Jameswoodward’s Weblog

The truth of God’s transcendence still stands. God is near, but God is different. God is here, but man is dependent. God’s otherness is the otherness of Creator to creature, of Saviour to sinner; and it is for the creature still to worship the Creator and for the sinner still to ask for the Saviour’s grace. Without this the new Christianity of the secular city will lose its identity as Christianity and will deceive itself and mislead its citizens. And, on the other hand, those who cherish God’s transcendence will know that it is within the secular city that it has to be vindicated and that the transcendent and the numinous are to be seen not in a separated realm of religious practice but in human lives marked by an awe-inspiring self-forgetfulness, compassion, humility and courage. Such lives bear witness that we have here no continuing city, for we are looking for a city which is to come.

Institutions can become a fetish unless it is seen that their glory is not their own but the glory of Christ reflected in their self-effacement. The imagery in which Christians think about God can become a fetish if it circumscribes thought about God within the circle of religious interests and ceases to convey the God who cares about everything which happens in the world. Preoccupation about God’s laws can become a fetish if it allows devotion to the commands and the pro­hibitions to replace devotion to God whose commands and prohibitions they are. The Sacraments can become the focus of veneration instead of being windows into the sacrifice of Calvary and the actions of the living Christ. Equally the moods and phrases of evangelical piety can substitute a kind of self-contemplation for the self-forgetful contemplation of God and obedience to him. It is by a constant self-criticism of our own idolatries that we Christians can learn again and present to our contemporaries the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

( after Michael Ramsey)

Everybody matters– how do we  live up to those words.?

That precept is not only the title of Mary Robinson’s  autobiography, but also the core conviction that has guided virtually every step of her life on the world stage.

By any measure, Mary Robinson is a remarkable public servant and humanitarian.  She was the first woman president of Ireland, from 1990 to 1997, and then served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002.  The honorary president of Oxfam International since 2002, she has devoted herself to championing many good  causes. She is also a member of the Elders, global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela.  Her unstinting humanitarian work has garnered her the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Indira Gandhi and Sydney Peace Prizes.

In Everybody Matters, Robinson, who lives with her husband, Nick Robinson, in Dublin and Mayo, vividly and forthrightly recounts her own life and her struggle to make the world a fairer, more humane place through tireless, relentless advocacy of human rights.  Robinson, unlike most who write their “true” story, does not cast herself in a hazy hagiography of good deeds and self-serving triumphs.  To the contrary, the reader always gets the strong sense that no matter how many human-rights successes she has spearheaded, she believes she has barely scratched the proverbial surface.  The book’s clear, skillful prose gently exhorts one to believe that he or she can make a difference in ways great or small.

In rendering her life, Robinson also shows a deft narrative hand. Robinson was born in 1944, the only girl among five children in a devout Catholic family.  At first, she considered becoming a nun; instead, she went on to become a lawyer and activist who assailed entrenched unjustness and inhumanity – whether it lay in government, politics, or even the Catholic Church, as well as her own family.  As a dogged and brilliant lawyer, she won milestone civil-rights cases for women, the poor, gays, and minorities; in two decades in the Irish Senate, she was a progressive voice against traditional prejudices and outdated laws.  Taking on the Church, she helped legalize contraception, illegal without a prescription in Ireland until 1985. In 1990, she stunned the Irish political establishment by winning election as the nation’s first woman president.

Everybody Matters provides a riveting, thought-provoking, and introspective yet worldly examination of a remarkable woman and her life, but always in a way that shows that the author’s foremost concern remains those who suffer across the globe.

I think this is an important book because of the wisdom that emerges out of wise and humane self refection.  Many in power would do well to follow her example.

Everybody Matters is that rarest of memoirs –  and shows us that it really  does matter.

Laughter is one of the ways we cope with the discrepancies of our lives. There is a dream we all have for this world, and then there is, well, this world. There are expectations we have of our religions, and then there are our religions . . . Our capacity to love God, ourselves, people, and all of life grows with our capac­ity to laugh. We are ridiculous, and not to laugh at our religions, our worldviews, and our philosophies (that is, ourselves), would be a false witness . . . This ability to laugh in the midst of our imperfections in the presence of God is what we call grace.

Samir Selmanovic

and then my heart

pulled itself apart

and, filled to the brim

with a new light,

overflowed with fresh life.

now even the heavens

are thankful that

because of love

i have become

the giver of light

Rumi, ghazal  1393

The springtime of Lovers has come,

that this dust bowl may become a garden;

the proclamation of heaven has come,

that the bird of the soul may rise in flight.

The sea becomes full of pearls,

the salt marsh becomes sweet as kauthar,

the stone becomes a ruby from the mine,

the body becomes wholly soul.

Rumi

If you want what visible reality

can give, then you are: an underling.

If you want the unseen world,

you haven’t discovered the truth.

Both wishes are stupid.

Don’t worry about it.

It’s so easy not to know

that absolutely all you really want

is love’s confusing joy.

Rumi

God of hosts,
who so kindled the flame of love
in the heart of your servant George
that he bore witness to the risen Lord
by his life and by his death:
give us the same faith and power of love
that we who rejoice in his triumphs
may come to share with him the fullness of the resurrection;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Ephesians 6.10-20

<!– 10 –><!– The Whole Armour of God –>

<!– 10 –>Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. <!– 11 –>Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. <!– 12 –>For our<!– +fOther ancient authorities read your+e –> struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. <!– 13 –>Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. <!– 14 –>Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. <!– 15 –>As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. <!– 16 –>With all of these,<!– +fOr In all circumstances+e –> take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. <!– 17 –>Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

<!– 18 –>Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. <!– 19 –>Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,<!– +fOther ancient authorities lack of the gospel+e –> <!– 20 –>for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

one day a day woke up and

was sky, air, light

and itself. Later, evening

tapped my shoulder:

a reminder, a privilege,

a job to do. Record, it said

the elegance of the day’s decline,

and the perfect curves

of all that is left

of a tulip.

Denise Levertov

‘I am no longer my own but yours.
Put me to what you will,
rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing,
put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you,
or laid aside for you,
exalted for you,
or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.’

Amen.

From the Methodist Annual Covenant Service