SOUL SURMISE

THE MYSTERY OF BADNESS & THE MYSTERY OF GOODNESS (for Fiona Donohoe)

Our entire city have been drawn into the sadness of the tragic death of Noah Donohoe.

As a community we prayed and hoped as a vast number searched for Noah after he went missing.

As a city our hearts broke at the news that his body had been found. Today, as he is buried, we all want to reach out to his mother Fiona with love and comfort and prayers.

As a pastor I find these situations very difficult. We want to find answers but as the singer David Gray once sang, "we are trying to spell what the wind can't explain". There is a mystery of badness. It is beyond us. 

What we can bring is the mystery of goodness. God never promises that there will be no mysteries. He promises, though, to be a rock and refuge in the mystery. I so pray that for Noah's mother and family today. 

 

Mysteries

Intrigue in the novel and film

But in reality

Their crashing in on our lives

Smashes our hearts to pieces

The shards blow out across communities

Cutting deep.

 

Today you grieve in the mystery

The mystery of badness

The mystery of randomness

The mystery of why you

The mystery of never being explained

Yet having to learn to live in it.

 

I believe in another mystery

The mystery of goodness

The mystery of love

The mystery of comfort

Jesus called the Holy Spirit a comforter

So, I pray for you

That in the mystery of why

In the mystery of what

You will know the mystery of how

Comfort can

Against the odds 

Reach into the depths of your broken heart

And mysteriously give you resilience

As you walk into the grief

Of the days and years to come.

 

THE PNEUMATOLOGY BENEDICTION

 

My benediction in yesterday's Fitzroy On-Line Sunday Service (17.5.2020) after a sermon on the workings of the Holy Spirit during and after lock down...

 

Janice and I send it out as a blessing for the week ahead...

 

 

May God the Father bless us and keep us

 

May Jesus words be a lamp for our feet

 

May the Holy Spirit accompany us, abide in us, comfort us and guide us as individuals and a community of faith.

 

AMEN

JANICE AND MY WEEKLY BLESSING - CORONAVIRUS BENEDICTION #5

(my weekly benediction from our Fitzroy service on May 10.2020. It is created from the key words of the sermon but you don't need to have heard it to understand it. Janice and I send it out as a prayer for another Coronavirus week of lockdown)

 

May God the Father be our refuge and strength,

May Jesus be our way, truth and life,

May the Holy Spirit lead us out of a refuge on a curve to change the world.

 

FOR THOSE GRIEVING DURING CORONAVIRUS TIMES

(as a pastor, these are difficult days to minister to those who have lost loved ones. I wrote this as a way to reach across the distance and prayerfully bring comfort to those grieving in strange ways at these strange times...)

 

These are tough days

To go through difficult times

As if there is an extra bitter twist

In the already hard to swallow taste

These are even more deadly days for dying

An extra separation.

 

This social distancing, for safety

Is dangerous to the heart

The heart needs proximity

To touch brows

And hold hands

To whisper 

“I love you,” 

"Thank you,” 

“Goodbye.”

 

Jesus invaded every distance

Ripped the veil of holy detachment

To reach in close

To enter deathly places

To feel the isolation

To experience unfair separation.

 

So now, Jesus sympathises, empathises

And understands our loneliness

Our grief and pain

And weeps with us

Nothing can separate us from him

Or his love.

 

Today, I pray

That your loved one

And you 

Will know the tender eternal arms

Wrapped around tight

And hear the gentlest whisper of God.

 

In this hellish distance

May you know heaven near

Nearer than the closest we could ever be

In these strange times

Or in any other times. 

COVID 19 BENEDICTION #2 - LORRAINE'S EASTER BENEDICTION

( I wrote this for Easter Sunday Service 2020. While I wrote it I was on with friend Lorraine who was not too well with a mild form of the virus. I sent it out to hear and to us all as a blessing...)

 

May God the Father never forsake you

May Jesus the Son be with you, in all of your suffering

May the Holy Spirit burst resurrection through your heart and soul.

Amen

COVID 19 BENEDICTION #1

A benediction blessing for Coronavirus Times...

 

May God the Father's love be a constant companion

May Jesus teaching be illuminated in this dark

May the Holy Spirit lead us

Into what to do for others

And how to take care of ourselves

Amen

WHEN MYSTERY SHIMMERS

I was glancing through my poems and thought that this one was appropriate for the Coronavirus Times. These are days of mystery. We will tend to ask God questions and some prayers might not find the answers we hope for.

This poem was written from a pastor's perspective, watching members of Fitzroy watch loved ones in difficult times.

The last verse is Philip Yancey's take on Isaiah 40:31:

They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Yancey points out that this is in reverse. Flying, running and finally walking. He suggests that the spiritual life starts with us believing we can fly. Everything is possible. Then we land we a thud when some prayer is not answered as we think it should have been. We are still running but soon life's tragedies have us down to a walk. 

