Living Wittily

The Importance of Living, More or Less.

This solitary tree against a sky full of the promise of Spring, is the first photo I posted during lock down last year while out for our one hour exercise walk.

 

 

The wee burn which mirrors the sky come through the seasons, runs through Garlogie woods; the photo was taken yesterday, exactly a year later. Those 12 months have changed our world, the way we live, and us.

 

Today, in our National Day of Reflection, we remember the human cost of Covid 19, and reflect on the infinite value of every life. Out of such reflection and remembering, may we build towards a future that is

more just and compassionate,

less greedy and possessive,

more inclusive and welcoming of others,

less anxious and suspicious,

more attuned to truthfulness and trust

less accepting of deceit and dishonesty,

more in love with the world we inhabit,

less ruthless and wasteful of life's gifts,

more neighbourly and kind in our actions,

less indifferent and self-interested in disposition,

more appreciative and grateful to others,

less complaining and critical in our words.

These are the choices we make every day, more or less.

As God said at another time of crisis and rebuilding:

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!" (Deuteronomy 30.19)

A Prayer: Grace Sufficient, Peace beyond understanding, Joyful Trust.

God of grace, when life was in crisis and too much was being asked of him, you said into the heart and mind of your servant Paul, “my grace is sufficient.”

So we pray for ourselves, in the difficulties and disappointments we have to go through, may we be given strength for each day, the resilience that comes from your Spirit, and the grace that is sufficient.

God of peace, when your servant Paul was imprisoned, isolated and struggling to find meaning in his work, he discovered and bore testimony to a peace that passes all understanding standing guard over heart and mind.

So we pray for ourselves as during this past year we too have felt imprisoned, isolated, and struggling. As each day we experience anxiety, and feel the frustrations of restriction, and are desperate for life to come back to something more satisfying and less stressed, may our hearts and minds be fortified by your peace that passes all understanding.

God of hope, writing to the Christians in Rome near the end of his life, your servant Paul prayed, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy in believing as you trust in Him.”

So we pray that we too will experience a resurgence of hope in our imagination, a return of joy to our hearts, and a new trust and hopefulness about this life we are living.

God of grace, peace and hope, bless us now with your presence throughout this day, and into whatever future lies before us.    Amen

Prayer for When We Are Scunnered.

This prayer was written in response to a moving conversation with someone near broken because of "the usual crap."

 

O Lord who silenced the wind and stilled the storm,

Who broke bread to feed the hungry in their thousands,

Who provided the biggest carry out ever when the wine ran out,

Who made an honest man of wee Zacchaeus,

Who stood between a woman and her accusers holding an unthrown stone,

And who every day dealt with the usual crap,

Your grace is sufficient and your presence promised,

Amen

When life has lost its colour against the background greyness of every day being the same, grace to you, and peace.

Pastoral Letter written to the folk at Montrose Baptist Church, Scotland. 

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What do you write at the start of an email, or letter? If you’re being formal then probably Dear James, then if feeling casual there’s Hello, and most often in emails I receive, Hi Jim! It wouldn’t occur to me to start one of these Pastoral letters with “Hi!” So I write the courteous, “Dear Friends”, intended to be friendly but respectful; what my mother might have called knowing my place!

Likewise, the best letter writer in the New Testament didn’t begin any of his letters with “Hi Galatians” or “Hey Romans.” Instead he invariably used a word that connected immediately with those who would read his first words. It went something like this: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1.7)

Early in any letter or conversation Paul wanted to find ground where every Christian can stand: Grace. In the middle of the long arguments of his letter to the Romans he wrote:

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.(Romans 5.1-2)

There it is again, peace and grace close together. But that word grace is such a multi-purpose blessing word for Christians. From the same word root comes gift and joy. So when we speak of the grace of God we are talking about something deep and central to our experience of God in Christ. God’s gift is the joy of salvation, the outpouring and overflowing of God’s love in our hearts. What elsewhere Paul calls the “unsearchable riches of Christ”

“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, so that we through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8.9)

I mention all this because this past year hasn’t felt rich, or joyous, or peaceful. Most of the time it has felt impoverished, sad and anxious. It’s the year the plug was pulled from most of what energises and renews us. Which is why it might help us to hear again the prayer blessing of Paul, as if it is being said to us. And indeed, through the power of the Holy Spirit taking God’s word and applying it to our hearts, that’s exactly what happens.

So listen carefully to God’s blessing spoken now, into your life, wherever you are and however you are: “Grace to you, and peace from God our father and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When life has lost its colour against the background greyness of every day being the same, grace to you, and peace.

When you are sorrowing and struggling to move forward because of loss and bereavement, grace to you, and peace.

When you are anxious for yourself, worried for those you love, troubled by problems beyond your solving, grace to you, and peace.

When concerned about the demands of working from home, or working as a key worker, or about whether or not you will have a job at the end of all this, grace to you, and peace.

When it’s difficult to pray, and hard to look forward with hope; when each day is a struggle to be motivated and get things done, grace to you and peace.

When you grieve the losses of this past year - contact with family, the company of friends, going to the places you enjoy and meeting the people who tell you who you are and what your life’s about, in all that deficit of not having other people in your life, grace to you and peace.

Grace is the touch of God energising us, and telling us we are loved; peace is the presence of God enfolding and upholding us. Grace is the inpouring of God’s love to a broken world and into broken hearts; peace is most clearly seen in the outstretched arms of the crucified Christ embracing, forgiving and reconciling rebel hearts.

Whatever lessons we are learning through this pandemic, like Paul we come back to the beating heart of the Gospel. “By grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God”. From that grace we know the peace of God which passes all understanding and keeps our minds and hearts in the knowledge and love of God. Whatever else happens in our lives, this stays the same; grace to you, and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.