Hemmed in but not held back.

Posted on Jun 12, 2022 by M Emlyn Humphries

When he established the heavens, I was there, …I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.
Proverbs 8:27‭-‬31 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/pro.8.27-31.NRSV

Tiny but perfect moth on a Sage Bush.

Therefore, 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. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Romans 5:1‭-‬5 NRSV https://bible.com/bible/2016/rom.5.1-5.NRSV

This is about persecution. It is also about a work of the Spirit. First of all the work of Christ is to bring us peace. Further we are made like him and this our boast, through grace we become like Christ. He became human that we might be glorified, brought into the heavenly council.

What is the suffering here? I am not sure it can include anything other than the suffering of persecution, the sense of being hemmed in, an inner feeling. Overcoming this in the spirit produces fruit, as we learn to trust in the face of tribulation. This happens as we open our hearts to God’s love and are made able to stand.

It worries me if we are to include all suffering here, as the verse becomes a burden for those who suffer abuse, torment or physical ailments. I do not believe we are called to put up with such suffering, let alone boast about it, or think that God somehow is using it to form our character. However, when we feel hemmed in by persecution, then I think God helps us overcome that inner suffering to produce endurance, perseverance and hope.

Jesus warns us that being a follower of the Way will be hard and the promise here is that we can stand when people bring all manner of accusations against us.

The key for me is God pouring his love into our hearts, in the midst of our disappointment, to sow hope and form character.

God is good and it would not in my opinion be a good thing for God to inflict us to build character. It is good however to help us stand when we are attacked. We must not allow God’s word to become the doorway to abusers who would encourage you to put up with “it” as it’s good for you. That’s coercive . If anyone is ill or afflicted I would be wrong to say, just put up with it, it’s making you a better person. That’s cruel and lacks compassion.

God is with us and for us. We are called to stand with the afflicted and seek their good, to stand with the marginalised. When it all goes wrong and we are misunderstood, or we lose everything and suffer injustice, so that our hearts are bursting with hurt, then God pours in his love and the weakness becomes God’s strength and we’re not held back.

Posted in Meditation, meeting | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Our Babel

Posted on Jun 5, 2022 by M Emlyn Humphries
Psalm 104 LORD, how manifold are your works!

There were three of us this morning. Damp weather, family gatherings and work…

But the Holy Spirit turned up in our love for the world, our love for one another and our love for God.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
John 14:15‭-‬17 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/jhn.14.15-17.NRSV

We gather round a table, share news, share our lives, share a drink and a bite to eat. This is the characteristic of our gathering followed by a form of reading from the set readings for the Sunday; a reading from the Hebrew Bible, a Psalm, a letter to the early Christians and a reading from the accounts of the life of Jesus (a gospel).

Then as a community we listen to one another as we share what we find encouraging, what we find difficult and what we find a barrier in what we have read. We follow a rule in how we conduct ourselves, of brevity, not sorting one another out and embracing stillness in listening. Children can be part of this and are welcome to build draw or play, sharing what that have created if they want to or what they heard in the readings.

To end we pray the prayer shared by Jesus and a blessing of peace. Rarely we sing and monthly we share bread and wine.

This is a form of worship and the meal at its centre has become our Tower of Babel. Through a table gathering and the sharing of food, be it breaking bread or a fish breakfast, Jesus shows himself. But the table is the ground of division in the church.

God has chosen to unite us by dividing the fire of glory among us reversing the curse of Babel.

Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Acts 2:3‭-‬4 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.2.3-4.NRSV

Jesus calls the church his body and sows peace. We take the gift and build a tower of words to set us apart. Jesus says to everyone to gather and we construct reasons why all may not.

Our heart at Takeley is to not do this, but I am sure that in my writing this, we have already been labelled. I believe what we do is a way and brings the Way of Jesus to all ways and enables us to hear in each of our languages the Word of the Spirit, the Voice of God. I recognise in it though a challenge to the gatekeepers of our faith and for this I am truly sorry.


