This morning’s gathering was inspired by Fiona’s excellent input last Sunday, focusing on seeds and involving a beautiful walk in glorious autumn sunshine, our book that we are starting to study ‘Short stories by Jesus’ by Amy-Jill Levine and an article – worth googling – entitled ‘Trees have feeling too’ by Peter Wohlleben. I guess I was also influenced by my increasing love trees fostered by our meeting among them week on week.

We began reading literal translations of the 3 versions of the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew, Mark and Luke) noting that the seed was sown in the ground, by a person in his field, or cast by a man in his garden, where it became the greatest of vegetables – or a tree – and birds rested under its shadow – or in its branches.

We compared popular interpretations of the parable and why Levine dismisses these on the basis of misinformation of the context / Jewish law or the banality of a simplistic and non-challenging message. Parables are meant to challenge and provoke and unsettle… A suggested reading was as follows (acknowledging that these are not the only messages possible and that parables should speak to us in different ways in different circumstances just as Jesus would have used and adapted them…):

(i) Some things need to be left alone – the seed succeeds without our interfering! If we interfere it won’t succeed! Not everything or everyone needs our constant attention!
(ii) Sometimes we need to get out of the way! We are not always the focus. We are sometimes the facilitator for something bigger than ourselves but what’s sown and grows is much more important than the one who sowed it.
(iii) The setting is domestic – a field or a garden – the kingdom of God is to be found in our own backyard. Don’t ask when or where it might be. The when is its own good time and the where is that it is already present, inchoate, in the world. We might put it – find out what God’s doing – spot the kingdom! – and join in!

Taking the Trees article with us, we had 15 minutes or so to visit 3 different species of trees  – to take time to wonder and to address a question at each:

Tree 1. Is there anyone or anything that I need to leave alone? Can I trust God to take care of a situation that I can’t fix?

Tree 2. Where do I need to get out of the way? Is there any situation where I need to step back? What might be important but doesn’t have to be about me?

Tree 3. Where have I seen God’s kingdom in my own backyard recently? In the coming week, what little things could I do to join in and be part of it?

We met up under the weeping beech to share prayer concerns and then bread and wine – using these brilliant words (which we aren’t sure the provenance of):

On this plate with the bread
We place, O Lord, our purposeful action:
Our aspirations, achievements, work,
Those who are closest to us,
Those whose lives are bound up with our personal lives,
Our neighbours and those with whom we work…

And with these, we unite those more distant to us:
The whole of anonymous mankind
Scattered in every corner of the globe;
Our distant brothers and sisters remembering you in bread and wine today
A multitude of people, each reflecting your image, each needing your grace…

And not only the living, but also the dead
We remember those who have inspired us and gone before us…

Into these cups we pour our sorrows
Our failings and pain,
Our joys and our successes.

May all life – past, present and future, near and far –
Now be elevated at this altar
In a glorious communion
And in the hope of your coming kingdom.

Amen.

We hope this might inspire some readers to find the article or to get out and visit a few remarkable trees and learn to be challenged by them!

Last night we had a good evening together swapping books or at least book titles that we have each discovered and thoroughly enjoyed. So these are the things that  we brought this time:

Robert Galbraith’s 3 ‘Whodunnits’ beginning with ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’ – grizzly and captivating!
Victoria Hyslop’s ‘The Island’ – great story-telling and an extraordinary insight into a leper colony in Europe in such recent times.
Robin Schneider’s ‘Extraordinary Means’ – stories within a T.B. Sanatorium
Barbara Nadel’s ‘A Private Business’ – another cracking detective novel
Nicci French’s ‘Blue Monday’ and ensuing books following the days of the week
Tan Twan Eng’s ‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ – poetic and poignant
Claire Mackintosh’s ‘I let you go’ –easy holiday reading that you can’t put down
Sarah Winman’s ‘A year of Marvellous Ways’ – touching book about love and loss and death through magical realism.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s ‘Gift from the sea’ – which influenced Celtic prayers of the Northumbria Community – beautiful and deep
A DVD (!) the French film ‘Untouchable’ – along the lines of ‘Me before you’ – funny and sad and thought-provoking.

