Lost and Found

The idea of being found is something very special and a key Biblical concept. There are, for instance, the three 'lost and found' stories - about the sheep, the coin and the son - but they are just some of the best known among many such examples. Brother David Steindl-Rast picks up this notion in his Gratefulness: the Heart of Prayer, writing: (p. 117) – “I find. But what I find is not what I was looking for. I find that what I was after, without knowing it, wasn’t finding at all, but being found. And at that moment I am found.”

Finding is something that produces great joy, as does being found. It is worth remembering how God comes looking for us.

Weather Report

I want to share another thought from Brother David Steindl-Rast's Gratefulness; the Heart of Prayer. The book helps us to see something of the way in which God takes things beyond our understanding In this particular passage he mixes two metaphors, food and the weather, and uses them to helpfully indicate the importance and value of recognising that different ways of doing things each have something vital to contribute.

Steindl-Rast writes: 
p. 110/1 – “The banquet of life is the challenge to cultivate and broaden our taste. Every one of us begins with a provincial taste. Life challenges us to acquire a cosmopolitan, a truly catholic taste. In this learning process, some of us falter at the simplest exercises. Think, for instance, of the weather. With every change of weather a new adventure awaits us; each new season has its own recipes for dishing up new surprises. And we? ……  to give ourselves to the sea breeze on a spring day is one thing; to step out into the mist and fog of a winter morning with the same sense of adventure demands more courage. Yet, if we draw back, how can we ever taste the unique flavour that only fog can convey to our heart, as it hides and reveals, conceals and shows again trees with dripping twigs and people in raincoats with dripping noses. How much of life is lost on us unless we can enjoy every kind of weather in its own way? How can we expect to find life in fullness unless we learn to live “by every word that comes from the mouth of God”?”

We need to experience and value the greatness of God - stepping out into the sunshine and the fog, in other words, whatever the weather.

God's Message Hits The Spot

I have been reading Brother David Steindl-Rast's Gratefulness: The Heart of Prayer and was particularly struck  by a passage in which he explores how God speaks to us in different, but relevant, ways. Just as we think we have got things pinned down, God comes from another angle, challenging, encouraging, inspiring, whatever it is that we need.

Steindl-Rast writes: 

"p. 108/9 – “God’s faithfulness needs to be spelled out in ever new forms forever and ever. Everything there is in the whole universe exists for no other reason than to get this message across. In faith the heart intuits this secret. God’s message is always the same. But the way the message is expressed makes all the difference. You may perceive the message in an apple orchard in full bloom. But the same message is also there in a forest fire. The difference would be bewildering, but to discover the same message in different disguises turns it all into a delightful game, a spelling game. That horse frolicking in the meadow is one way to spelling out God’s Word; the cat asleep in my lap is another. Each is unique, untranslatable. Poems can’t be translated; they can at best be approximated in a different language. In a poem the language counts as much as the message. God is the poet. If we want to know what God says in a tomato, we must look at a tomato, feel it, smell it, bite into it, have the juice and seeds squirt all over us when it pops. We must savour it and learn this tomato poem “by heart.” But what God must say can’t be exhausted in tomato language. So, God gives us lemons and speaks in Lemonese. Living by the Word means learning God’s languages, one by one, a lifetime long.”

It is not that God gives different messages - but it is that God gives relevant messages.

An Easter Reflection

Mark 16, verse 8 – So they went out and ran from the tomb, distressed and terrified.They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. It is widely believed by scholars that this is how Mark’s Gospel originally ended, and that what follows is a later addition.

That describes an interesting response to Easter – and one that is somewhat different from how we expect to be marking this momentous point in our faith history. What are we about if we are not about Easter? Easter is the high-point. Easter provides our driving-force. Easter is to be celebrated – in a big way! But Mark tells us that those who first encountered Easter were distressed and terrified, saying nothing to anyone.

In a sense, this is not what we expect – but, on the other, we can very clearly see it as an entirely understandable reaction. Can you even begin to imagine what it would have felt like to be there with those women? You have gone, somewhat apprehensively, to pay your last respects. You have taken spices, a last demonstration of your love. However, you have wondered if it was all going to be pointless. How on earth would you get access to the tomb? Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb? You have wondered what you were doing, and yet somehow felt compelled to go. If the stone prevented you from doing all that you wished, at least you will have tried. So, anxiously, nervously, you make your way to the site of the tomb. And, when you get there, indeed it does prove to have been pointless to bring spices to anoint a body. But that is nothing to do with not being able to access the tomb. Instead, and this must have been so beyond what they were expecting, they see a young man, an angel, who tells them: Don’t be alarmed. I know you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is not here – he has been raised.

How would you have reacted? What would you have done with this information? It is so different looking back, once again, to a story that we know so well from how it must have been to actually be there receiving this unexpected news. No wonder they were distressed and terrified. No wonder they kept quiet.

It is worth remembering that Mark tells us about two other occasions when the disciples were terrified and silent in response to what Jesus had done. In Mark 4 we have the account of how Jesus calmed a storm. How did the disciples respond? With exultant joy? No! But they were terribly afraid and said to one another, “Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” And there is a similar response to the incredible scene which we now normally call the transfiguration. The three disciples, Peter, James and John, have seen this amazing vision of Jesus alongside Moses and Elijah. How did they respond? Peter and the others were so frightened that he did not know what to say.

It is interesting that, throughout the Bible, the initial response of human beings who have caught a glimpse of the wonder and glory of God is one of a bit of wonder, yes, but strongly tinged with fear and confusion. The same could be said, for instance, of Moses’ encounter with God through the burning bush and Isaiah’s temple vision.

But, if we are a little disappointed in such responses, it may be that that is exactly what is wanted from us. Because it is surely when we see, no matter how much we understand it, how they reacted, and perhaps think that they should have responded differently, that we begin to realise that the call to discipleship, our call to discipleship, is serious and engages us deeply. Because the question of the moment in all of these situations is essentially – will you continue to follow Jesus? And, today, Easter, and every Easter but, more than that, every day, we are faced with the same question – will you, will I, continue to follow the Jesus?  Putting it differently, will we walk the way?

Brief address given at the early service on Easter Day 2018 at Grays United Reformed Church