Sunday Retold -from The Road of Tears and the Place of the Skull – 20th November

November 17, 2016November 17, 2016 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

This week’s readings include
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43

The next in the occasional series Sunday Retold

Please feel free to use anything that is of help to you, saying where it is from.

For one person hanging on a Roman cross to say to another -” remember me when you come into your kingdom” – as if this was not the end, as if the story still goes on, is astonishing. No wonder that this man is remembered for his faith. To be in the midst of pain and suffering of such unimaginable magnitude and yet to have hope, to try to look to something beyond, is too much for most of us to comprehend. Perhaps, though, it could encourage us in our own dark places to cultivate hope, and a deeper sense of deeper purposes.

The Colossians reading puts this exchange in a bigger, more cosmic, context. Something world-changing is being accomplished in this terrible moment. The reconciliation of all things is underway. A new kind of life and kingdom is possible, is emerging, is beginning even here. Signs of it are springing up in the most unpromising seeming ground.

Is there light in the darkness? Is there hope in impossible things? The Luke reading draws our attention to a lone voice calling out for hope when all around are voices of anger and despair. He is just one person -but that one person is heard, and his voice echoes through the centuries. Who knows the impact this exchange had on those who witnessed it.

One voice, speaking for the kingdom. One voice, speaking for something bigger than the current moment. One voice,asking for hope, believing in hope. Never doubt the courage or the power of one voice speaking out above the chorus of anger, mockery and despair.

Could that voice be yours? Are there situations where your hope is needed?

You might like to use the pictures above to lead you into prayer. What do they say to you?

From The Bible Retold

Two other me were led out to be crucified with Jesus at Golgotha, the Place of the Skull: one on his left, and one on his right. So Jesus was nailed to the cross, and a sign was hung above him, saying: “This is the King of the Jews.”
From the cross, Jesus spoke slowly, painfully.”Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
But some among the crowd sneered, “Save yourself if you really are chosen by God. You saved others!”
The soldiers joined in, as did one of the men being crucified with Jesus. But the other said, “Don’t you fear God, at the hour of your death? We are guilty, but this man has done nothing wrong.” He turned his head towards Jesus. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!”

And from Prayers and Verses

Dear God,
May I welcome you as my king:
King of peace,
King of love,
King in death,
King of life.

Jesus, who walked to the cross,
be with us when we feel abandoned.

Jesus, who walked to the cross,
be with us when we face danger.

Jesus, who walked to the cross,
be with us when we are suffering.

When sorrow threatens to defeat us,
Jesus, who rose from the dead, be with us.

Come, O Joy:
Let heaven break into my dark night of sorrow
like the early dawn of a summer morning.

Photos by my husband Peter Skevington, with thanks.
Top – marshes by Porlock, Exmooor.
Bottom – the view from Selworthy, Exmoor.

Sunday Retold – Zacchaeus and the tree

October 27, 2016October 18, 2016 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

This week’s Sunday Retold follows the Gospel reading set for many churches this week: Luke 19:1-10

A story about climbing trees, and looking up – among other things!

Jesus is making his way towards Jerusalem for the last time – and people still don’t understand. They are still claiming him as theirs, and keeping out people they consider not good enough. This man was a tax collector – a collaborator with the Roman invaders, and it would seem a cheat. We don’t know what has drawn him to Jesus, what has made him so determined to catch a glimpse of this teacher despite the hostility he faced, but we do know that Luke’s account of Jesus’ life pays attention to the way Jesus included, accepted, those who were outside – outside what was considered respectable, righteous, good. He welcomed those others called sinners. Perhaps the tax collector had heard this. Perhaps there was something magnetic, attractive, full of life about Jesus. Perhaps Zacchaeus had heard he healed people.

Here, again, we see it happening. Jesus looks up. He sees the unexpected – a wealthy man in a tree. Trees contain all kinds of riches! When I read this story, I am reminded of the Genesis 3 story – where trees are important, and Adam and Eve hide in the greenery. Perhaps there are echos here….

