Available Light

We humans, we love to order things. We lay out our patterns, shape, and trim and weed and water, to make the miracles of the universe, present at every hand, all around us, fit into our ideas of what is decent and seemly. We do it with plants. We do it with the events of our own lives, to make for ourselves a personal history. We do it with the people we encounter. We do it with the  deepest knowings of our souls, shaping and forming our encounters with the universe and with ourselves and with the dimly perceived presence which seeks us in everything, fitting the working of our inner lives into an ordered structure: a religion; a gospel. I look at the church and at what we teach and wonder, sometimes, what Jesus would make of it all. In Mark's Gospel we have a record of Jesus' first appearance as a teacher in his own right, away from the now unknown influences which formed him. And we have a record of his first proclamation: Repent and believe the Gospel, which raise...

St. Hilda's Collegiate School, taken with my phone after a recent meeting. This picture has nothing whatsoever to do with what follows, but I like the interplay of shapes and particularly the shadow on the wall. My mother is a Methodist, liberal in her theological and social opinions. My father was a socialist, just slightly to the left, in his politics, of Karl Marx. My siblings -there are 5 of us- are all bright, eloquent and omnivorous in their consumption of books and other intellectual fodder.  One of my most cherished childhood memories is of mealtimes in our little state house. The food was ingested with copious amounts of spirited, opinionated, clever and sometimes informed debate on whatever subject happened to catch the attention of one of the family that day. Or whatever one of us thought might get a rise out of someone else. So, sex, politics and religion it was then - oh and motorbikes, economics, international relations, demographics, cricket, company ownersh...

From that time Jesus began to preach saying, "repent, [i.e. think again ]for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." απο τοτε ηρξατο ο ιη σους κηρυσσειν και λεγειν μετανοειτε ηγγικεν γαρ η βασιλεια των ουρανων -Matthew 4:17 Jesus: Kelvin! Mate! Have I got news for you! Kelvin: Oh. Really? Listen Jesus, always nice to see you. But can you tell me quickly? I'm kind of busy here, being holy. Jesus: Oohh! Important!  I'll be brief then. The Kingdom of  Heaven is very very close. Kelvin: How close? Jesus: What's that thing on the end of your arm? Kelvin: My hand. Jesus: That close. Kelvin: Ok. Jesus: Great news,eh! Kelvin. Ah yeah. Terrific. So where is it then? Jesus: What? Kelvin: The Kingdom. Jesus: So what are you using to type this post? Kelvin: My computer. Jesus: and....? Kelvin: my fingers? Jesus: Exactly! Kelvin: Right. Look, don't want to be rude or anything, but I'm actually pretty busy. Jesus: But can you see it?...