John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

Becoming human in a post-fear world

It is in embracing the humanity of Jesus that we become human ourselves... When we realise that God is human, a new age dawns for us; no longer bound to be victims in a post-truth society, but prime movers in a post-fear world.

- from my Christmas Eve midnight talk, Becoming human in a post-fear world. Happy Christmas, reader.

 

Joseph in dreams - sleeping on it is what wise people do

Writing with hope, about the challenges of the times we are living in, the activist Rebecca Solnit says, ‘The future is dark, with a darkness as much of the womb as of the grave.’

Solnit's inspiring Hope in the Dark, Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities - quoted in my talk today, Joseph in dreams - sleeping on it is what wise people do.

 

Weak hands and feeble knees

She was struggling to get on the bus with all the bags she was carrying. Bags full of food - mince pies, cooked chicken, spare ribs, peanuts. Bags full of gifts - teddies for the granddaughters, plastic cars for the grandsons, chocolates, whisky, scarves and hankies for her grown-up sons and daughters. A bag containing two boxes of Christmas cards. And her handbag, carrying a purse which was quite a lot lighter than it had been when she'd set out hours earlier that morning on another Christmas shopping trip. 

Her hands were weak carrying all that weight; her knees felt like they were giving way. So she was very, very pleased when the young man getting on the bus behind her asked if he could take some of her bags on for her; and she was even more pleased when the same thing happened at the other end of her journey as the lady she'd sat next to helped her up and handed some of the bags to her as she got down onto the pavement to make the last few hundred yards walk home.

Strengthen the weak hands, 

and make firm the feeble knees. 

Say to those who are of a fearful heart, 

'Be strong, do not fear! 

Here is your God. 

He will come ... and save you.’

How does God come and save you? God comes and saves you through the goodness of others. ...

... the start of today's talk, Weak hands and feeble knees.

The Shoot from the Stump in the Advent of Trump

... In light of this week’s headlines about those many young footballers whose lives were so blighted by abuse, now that it is out in the open like a shoot breaking forth from a dead tree stump, is it possible for us to begin to imagine a coming future where a survivor of incest or abuse finds the strength and inspiration to go on to help others survive? I believe it is. I believe it because the force which brings life out of the dormant earth, the shoot breaking through from the stump, is alive and active in the world. 

- from my talk today, The Shoot from the Stump in the Advent of Trump.