fishing trawlers heading out to the Pacific - it feels real. It feels like life is meant to feel. There is a little clearing at the waters edge with a mini lighthouse , a square white 2 storey house and a fluttering flagpole on a lawn. As we get closer now other houses start to poke out from amongst the tree lined shore. A blast on the ships whistle scares those on the outer deck - a man in a green shirt uses his fingers as earplugs- and somehow looks pained and amused at the same time. We are in a narrow channel between 2 islands - swiss style chalets on one side and more modest abodes on the other.

Its a breathtakingly beautiful ferry ride ....this is the way we are meant to live - not in concrete choked cities which suck the life out of those within them. Am listening to the new Duke Special album - it feels like the best work he has ever done. Songs from the deep forest feels appropriate here as I look out on forested islands all around. It also feels alive and young like the country around me. Stunning - I dont love you - half as much as I should . I dont get those pop and idol shows - everybody knows that the good things take a little longer. Its true - I need to write a lot more - give it the time it deserves .

There is a pretty girl in a red and yellow checked coat sitting across the way reading Harry Potter. She wears her beauty like it was a burden and doesnt smile at those who catch her eye but looks away instead. I wish she could hear the Duke singing ...” the sun will rise once more , yes it better / the sun will rise once more if you let her.”

I do feel most at home near the water . I love Nashville and am posting this from there but I'm not sure I could ever live here. I love the restless everchanging sea. If i feel God anywhere its there - feeling my soul resonate with the creation and the creator.
"come on come on come on my soul - i dont wanna stand still - i just want to freewheel."

The river of life has many tributaries .....there are many turns along the way and many different possibilities. Many different scenarios one could fit into. Many different places one could have ended up - sometimes its enough to drive you mad ....... all those possibilities and the self doubt that you have made the wrong choice ... lived the wrong way ..... how to find peace within that ..well look at the sea and realise we end up in the right place in the end - some of us just have longer journeys.

till next time Blessings upon you .

Into the world of blog .... I am still not entirely comfortable with what Lawson so well described as this benevolent act of narcisism. I'm not convinced that my life or anyone elses, is interesting enough to share every day ....but some days ... yeah some days you smell the rain , breath in the sunshine and feel the Oran Mor - The rhythm of Life - and you have something to say. Or you have a need to write and there is a hope that out there somewhere what you write will resonate with another human being. Or it coluld be that you are a bad writer and the only way to become a good writer is to start bad , write lots, and hopefully maybe one day we will run faster , try harder ........ but no we beat on boats against the current , born back ceaselessly into the past.

more later my children - blessings and salutations

father M