SOUL SURMISE

A BIG DECISION? AN OPEN DOOR? CUT THE CORD!

“And sometimes I get nervous
When I see an open door
Close your eyes
Clear your heart
Cut the cord...”

-      From Human by The Killers

Ten years ago, this was the lyric that I carried all the way through the process of leaving a job I loved in Queen’s University Chaplaincy to go back into parish ministry at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church.

For me, the invitation to consider becoming the minister at Fitzroy was a huge honour and I had to think about it but I had never considered going back into Church life. Fitzroy’s potential excited me but I was nervous every time I caught sight of that open door.

Being a Presbyterian process, it took eight months between the initial phone call to think about it and to actually being installed as minister. Throughout that wait I sang over and over again this spiritual wisdom of Brandon Flowers.

I had to close my eyes and seek God in ways I had never done. Prayer, connecting with God, was vital. If I was going to take the risk that this would be for me and my family, I needed to find time to talk it over with God and to listen. I would need to be sure that the fit was right and that I was taking the next step in my following of Jesus.

Next up I had to clear my heart in readiness for a spiritual change, the way we cleared our house for the physical move. I needed to take all the selfish ideas of my own which might have been the selfishness for safety or the selfishness of being flattered that Fitzroy were interested and what a prestigious thing to be their minister. The heart needed cleared of me, to be given the holy space that might allow God to fill that heart with what was good.

In the end, after all was weighed up and without any doubt in my heart and mind that God was calling us to go... we had to cut the cord!

This last step is the trickiest of all. It takes courage. It means leaving where all is safe and comfortable and jumping with faith and trust into the new world that beckons. To move on means not looking back. It is done and I am thankful to these words as the soundtrack to the entire process. Like Paul in Philippians, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Perhaps you are in one of life's tricky spots. A big decision. An open door beckons but... I think The Killers are suggesting we take a deep breath, then gather up all of the courage we can muster and then... a step of faith... cut the cord!

CHRISTMAS... AND X-MAS. ENJOY BOTH BUT GET THE BALANCE RIGHT!

 

“Santa Claus is comin' and the kids are gettin' greedy
It's Christmas time
They know what's in the stores 'cause they seen it on the TV
It's Christmas time, it's Christmas time
It used to be the birthday of the Man who saved our necks
It's Christmas time
Now it stands for Santa Claus they spell it with an X
It's Christmas time, it's Christmas time...”

          From Christmas Time by Larry Norman

This is the first song I think about every time Christmas seems to be running down the track before us. The Stockies start to listen to our Christmas playlists on December 1st. I immediately hear “Santa Claus is comin' and the kids are gettin' greedy/It's Christmas time.”

Usually the Santa Claus Christmas appears before we reach the Christian Advent Christmas. The first leaf is usually the stores piling the Christmas offers onto the shelves, the adverts starting on the TV and the far too early lighting up of Christmas trees in City centres. 

And don’t get me wrong I love the Holiday Season Christmas. I like, even now, writing my Santa letter, at least filling a Santa check out at Amazon. I love Mince Pies. Forgive me, but I love Egg Nog Lattes in Starbucks. I love the warm and feely family closeness. I love Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody and Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. The benefits of being 11 in 1973!

In Advent sermons I am often warning my community in Fitzroy to separate the two Christmas templates. Enjoy both for sure I encourage but I also warn that the vital thing is to make sure that the Christian Advent influences the Holiday Season and not the other way around.

I am keen that we as a Jesus following community take a Lenten approach to Advent. It is important to find the spiritual discipline of this season and to take time to reflect on the Biblical story, to read ourselves into that story and to take the waiting time of Advent to surmise the state of our souls. 

The Advent Scriptures are so rich and deep in meaning, in challenge and inspiration. Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph, Zechariah, Herod, the shepherds and the mystical stargazers. Then, God born as a vulnerable baby, facing death squads and being scurried off to Egypt as a refugee. Goodness me! 

