All Things New

Well. here we are in a new year.No doubt some have made resolutions that possibly will be broken within the first 2 weeks or so of January while others will be hoping for a better year than the last one. Whether you are in either of these groups or neither, the thing about the new year is that it is new.  It's not just reliving the past year a bit differently. It's time that we haven't yet lived.  It's new, untouched, fresh.

I do smile when looking round the shops and seeing adverts about certain products that they are 'new and improved'.  We do tend to think of something that has been made better as something new, it's not like the old version.  

Actually it's either new or improved.  If it's improved then it really is the old with some slight difference in content or the way it's been put together.  Something new is something that hasn't existed before.  So this new year is new, having not been lived before, new opportunities, new adventures, new encounters.


With this in mind, I've been pondering about Jesus' words when he said 'A new commandment I give unto you'.  Many times he referred to Old Testament laws and commandments and then said 'but I say unto you ...'  His way wasn't just to be an improvement on the old, something rehashed, a sort of reinvention of the wheel so to speak.  It was to be something different, something that hadn't been considered before.  It was a new way of thinking, different attitudes and reactions, a different way of living.  


We are told that in Christ we are a new creation - not just the old but a bit more tolerant and maybe a bit more smiley than before, not so quick to react.  God is not just patching us up and repairing us, mending the bits that are broken.  He re-creates us.  Many people have the thinking that we gradually work our way up the spiritual ladder, improving as we go,  It's as though somehow we earn our entry into heaven by being more and more active within our local church community.  It's a bit like a scout or guide working to earn their badges of merit.  We don't seem to understand Jesus' teaching that God loves us, full stop.  We can't earn his love.  He is love.  Actually what Jesus said was not that we should be an improvement of our old self but a new creation and have different ways of doing things.  As he said to Nicodemus, we must be 'born again', become a new and different person   We have made following him a religion centred around the person of Jesus, while he was telling us to follow his teachings.  When after feeding the 5000 and the people wanted to make him their king, he rejected the idea.  Again when there were those who said that he was 'good', his reply was. 'Why do you call me good?  There is none good but one and that is God.'  He was always pointing us to God and showing us how to live the way God intended, showing his unfailing love to all and at all times by the way we live.  We are to be people of 'the way' of Jesus. 

I am just musing and wondering how will 2016 be a new year?  How am I a new person in him?  What does that look like?  I don't have all the answers and not everyone may agree with my rambling thoughts but I can't help wondering if we as his Church have not just re-formed and improved the Old Testament ways instead of doing a 'new thing'.  How much of Jesus' teaching do I actually live day by day?  How much do I really follow him and show God's all-embracing and ever present love through my daily living?  I pray that in this new year, God will guide me along new paths and reveal himself to me in new ways.   Happy New Year to you all.

The 3 Ls

Our beautiful magnolia tree with many buds still to open.

We have a rather large evergreen magnolia tree in our garden.  It was getting bigger than we really wanted so after the end of last winter, in early spring, my son pruned it back a bit.  They say that you shouldn't prune it too vigorously all at once but stage the pruning out over a few years.  So that's what we (he) did.  Last year we had a few flowers but this year, since pruning, the tree has produced no end of flowers and continues with more buds well into late summer and the beginning of autumn.  Yes according to the calendar we are nearing autumn.   

Clearing away some of the lawn to plant more produce

As now in the garden there are only  a few bulbs of garlic and the blackberries left to pick, I am beginning to think about next year and planning where I want to put what.  I have decided to get rid of a little bit more of the (quite large) lawn and move some of the strawberry plants in order to make room for more vegetables higher up the garden.  It seems that every year I'm learning new things about what grows best where in the garden.  Things I haven't had much success with then I have to admit defeat in that area and let them go while turning my hand to something else instead, something that will give us some fruit or vegetables.  I'm only an amateur gardener but I do enjoy my garden and am happiest when I can potter around it.  Basically I learn by trying, sometimes failing and discovering through experience what works where and what doesn't.  I am also aware that although I still manage to do about 1-2 hours gardening at a time, it might not be too long before these old bones won't let me do even that.  So each year I re-assess and plan for next year. 