We see that Jesus did not berate Zacchaeus with all his cheating thieving treacherous ways, he did not confront him with his sin, he asked this man for hospitality. He called out his goodness, he treated him as worthy, he accepted him. If the disapproval of others had the power to make him make amends, there was disapproval enough in Jericho to do it. He did not need to be reminded of what was wrong, but of what was right. Jesus reminded him of his essential, elemental goodness. He treated him as good, with kindness and respect. He did it publicly, in the face of criticism. He sat down with him, shared food with him. The table is a powerful place of deep sharing. Jesus uses the image of a banquet, a feast, again and again to show us what the Kingdom of God is like.

And see what sharing a table did for Zacchaeus – it gave him the courage to turn his life upside down, to change everything. We can imagine what it must have been like to have Jesus there, next to him, willing him on!

How good it is to know that Jesus shows us what God is like – like this. We need not be afraid, we need not hide. God reaches out to find, to love those people who are rejected, who perhaps reject themselves. God’s power is at work to transform, to change lives, to make new- for all.

The gospels are full of encounters between Jesus and individual people, as well as crowds and groups. When I read the conversations Jesus has with individuals, I can’t help noticing that each one is different. He has no formula – he deals with each person as they need. Each one is precious.

You might like to use the picture above, with the trees and the fence, as a way into prayer. What do you see?
Think about the story of Zacchaeus. Can you remember a time when someone just accepted you as you were? What was that like?
Have you been in a situation where you have accepted someone else like that, or seen it happen? What was that like?
Has sharing food with someone been a memorable experience for you? What happened?
In this story, what did God’s saving power do? Is there more than one way of answering that?

Here is an extract from The Bible Retold
If you would like to use any of my material, you are welcome to do so, saying where it comes from.

Jesus made his way steadily towards Jerusalem. On his way he passed through Jericho, with its date palms and fragrant balsam trees. Crowds poured out to see him, and to see the blind beggar who had been healed by the roadside.

“What’s all the commotion – come away from there and get on with your work!” Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of the region, called out to his assistants. They scurried back to their work, and the quiet clink of gold coins. But Zacchaeus could not concentrate – the joy of the crowd had unsettled him. He swept neat heaps of gold into his purse and went out.

The sounds got louder and louder. The crowds were calling out for Jesus. Zacchaeus tried to catch a glimpse of the Teacher, but he could not, for he was a short man, and the people would not let him through. He ran on ahead and shinned up the stout trunk of a sycamore fig tree, sliding out along one of the branches that shaded the road. Then he waited, watching Jesus getting closer, as he talked and laughed with the people. Suddenly, quite close to the tree, Jesus stopped, and looked up. Zacchaeus gasped, and tried to hide among the leaves. Everyone was looking now.
“Zacchaeus, isn’t it?” Jesus said “You’d better hurry down from there. I’d like to stay at your house today!” So the chief tax collector swung down, rubbing green smears from his fine robes. They set off together, and Zacchaeus threw open his doors to Jesus and his friends, beaming with joy.

But, the crowds were spitting with anger “Did you see that? He’s gone to be a guest of that thief, that collaborator with the Romans!”

Zacchaeus stood up before them all, and spoke to Jesus. “Look, Lord, right now I’ll give half of everything to the poor! And if I’ve cheated anyone, I’ll pay them back four times over!”
Jesus answered “God’s power is at work in this house today – the power to rescue and to change. This man, too, is one of God’s children. For the Son of Man came to seek, and to save, those who have lost the way to God!”

And some prayers from Prayers and Verses
to help us pray through this wonderful story

Grant me to recognise in others, Lord God,
the radiance of your own face.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 1881-1955

Help me, Lord Jesus, learn who you are.
Help me learn as I try to love, and forgive,
and help others as you did.
Thank you most of all for loving me just as I am.

Jesus told us:
You are blessed when you know how poor you are inside,
for then you are open to God and his ways.
You are blessed when you are sad,
for then you will feel a loving hand on your shoulder.
You are blessed when you are gentle and humble;
you will see all of earth’s good things, there for you.
You are blessed when you hunger for what is right;
you will be satisfied.
You are blessed when you live generously and kindly,
for you will be treated with kindness, too.
You are blessed when you are wholeheartedly good;
nothing will stand between you and God.
You are blessed when you work for peace;
you will be called one of God’s children.

