In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness… God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. (Psalm 45:4a, 7b) Do not be deceived. He comes in meekness now to expose the proud. He sleeps among the donkeys and cattle now; soon theContinue reading “20 Contemplations #18: Anointing”
Category Archives: Christmas
2o Contemplations #17:
…the music seems to come out of the silence like the colors come out of the night… (Olivier Messiaen) After such a climax, what reflection? Light refracts from His glory; sun and moon bow. Let all mortal flesh keep silent. Soon, very soon, we shall see His intention erupt in purposed rapture. Explosion of brightness dancingContinue reading “2o Contemplations #17:”
20 Contemplations #16: Consolation
With weeping they shall come, and with consolation I will lead them back… (Jeremiah 31:9a, NRSV) Noise. The ages seem to verge upon chaos. Yet crescendo is not crisis. What men of old saw has not failed. Four hundred years of silence did not climax now, to then leave us empty. He always spoke gentlyContinue reading “20 Contemplations #16: Consolation”
20 Contemplations #15: Intimacy
He comes near, able to touch, to be touched, and be wounded, to kiss and to be kissed: the grateful kiss, the sleepy child dismiss- ing himself to sleep; the mother’s kiss, a smudge on freshly-bathed cheek; the plotter’s grudge expressed in the curl of doubled lips, the final, false farewell, the fatal tryst. He comesContinue reading “20 Contemplations #15: Intimacy”
20 Contemplations #14: Wonder
…the astonishment of the Angels: for it is not in them (pure spirits), but in the human race, that God unites himself, and the Son of God incarnate “is not ashamed to call us his brothers.” (Olivier Messiaen) Flames of fire, yet only servants. They long to look into what we hold as child: God-made-flesh.Continue reading “20 Contemplations #14: Wonder”
20 Contemplations #13: Incarnate
It could be that the wildest, strangest things in the Bible were the places where it touched earth. (Marilynne Robinson, Lila) Our minds jump too easily: from cradle to grave – a Cross upon a hill. And yes, this is where it tends. Yet first the stable is where God, first time in wounded ages,Continue reading “20 Contemplations #13: Incarnate”
20 Contemplations #12: Alpha, Omega
What did you expect when you came to see The baby, all wrapped in swaddling bands? A king, mighty, radiant in glory? A beaming cherubim, good will in his hands? Did you come to bow or to learn or be Affirmed by all that you saw? Herod bore No risks; and the heavens wereContinue reading “20 Contemplations #12: Alpha, Omega”
20 Contemplations #11: Communion
…Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. (Luke 2:19) I hold You; I bore You. Yet You cannot be held by me. The story told from first honours me but exalts You more: a dot at the start, impossibly small, yet burst- ing with life. How could this all be? IContinue reading “20 Contemplations #11: Communion”
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas
For most people, Christmas is now over. The supermarkets are already stocking hot cross buns. But in the traditional church calendar, today is the last day of the season of Christmas – a season lasting twelve days, as we remember in the old song. Why remember Christmas for twelve days instead of one? If nothingContinue reading “On the Twelfth Day of Christmas”
Luke 2: The Shepherds and the Temple
The child interrupts commerce, the daily graze of life, the expectations of a quiet night in the fields. The child demands leaving flocks, abandoning norms, following the angel’s call in evening disquiet. The child enters the daily, the simple: cries, shivers, needs food and warmth, yet transforms it all.Continue reading “Luke 2: The Shepherds and the Temple”
The Consolations of Writing 