Infinite grace and freedom

 By a roundabout route, I have come this week to understand more of the scope of grace, and my limitless (note that word) freedom-in-God. I'm a big fan of arte.tv, the pan-european tv network, which although it doesn't broadcast live to the UK, has a wonderful i-player facility. This week I caught up with a programme on the the death marches from Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45. As the soviets advanced westward, concentration camps were abandoned, and inmates- no, let's call them prisoners- were forced to march under guard back to other camps on German soil. Thousands died on the way, either from exhaustion, disease, or were shot by the guards. Often the villages they marched through treated them despicably. If a train was provided, it was open cattle wagons; this in the middle of winter. I groaned at many points, shocked by what I had not known before. 

The depth of human depravity shocked me afresh. The depth of what we can do is only limited by our human finity. God has truly given us freedom of will and action -including the freedom to be as depraved as we care to be. But thankfully, the grace and mercy of God is far more extensive than even the deep, deep depths of our human depravity. It is limitless. These are easy words to say; I suspect many of us will have trotted them out without thought to what we have affirmed. This week I realised more of the dimensions of grace and freedom-in-God. That it is limitless became more real.   

Ok, slow learner. But still learning, and more thankful, more wanting to explore a bigger dimension. 

sunset

 It's been a week or more of spectacular sunsets here, which I am privileged to watch straight out of the front window. Every afternoon from about four to five o'clock this free show unfolds before me low on the horizon.  All different of course, in colour, form, intensity, length and breadth, in their interaction with cloud. All never to be repeated in exactly the same form. 

The casual glory is astounding. Why should this green and blue planet have  awesome sunrises, sunsets? Yes, I know it's to do with science, meteorology, and probably other -ologies besides, but it's not inevitable, is it, that we should be faced with such unnoticed, unrepeatable beauty day after day? Surely it's a gift?

'The heavens declare the glory of God' says the psalmist. Understated, but true in my book. Pointing to God's playfulness, inexhaustible creativity, wonder, desire for his creatures to enjoy life and beauty; point back to himself. It's something of a self portrait, not complete, but hinting at his personality. Rembrandt, in his fifty nine self portraits plumbed the depths of his own personality over a lifetime like no-one before or since, but these divine portraits just give us hints. Large ones, on a massive canvas, but whispers, maybe love letters, to those who would read them aright. There is still something to explore beyond all the -logies .        

the thought police

 I'm struck this week in the gospel narrative by the activities of the religious thought police. They're everywhere, squeezing into the back of the crowd to monitor, make note of, Jesus' activities, so threatening to the status quo. Not afraid to be seen, either- they question him at what seems like every opportunity; 'who are you? what right have you to do this? the law says otherwise!'

In truth, it's a role which most of us will have adopted at one time or another, although some have made it their life's work to make sure the rules/the prevailing culture/the law are adhered to, and preferably to the very last detail. In the end it's a joyless occupation, with bitterness and suspicion at its root. 

By contrast the impetus of the Spirit of God has about it a freedom, a joy, a life-affirming quality, I could do with it in bucket loads. There's a cynicism in the present culture, and God is far from front and centre. If only there were more instances of life-affirming joy in the endless dimensions of the kingdom! If only..... well, it could begin with me, although it would give the present-day religious thought-police reason to be active.....   

The crib

 The Magi arrived on schedule at the crib on Thursday morning, having travelled a few inches every day across the coffee table towards their destination. Everyone will have their own stories about their children's grasp (or otherwise) of what the Christmas crib scene meant; the two which remain for Mary and I are that the Magi were first understood as 'the grandads', a term which occasionally resurfaces as we contemplate the scene; and that an earlier stable, since replaced, with straw on the floor, seemed a suitably agricultural venue to run a toy tractor through, disturbing the peace of the Holy Family as they were knocked over........

There is something almost complete in the scene now- all the actors are there. It appears crowded, almost excited (and why wouldn't it be?) from certain angles. The latest stable- they have all been modelled from cardboard boxes and needed replacing after a while- is by far the smallest, hence the crowded feeling. All it requires is you, me, to be there. 

If you can imagine the scene in your mind, with all the 'extras'- animals, shepherds, wise men, an angel floating above,-where would you put yourself?  What, or who, are you drawn to in the scene? Do you see what shepherds and Magi see- someone beyond a baby?  

hidden, ordinary

 After the extraordinary portents surrounding Jesus' birth, he sinks into obscurity for about 30 years- about ninety percent of his earthly life- before he begins his public ministry. That is, apart from the pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem when he was about twelve, as recorded by Luke. 

These hidden years, these ordinary years, have had stories stamped on them of fantastical incidents- all found outside the canonical gospels. All dismissed as unlikely. Curiosity about this hidden life is natural, but it will have to stand as it is, a message to us that the ordinary, the routine, the repetitive, the unexciting, the workaday; all this is a fertile field for God. Luke records that it was in this period that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, finding favour with God and neighbour. 

This new year will start with high hopes, heightened perhaps by the restrictions of recent times. Hopes of a resumption of a more .'normal' routine may have influenced our wishes for 2022. But it will be, as it always is, that in the ordinary, the routine, the unexciting, the repeated task, the workaday, that we grow in wisdom, in the favour of God and neighbour. Doing little things with great love, as Mother Teresa had it. Well, these little things account for ninety percent of life. Probably more.  .