Broken by Ray Davies BBC


BBC drama Broken ‘all about the Eucharist’, says McGovern – The Tablet

Posted in Meditation, meeting | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Cosmic battle

Posted on May 29, 2022 by M Emlyn Humphries

This morning we continued in Acts 16. Paul angrily delivers a slave girl of a spirit of divination and the locals become angry.

When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods….

Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened….
Acts 16:20‭-‬22‭, ‬26‭-‬27 NRSV https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.16.20-27.NRSV

The gods lost control of one of their servants and the people and authorities acted, had them flogged and thrown in prison. In the depth of the night while Paul and Silas sing God’s praises, God acts and shakes the earth, demonstrating to the principalities and powers that the earth was his, freeing his servants.

Paul brings the Way to Europe and the battle heats up.

Paul tells us that in bringing the Way, our battle is not with people but with principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12). The chosen weapon of the gods was fear, fear about the economy and status of Philippi.

In this story we glimpse the cosmic battle. God reclaims the nation through the preaching of Paul, deliverance and the shaking of the ground.

The jailer decides to fall on his sword when he sees the prison doors burst open. His masters are harsh.

Paul acts kindly to save him. And as with Lydia’s household the jailer seeks salvation showing kindness back soothing the wounds inflicted by his masters.

At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
Acts 16:33‭-‬34 NRSV https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.16.33-34.NRSV

A modern world view divorced of the heavenly realm, obscures this cosmic story. I wonder if with the current threats to our sense of entitlement and what we see in the news whether this world view needs challenging.

We are in a time of trial. If we opened our eyes what would we see? Maybe a heavenly host and acts of kindness. We need delivering from our slavish enthralment to Mammon and claim the ground for community and neighbourliness through steadfast love, truth and faithfulness in Christ.

https://www.fullofeyes.com/project/2-kings-615-17/

For our 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.
Ephesians 6:12 NRSVhttps://bible.com/bible/2016/eph.6.12.NRSV

Posted in meeting | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

My peace I give you…

Posted on May 22, 2022 by M Emlyn Humphries

On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.
Acts 16:13 NRSV https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.16.13.NRSV

On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:2 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/rev.22.2.NRSV

The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.
Psalms 67:6‭-‬7 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/psa.67.6-7.NRSV

A typical East Anglian view

And this from Tolkien, shared with us this morning…

“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”

Posted in meeting | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

What’s so new about that?

Posted on May 15, 2022 by M Emlyn Humphries

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34‭-‬35 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/jhn.13.34-35.NRSV

So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”
Acts 11:2‭-‬3 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.11.2-3.NRSV

To be a community, there will be a rule. The rule will define the people who follow it and be what outsiders will expect to see. Any rule Christians may devise will have regard for the whole of the Bible while not being scripture. The creeds are an example of this and maybe our members handbook. There is nothing wrong with this.

As Christians, our truth will start with the teachings of Jesus as much as we are able to discern them. The truth is that Jesus’ teaches that, by the spirit we will know the truth and be set free. Could silence before God be the source of wisdom, not wrestling with words?

But what if the rule book defines who you are? What if the 600 odd regulations of the Law of Moses is your identity, keeping the Sabbath being the central one? What if the food laws were what you would die for?

This is where the Jewish Christians found themselves. But this wasn’t just any rule, it was a law mediated by angels. By what authority had Peter to change things? A trance, a vision, a voice!

When the spirit descended on Gentiles, Christians had to rewrite the rule book. The community had to be more inclusive. Jesus in his teachings had prepared them for this rupture with the past.

Jesus taught that the rule that would distinguish his followers would be their love for one another. This is why it was a new command as the old one was one of law. His blunt statement means that whatever our rule, whatever our creed or history, only one thing defines us; our love for one another.

Posted in meeting | Tagged , , | 1 Comment