Online Contemplative Worship Blog

Waiting - 3 To die before we die- and find it to be Life! Nunc Dimittis Luke 2.29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace : according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation; Which thou hast prepared : before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel. What does the “normal” Christian life look like? Someone who is regular in church on Sundays, who is community minded, helpful, has a friendly and un-aggressive manner, and who probably does not do much swearing, drinking or indulge in various naughty activities? Fair enough. Except. What’s the difference between an upright, moral, community minded person who helps their neighbour and avoids activities thought by society to be immoral -but who never goes to church, and perhaps has no belief in God of any kind? My answer to that is, probably nothing. Because the “normal” Christian life is not about being moral, acting kindly towards others and so on. Be...

Waiting 2 - Nunc Dimittis Luke 2.29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace : according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation; Which thou hast prepared : before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel. The New Testament doesn’t have much obvious worship material. The only prayer is the Our Father. There are a few hymns (or ‘canticles’) as Anglican call them Like the Song of Zazhariah (the Benedictus), the Song of Mary (Maginificat) and some snatches of hymns in the epistles, and some passages in Revelation - and the Nunc Dimittis - the Song of Simeon.  Strictly speaking I should leave this to February 2nd and the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple when the story of Simeon and Anna is remembered.  But it struck me about 10 years ago how important the Nunc Dimittis (Latin for ‘Now, Lord”) is for the celebration of waiting. The final wisdom in this life is to learn to rest. I...

When I was a teenager in the late 1960s each year I loved watching the Blue Peter presenters making an Advent Wreath out of a pair of wire clothes hangers and some tinsel and four candles. A few years later I enjoyed the Two Ronnies sketch set in a hardware shop and the hilarious conversation about ordering fork handles. In fact I've been known to produce fork handles on Advent Sunday. The Advent Wreath or Crown has become a standard part of keeping Advent in any liturgically based Christian congregation and it's even got official bits in the Church of England Advent material. It's a great way to count down to Christmas, balancing the advent calendar and much less fattening than 24 chocolates!. But just as, a few weeks ago, I was suggesting  that we would do better to live OUT of the moment, rather than IN it, so now I'm going to suggest that Advent will serve us better if we try to avoid thinking of it as countDOWN, but maybe think of it as a count UP.  Counting down i...