Category: Other cool stuff

Sharing this again, by request.

I love how Jesus measures tree size not in cubits (or whatever), but in hospitality. How big is the tree?  Oh, big enough for birds to make their home there. Big enough to offer safety and hospitality. Big enough for them to lay their eggs and raise their chicks.

We could ask ourselves, how big is my church? Oh, big enough for people to find themselves at home there. Big enough to offer safety and hospitality. Big enough that people will feel it’s a place they can bring their children.

Addendum:

From the same chapter, we could ask, ‘How yeasty is my dough?’ and find the answer, ‘Yeasty enough to make enough bread for the whole neighbourhood’. Essentially most of these parables are about hospitality.

This was written for Ely Cathedral’s Science Festival (May/June 2017) and was sung for the first time this morning in the Cathedral, so is now free for anyone to use. Enjoy. 

The tune is Love Unknown.

Praise for the depths of space,
its endless scope and scale:
in such a vast embrace
our words and numbers fail.
For what are we,
that mortal mind
should seek and find
infinity?

Praise for the rules that show
the patterning of time,
creation’s ebb and flow
expressed in reason’s rhyme.
Can these great laws
contain our awe,
a formula
for wonder’s cause?

Praise for the complex codes
each spiral strand conveys,
as chemistry explodes
to life in myriad ways.
Can we compare
what’s ours alone
if we are known
through all we share?

Praise for the drive to know;
from human nature springs
a need to learn and grow,
to understand all things.
Yet wisdom’s prize
is never won:
from all that’s done
new questions rise.

Praise to the one whose Word
breathed purpose into chance,
for whom all matter stirred
to join creation’s dance.
For love made known
in every thing
in praise we sing
to You alone.

 

Christmas blessings, everyone.

Here’s the new painting (well, newly finished – it’s been on the go for about 4 years, on and off!).  It’s called ‘People of God’ and it’s acrylic on canvas. Not sure how many people there are, but they’re all unique. Maybe between 750 and 1000?  Could be more. Who knows!