SOUL SURMISE

OUT OF KILTER, AMISS AND ASKEW (As We Wait on God in A Manger)

Almighty God
We approach you and worship you as
The Omnipresent
Omniscient
Omnipotent God
And yet as we wait for your arrival in this Advent season
We cannot help but be provoked by something
Out of kilter, amiss and askew
Instead of a throne in heaven
We are aware of a manger of straw
Instead of robed religious dignitaries
We are aware of cattle, sheep and shepherds
Straight from the fields
Instead of theology graduates in gowns
We are aware of mystical eastern star gazers.
And even more bizarre and disturbing
We are aware of the people of God
Who should know better
Who know enough to search the Holy Scriptures
To find the truth of such events
Using their knowledge
Not to approach you in worship
But to flood the streets of David’s city
With the blood of innocent children and babies
And sending the long awaited and yearned for Messiah
Fleeing his life to Egypt as a refugee
God as we wait for you you this Christmas
We wait for a God who emptied himself

Who willingly gave his rights
Who sacrificed his comfort
Who made himself nothing
And left himself vulnerable
God as we wait for such wonder
Such a mystery
Such an upside down view of the world
Inspire us in the waiting

To us to ask ourselves Why?
Give us a snippet of history’s greatest refrain
The greatest news to be sung to humanity
That God loved us and demonstrated his love for us in this
That while we were still sinners
He was born and lived and died and raised again to life for us
So God as we begin our waiting today
We are acutely aware of a God who gave up everything
For us
And if we lean in closely we can hear you whisper back
From the straw of the manger
From the refugee road to Egypt
From the seashore of no reputation
From the mountain of the sermon
From the journey to Calvary
From a cross of wood
Follow me... follow me... follow me...
As the Father sent me so I am sending you
You are the light of the world
The salt of the earth
God as we wait on your incarnation this Christmas
Give us the courage, the bravery
To follow you…
To give our lives
To be servants of others…
God we thank you for the wonder of the poetry and art and transforming power of Christmas
That inspired the readings and carols we will ponder as we wait...
Make these words flesh in us...
In this baby name
AMEN!

HONING THE PATIENCE OF GOD (In An Instant World)

God is about to arrive on earth. Messiah. Redeemer. Saviour. God as a baby.

But…not yet! Advent is all about the discipline of waiting. Waiting is a call on the people of God throughout the Bible. “I waited patiently on the Lord…” is just one quotation that U2 picked up on from Psalm 40.

I read a powerful line from Professor Christopher David that “God is great but God is gradual”. Wow. Like God is a red hot flame but a long slow burn. The Bible is a slow burn of a story unveiled and truth revealed. 

The gradual slow burn seems to be a characteristic of God. Therefore, there has to be something useful about waiting and patience. It needs cultivated within our own souls. 

We are not good at waiting. Especially in a world of instant gratification. Text messages. Email. Social media. Streaming music. 

When Janice lived in South Africa in 1993 a letter took a week to get there and a week to wait for her response. There were records that I used to wait until my parents took me to Edinburgh for the summer holidays to finally acquire. 

Patience, a segment of the fruit of the spirit, is not something conditioned in today’s world. So, waiting needs an intentionality. We need a spiritual retreat. The four weeks leading up to Christmas Day offers us such an opportunity.

Advent… so let us wait…

 

I’m thinking about Christmas

Too much for such a young girl

A big ask that God is asking

In this shuddering of our worlds

I’m thinking about Christmas

Eyes fixed on a brand new birth

I’m stumbling with the shepherds

To find that peace on earth.

 

Waiting

For hope and peace and joy and love

All the candles are lit

Waiting

For hope and peace and joy and love

We keep praying for it

 

I’m thinking about Christmas

That strange medical ward

The danger and vulnerability

Has me whisper “oh my Lord”

I’m thinking about Christmas

And the twinkle of a light cast

A courageous cry in the dawning

As the past at last is past.

 

Waiting

For hope and peace and joy and love

All the candles are lit

Waiting

For hope and peace and joy and love

We are praying for it

 

There should be 50 words for waiting

Waiting before and then until

Every time a waiting is over

There is another waiting hill

There should be 50 words for waiting

Wait, here’s another one

For the courage to wait along with

Until all the waiting is done.

 

Waiting

For hope and peace and joy and love

All the candles are lit.

WAITING (GOD IS GRADUAL)

"The waiting is the hardest part" - Tom Petty

"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope" - Psalm 130:5

 

Waiting for the appointment

Waiting for a bed

Waiting for the test results

Waiting in my head

 

Waiting for the calendar 

Waiting for the plane to depart

Waiting for the arrivals’ door

Waiting in my heart

 

Waiting for an update

Waiting restrictions lifted

Waiting for a vaccine

Waiting in unprecedented.

 

Waiting for apocalypse

Waiting for my role

Waiting for an answer

Waiting in my soul

 

Waiting for an update

Waiting restrictions lifted

Waiting for a vaccine

Waiting in unprecedented.