Sunday Retold – Jacob wrestles

October 13, 2016October 14, 2016 / andreaskevington / 1 Comment

The next installment of Sunday Retold , with the readings Genesis 32:3-31 and Luke 18:1-8
An ancient, strange, and powerful story from Genesis.
My retelling , from The Bible Retold, follows:

For there it was, gnawing away at the back of Jacob’s mind: the memory of how he had cheated his twin brother, and how Esau had been angry enough to wish him dead. He could hardly expect Esau to give him a happy homecoming after so long. Jacob thought hard about the best thing to do.

He sent this message ahead of him: “A message to Esau from his servant Jacob. I’ve been staying with our uncle Laban, and haven’t been able to get away until now. I’ve prospered – with flocks and herds, and been blessed with wives and children.” When the messengers returned they told him “Esau is on his way to meet you – with four hundred men!” Jacob blanched. It was worse than he feared. Quickly, he divided up his camp. “Esau won’t get them both!” he thought to himself. And he prayed to God, asking for help. He also prepared presents for Esau. They were some presents!

Two hundred female goats, and twenty male goats
Two hundred ewes, and twenty rams
Thirty camels with their young
Forty cows and ten bulls
Twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

Each had a servant in charge of them. He sent them on ahead, one after another, to meet Esau with a rich procession of gifts – peace offerings. Then, he took his wives and children and helped them back across the ford, to keep them safe. That night, he wrestled with a stranger, not letting him go until he received a blessing from the man who came from God. And the man called him Israel, which means God-wrestler.

Then, as the cool dawn began to warm, he saw Esau and the four hundred men coming towards him, He bowed down seven times, but his brother ran to him and held him, weeping. Esau had forgiven him, and welcomed him and his family with open-hearted love. “Seeing your face was like seeing God smiling at me!” Jacob said.

Please feel free to use my material if it helps you, saying where it comes from.

The Genesis story is part of the ongoing family saga of Jacob and Esau, which, in itself, fits into a longer pattern of favouritism and rivalry, feuding and dysfunction. Here, the twins are about to meet again after a long separation. Jacob had run from Esau, whom he had wronged, and it seems he has felt the weight of that wrong ever since. He had stolen from his brother, taken his identity and his blessing, hidden his true self in his brother’s clothes. What would happen now they were going to meet again?

Jacob’s generosity is driven by fear, by self-interest, but nevertheless, it reveals his intent – his intent is for peace, for reconciliation if that is possible. Perhaps, in his relations with Laban’s family, he has come to appreciate the advantages of harmony and fair dealings. After the experience of his wedding night, he now knew what it was like to be deceived with false clothing. The onslaught of gifts he sends out, each one with a servant and a message, foreshadow the relentless wresting with God that follows in the night. He does not give up trying to show his brother his good intent, he does not wait for an answer before he sends the next gift, he keeps on suing for peace. He seems to adopt the same approach in the night vision that follows. All night long he wrestles, he will not stop until he gets a blessing.

Maybe he thinks God is like the angry brother he has wronged. Maybe he thinks God needs wrestling. Perhaps, thought, this prayer is more about changing him than about changing God. He stole a blessing, and now he is fighting for one. He is still in the mindset of struggle and fight. Perhaps he still thinks there is only one blessing to be had between him and his brother, perhaps he still needs to grasp that God is generous, and has enough to go round.

He is seeking to obtain a blessing in his own right from God – and he does. Did he need to fight? Maybe he did, but I do not think God needed him to. I think he found it hard to accept from God, after all he had done. Sometimes it takes us a long time before we come to see the truth about our situation, our selves, before we are ready to receive the blessing. God is not a reluctant giver, and even they give eventually. God longs to bless, but sometimes, it is hard for us to receive.

Take some time to contemplate picture below. What do you notice? Might you use this picture to help your prayers?

Jacob Wrestles by Jack Baumgartner

Notice the way the hands pull back the curtain, or the night. What do you notice about them?
There are many references to Jacob’s past. You can read the story by flicking back in Genesis – perhaps back to 25:21. Notice, even before they are born, how the brothers wrestle.
Can you make out who Jacob is wrestling here? Might the uncertainty be important?
The figure Jacob wrestles grips his heel – might the artist see this story as going back to the beginning of the trouble?
What do you make of the tumble of ladders behind?