The first signs of fruit on the fig tree.

Happily this year I have seen signs that our fig tree, bought from being a young sapling a few years ago, will indeed next year actually give us some fruit.  It has obviously matured enough now to produce the much awaited fruit.  There are small bud-like figs just appearing and this means that although they won't mature and ripen enough to eat this year, they will survive the winter, as long as they are covered and protected from any frost and continue to grow and ripen next year.  Here's hoping!  I just love fresh figs.  When I look at the fig tree I often think of the story of Jesus when he cursed the fig tree.  Knowing that small fig 'buds' usually appear during the autumn and ripen the following year, maybe Jesus knowing this saw that that particular tree had no signs of producing fruit and if it was a mature tree then he would know that it was indeed dying.  We tend to think of that story as Jesus condemning that tree to die, almost in anger but I like to think more that actually he was pointing out that it was a tree that wasn't giving any fruit, it wasn't fulfilling its purpose and would surely die.

 Sometimes we have to take a look at our lives.  There is a danger that our lives get so full of busy-ness that we leave too little space to actually flourish.  Maybe there are some things that need to be pruned back, cut out in order to open up into greater splendour.  Maybe we need to re-think what we're doing and if it's having the results we are looking for and maybe change direction somewhat, leaving some things altogether and learning new ways of growing and giving fruit.  We are all different and produce different fruit and need different types of soil in which to grow, having a variety of end results if we're nurtured and grown according to our individual purpose.  My garden preaches many sermons to me if I have the eyes to see and the ears to hear what creation is saying.  The 3 Ls - Look, Listen and Learn.

New Wings

I have recently purchased a Kindle Fire HD.  The reasoning behind it is that when I go away anywhere I can carry it with me .  That way I won't need to carry the weight of books while at the same time I can still connect with friends on Facebook and blogs and check my emails.  It cannot do everything my home computer can but it is enough for what I want while not at home.  I have never had a laptop so I'm just now learning to use my index finger instead of a mouse to control what I want to do and see.  I feel a bit like ET or that strange animal called the Aye Aye with a long pointy finger!  

The thing is that I'm not one for hankering after the latest gadget or 'in' thing.  Actually things as such don't really impress me. But sometimes I have to admit that I can't do what I would like to with an older piece of equipment and so I invest in something new that will deliver.  I am not going to do away with something just because it's old.  If it still works then why not go on using it?  But there are times that a new way or a new direction is needed.  The old isn't enough any more.  Sometimes we need to get something different that is more adequate for our present needs.

On a completely different note, one of my favourite wildlife specialists is Simon King.  I follow him on Facebook and YouTube.  He lives in Somerset and has quite a few acres of land with his home called Wild Meadows where he studies, cares for and photographs the local wildlife.  He has, over the past few weeks, had various cameras in a number of different nests.  The wren chicks were the first to fledge and then the blue tits.  The kestrel is still brooding her three eggs that are about to hatch any day now.  This week all interest was on the jackdaw nest.  There were two chicks that were fast outgrowing the space that the parents had made for them.  The day they finally fledged (Thursday) they kept going near to the entrance of the nest box and chirping, then going back and settling down again.  You could hear the parents calling from outside the nest and occasionally they entered the nest and chirped.  You could almost hear them telling their children to get up and go outside.  They ventured out a little way and then back to the nest.  They did this a few times and then finally left for good.

Their lives will never be the same again.  They no longer have that comfort zone where they can go to and just settle down and wait to be handed their food and be kept warm and out of danger of enemies that would attack them.  They now have to use their wings, something they haven't really done before.  Their wings would no longer be just to snuggle down in the nest but for flying freely over the countryside.  Eventually they will need to learn to get their own food - no more ready meals regurgitated  from parents.  They will have to learn to trust their own instinct and decisions.  It reminded me of Paul (in the Bible) when he complained that some followers of Jesus were just like small children and not willing to grow up.  We are part of God's creation and that is how He has ordained creation to be.  In our Christian lives we need to fledge the nest, trust our own decisions and the spirit that God has placed in each of us, use our wings to fly by ourselves and look for food and not keep going back to the comfort of dependent spiritual living, waiting for others to feed us and keep us out of danger.  When our needs are no longer met by the old system, then we need to look at doing things in a new way, start using our wings and fly freely.  Like the rest of creation, you don't know what you're missing til you try it.  

