When we engage the Lent season introspectively, we can quickly find ourselves confronted with our own inner chaos. The wind howls, the foundations shift and wild things bay at our feet. We wonder how we are going to keep it together for forty days. Psalm 105:1-11 is given to us as today’s text as aContinue reading “Keeping it together through remembering…”
Tag Archives: Lent
Lenten Voices: Synchronicity
Over the last twenty years, I have delved into deeper, more ancient understandings of the Christian journey, wandering in and out of an eclectic mainstream of traditions while steering firmly from my own tribal barque. The cross-cultural backwaters of orthodoxy, medieval contemplative mystics, holistic Celtic fervour, spiritual direction, the beauty of some sacred textual translationsContinue reading “Lenten Voices: Synchronicity”
Lenten Voices: Boundaries for freedom
Over the recent two decades, management boards of not-for-profit community organisations have been adopting the Carver model of governance and administration. The core principle of this model of management is to set boundaries within which the organisation and its personnel may operate. Rather than prescribing in detail what must be done to achieve set goalsContinue reading “Lenten Voices: Boundaries for freedom”
Lenten voices: a cry of despair becomes a shout of triumph
Psalm 22: Jesus’ cry from the cross echoes a universal lament – the lonely beginning works toward a triumphant conclusion
Lenten Voices: Dogma vs Grace
Novelist Peter De Vries recalled his religious upbringing thus: “We went to church five times a week, three times on Sunday; I wasn’t allowed to play ball on Sunday. We were force-fed a lot of doctrine. The two main beliefs were in the total depravity of man and the divine grace of God. I onlyContinue reading “Lenten Voices: Dogma vs Grace”
Lenten Voices: Stairway to Heaven
What’s your favourite version? The original Led Zepplin leads in Google hits. The lyrics are most evocative as we contemplate the Lenten journey – for on such a road we are often confronted with choices between the tantalising and immediate and the deeper and more reliable. Which is the true stairway to heaven? The imageContinue reading “Lenten Voices: Stairway to Heaven”
Lenten Voices: It’s all in the name.
As a teenager, I looked up the meaning of my first given name. My then prudish temperament was somewhat taken aback to see that it was associated with Dionysus, the debauched Greek god of revelry and wine. Had I been raised as an ancient Hebrew, it could have been far worse, for names were givenContinue reading “Lenten Voices: It’s all in the name.”
Lenten Voices: Psalm 105
“I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.” (Thomas Merton).
Lenten Voices: Into the wilderness…
Today’s sermonic offering at the Downs Church…. 12And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. The wilderness … at the same time beautiful and dangerous. The wilderness … a place ofContinue reading “Lenten Voices: Into the wilderness…”
Lenten Voices: The Harrowing of Hell
Medieval Passion plays made much of the visit of the crucified and triumphant Jesus to rescue the trapped ancestors from Hell. It is the ultimate “in your face” to the defeated powers of oppression, chaos and annihilation. Hell has no lasting power. It’s in 1 Peter 3:18-22. The Lenten journey to Good Friday will alwaysContinue reading “Lenten Voices: The Harrowing of Hell”
Wondering Pilgrim 