Martin Tarr
The Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, born in 1901, was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas the second, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia.
When Anastasia was thirteen, she was given a ‘Brownie’ box camera, first invented some ten years previously. As a precocious teenager, she stood herself in front of a mirror and clicked the camera in her hands. Having had the photo developed she sent it to a friend. In an accompanying letter she wrote. “I took this picture of myself looking at the mirror. It was very hard because my hands were trembling.” What Anastasia had produced was the first self-portrait of herself. It may have been the last, as tragically she was murdered with her family in July 1918, during the course of the Russian Revolution.
Advances in technology have meant that making a self-portrait has never been easier. During the 1970s, the instant Polaroid camera became available, but this has now been superseded by mobile phone cameras. Now, along with the ‘Brownie’ box camera, the term ‘self-portrait’ is also obsolete. The word ‘selfie’, meaning taking an image of oneself by means of a mobile phone, has now entered the dictionary.
Today marks the beginning of Lent. Lent is an opportunity to take a selfie and then to examine it critically. What might we see? Imagine like Anastasia, sending that portrait to a friend. What might that friend honestly say about us?
In addition, Ash Wednesday is a time to address the elephant in the room. We are confronted with advertisements of cures and remedies claiming to take years off our life and to make us feel younger. But as the hymn says, “Time like an ever-rolling stream bears all its sons away”. The word “death” is tiptoed around. In such situations, many individuals prefer to use the terms “passed on” or “taken from us”. In short, we fail to accept that time on earth is only finite. Ash Wednesday brings us up short. “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Our self-portrait before us, along with knowledge of a day of judgement, our shortcomings and our mortality, might prompt us to penitence. An outward sign of penitence that we are offering today is an ‘Imposition of the Ashes’ [the mark of the cross applied to the forehead, using a paste of olive oil and the ashes prepared by burning palm crosses from the previous year], either self-imposed or applied by someone else after receipt of the sacraments.
Grant us Lord the wisdom and grace to use aright the time that is left to us here on earth. Lead us to repent of our sins, the evil we have done and the good we have not done and strengthen us to follow the way that leads to the fullness of eternal life.
Amen.
Photo by Alexei Maridashvili on Unsplash
In the service that Lyn Smalridge carefully crafted for Methodist Morning Worship on the fourth Sunday in Advent, he incorporated three reflections, the last of which we’ve printed below, but we encourage you to read the whole story, available at this link:
In the twelfth century, Bernard of Clairvaux, who was the founder of the Cistercian order of monks, said Christ comes to us in three different ways: firstly, in Bethlehem at Christmas; secondly, at the end of the age; thirdly, in the lives of believers every single day.
So, in these weeks leading up to Christmas, we reflect on the Advent of the past – the Incarnation – and on the Advent of the future – when Christ returns in glory – but we also need to be aware of the Advent now! Here! In the present!
At some point this Christmas in our house we will probably watch again for the umpteenth time the film Love Actually. And you will remember how Billy Mack an aging rock star, brilliantly played by Bill Nighy, tries to make a comeback by recording a version of the old Troggs song Love is all around: “I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes, Love that’s all around me and so the feeling grows” Except that, in Billy Mack’s version, he sings “Christmas is all around”.
But, in a very real sense, love is all around. Because Christ is all around, in every moment; because, as Father Richard Rohr says, “We cannot not be in the presence. The presence is infinite, always, everywhere and forever.”
The problem is that we are not present to the presence! We are somewhere else – living in the past, or worrying about the future – and missing Jesus in the here and now.
The end of this Advent season can be full of pressures: “Will that Amazon delivery come in time?”; “Did I remember to order the turkey?”; “I got a card from … but haven’t sent one back!” In all the busyness, tinsel and lights, we can miss out on Advent now!
So, for now, let’s pause and take a moment to experience the Eternal Advent, the Advent of now and always; take a moment to be still and be present to the Presence. God is incarnate in every moment, not just at Christmas. Emmanuel – God with us – Jesus – truly is all around. Love is all around!
Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash.
Last Sunday we celebrated Candlemas, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and Rev Sheila Cameron reflected in her sermon on the watching and waiting of Simeon and Anna. Here are some of her thoughts:
The story of Simeon and Anna meeting the infant Jesus is a story about patient waiting finally rewarded, and it’s also a story about vision. … There are times when we all wait for promises to be fulfilled; and as people of faith, we look for signs of God’s presence and purpose in our lives. And we’re encouraged in our waiting when we have a clear vision of what could be and must surely be. Luke shows us through both Simeon and Anna that, if we hold on to our faith even when nothing seems to be happening for us, it will be rewarded in God’s good time, and that the Holy Spirit of God will be revealed in us and through us, his faithful people.