Enough is enough

Well, Christmas has been and gone.  We had a great time as a family, as I hope all who read this did.  Many have now put away the decorations (although some do wait until the end of the 12 days of Christmas, until Epiphany on January 6th - when the wise men arrived at the stable) Every year I try to be sensible in my spending, especially on food.  As far as presents are concerned we as a family have always stipulated a maximum to spend on each other.  We make wish lists to choose from.  That way we know we won't get everything on our list but neither do we know what we will get and so we always have surprises.  We have always done this even when the children were small.  My eldest commented that he really didn't need anything so he would be quite happy if instead of buying him anything, we gave the money to charity.  (And he is the one that never went to church!)  We did buy him things but I thought it was a nice gesture to say that - and they weren't empty words, he really meant it
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What is not so easy to control is the over-indulgence on food.  We make excuses like 'well it is Christmas', 'it's a special occasion' or 'Christmas comes but once a year'.  We can always justify our overspend.  We buy just in case it's needed, we don't want to run out of anything.  I am pretty good at using up left-overs but have to admit that I did throw some things away that had gone past their use by date - and I felt guilty!  I really don't like throwing out food.  But really, do we honestly need all that chocolate and sweet treats?  Do we really have to stuff ourselves to bursting point?  This week. according to the BBC news, in the UK 64% of adults are classed as being overweight or obese while at the same time under-nourishment is still a problem for hundreds of millions of people in the developing world, particularly children. 

Although I have to say that I didn't get anything that will be pushed in a drawer and forgotten about, I do wonder after all the spending, just how much of the gifts people received will be used and how much will be discarded after a short time.  Our attention seems to flit so quickly from one thing to another without real appreciation for what we have.  There is always something else, the latest gadget, the new in-thing, the latest fashion, the bigger version, that must-have item.  The sad thing is that the more we get, the more we want.  We seem to have an insatiable appetite for stuff, useful or not.  We are draining the world of its resources in the process of acquiring more stuff we don't really need while at the same time making the rich owners of large companies richer by our self indulgence.  Some charitable gifts are known as 'alternative must-have gifts' and provide some of the things that are essential to a needy world.  We still sing and listen to the Live Aid song at Christmas time but how easily we forget to contribute to help the ever growing needy of the world.  A growing number of people have stopped buying and sending Christmas cards, opting instead to give the money they have saved to some charity or buying things for a food bank.

Sorry if this blog post seems all doom and gloom.  The truth is that much of our possessions don't achieve real deep down happiness.  Many people have lost much during these winter storms that we have had recently.  Some have even lost their homes over the side of crumbling cliffs.  It's times like this that make you think again of your priorities.  How much is really sufficient?  When is enough, enough?  I haven't made any New Year's resolutions but I have many things to ponder.  We will still have a good time and have more than we really need but maybe next year I'll celebrate differently. 

The Centre of All Things

I enjoy reading the blogs of other people and regularly catch up with quite a number.  Some leave me pondering throughout the day and others seem to confirm something that I have been thinking for some time.  This week I read such a one by Martin Scott.  (You can see his 12 min videocast here under Pentecost as paradigm #3).  The whole idea that God works outside of the established church is not a new thought.  Although we like to think that God chooses to work through Christians, the fact remains that many times we see what seems to be God at work in a situation where there is no church.


I was thinking about Galileo who dared to suggest that not everything revolves around the earth.  We are not the centre of the universe.  He was persecuted for that thinking and was forced to recant by the Inquisition but time proved that he was indeed right.  Nowadays we know of course that the earth and all the other planets in our universe revolve around the sun and not as was thought previously that everything revolved around the earth.  It seems to me that we are living in a time when a great number of Christians who have moved outside of the established church are saying a similar thing.  Not everything revolves around us, the Church, Christians.  God does work through these means but He also works outside of us and often without us.  This is difficult and almost heretical for some Christians to accept.  If we insist that God is confined to work through Christians, then we are limiting God to our ideas and thinking.  God is bigger than anything we could imagine so surely it is possible for Him to work in some way outside of our understanding and without our help.

