Yesterday we thought about 'psalms for special occasions' with a focus on the Ascent Psalms (121 - 134) and Hallel Psalms (113 - 118).  From these we focused on Psalms 131 and 116, in that order.

Psalm 131 is a very short psalm at the heart of which is a beautiful image - a weaned child (so somewhere between six months and five years of age) snuggled up with their mother.  This is how the psalmist imagines himself (almost certainly a 'he') in the presence of God.

The language of the psalm merits careful reflection.

It is the psalmist who has done the stilling and quieting, not the mother who has comforted him... the 'be still' or 'desist' of Psalm 46 is possibly more familiar, with God saying, 'stop what you are doing this instant'.  Snuggling up to mother-God, the psalmist stops wriggling, stops worrying, stops doing or thinking, and just enjoys the moment.  'I have stilled and quieted myself' he says... I have chosen this state of being.

For sure, that this is so means that God is snuggle-up-to-able, safe, welcoming, accepting - you wouldn't do this (or not more than once or twice) with someone who might push you away or shout at you for disturbing their peace.  But it is about the writer consciously choosing and acting in order to enjoy that safe embrace.

As someone with a tendency to be busy, it was/is helpful to reflect on this image/metaphor and to remind myself that mother-God is waiting for this weaned child (i.e. not a baby, but someone growing in autonomy and self) to decide to come and snuggle up, not necessarily to say anything, but simply to enjoy the moment.

This afternoon was our first Bible Study Group meeting of the term - and it felt very positive. Iranian, Cuban and British participants, aged 6 to 90-something (the two children mostly enjoyed some Bible-based colouring).  We had some good conversations and opened up some ideas around discipleship, joy and God's faithfulness.  The image of God,  as a parent who never lets go of us, even if we withdraw our hand, stumble, rebel or anything else, was powerful and helpful.

Looking forward to the next meeting in a fortnight and possibly a few other folk able to join us.

Thank you to W and G for your support in getting this group up and running.

A couple of interesting, and quotable, quotes I found this morning when preparing for this afternoon's Drop In and interative reflection (both from a book called 'Wearing God' by Lauren Winner).  Please ignore any typos.

"The child became a man and the man became a preacher whose sermons were full of commonplace things: seeds and nets, coins and fishes, lilies of the field, and birds of the air.  Wherever he was, he had a knack for looking around him and weaving what he saw into his sermons, whether it was sparrows for sale in the marketplace, labourers lining up for their pay, or a woman glimpsed through a doorway kneading her family’s bread… ‘the kingdom of heaven is like this”, he said over and over again, comparing things they knew with something they knew nothing about and all of the sudden what they knew had cracks in it, cracks they had never noticed before, through which they glimpsed bright and sometimes frightening new realities… Every created thing was fraught with divine possibility; wasn’t that what he was telling them?  Every ho-hum details of their days was a bread crumb leading them into the presence of God, if they would just pick up the trail and follow."

Barbara Brown Taylor

“My God, my God, thou art a direct God, may I not say a literal God, a God that wouldst be understood literally and according to the plain sense of all thou sayest, but thou art also (Lord, I intend it to thy glory, and let no profane misinterpreter abuse it to thy dimunition), thou art a figurative, a metaphorical God too, a God in whose words there is such a height of figures, such voyages, such peregrinations to fetch remote and precious metaphors, such extensions, such spreadings, such curtains of allegories, such third heavens of hyperboles, so harmonious elocutions, so retired and so reserved expressions, so commanding persuasions, so persuading commandments, such sinews even in thy milk, and such things in thy words, as all profane authors seem of the seed of the serpent that creeps, thou art the Dove that flies.”

John Donne

After two full weeks away, in which I was mostly holidaying, I am back to work.

It was lovely on Sunday to meet new people who had arrived at church for the first time during my absence as well as to catch up (a bit) with regulars.

For me, the measure of a successful holiday is that makes me glad to be home again.  I had a lovely time.  I saw all sorts of interesting things and walked miles every day.  But by the last couple of days I was ready for home.

As I return to blogging, I am not promising to post as frequently as I have done in the past... there have been times when it has become something of a chore, and probably not that interesting or inspiring for readers.  We'll  see how it goes - for now I have an extremely long "to do" list to work through and a meeting at 10:30 to prepare for!

Thanks for reading.