Sophy Williams, fromThe Lion Classic Bible

Jacob and Esau found reconciliation in the end, and Jacob was reminded of this night for the rest of his life by the damage to his hip. Both brothers were blessed as a result of this determination to put things right.
Are there people we can work to be reconciled with? Are there family disagreements we can pray for the courage and strength and wisdom to help end?
Do we dare ask for a blessing?

Some prayers for our families, and prayers of blessing, from Prayers and Verses

O Loving God,
May you bless our family,
may you keep us safe from harm,
may you protect us from anger that
leads to quarrels and unhappiness,
may you help us to forgive each other.
As we go out into the world,
may we bring with us your love and your peace.

Dear Lord,
help us to be honest and kind.
Help us to be our true selves.
Help us not to do things for our
own gain, but to work
together, and learn to put each
others’ needs before our own.

May God make safe to you each steep,
May God make open to you each pass,
May God make clear to you each road,
And may he take you in the clasp of his own two hands.
From Carmina Gadelica

Wherever you go,
May God the Father be with you.
Wherever you go,
May God the Son be with you.
Wherever you go,
May God the Spirit be with you.

May the Lord bless you,
may the Lord take care of you;
May the Lord be kind to you,
may the Lord be gracious to you;
May the Lord look on you with favour,
may the Lord give you peace.
From Numbers 6:24-26

Not only but also

October 11, 2016October 11, 2016 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

This poem emerged from another solitary walk. My feet beat against a hard path, and as I walked somewhere quiet, and beautiful, these words – and this pattern of words – began to emerge.
I had been thinking about the ways we sometimes speak of God, the things we tend to see God in, the images and symbols we use, and the things we tend to overlook. I had been wondering why we pick the things we do, and what might happen if we looked at other, less promising subjects, and wondered if they too could tell us something about God. What would we see if we looked differently?
It was a kind of walking contemplative practice, one that I find fruitful.
By the time I got home the words were beating their own footsteps in my head, and I picked up some scrap paper, and wrote this:

NOT ONLY

Not only in these things
is the Glory of God to be found.

Not only these, but also
in the curved world bending itself
to a newly opened eye,
and the longing that clouds its closing.

Not only in the high and echoing hills
where rocks raise themselves
beneath the shutterfast
night and day of heaven,
but also in the long grey
half-light when dawn will not break.

Not only in the hands of the potter,
but in the cracked rim of a dropped bowl,
and in the one who could not hold it.

Not only in the mystery of words
and the fullness of music and
the pull of a brush through paint,
but in the fragments of self
we leave and find daily –
folded among shirts, and papers,
and hands on a still lap.
Not only in the bright beauty of stars,
but also in the black strangeness of the
space between.

Not only in the white smoke of the waterfall,
but also in the dustsmell of first drops after drought.
Not only in the green fluidity of the forest
or light through a new leaf.
Not only light but shadow
not only sea but dry stones
not only abundance but desert.
Not only
but also.

The photos above are of the Preseli Hills in West Wales, with a view of Carn Ingli – the Hill of the Angels – and also Mwnt beach, a departure point for ancient pilgrims to Ireland.

Sunday Retold – Naaman and the river

October 6, 2016October 7, 2016 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

It’s time for the next Sunday Retold, and this week’s readings include the story of Naaman from Aram.
You can find all the readings following these links:

2 Kings 5: 1-3, 7-15;2 Timothy 2.8-15; Luke 17:1-19.

The story of Naaman is rich in so many ways. Reading it alongside the Luke passage – the healing of the ten lepers – brings two aspects into particular focus: how we view those not of our tribe, or group, or belief system; and the practice of gratitude.

It’s easy to favour people who are like us, who are part of our group, whatever that may be. It’s easy too for us to slide into hostility, a feeling of superiority, a certainty that we alone are right. In both of these stories, we see God not limited by our categories and barriers, but working in the lives of two people who were regarded as outsiders, enemies even.

Naaman was leader of the armies who were fighting against Israel – as clear an enemy as you could imagine. Yet, he was a human being with a secret need, and a secret fear – of leprosy, which would have put an end to his military career, and made him an outcast. That the enemy of God’s people should be stricken in this way might be something to rejoice over – but not for the young slave he had captured. She had reason to ill-wish her master, but she did not. She conspired to bless him instead. It was three servants, or slaves, who play a key role in this story. They are the ones who move the narrative forward, who nudge the powerful towards right action. The general does well to listen to the one who apparently has no power.