So this Christmas, as the Holiday Season version hurtles forward, catching you in its slipstream and near throwing you over in its ferocity… breathe in… breathe out… and take time to surmise the eternal story of love and grace. God moved in amongst us. Surmise the long term connotations of this amazing truth so that, after the Seasonal one is put away for another year, we have the lasting impact of the Advent one on our lives and communities.

“Santa Claus is comin' and the kids are gettin' greedy
It's Christmas time
They know what's in the stores 'cause they seen it on the TV
It's Christmas time, it's Christmas time
It used to be the birthday of the Man who saved our necks
It's Christmas time
Now it stands for Santa Claus they spell it with an X
It's Christmas time, it's Christmas time...”

          From Christmas Time by Larry Norman

This is the first song I think about every time Christmas seems to be running down the track before us. The Stockies start to listen to our Christmas playlists on December 1st. I immediately hear “Santa Claus is comin' and the kids are gettin' greedy/It's Christmas time.”

Usually the Santa Claus Christmas appears before we reach the Christian Advent Christmas. The first leaf is usually the stores piling the Christmas offers onto the shelves, the adverts starting on the TV and the far too early lighting up of Christmas trees in City centres. 

And don’t get me wrong I love the Holiday Season Christmas. I like, even now, writing my Santa letter, at least filling a Santa check out at Amazon. I love Mince Pies. Forgive me, but I love Egg Nog Lattes in Starbucks. I love the warm and feely family closeness. I love Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody and Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. The benefits of being 11 in 1973!

In Advent sermons I am often warning my community in Fitzroy to separate the two Christmas templates. Enjoy both for sure I encourage but I also warn that the vital thing is to make sure that the Christian Advent influences the Holiday Season and not the other way around.

I am keen that we as a Jesus following community take a Lenten approach to Advent. It is important to find the spiritual discipline of this season and to take time to reflect on the Biblical story, to read ourselves into that story and to take the waiting time of Advent to surmise the state of our souls. 

The Advent Scriptures are so rich and deep in meaning, in challenge and inspiration. Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph, Zechariah, Herod, the shepherds and the mystical stargazers. Then, God born as a vulnerable baby, facing death squads and being scurried off to Egypt as a refugee. Goodness me! 

So this Christmas, as the Holiday Season version hurtles forward, catching you in its slipstream and near throwing you over in its ferocity… breathe in… breathe out… and take time to surmise the eternal story of love and grace. God moved in amongst us. Surmise the long term connotations of this amazing truth so that, after the Seasonal one is put away for another year, we have the lasting impact of the Advent one on our lives and communities.

CAMILLE O'SULLIVAN - CAMILLE SINGS CAVE LIVE

Irish singer, with a French mother, Camille O’Sullivan grabbed all of attention in a performance on Later… With Jools a few years ago. It wasn’t just me. The Telegraph chose her dramatic performance of Kirsty McColl’s In These Shoes as one of the best 25 Later… With Jules moments ever.

To be honest if O’ Sullivan had been only been about the theatre of In These Shoes she wouldn’t have gained traction. However, she was more than the bluster. Her albums Live@The Olympia and Changeling revealed a woman with the vocal abilities to cover a host of possibilities, Bowie, Radiohead, Tom Waits and even Snow Patrol. Cave was always heavy in the mix.

Camille brings all her drama to the piece. Her trademark raucousness to the sinister, Murder Ballad, Stagger Lee and brings it to a whisper in the haunting Skeleton Trees. 

Then there is the beauty of Into My Arms which comes across as that Van Morrison hybrid of romance with a Gospel tinge in the recognition of the divine. 

Ship Song and People Ain’t No Good begin with the barest layer of lush piano before gig off on one.

Don’t think for a moment that O’Sullivan is doing for cave what Jennifer Warnes did for Leonard Cohen with her Famous Blue raincoat album from 1987. Warnes gave Cohen a more accessible hue. Not so much with O’Sullivan. She is not bringing Nick Cave to a Mary Black audience!