As Martin Scott mentions, this thinking is very biblical.  Peter was made to realise this truth when he had the dream and told to eat, re-enforcing that truth that nothing that God has created is unclean.  Later when Peter visited Cornelius, he came to the realisation that Cornelius was searching for God and truth and that God was indeed working in his life.  Cornelius was not a Christian, hadn't heard the disciples' message about Jesus and wasn't even an adherent of the Jewish faith.  He was a Roman centurion but he was a good man and searching for God.  Peter had to undergo a complete change of mindset to go into the house of a Gentile and accept that God could reach those who were not of the Jewish faith and did not need to become part of the Jewish community.  While Peter was telling them about Jesus, Cornelius and his family were all baptised in the Holy Spirit.  In the end Peter had to accept that God was at work in ways and places that the disciples knew nothing about.  Throughout the centuries God has continued to work in unexplained ways and places and in people beyond our Christian input or evangelism. 

Simon the Cyrene, a foreign visitor to Jerusalem was made to carry the cross for Jesus.  This must have had an impact on him as his sons Alexander and Rufus (mentioned in Matthew's gospel) were later mentioned among the early church followers.  We also see Philip transported to meet the Ethiopian eunuch and baptise him.  A eunuch was a man who was recognised for his sexuality - today we would call him gay.  On both occasions God meets with those on the margins of society before they have contact with (and so have no input from) those who follow Jesus.  We sing 'Jesus, be the centre'.  These are not just words that make us feel a bit emotional.  It is a truth that we need to embrace fully.  The body of Christ does not revolve around us, it revolves around the Son and the Godhead can work with or without us as He chooses among Christians or people of other or no faith.  We have to stop limiting God to our concept of Him - He is much bigger than that and works among ALL who seek Him, whoever, whatever and wherever they are, with or without our help or input. 

Adapt to survive

Talk about being adaptable!  My son has recently started a job which began with working a few hours a week - not enough to sign off from receiving Job Seekers' Allowance.  You need to work for over 16 hours a week to do that.  He enjoys the job and has been wanting to increase his hours.  His manager has also been doing his best to find him more hours as he wants to keep him in the job and not lose him if he finds something else with more hours.  Last weekend he started work at 4 am.  On Monday he was asked to go in for 5 am but on Saturday was asked to change that to 11 am.  One day he had to be there for 1 pm and another for 10 am.  This weekend his starting time is 10 am til late.  At the moment he is covering for others who are on holiday or off sick.  Hopefully it won't be too long before his working week will be sorted and take on a more settled routine so we will not be wondering what each day will bring.  So this week our sleeping and mealtime habits have certainly NOT been habitual.


Looking in the garden this week, especially after the big storm we had the other night, it is apparent that things are really changing.  For one thing part of our fence blew down!  That is going to be repaired soon (I hope).  What has changed and I can't do anything about is the lack of leaves now on the trees.  Autumn is a time when nature adapts ready for the winter.  Some things need to go in order to conserve energy for what is to come.  Trees shed their leaves and plants seem to die but all the time they are building up their reserves ready to burst out again in the Spring. 

A bearded tit

This week we have also been able to watch Autumnwatch - a favourite programme in our house.  Their theme has been migration and has followed many birds as they prepare to move further south for the winter, some having already gone.  Young birds, born only this Spring are flying, some non-stop, for thousands of miles.  After having spent most of their lives to date in the nest, life is really changing for them.  They also tagged and followed a number of foxes.  Some of their habitats have been taken over by humans and so they are having to adapt to urban living.  Other birds like the bearded tit have to adapt their eating habits as their diet changes from insects and worms to seeds and berries.  They eat small pieces of grit to help in this.