Naaman, who arrived in great power and pomp, causing a diplomatic incident, was not greeted by the prophet in the way he expected – but by a servant. He was asked to take off his robes, his armour, his signs of status, and expose his vulnerable flesh. He had to wash in a foreign river, when he had fine waterways of his own. He would have to bend down, bow into the water.
And then, he was healed, and then, what ripples flowed out from that action. The fates of nations hinged on this act which began with the words of a slave-girl.

One of the ripples was gratitude. And that is the theme of the Gospel story. The gratitude of one who was not part of Israel, had a different theology, different worship practices. Nonetheless, he sought and found healing with Jesus, and was the only one of the ten who returned to say thank you. The nine who were on home territory did not. Perhaps the foreigner could teach us something, here.

Gratitude is a powerful and life-affirming discipline – and it is a discipline. Gratitude sometimes flows naturally, but most of the time, we need to remind ourselves to be thankful. We are so used to problem-solving, that we only see the things we think are broken, and cease to see what is good. When we do, things shift. Gratitude to God and to others can transform things – and not just for us, but for those around us, too.

And, to pick up the earlier theme again, perhaps we can consider how to bless those we think of as not like us, how to break down hostility – even if we find it in our own hearts – and do good to others. Perhaps, like Namaan, we can also learn to receive good from the foreigner, the one we might regard as of low status.

What would the world be like if more of us lived out these two disciplines – blessing the other, and gratitude?

The following extract is from The Bible Retold

Please feel free to use these extracts if they help you, saying where they are from.

NAAMAN FROM ARAM (2 Kings 5)

The little Israelite slave-girl was brushing out the hair of her mistress – the wife of Naaman, whose armies had captured her and brought her to Aram.
“My lady, why are you sad?” she asked.
“My husband the general’s skin is growing worse. It must be leprosy.” She replied, weeping.
“If only my master would visit the prophet of Samaria – he would be cured!” So Naaman went in great state, with his horses and chariots, attendants and guards, through enemy territory to Elisha’s house. But Elisha did not go to greet his mighty guest. He sent a slave with a message “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and you’ll be healed.” Naaman shook with fury.
“What kind of service is this from a holy man? I expected prayers and the laying on of hands! But he just sends this puny messenger! I could have washed at home!” And he turned on his heels to leave. But his servant intervened
“My lord, if the prophet had asked something hard of you, would you not have done it? So why not do this simple thing?” And so Naaman did. He washed in the Jordan seven times, and as he came out into the bright sunlight, he looked down at his skin. It was smooth, perfect, like that of a child. Beaming, he rushed back to Elisha, opening his treasure chest. “Now I know that the God you serve is the true one. Nothing else comes close.” “That is reward enough – you may keep your gold!” Elisha replied. And Naaman went home, telling everyone of God’s great goodness.

And, from Prayers and Verses

May we learn to appreciate different points of view:

To know that the view from the hill is
different from the view in the valley;
the view to the east is different from the
view to the west;
the view in the morning is different from
the view in the evening;
the view of a parent is different from the
view of a child;
the view of a friend is different from the
view of a stranger;
the view of humankind is different from
the view of God.

May we all learn to see what is good, what is true,
what is worthwhile.

O God, help us not to despise or oppose what we do not understand.
William Penn 1644-1718

The olive tree I thought was dead
has opened new green leaves instead
and where the landmines tore the earth
now poppies dance with joy and mirth.

The doves build nests, they coo and sigh
beside the field where corn grows high
and grapes hang heavy on the vine,
and those who fought share bread and wine.

Lord, because you have made me, I owe you the whole of my love;
because you have redeemed me, I owe you the whole of myself;
because you have promised so much, I owe you all of my being.
I am wholly yours by creation: make me all yours, too, in love.

Anslem, 1033-1109

May we enter into God’s conspiracies of blessing this week.
Keat’s Autumn is on my mind at the moment, with the wonderful phrase, “conspire to bless”!