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We’re all called to times of waiting for God to answer our prayers, times when our faith is sorely tested. The story of Simeon and Anna tells us that we should never give up hoping for the Lord’s appearing. Sometimes we have to wait a very long time but, if we wait in faith, our faith will eventually be rewarded. … If the things we pray for really are the things God wants for us, then we can be assured that our prayers will be answered in God’s good time. We may not get everything we desire, but we’ll get what in the sight of God is right for us. May the things you hope for be the things God desires for you, and may God sustain you with wonderful visions of things to come in all your times of waiting. Amen.
Do read the whole sermon, which is available at this link.
Our picture of someone watching and waiting is by Ümit Bulut and comes from the Unsplash platform.
Last Sunday was Trinity Sunday, so Rev Sheila Cameron joined the many preachers struggling to define and explain the difficult concept of the Holy Trinity! Here are some of her thoughts:
Our three-personed God should not be seen as one person wearing three different hats, or operating in three separate modes, but as a unity of three persons who have co-existed from the very beginning … inseparable in the creation, the redeeming and sustaining of the world.
… A(nother) helpful image of the Trinity I’ve come across is that of light: think of the light produced by a candle, where the three elements of wax, wick and flame come together simultaneously to create light. No one part can provide light without the presence of the other two; all three parts need to combine for the whole to realise its purpose of bringing light into darkness.
… We say that God is love, and this is another image that demands threefold participation: for divine love, like all loves, cannot exist without the threefold interaction of the one who loves, the one who is loved and the love itself that binds them together. And through the beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in his relationship with God the Father, we too are drawn into that fellowship of love with God and with one another.
I’ve come to see that our three-personed God contains everything our human nature requires in one true God who is creator, redeemer and sustainer. The created world of which we are a part is a place of poignant beauty: poignant because it contains pain and imperfection, loss and unfulfilled longing. But our faith teaches us that we’re moving onwards towards perfection, the perfect creation that exists in the mind of God the Father, and we believe we can do this only through the gift of Jesus, the Son. … Our ultimate destiny is union with God in glory and divine perfection. We need to be redeemed, forgiven and reconciled to our creator and to one another; and in the absence of the physical Jesus we need to be sustained and blessed in our daily struggle by that third person of the Trinity, God’s Holy Spirit – dwelling within us, among us, and in our world.
Do read the whole sermon, which is available at this link.
Our picture is of the floral arrangement at Rosyth Methodist Church created for Trinity Sunday by Val Leslie.
Below are some extracts from Rev Sheila Cameron’s sermon on 14 May 2023, when our readings had included Acts 17:22–31 and John 14:15–21.
How we need that “Spirit of truth” that Jesus speaks of in today’s Gospel!The church has always had a tough challenge standing up to the spirit of the age and, as Christians, we need to gather together in places of safety in the midst of the storms of scepticism and materialism that assail us …
In the Easter season we draw inspiration from the Acts of the Apostles, which tells a story of great courage and joy and spiritual power in the face of an equally sceptical audience. Today’s reading starts at the beginning of a great speech by Paul to the Athenians, but the verse just before it gives us an interesting glimpse of life in ancient Athens. The Revised English Bible has the translation: “Now, all the Athenians and the resident foreigners had time for nothing except talking or hearing about the latest novelty.” This was a world very like our own, restless, endlessly seeking fresh stimulation and new versions of everything, unable or unwilling to commit to anything in much depth or settle down in one place for long: perhaps because the one commitment that might be the key to life, the commitment to Jesus Christ, had so far eluded them.
In Acts 17, we see Paul addressing the scepticism of his own age, and pointing to the hunger for truth that lay behind it. The Areopagus was a large rock in the centre of Athens which served as a public forum and a place of trial, and Paul was taken there to be interrogated about the new faith in Jesus and the Resurrection which he had been preaching around the city.
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What is so enormously impressive about this speech is how Paul identified with his audience. He showed them how familiar he was with their thinking; he referred to their commonly held beliefs – that there was a creator god; that this god had no need of anything from humans, including being worshipped in temples built by human hands; and yet this god was available to those who reached out to him.
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Paul won the respect of his hearers, and what an important lesson that is for all of us. In the sharing of our faith it is so important to establish a foundation of common ground with our neighbours, to be friendly and concerned, generous and respectful. We don’t need to quote the Bible or recite the history of the church to explain the gospel. Shared culture, shared history, concern for others, common life experience and above all, willingness to spend time with others all provide excellent starting points to begin communicating our faith by our presence, interest, kindness, good humour and joy.
Do read the whole sermon, which is available at this link.
Our picture is of a stained glass panel that you can see at St Giles’ Catherdal, Edinburgh, made available through WikiMedia Commons at this link.
