...men, women, cats, dogs, animals, birds of the air, beasts of the land and sea.
After all it’s not long to that date, the 25th of December is it?
Advent and Christmas is going to be quite, quite different for us this year. I wonder how we will tackle this barrier to the gift of love come down amongst us?
Doves of peace have been around for a bit. Olive branches have too. Picasso, a bit of a rebel was oft to make a point as starkly and as shockingly as he could and it made the observer of his art work images wince and think a bit. But this shock can often be the simple way of his expression of something in its simplest form. A single line denotes so much. Doves and olive branches go together, symbols of peace and hope and of course we must not forget the rainbow, when all three are combined in a trinity perhaps; we have more symbols to evoke the Majesty of God, the Emmanuel God and the Holy Spirit, the workings of God.
It is the unexpected gifts that we find that reassure us. The unexpected call from a friend, the image that pops up (like the Dove and Woman by Picasso here) and a line from a song “lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove” that are perhaps in themselves the arrow prayers that nudge and ground us, that hope, peace and love that is there for us, waiting for us when we feel that barriers are placed in our way.
I had the pleasure to be a guest at one of my cohorts' licensing last Sunday, so I was doing the juggling bit of hopping between services and trying not to miss too much! However Bishop John said something that has stayed with me all week and it is roughly this…
“A worn out bible is often a sign that the reader is not worn out yet”
Now I know I haven’t got these words quite right but I think you get the gist. The bible is our cornerstone, out sure foundation, a tangible reminder of God's love for us and our faith in Him. Our collection of books of faith, love and hope between God and us (plus a lot more stuff like warnings, wars, family feuds) but do you know, mostly love; enduring, covenantal, unbreakable love…
"...If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
https://youtu.be/EImVucJO7Ok Leonard Cohen - Dance Me to the End of Love
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh, let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Music, art, poetry, dance, love is one of the gifts we have as earthly beings. Art in whatever form that takes does create an emotion or non emotion in us. It is one of the conversations I have been having with my learners this week. What is it then that creates an emotion within us? Simply put I think it is the relationship and gift we have of, for and receiving of love. It is a gift freely given to us by God. I don’t know about you but I think I might just start dancing along with love, not to the end of it because love does not end, but to its continuation and start praising with the words of psalm 117
Psalm 117
1 Praise the Lord, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.
2 For great is his love towards us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.
Praise the Lord.
https://youtu.be/nmi3cD2zshg Taize "Nothing Can Ever Come Between Us and the Love of God"
See you virtually tomorrow at 9am, peace be with you.
Caroline :)
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