 

World is instant

Patience unusual

In the waiting

Emmanuel

God is great

But God is gradual

In the waiting

Emmanuel

DIG WITH IT - Music, Arts and Nordy Culture

I have been intrigued by Hannah Peel since she arranged the strings on Paul Weller’s Live at the Royal Albert Hall album. I heard she was from Northern Ireland. Eh? How did I not know that. There was so much I wanted to learn.

Well, this afternoon by personal delivery the third issue of Dig With It came through the door and right there on the cover - Hannah Peel. I now know that she grew up in Craigavon until the age of 8 before moving to Yorkshire. I know she now lives in Bangor and what she’s been working on this year. Paul Weller has been very good to her.

This is what I love about Dig With It. With the strap line Music, Arts & Nordy Culture this magazine launched early in 2020 throws insight across our burgeoning local arts scene. 

The brain child of our most legendary rock journalist Stuart Bailie and his designer daughter Betsy, Dig With It comes out quarterly and is crammed with great writing, interviews and reviews about those who dig with pens, guitars, brushes and cameras - a nice tribute nod to Seamus Heaney.

As well as Hannah Peel, the current edition that literally landed on my mat today has Stuart talking to Sinead O’Connor as well as a brilliant article by Anthony Toner about the late great Bap Kennedy. There is always more and all three issues have had me discover what’s absolutely new on the Nordy music scene and giving insight to what I had already discovered.

Issue 3 has me comparing my thoughts on Joshua Burnside's astonishing record Into The Depths Of Hell with Kristen Sinclair's review, off chasing a new Jealous of the Birds record, introduced me to poet Micheál McCann and excited me about Kerri ni Dochartaigh’s new novel Thin Places coming out in January.

There is loads more, far too much to share. If I haven’t convinced you can I also add that the magazine is so well produced that it is a piece of art in its very self. In this edition Lily Bailie works with Hannah Peel, Kwa Daniels, Oona Doherty and Siofra Caherty to create flags, banners and emblems that illustrate those 4 creatives' lives.

Yeh, that Bailie name again. They are like a wee arts dynasty. We should be proud to have them. Dig With It has a much wider team but there is still a sense of family cottage industry. The best of what we Nordys are inside the magazine and in its making.  

Subscribe or give it as a gift - DIG WITH IT

COULD COVID CHRISTMAS BE THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER?

 

There has been much concern about whether Covid-19 would ruin all our Christmases. Imagine… the shops shut, no staff dinner, trips to Santa’s grotto, the family visits banned and no Carol services!?!? 

For sure, whatever Tier we geographically find ourselves, whatever lock down restrictions our devolved governments demand, even with a five day triple bubble break, this Christmas is going to be very different.

I am going to audaciously suggest that one of the silver linings of the winter cloud that is Coronavirus could be that we can have the best Christmas ever. 

Usually around the end of November I look ahead to Christmas and suggest that there are two festivals. One is a Santa Claus centred Christmas that is all about fun, family decorations and eating. There is a lot of spending and sharing of gifts and recycled wrapping paper! I call this the holiday season.

Then there is the other Christmas. This one is about remembering, re-enacting and reflecting on the most amazing story. It is the story of a God who humbled himself to be born as a baby. What an idea. God visiting earth and becoming one of us, dependent on a teenage girl and being carted off as a refugee. This baby has names - Emmanuel meaning God with us - and - Jesus meaning God saves. I call this Christmas!

I love both festivals. I so enjoy getting the family up early on Christmas morning. I love opening presents. I love the Christmas dinner, particularly my wife’s family’s tradition of spiced beef! I love the snooze in the afternoon and the left overs and sweets. It’s all warm and lovely.

I also love Christmas morning. Over recent years Fitzroy’s Christmas morning service has grown in numbers. There is nothing like O Come All Ye Faithful on Christmas morning, especially if Richard Blake happens to be home to play his trumpet. To give central importance to that baby laid in the straw. Have the children all up around our Crib and me lift the baby out and explain who he is and what his brith means. It is powerfully spiritual.

Now, for years I have heard people tell me that they find it a shame that sometimes the holiday season part of it squeezes out the importance of the spiritual bit.

So, can I invite us all to a very different Christmas. 2020 has been one to forget for all of us and a lot worse than that for many. However, perhaps these strange, cautious and restrictive circumstances give us a chance in a lifetime to concentrate on the spiritual aspect. Maybe we could use the scenario we find ourselves in to make a conscious decision… 

The 2020 Christmas Retreat. A year when we do what the story of the baby means. We give up our rights and comforts and entitlements for the good of those around us. As Jesus sacrificed himself to kill the virus of human sin we will do the same to beat the virus that has killed so many and threatens to kill more.

In this Christmas Retreat we will for one year underplay the holiday festival part to give the spiritual part our best intentions and concentration. We might not be able to gather as normal BUT you will find services and other resources online to get the full impact of this world changing event. 

We might find that at the end of such an awful year we find something … like angels singing, a star shining or God lying in straw offering peace, love and hope for all human kind. Maybe as we try to forget that number 2020 we end up celebrating it. Maybe this year could give us the 2020 vision we have always longed for but found blurred with all the other stuff.