8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

It seems to me that this passage reminds us that God's understanding of time is so very different for ours and if we could only see things from God’s time perspective everything would be disclosed… this suggests a more whole, a much more united vision of what heaven and earth and life is really all about.

Our day to day lives run in linear time, from past through present and into the future day by day. And it's not easy to step out of that linear perspective and so we often find ourselves either looking to the future and thinking about where we’re heading, what we should be doing, how we ought to be and what expectations others might be . Or else we might be looking to the past thinking about how things used to be and what we’ve left behind, how the past has shaped us and how we might draw on the past going forward. And these are all good and helpful ways of reflecting.

But what we mostly have difficulty with is simply stepping out of that linear perspective to remain in the absolute present moment. Now of course our linear thinking is important but so is developing the faculties that enable us to dwell in the present, because it’s in the present moment that our sense of separation from God dissolves, it is in the present moment when we catch those glimpses of absolute oneness, the great mystery of union with God.

The contemplative impulse calls us to intentionally develop our sense of presence so that it becomes as natural a dwelling place as our linear one is. So then we have choices of perspective. It's not that we constantly want to live in the moment, no one could, we still have to navigate the temporal world but certainly we can develop the faculties of presence so that linear time does not have quite the hold over us is often the case. And then we come to see that these ‘end of time passages’’ are not so much about the cataclysmic ending of all things but rather an awakening into a unitive state of oneness with God where it seems our sight and even our very sanity are restored.

In the Wilderness

In the reading from Mark’s Gospel today we hear, in vs 12 and 13 of Jesus being driven into
the wilderness, by the spirit, to be tempted by Satan for 40 days and 40 nights. We are told that also present are the wild beasts and that the angels waited on Jesus.

Sothen, there are various entities that are represented here in the wilderness. We have the
Holy Spirit of God urging Jesus on to face the struggle. There is Satan whose job it is to
cause Jesus to fail in his divine quest. There are also , as we said, the wild beasts and then
the angels so quite a collection of heavenly and earthly beings!
And we might think of these as being various influences that have subtle effects on our lives drawing us in particular directions.

Paul tells us in. Eph 6:12.
For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the
heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age.
And in a way, our life here on earth is precisely this wilderness setting. We all have the Spirit within us urging us to face the powers of this world by speaking truth to power and standing up for what is right. Yet we all also have the voice of the world making seductive promises of money, power, glamour, status, fixes for our addictions and so on, all of which can look very shiny and attractive but undoubtedly will lead us away from our divine calling, in order to serve only the self.

But what about the wild beasts that were there, well these represent our animalistic instincts which are powerful unconscious forces within us that drive the agenda of self survival and so are tempted by the empty promises of the world.

And the angels? All those who inspire us through their words and works, who tend us when we are tempted and broken and whose influences lift us up to a higher way of seeing things, to selfless giving, to loving without strings attached and to serving the good of the whole.

And there we are right in the middle of the drama of the wilderness of this world. Created as both earthly and divine beings (our being made in the image of God. Thus making us the only beings in all of creation, with a foot in both worlds, and having the free will to choose which powers will influence us and which we will refuse, And these influences that call out to us to turn this way or that play out not only at a personal level in our lives but at a collective level too.

Just think about the vaccine issue of a few weeks ago and the spat between the UK and the EU. Some in the UK were positively gloating at how well we were doing with our vaccine roll out. Some were ready to do battle when the EU, who were struggling to get supplies of vaccines, suggested the UK’s supplies must be diverted. Ably assisted by cynical media reporting, nationalism was running high and wild beasts, ie animalistic survival instinct was easily spotted on both sides of the spat.

Others however, with a greater capacity for discerning wisdom of were making the point that unless the whole is served the survival of individual nations will always be under threat. And so you see, we do live our lives both individually and collectively in this wilderness setting pulled by the force which draws the whole of creation towards itself and at the same time by the force that seeks to serve only the self…. and in the process draws the whole to destruction.

