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It is a personal spiritual discipline to walk and pray every weekday morning from All Saints (Nov 1) to Candlemas (Feb 2) with a singular intention. This year is for healing of the Nations and People. It is blessing to be able to walk around the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, the Royal Children's Hospital, Roxburgh House and the Royal Cornhill Hospital, starting with Daily Prayers and ending with the Rosary, each morning.
Each day, listening to the Psalmist, the Prophets and followed by the Revelations of St John is a blessing. Today, the Psalmist was lauder than usual. It must be the resonance of his words that filled me with confidence and commitment to prayer. Hear the Psalmist (Psalm 5) Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my lamentation. Hearken to the voice of my crying, my King and my God, for to you I make my prayer. In the morning, Lord, you will hear my voice; early in the morning I make my appeal to you, and look up. For you are the God who takes no pleasure in wickedness; no evil can dwell with you. The boastful cannot stand in your sight; you hate all those that work wickedness. 6You destroy those who speak lies; the bloodthirsty and deceitful the Lord will abhor. But as for me, through the greatness of your mercy, I will come into your house; I will bow down towards your holy temple in awe of you. Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness, because of my enemies; make your way straight before my face. For there is no truth in their mouth, in their heart is destruction, their throat is an open sepulchre, and they flatter with their tongue. Punish them, O God; let them fall through their own devices. Because of their many transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them sing out their joy for ever. You will shelter them, so that those who love your name may exult in you. For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous; and with your favour you will defend them as with a shield.
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'Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation' (Luke 21.34) is the invitation from the Lord on the First Sunday in Advent 2024. It is tempting to think of 'dissipation' as a weather forecast as if the day is going to be day of dissipation. However, the root meaning of this word is 'the squandering of money, energy, or resources'. How wonderful it to be reminded at the beginning of Advent to be on guard against the squandering of money, energy and resources. Squandering of money may sound alien to the Church. Sadly, it was reported earlier this year that the contrary is true. It was reported this summer that our beloved Scottish Episcopal Church is a victim of 'Dissipation' and there is nothing to show for it at the end. How do we respond to the invitation by our Lord to be on guard? Indifference and apathy are not the options. Advent is a time of contemplation on the FOUR LAST THINGS: DEATH, JUDGEMENT, HELL AND HEAVEN. It is of utmost importance that we contemplate on the Four Last Things, that would enable us to be on guard.
Advent is a season of Homewards journey, away from the pursuit of self to all that is love. It is a time of waiting. Waiting is demanding and difficult because we are no longer in control but the One we wait for is. The One we wait for comes to lead us home. So, our Homewards journey which seems harder becomes a joy because we are being led by love.
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus portrays the Homewards journey as a journey driven by love. The lost son finds himself in the joy of Homewards journey. The pleasures he pursued left him empty and the promise of home coming fills him with inward peace. Each step of the way he delights in the thought of 'Home.' It is this journey that the Royal Foundation seeks to offer initially those who are homeless but ultimately to every human soul, through Homewards. Today, we gather to Rejoice! Is it not premature to Rejoice as we still make our way through the darkness of the season into the mystery of God’s love? You may wonder!!
Come, let us explore together the call to ‘Rejoice in the Lord, Always’. The ‘Act of ‘Rejoicing’ in the Christian worship and witness is a curious one like most of our faith in action. When we consider some of the reasons for rejoicing in our Christian Tradition in the Scriptures, we realise that they are most ridiculous. The best of them all is what our Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’ (Matthew 5.11-12). I suspect the Lord read the Prophet Habakkuk too closely. ‘Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. (Hab 3.17-18) In keeping company with our Lord Jesus and his company, I suspend all human reasoning at this point in the Christian season and rely on the Divine reason alone. That divine reason takes us through some most exciting places. We hear Psalmist say, ‘Darkness is not dark to you. Darkness and light to you are both alike!’ (Ps 139.12) In this divine reason, ‘darkness and light are both alike’ for we know, ‘for with you (God) is the well of life and in your light we see light.’