Now, as the days of darkness come

October 4, 2016 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

As many days as I can, I walk by the River Deben near my home. Sometimes I walk with someone, but often I walk alone. Alone, the experience is different, opened up differently. It becomes a quiet form of prayer – one which begins with an openness, a question
– Hello, what is there that I need to notice today?
Alone becomes companionable, the openness becomes openness to one who is always there.
I look at the birds of the air, among other things, although, this day, it was more the birds of the water.
It seemed to me as I watched the cormorants that the growing darkness of the season was maybe something I needed to dive into, under the bright surface, that there was treasure even here, even here.

If you wish, you can listen to the poem.

Now, as the days of darkness come

Now, as the days of darkness come,
I see the slick oily surface of the water,
low light skims it like bright stones,
as the geese arrive in broken, twisted skeins.

And there is the egret
in its startling whiteness,
probing the mud,
and a pair of cormorants,
dark as pitch,
forming their strange low circles.
Then, as I watch, they slip down beneath
the bright surface, into hidden water.
And I, too, I hold my breath,
while they are hidden, in wonder
at the unexpected airiness of their bodies,
sustaining them, in that cold water, for so long.

Sunday Retold – Small Seeds, from Luke 17

September 29, 2016July 21, 2023 / andreaskevington / 2 Comments

Sunday Retold

This coming Sunday’s gospel reading – Luke 17:5-7 – talks of tiny amounts of faith, faith as small as a seed, which can accomplish so much in the world. A little context is helpful here. The verse before talks of the necessity to forgive someone, and to keep on forgiving them. On hearing this, the disciples ask for their faith to be increased.

It is a hard task to forgive, and maybe the disciples think they need vast amounts of faith to be able to do it. These verses are difficult to understand, to see how they hang together. Perhaps Jesus’ answer suggests that, if they have any faith at all, it is enough. His story of the servant and the master may follow on from the same train of thought. The work of forgiveness is an everyday necessity for the follower of Jesus. Everyday work does not require special equipment, or a special reward. Perhaps, if we are thinking about our life of faith in terms of reward, of payment, we have misunderstood something.

The Lord’s Prayer (11:1-4), has already been recorded in Luke – forgive us, as we forgive. There, we begin to see how the flow of forgiveness works. We need forgiveness, and we need to forgive. Our own forgiveness is not a static thing, a prize to be acquired. Neither is forgiveness conditional, but, I believe, Jesus describes a process. This is how it works – as a flow of forgiveness. As we join in, seeking to pass on what we receive, we become more like Jesus. He forgives, and so we are freed to. We find the courage and humility to ask for, and give, forgiveness. We both receive and give. It is hard work for us, but it is the work we must do every day – like the work of the servants.

Seeds have tremendous capacity coiled within them. Small as they are, they contain all that is needed for a new plant to grow. It is all there, already. Jesus often uses seeds to talk about the life of the kingdom. They seem a perfect illustration. So small, so unassuming, they need to fall to the ground and break. Then we see that they are in fact breaking open, bursting with new life, with a shoot and a root and a leaf ready to unfurl.

In The Bible Retold , I have the slightly longer version of the mustard seed from Matthew’s gospel.

“How shall I tell you about God’s kingdom? It’s like a man who digs down in the earth and plants a tiny mustard seed – it’s so small that a puff of wind could take it out of the palm of his hand. Yet it grows and spreads into the largest plant in the garden, with branches where the birds can come and shelter.”

And here are some extracts from Prayers and Verses to help us pray through this gospel reading. We think of the smallness of the seeds of kingdom life in our own lives and the life of our community, and of the patience needed to wait and tend their growth. We remember the seeds with gratitude, aware of their potential. We think too of our own need for forgiveness, and remember it before we condemn another.

Help me to be patient as I wait for your kingdom
and your righteousness:
as patient as a farmer who trusts that the rains
will come in their season,
and that the land will produce its harvest.
Keep my hopes high.
Help me to pray to you and to praise you.

The Lord is good to me,
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need,
The sun, the rain, the appleseed.
The Lord is good to me.
Attributed to John Chapman, planter of orchards 1774-1845

I told God everything:
I told God about all the wrong things I had done.
I gave up trying to pretend.
I gave up trying to hide.
I knew that the only thing to do was
to confess.

And God forgave me.