Camille O’Sullivan takes on a ride and deep catalogue and bring her unique stamp on it (with her shoes!!!) without losing the reverence the original songs deserve. A more than worthwhile venture. I would love to have seen it live. 

EVERYTHING JESUS SAID AND DID ARE RIGHT HERE IN THE NATIVITY

I have believed for some years that everything Jesus said and did in his life and ministry can all be found in the nativity scenes.

Blessed be the meek - right here!

Love your enemies - right here!

The humility that washed his disciples feet - right here!

When you do this for the least of these - right here!

Even the cross itself is here in Matthew 2. He would end up in Herod's court in that week of his passion but Herod was already after him. Those babies who died in Bethlehem. Might they have said:

I was the innocent lost

Without any reason

In the future they’ll call this

The family season

I was ripped from my mother’s arms

My head was torn from my shoulders

No chance of becoming something

No chance of getting older.

 

And I guess I died in place of him

So he could go free

 I guess I died in place of him

 I wonder if he’d die for me?

 

There was blood on the streets

There were tears across the nation

There was wailing at Jerusalem’s wall

For God to give an explanation

And I’m a dead bundle of skin and bone

Nothing left of me but the mourning

But a mother escapes, a refugee

An angel came with a warning.

 

And I guess I died in place of him

So he could go free

I guess I died in place of him

I wonder if he’d die for me?

Let us not get Jesus on the cross too quickly. Milan Kundera puts it well in his novel Immortality:

“A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A route has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A route is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.”

I am struck as Advent begins with that line, "Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop." I invite you this Advent season, to stop along the road. Be still when you can and learn something about God, right here among us in the baby born. 

CHRISTMAS IS NOT FOR CHILDREN - PARENTAL WARNING!!

Today is the first Sunday of Advent and World Aids Day. What a perfect juxtaposition. Jesus was born into a world that was broken, fallen, bloody, violent and tragic. 

You could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Christmas has been hijacked. Oh we can blame Santa and consumerism, decorations and stuffing BUT the Church has been complicit. Those nativity plays with 8 year old boys wearing tea towels on their heads! Like the old Steve Turner poem Christmas is for children!

I couldn't disagree more.

A reading of Matthew chapter 2 is anything but child friendly. It should carry a paternal warning. A king is feeling the security of his power shudder. Death squads are hitting the streets of Bethlehem. Two year olds are being murdered. God is a vulnerable baby fleeing as a refugee. Keep it from the children!

Christmas needs to be stolen back from the children's nativity and given back its realism.

 

Seamlessly sown creedal conclusions

Safe and sanitised solutions

Out of context texts for every question

All lamenting Psalms put beyond use

In suits and ties and hats and Sunday smiles

FOR GOD’S SAKE GIVE US SOME REALITY.

 

Murderous mayhem on London Bridge

Refugees risking their lives to leave war, injustice and famine

Homeless people felling no value on the streets around us

People living with the stigma or dying of HIV/AIDS

Tensions rising between North Korea and Japan

Landslides washing away villages in Kenya

The UK in turmoil over Brexit, back stops, inertia at Stormont and tensions in East Belfast

FOR GOD’S SAKE GIVE US SOME REALITY.

 

A seasonally well decorated stable

Freshly showered cattle and perfumed straw

A carpenter with extra mural skills in midwifery

Westminster Confession signing stargazing mystics

A perfect little baby “no crying he makes”

FOR GOD’S SAKE GIVE US SOME REALITY.

 

A teenage girl's screams pierce a silent night

A baby laid in an infested animal stall

God, vulnerable and homeless

Death squads descending in the dawn’s first light

From where refugees risk their lives escaping hell

FOR GOD’S SAKE,

JESUS WAS BORN INTO THE MIDST OF REALITY.