Eça de Queirós’ ‘The Crime of Father Amaro’ – in translation! A satire of the Church – thought-provoking and a favourite book.
Why not join us in giving someone else’s discovery a try?

If you had to lose one of your 5 senses which would you choose?

A couple of weeks ago, due to a rather nasty virus, I completely lost my sense of smell – something that apparently in rare cases can be knocked out permanently. For a couple of weeks, the prospect of never being able to smell fresh coffee, newly laundered sheets or the herb basil (my favourite smell of all) ever again, was a disheartening thought.

Smell – hardly one of the most dynamic senses; it just sort of ‘hangs around’…yet, it’s the sense that’s most strongly connected to memory and can have a profound effect on our emotions and actions. Folks this morning talked of childhood memories, anticipation and exhilaration – all triggered by different smells.

We went for a sensory walk and we breathed deep and slow allowing the sights, sounds and of course, the smells of creation, to speak to us of God’s Grace. After a shape-shifting torrid week of political change it was good to step out of the mayhem.

2 Corinthians 2 14-16 says: “Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life.”

Two people who have appeared in the newspapers seemed to me to be a perfect example of this. Jo Cox – the Labour MP recently murdered and Bob Holman – a Christian who, as a successful academic, left status and lifestyle to live among the severely disadvantaged in Glasgow.
“Enthusiasm, kindness, love of life, fierce advocacy in her work and unwavering belief in the goodness of everyone she met.”
“He would help to fill in benefit forms, speak on people’s behalf at tribunals, find money for a new washing machine, or accompany a youngster to court.”

That’s a scent to bottle.

Our prayers for reconciliation, healing and those who are in turmoil or suffering, drifted up on Frankincense incense sticks and we continued to carry them in our walk until we shared bread and wine where we said these words together:

In this God-breathed bread and wine
everyone can receive – no one is out – everyone is in
In this God-touched bread and wine
our bondage is broken and we are reconciled
In this God –blessed bread and wine
we have a symbol of hope and a foretaste of kingdom freedom
feel it
smell it
taste it
take it in
and know it does you good.

Do we bring ‘an aroma redolent with life’ to people? Perhaps it might not be anything more dramatic than the way smell seems to operate – by just hanging around – but what a profound effect that aroma can have.

I was struck by the grace-filled words from the Archbishop of Canterbury when he reacted to the discovery that the man who had raised him was not his genetic father.
“There is no existential crisis, and no resentment against anyone. My identity is founded in who I am in Christ.”
Our identity: so easily and quickly defined by where we come from, what we do; the pigeon-holes we put ourselves and others into.
J Philip Newell in his book “Echo of the Soul” explores what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God.
“The dimensions of us that defy definition are closer to the essence of our being than any outward characteristics of our lives. The known and the unknown are like the two sides of a crescent moon. Our inner self is the dark and hidden side. Our deepest identity is found in these unknown dimensions of our being.
Our inwardness is absolutely unique. It is to these inner depths that we are being recalled.”
I am still not entirely sure what this means for me, (and for some of us, this was too much of a nod to dualistic thinking) but the words we used as part of our liturgy this morning went some way to enabling that recalling. (apologies that I can’t give a link for this – please let us know if you wrote it!)

This is who I am –
Image of God –
Born of God’s breath –
Vessel of divine Love –
After his likeness –
Dwelling of God-
Capacity for the infinite –
Eternally known –
Chosen of God –
Home of the infinite majesty –
Abiding in the Son –
Called from eternity –
Life in the Lord –
Temple of the Holy Spirit –
Branch of Christ –
Receptacle of the Most High
Wellspring of Living Water –
Heir of the kingdom –
The glory of God –
Abode of the Trinity –
eternally in his Word –
This is who I am