Based on Psalm 32:5

We remember also that there are no small things in the kingdom. Apparently small things have tremendous power. They are enough. What small things can you do today?

We can do no great things,
Only small things with great love.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta 1910-1997

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.” Robert Louis Stevenson

With thanks to my homegroup – a small group who meet and pray and read gospels and sometimes cry and always laugh together. Sowers of seeds, all.

Publication Day – USA and Canada

September 28, 2016 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

Publication day – it’s officially here! Today’s the day these two books, The Bible Story Retold, and Prayers and Verses, are launched in the USA and Canada.

I would like to thank the many wise and kind friends who have helped me complete both of these books – they grew out of the life of a community, and I hope they will nourish communities in their turn.Thank you to all who have talked through ideas, lent me books, answered historical questions, entered into discussion on many subjects, and shared tea and prayer with me. I appreciate it so much – as I also appreciate the long-distance, virtual community we are developing online.

I hope these books will be of use, both as individual texts and together .

I hope they will help youngsters, families, and churches share the wonderful stories of a people discovering the love of God. I hope they will be a blessing to many.

Here is a little snippet from Prayers and Verses

In all my thinking and speaking and doing

this day,

Help me be loving,

help me be peaceful,

help me be kind.

Light

September 21, 2016September 21, 2016 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

It’s nearly the equinox.

It is noticeable now, how quickly the light is drawing back from the edges of the days. Outside jobs cannot be left. A torch is sometimes useful. I do mourn the loss of light, but know that the darkness has its compensations – lamplight, wood fires, stars.

Below is a poem I wrote on Sizewell beach. The photos above are from Walberswick, a little along the coast, where the North Sea has the same dark beauty. I sat on the beach as the light faded, both watching and experiencing the loss of it, and the spread of the deeper blue of early night. I saw my field of vision narrowing, and had a sensation of being, therefore, somehow at the centre, at the focus of what light there was. An illusion, of course, based on the wonderful way the eye works – but a powerful and helpful one. It enabled me to get off the beach when I finally turned my back on the sea. It is like having a lamp for your feet.

While it lasted, that sense of being at the centre – one of many centres – was a place of prayer, a sacred place. I was aware of God, the source of light – and also of the light, the sea and the sky that were around me. It was one of those times outside time, when we simply are, and are aware of that which is greater than us – aware of our own smallness, and our own participation in something vast, and beautiful.

Light, and its absence, have been on my mind as I have been writing about Jesus’ I AM sayings, particularly “I am the Light of the World”. Perhaps that’s why this villanelle surfaced in my memory.

It is a loose interpretation of the verse form, with its three line stanzas and repeated lines, circling around, but it was the one that seemed to fit what the poem was trying to be.

LIGHT

Here, quiet on this stony shore, light
drains from the edges first. Blue deepens to blue,
leaving one pool of brightness against the night,

as the starlight, faint at first, shines bright
on the black waves that rise and fold,
here, quiet on this stony shore. Light

flecks the foam that trembles and shines white,
as the circle of darkness turns closer,
leaving one pool of brightness against the night.

Now, in the blackness, bright birds stop their flight
and shut their starfilled eyes against the dark.
Here, quiet on this stony shore, light

shines on white pebbles, shimmering and starbright
as shadows seep and spread like tar rising,
leaving one pool of brightness against the night.

The stars, the foam, and the pebbles shine with light
that washes and wells and rises
here, quiet on this stony shore. Light
leaving one pool of brightness against the night.

Sunday Retold – the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin

September 9, 2016October 14, 2016 / andreaskevington / Leave a comment

I am trying something new – Sunday Retold. I hope it blesses your weekend.

Andrea Skevington

Welcome to Sunday Retold – stories and prayers based on the set readings for the week. I hope it may be of help to you.

Many churches around the world listen to the same readings together, following the patterns in the Lectionary. Quite often, there is something in The Bible Retold, or Prayers and Verses, that fits. Sunday Retold is an occasional series where I shall try to share those things with you.
If you are part of a community which follows these readings, they may be of use to you in your preparation for Sunday. You may find something for All-Age Worship, or work with youngsters or not so youngsters, or in some other way. If you are not, I hope you will find something to think about, something to help, just the same.

Please feel free to use these extracts, and please say where you got them from!

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