Yancey concludes that the mature among us are not the flyers but the realists. Even strong faith in the midst of life's tough times can be a trudge and a crawl. Perhaps we need to reassess why in that verse we always concentrate on the first not the third stage?!

Mystery is an awkward little dancer.

 

When a loved one’s tossed in turbulence

You watch them smashed whichever way

And God never seems to bring the calm

No matter how hard you pray

May unseen threads of mercy

Weave in, the unravelling doubt

May God grab you by the finger

Before life’s hurting drags you out

 

Knowledge loves the questions

Cos it has a seamless answer

But mystery shimmies all around

She’s an awkward little dancer

And when she dances out of sight

Leaving the soul that lonely ache

May God send a holy comforter

Before you crack up in the heart break

 

Lord, we flew on wings like eagles

Then landed with reality’s thud

We ran but soon were walking

Now crawl through this tear soaked mud

We mature in a world that’s broken

Confessing what our part is

We sing these songs to temper grief

And hope in their catharsis.

OFFERING (IN CORONAVIRUS TIMES)

In Fitzroy the offering is the most important part of the service but it is not about money. Oh we lift a monetary collection but the offering is about what we are offering to God. We offer ourselves every week. 

Last Sunday we had no offering plates as that was another way to pass the coronavirus so the offering was at last separated from money. I finished my sermon with it. It was a rough mix. This is slightly better put...

 

Offer yourself

To let go of the familiar script

To imagine a whole new way to be

 

Offer yourself

To realign with God

To in-sync with God’s order of things

To this sabbath seemingly forced but maybe gifted

 

Offer yourself 

To sensible actions

To selflessly protect

To sacrificially serve

Family, friends and strangers

 

Offer yourself 

To be a boredom breaker

To be a hope breather

To be an anxiety reliever

To be a conduit of being with

A contributor of love.

 

(I believe the image is from Foodbank Canada which seems appropriate)

DO NOT BE AFRAID

 

"Sometimes a wind comes out of nowhere
And knocks you off your feet"

These Bruce Cockburn lyrics from his song Whole Night Sky, beautifully covered by Elbow, describe well our Coronavirus disorientation.

In some ways we now find ourselves closer to understanding how to read the Bible than we have in a long time. The Bible is written and read by people going through intense shifts in their reality. It is not so easily understood in the prosperity of a middle class western stability. We might well get some of it now!

The most repeated command in the Bible is "do not be afraid." God knew that the world would throw all kinds of fearful events our way. The words are often spoken in Scripture at times when something very frightening has happened. It could almost always be followed by a faltering, "are you having a laugh... I'm petrified!" Yet, that is the point. At times when the very earth seems to be shaking we are to trust in a God who promises to be with us.

I re-wrote this from a Communal prayer I used in Fitzroy heavily influenced by Isaiah 43 and Psalm 46 both of which I use a lot in pastoral visitation. As the earth shakes... let us hear God's words...

 

Do not be afraid

Even when you are struck dumb by God

Even when an angel sits down beside you

Even when you are told you will have a child without ever being with a man

Even when the pitch black night is ripped to shreds by blinding light

Do not be afraid

 

Do not be afraid

When you pass through the waters

When you walk through the fire

Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 

Though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Do not be afraid

 

Do not be afraid

When the news declares pandemic

When they close down big events

When they warn you to keep your distance

When they tell you to isolate for weeks

Do not be afraid

 

Do not be afraid

Because you have found favour with God

Because you are precious and honoured in His sight

Because God is our refuge and strength

Because God will always be with you

Do not be afraid.

POUR OUT THE CUP (JESUS BREAKING FOR THE BROKEN)

(I wrote this poem about then years ago to get across the potency of the lifeblood of Jesus and why wine and not grape juice (The Presbyterian heresy) is the best symbol as of course Jesus told us. I believe that the power of the blood of the sacrament needs to seep into the fabric of the city. The last 4 lines are new, inspired by something Damian Gorman shared at the 4 Corners Festival 2020 about stories being like the Eucharist, where stories are broken and given to others...)

 

We’ve got pour out the cup

Permit the precious drops to drip

Taste the grace full bodied fortitude

With every extravagant sip

We’ve got to pour out the cup

Let the potent mixture steep

The selfish stains of soily souls

And let the wild abandon of love seep

We’ve got to pour out the cup

Let the fresh flow fluid flood

Through the tar of every street

Transfuse the city with holy blood

We’ve got to pour out the cup

Be transformed by intoxication

Let it marinate the market place

To free the incarcerated heart of the nation.

 

Jesus breaking for the broken

Spending his lifeblood for all of us

That we might break our stories too

To build a city of grace and love and justice.