It is the very nature of creation to change and adapt according to the circumstances. My life now is not the same as my life was 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago.  But God is still relevant to my situation, now.  Life happens!  Life makes us make changes - this is how God has ordained things.  We need to adapt to changes in our lives to cope with new technology and ways of doing things.  It just seems a shame that people don't follow the natural laws of creation into their spiritual lives.  I remember when quite young and asking why things in our denomination were done in a certain way and the answer was 'We've always done it that way!'  Maybe that's a good reason to change!  When a movement fails to adapt and change then it is no longer moving. It has becomes an institution.  People who don't profess any religion, often get the impression that God is not relevant to 21st century living.  And sadly the Church as a whole has contributed in giving this impression.  Some Christian groups are proactive in changing but others are not.  Some fear that change will mean a watered down gospel or that their particular group will cease to exist and so they don't want to change.  This is unnatural in God's creation and in our daily lives.  Creation adapts in order to survive.  Nature shows us that adapting and changing may mean no longer doing things we used to do but it does mean doing things effectively for what is to be in the future.  It may seem to be a sort of dying as we let go of the old but it is a doorway to something new and better.  If God is relevant today then we need to express Him in 21st century ways and not keep Him enclosed in an old, out-of-date box.

Pioneers

There is a television advert that talks about doing things differently and uses the example of the man who changed the way athletes do the high jump.  Before they used to jump facing the bar but this man changed it by jumping with his back to the bar and his legs following.  That now is the norm.

Throughout the history of humanity there have been those who have pioneered new ways, thoughts and practices.  Galileo Galilei (known by his first name, Galileo) was a physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher.  He was born in 1564 and died in 1642.  Throughout his life he played an important role in the scientific revolution of his day, improving the telescope and compass among other things.  His improved telescope along with his love of astronomy and his observations of planets and the sun led him to conclude that the earth moved around the sun and not vice versa.  He was condemned for his beliefs and brought before the Inquisition.  The church took verses of Scripture to 'prove' that he was wrong.  Psalm 104:5 states 'the Lord set the earth on its foundations' and Ecclesiastes 1:5 says 'and the sun rises and sets and returns to its place'.  From those verses the church believed that the earth stood in a fixed position and the sun moved around the earth while Galileo was stating the opposite.  In the end he was judged guilty of heresy and kept under house arrest until his death.

In more recent times doctors Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards became well known for their pioneering work into IVF treatment for women who were unable to bear children the natural way.  The first baby to be born in this way was referred to as the first 'test-tube baby' and that was Louise Brown.  This was a ground breaking medical achievement.  But there were critics who raised some ethical questions about surrogate motherhood, 'baby factories' and wondering just where such knowledge would ultimately lead.  The photo is of Dr Steptoe, Louise Brown and her mother and also her own child who was born naturally.  This treatment is nowadays very common and an accepted part of life.

In 1966 the National Association of Food Chains met to discuss the possibility of automated check-out systems.  The scanning systems had been in operation in various forms for nearly 30 years but not on a commercial level on the High Street.  After this meeting, various tests were carried out until on 20th June 1974 a 10 pack of Wrigleys Juicy Fruit gum was scanned at 8.01 am.  This was the very first item to be scanned in this way in a shop and the Universal Product Code was born.  It was ridiculed claiming that there would never be enough for it to be worthwhile.  Some Christians thought that codes hid the number 666 and one TV host called it a 'corporate plot against consumers'.  At the time in the UK the programme Tomorrow's World was shown on TV.  They tried out new gadgets and gave predictions as to how well they might do in the future.  The then presenter Maggie Philbin famously said that she didn't think it would catch on.  How wrong she was!  Almost everything we buy now has a bar code and is scanned at the check-out.

It seems that all who move away from what is considered the norm and offer new ways of thinking and practice, are usually criticised, some persecuted, others questioned, not believed or taken seriously and even ridiculed.  There are many others - Christopher Columbus and his belief that there was land over the ocean, Martin Luther and his struggles against the established church, Lord Shaftesbury and his fight against slavery, the example of Nelson Mandela fighting for equal rights for all the citizens of his country, to mention just a few.  Although they all came across opposition, persecution and ridicule they all held on to what they believed was right and kept on fighting.  So I guess the lesson from these pioneers is to carry on and follow you heart in what you believe no matter what others say or think.  Who knows where it will lead?