'Be good to me, O God.......

 .....your sea is so big, and my boat is so small'. This, or variations on it, is the famous Breton fishermen's prayer; often the first phrase- today's blog title- is missed out. It's struck me in times past that it's an honest statement of vulnerability, a plea for protection and safety.

But a re-acquaintance this week on retreat with the writings of Isaac the Syrian have helped me see it in a new way. This watery seventh century saint who grew up on the shores of the Persian Gulf uses the sea very often as a metaphor for God- boundless, inviting, home of great treasures. 

So I can now see the Breton prayer, uttered in colder, possibly more stormy and uncertain climes, as a call to explore, rather than a request for protection. Isaac would have us 'dive in' to God, be adventuresome, discover what the sea has to offer, wonder at its constant bounty. No need to utter a prayer for protection; God is good, the sea is good, we can revel in it, even far from land, know there are discoveries to be made, even in the depths. 

A boundless God invites us to explore. Shall we always paddle in the shallows?

what happens next?

Prof. Brian Cox's stunning new series 'Universe' - stunning because of the CGI stuff and the impossible numbers (know what a trillion years looks like?)- leaves me, and by extension, all thinking members of the faith- with a number of questions. But there are always more questions than answers, and perhaps the questions are more important..... 

To horse; he asserts, inter alia, that the universe will 'end' in 22 trillion years time, when the last star has burned up.(if I heard it right). I have no reason to disbelieve him. But it's a long time to wait for heaven- to put it at its simplest. Also, is that the right conclusion to draw, question to ask? 

I don't usually concern myself with the afterlife. It's enough to contend with whatever time I have here, making it holy and useful. But today being the feast of Christ the King, when at the end of the Christian year we celebrate the lordship of Christ over all creation, the cosmic Christ, questions about the end of time, the end of history, one's future beyond death, naturally arise. 

I will praise God this morning for the lordship of Christ over all. And continue to ask questions to which there may be few answers in this life. It's the reasonable, faithful response.     

 

Truth where you find it

 A modern translation of the Apocrypha arrived yesterday; the only copy we had was in the Authorised Version, and in very small print. Something more modern (and less taxing on the eye) was called for after an encounter with the Wisdom of Solomon earlier this week, which astounded me with its truth.

The author is talking of wisdom, personified, as in many parts of the wisdom literature in the Old Testament. For me, it's easiest to think of this as analagous to, even identified with, the Holy Spirit. And it was a marvellous passage, which increased my understanding of the person and work of God-as-Spirit. 

This engaging with the Apocrypha might draw a sharp intake of breath, a knitting of brows, in some sections of the Christian community. But if  Wisdom/the Holy Spirit is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile. clear, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent, pure and altogether subtle  (Wisdom of Solomon chapter 7)- then why should not truth be found, be communicated to me from these scriptures?

I've come at this in a roundabout way; the Spirit/Wisdom  has spoken to me through the mundane, the ordinary, the quotidian stuff of life, as these blogs have tried to demonstrate. So why not through the apocryphal writings of holy men, the lives of holy men and women such as are found in that bit of the Bible which much of the faithful ignore? The defence rests, mi Lud. 

I shall carry on reading.......

The box and the present

 I and was amused earlier in the week to watch a young toddler unwrap his present, and then proceed to play with the wrapping paper. Every parent, everyone who has watched children, will smile a wry smile at this; we've seen it before. We've seen it before because we've probably done it before ourselves when young. The box it came in, the paper it was wrapped in, all more fun-filled than the present itself.  Well, boxes provide endless opportunities for creative play, don't they?

And this has a direct parallel with how we might approach the faith. Get so wrapped up in church that God misses out. Become so concerned with the fripperies that the relationship with God never materialises, or suffers as we put all our energy into the secondary stuff, forgetting the primary love, love for God. 

You would think that the Great Commandment makes it clear enough- to love God with all our passion, with all our prayer, with all our energy and all our intelligence ('The Message' translation), but we miss the mark more than hitting it, If our attention isn't on the fripperies, then it's somewhere else altogether, and loving God doesn't come into the picture at all. 

Advent is approaching- a penitential season. Time to take stock- the present inside the box (discovering the love of God again in a new way) or being content with the wrappings, seductive as they are. Seductive, but only wrappings.