This passage from Mark's gospel then serves as a model, not for showing us what Jesus did and how we should try to do the same. But rather who we truly are as humans made in the image of God and awakening to our divine nature in Christ, the only species in all of creation that are called to make conscious decisions about whether we choose to align ourselves with the unitive wholeness of life in the spirit or with the destructive forces that only serve the self. The consequences are huge and the outcome really does lie in our hands. So our choices are to remain unconscious and allow ourselves to be persuaded by the seductive whispers of superficial trappings of the worldly powers that will ultimately lead to our destruction.

Or to wake up to the Christ within us and serve the God who seeks to reconcile the whole of creation, that the wilderness years might finally come to an end and a new heaven and earth would be revealed.

Blessings, Jayne

I wrote about St Brigid in my recent email to you claiming her as one of my favourite saints.
I thought I would mention another favourite as in some ways she puts me very much in mind of St Brigid.

Hildegard of Bingen was yet another feisty powerful woman in a patriarchal context speaking truth to power.

She was a polymath; passionate about the earth, stood up to injustice and was a sustainer of the needy and vulnerable.

 Like St Brigid she seems especially present at this time of the year as spring approaches and we await the 'greening' of nature. For Hildegard this greening power was the creative life force that is inherent in all of nature, including us humans and it is that which calls us all to be fruitful co-creators with the divine

Heldegard named this greening power 'Viriditas'. Hildegard was a 12th century Benedictine nun at a monastery, which had enclosures for both men and women, in Disibodenberg in the Rhineland.

After not an insignificant battle with the patriarchal powers she eventually built an Abbey in Bingen for her nuns so that they could become entirely independent of the monastery.
Hildegarde was a healer and an herbalist and wrote two books on medicine at a time when women in the church were not allowed to write.

She was a preacher at a time when women were definitely not allowed to preach, she was a poet, a composer, an artist and a mystic who received incredible visions from God.
Hildegarde quite simply refused to comply with the patriarchal values of the male dominated context in which she lived.

She could easily have been put to death as a heretic but the creative power that stemmed from her relationship with God made her quite fearless and so she forged ahead regardless.
She lived to the age of 81 and left an incredible legacy of music, art, visionary writing and continues to be a role model for eco activism.

In 2012 she was both canonised and became a Doctor of the church. Today she is a much-loved figure and continues to inspire men and women both in the church and beyond.

Last August I was all booked to visit Bingen as part of my sabbatical to do a deeper study of Hildegard but the pandemic put paid to that!

I still plan to do this study at some point though as I believe that Hildegard still has much to teach the church today.

Jayne
Reverend Jayne E. Webb

Revelations of Divine Love, a medieval book of Christian mystical devotions, is the remarkable story of Lady Julianna, a fourteenth century Christian who received sixteen revelations from God whilst on her death bed. She observed God and understands and is present in all things. Remarkably she recovered and wrote down her experiences to share them with everyone.

The 1st February is St Brigid's day. If like me, you enjoy a Celtic twist to your Christian life then the 1st and 2nd of February are her days. As with a lot of the Celtic saints there is much myths and legends about her life that we would struggle to take literally.

One such legend tells us that one day she was looking for land to build a monastery for her community and King Leinster refused her request. She persevered! She then asked for as much land as her cloak would cover, so the king agreed since her cloak was so small. Laughing, he didn't hesitate to agree to her unconventional request but miraculously the cloak grew as she laid it down to cover many acres. The king could not retract his agreement and so it was that Brigit gained the land to build the monastery at Kildare.

Along with St Patrick, St Brigid is one of the most important figures in the history of Ireland's Christian beginnings.

Brigid is known for many things such as kindness, generosity of heart, hospitality, her outreach to the poor and needy, her love and care of animals and indeed all of nature and her bravery in speaking truth to power - all qualities that are most needed today. To celebrate St Brigid's day people will make St Brigid's crosses out of rushes, but there are many other ways of engaging with the Brigid 'mindset' such as thinking again about our own relationship with the earth and how we might 'do better'; thinking about our own call to kindness and hospitality, where is this needed most? where might we be called to speak truth to power in the injustices, we see around us?
So, with St Brigid offering us some food for thought for this week do enjoy these early signs of spring for when the snowdrops begin to appear legend has it that her spirit draws near!

Blessing to all,
Jayne