John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

Unity - without a victim

... Uniting like this is normal human behaviour, from the playground to the bartering-floor of the stock exchange. Groups of people get together to put things right with each other by putting someone else away. I’m keenly aware of this today, having heard that one of the influential people in my journey of faith, Janet Henderson, a woman of intelligence and integrity who was my personal tutor at theological college, has resigned as Dean of Llandaff Cathedral after just two months in post. The reason given in the newspapers is a dispute with the cathedral choir over fees for a TV appearance; but they also report an underlying cause - the opposition she received from some clergy who object to a woman being appointed. ‘I ask ... that they may be one’, prayed Jesus to his Father; unfortunately it seems that unity for the cathedral has come at the cost of another person’s vocation. ...

- from my talk today, John 17 - Unity - without a victim.

Up

Have you ever wondered why, when the time came for him to leave his people on earth to return to his Father in heaven, Jesus chose to go up?

He could have gone forwards, he could have gone backwards, he could have gone sideways, he could have gone downwards; but he chose to go up.

He could have gone forwards. Like Alice through the looking glass or the children entering Narnia through the wardrobe, Jesus could have stepped through a gap in space-time, his disciples watching the air in front of them ripple like liquid as Jesus stepped ahead into it and through it, and in the next instant when all was normal again, finding him gone.

He could have gone backwards, simply pulling away gently from the group of friends as they walked and talked together, until they realised he was not with them, and as they looked back, finding that he was not there.

He could have gone sideways, launching himself from the mountainside like a freefall parachutist, arms wide open in a gesture like the crucifixion but now floating, freely, gracefully away out of sight.

Or he could have gone downwards; down into Galilee’s waters, in an act recalling his baptism, this time the waters gently closing over his head as he surfaced no more.

But Jesus chose to go up. As we say in our creed, ‘he ascended into heaven’. The direction he chose is significant. Why go up? ....

- the start of my Ascension Day talk, Up, posted a couple of days late.

Where we are placed on the way to the city

Have you noticed how the story of God and humankind begins in a garden and ends in a city? Eden is our Paradise Lost - and the start of our separation from God; the new Jerusalem, the holy city coming down out of heaven, completes our reunion with God, it is the location of our everlasting union, in a place which is endlessly fruitful, endlessly generous, full of light, a place of blessing for each of its inhabitants.

And inbetween the broken promise of Eden and the light of the new Jerusalem - we journey each day in places which carry elements of both; places of promises made and promises broken, places of light and darkness, places we love and places we hate, places where we feel safe and secure and places where we feel vulnerable. As followers of Jesus Christ we believe that we are moving in the overall direction of the new Jerusalem, drawn by its light. But in everyday life we sometimes struggle to make our way. ...

from today's talk, Where we are placed on the way to the city.