(Ps 36.9) Is this some kind of mystery language? Well this week was punctuated by some exciting moments that if you hear me speak in mystical language, then here is some liturgical reasoning. On Wednesday of this week was the first of three Ember days of Advent/winter. We fast and pray during the Embertide on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. And the Wednesday Emberday coincided with the feast of St Ambrose. Those of us who have taken time to examine the inside of ‘Ciborium’ i.e. the canopy over the Cathedral main altar would have come across the ‘Doctors of the Church’ i.e. of the Ancient Church like the Aberdeen Doctors of the Reformation Church. St Ambrose was one of the four and our first hymn today, ‘Hark, A herald voice is calling! Here we need to pause for a moment! Hark! A herald voice is calling! One of the central themes of the Early Church is a call to Repentance! at every liturgical season. The call to Repentance was as urgent to the Early Church as it was to the world of its time. However, our church today has grown out of this ancient Tradition of ‘Repentance’ because we have reasoned out all ‘sin’ and we have found ways of inventing new sins which can be reasoned out with the tradition. So, if we are aligned to the trends of our Church today, our Ambrosian hymn will have little or no relevance to following Jesus and live a life of holiness for we have no sin! When repentance is made obsolete, we will have nothing to rejoice in. If relationship with Jesus is our ultimate purpose and joy, the repentance becomes integral to that relationship and ‘Rejoice’ becomes a divine response. The Divine Logic links Rejoicing to Repentance. We cannot rejoice without repentance. Today, as we come to begin our journey with John the Baptist, we note that John ended up in prison for calling Herod to repentance. He ended up in prison for his prophetic voice. In prison he suffered ‘depression’ and doubted the messianic call of his cousin Jesus. Today, as we commit ourselves to the ‘Act of Rejoicing’ , we pray for all who suffer persecution and imprisonment for calling the powers to repentance and resisting injustice and disempowerment. May our souls constantly long for the coming messiah and repent of all that distracts us away from the joy of the Lord. Rejoicing is a response to the joy of repentance. Besides the spiritual reason for rejoicing, we have a simple reason to rejoice too. Six months ago we applied for Public Entertainment License which will enable us to resume our Cathedral @ Noon Concerts and other events. We worked in partnership with the Aberdeen City Council to comply with all requirements of health and safety. On Friday at 1pm we had the final inspection and by 3pm we were notified that we have been granted Public Entertainment License. The Trustees will now focus on restoring all events that proved to be a blessing to the city and the community. Yesterday I met a couple who were regular at the Cathedral @ Noon Concerts and found it a source of healing in Dementia. They were thrilled at the news of the Concerts resuming in January. Thank you for your prayers and support. We have another reason to rejoice. Come, Let us Rejoice!  Today is the first of winter Ember Days and this year it is aligned to the lesser festival of St Ambrose of Milan. And we observe this in the company of the Prophets, in the second week in Advent, living the life of a Prophetic Community.
Today people of faith with angels incorporated in their cosmology i.e. Jews, Christians and Muslims, celebrate the War in Heaven reaching its climax when Archangel Michael and his army of Angels cast out the Dragon and their angels. The artwork by Les Talbott depicts the moment in vivid colours.  This War in Heaven which ended at Golgotha when the Crucified Lord Jesus pronounced, ‘It is Finished’ finds its fulfilment each time we fight war against injustice and oppression. It is a joy and a blessing to be part of this War in Heaven which we continue to fight on earth each day in prayerful action. May the Lord be with you and bless you today as we celebrate the Feast of Michael and All Angels.   Today, we will know who our next Prime Minister is. We pray for God’s anointing and blessings upon the chosen one as they take up the Office at an important moment in history. In the shadows of this historic moment, we anticipate a matter of truth in the life of our Church. In the context of this I watched a political thriller on Amazon Prime Video recommended movies, ‘Nothing but the Truth’ and listened to the song by Coby Brown. His words carry the echoes of the words of Lord Hodge to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland this year.
Lord Hodge said: "At a time when political leaders in autocratic regimes, and regrettably in some democracies, have often been disrespectful of the truth and commentators accept with a resigned shrug the deliberate purveying of lies, the commitment of the Church and other churches to promote truthfulness in our public and private lies has never been more important.” Coby Brown wrote. Hey, baby, do you see what I see? Hey, baby, did you hear the decree? Hey, baby, can you look in his eyes? And does it still make you feel high? And are you ready to go? Go out to, to be at your man Do you see the sound of the stars? Red road to Mars One thing we share is the silence of God We got nothing to do but wait out our trip To the end of the way and you get used to it And all we are asking for Is nothing but the truth And are you feeling a free will And is it burning in you still While this whole, whole world just dies And as we move from the light Do you see the sound of the stars? Red road to Mars One thing we share is the silence of God We got nothing to do but wait out our trip To the end of the world and you get used to it And all we are asking for Is nothing but the truth. I cannot but notice that there is a sudden curiosity into the business of ‘Truth’. Here is the title for the opening session of the Aberdeenshire Theological Club received today. ‘The first meeting will be held in the Chaplaincy lounge on Monday September 19, open at 2pm for a 2.15 pm start. Our topic will be “What is Truth, and Who Cares?” The importance of truth in public discourse, a discussion led by Jim Gordon. I wonder, if this sudden curiosity into ‘Truth’ is merely a chance occurrence and nothing to do with the public display of ‘untruth’ in the realms of a ‘truth telling community’! ‘Truth in the inwards parts’ is ‘a desire of God’ according to King David in Psalm 51. Allegri caught this moment in his ‘Miserere Mei Deus’ with the vocals chords of the Sopranos launching a note that makes us realise what King David meant when he wrote those immortal words, touched by the ‘Spirit of Truth’. He tried all in his power to conceal the truth, of abusing Bathsheba and murdering her husband Uriah in the worst conceivable cover up, at the hands of the ‘uncircumcised.’ Have we come to believe in the art of deception in telling the whole world that we care for human dignity while we do everything in our power to diminish it with utter contempt for it. ‘Will Mary ever sing Magnificat Again?’ Will the traumatised now taken hostage by the ‘guardians of reputation’ be ever set free to worship God without fear, in holiness and righteousness, all the days of their lives? If it were possible for King David to repent, surely it would be possible for the ‘guardians of reputation’ to stand in solidarity with him. Would it take ‘the murder of Uriah’ to bring the ‘guardians of reputation’ to repentance? I must confess, I don’t have a clue what all this is about. It was triggered by a friend making reference to an, ‘In Camera’ event in Scotland today. I quipped, “that is good if the event is ‘in camera’ for the world to see the mind of the church” ignorantly. He corrected me gently saying that the Latin, ‘In Camera’ means ‘in chamber’ i.e. ‘In Private.’ Last time something similar happened, there was much expectation of revival in the church. However, even since the last ‘In Camera’ we have witnessed everything but the Truth. By the way, I enjoyed the exceptional performance by Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga in ‘Nothing but the Truth’ and pray those who meet ‘In Camera’ today will excel in their performance of truth. The fight for truth and justice should continue until the ‘Coming of the Lord.’ ‘Fear not Little Flock’  Today, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was full of surprises like the lady of the Feast. Her Yes to God is the joy of our Salvation in truth, justice and peace. We pray that the voice of Mary will echo in every corner of our World. May her singular voice bring and peace and justice to all those who are seeking peace.
It was blessing to say prayers at the Shrine of our Lady of Aberdeen on the South West end of the Dee Bridge. It was a joy to imaging people gather at the shrine of Our Lady before crossing. I was asking for her blessings as when we come to crossroads each time. Today, I met a number of most remarkable people and the two stand out. I was blessed to meet Priscilla, a specialist in Landscaping from California. It is easy to be energised by such people who participate fully in the world God has given us in Creation so wonderfully. The Landscaping specialist has the honour and privilege of being God's fellow worker in recreating nature. I saw her as a partner in peace making. May God bless her and keep her a blessing. I met Mark who recently biked 150 miles and two days. His story inspired me to develop Peace Maker Challenge! Please watch the Space for the next Peace Maker Challenge and Donate on the Home Page. God bless you.  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Matthew 7.18
On Wednesday the 10th of August I was in Pennan, the village of the Local Hero. The breath taking beauty of this tranquil little village on a warm sunny day could be regarded as heaven on earth. The kindness of a dear friend made it possible for the family and I to spend a couple of days away in prayer and rest. Prayer is rest and rest is prayer for we believe in the God of Sabbath. We returned home that evening to a huge excitement because someone had found an Oasis, a pool of water in the desert. I was so out of touch with the excitement of something that seemed to have happened that day that I said to a friend who was delighted to have found an oasis after a long period of wilderness in the desert, that it could just be a mirage. How could one even dream of an oasis in the desert where mirage is the only virtual reality! Why do we, the human beings ever dream of justice, peace, truth and love when we experience nothing but injustice, oppression, violation of human dignity and trauma in exchange for kindness? As if this is not true in real life, all we see at the heart of our homes and our places of prayer is that solitary Man hanging on the cross. Somehow, this has come to be the symbol of love, forgiveness, peace and rest for many. No wonder many contemporary churches prefer a white wall to a decorated front with a cross in the middle with a solitary Man hanging on it. It is true of our virtual generation to create the reality we believe in or dream of and deny the reality that confronts us. We would rather talk about Human Dignity while we do everything in our power to deny it. Contemplating on this Oasis which turned out to be a Mirage I went to ‘the place’ of comfort, the place where Mary sat, at the feet of the Master! A place where you can still hear truth and dream of Mary sing the Magnificat again! The words of the Master was flowing from his sweet lips … Blessed are the Peace Makers … for they shall be called the children of God. My thoughts must have drifted at that point that when I heard him again, I couldn’t believe my ears when he said, ‘A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.’ Matthew 7.18 Jesus saying something deterministic! How could he call people to repentance when he knew too well that a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. How can a whole people of God believe in truth and justice when the core is corrupt! How can a mirage ever become an oasis? It was good to encounter an energised young man turn up at the house of prayer recently talking about a mirage of mitres. It was quite refreshing to see young people see something for what it is and not be tempted to believe that a corrupt tree can bring forth good fruit? There is nothing new under the sun, says the Preacher! We can do nothing but pray, ‘save us in the time of trial and deliver us from the evil one.' |
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