I'm sitting in a front room in Gateshead on Sunday 8th May. It's 10 past 1 and the smells of cooking are making me salivate. I'm staying with my friends of old, Peter and Judith, and have been to church with them this morning. Our friendship goes back to the 70's when Peter and I were both in Christian bands, trying to spread the gospel through music and preaching, and in my case, through Christian poetry. We dropped immediately into our typical heated theological debates. Peter on the more exclusive side of predestination, me on the more universalist side.
I confess that I wouldn't be a comfortable regular worshipper at their church. But I found that God spoke to me through the Bible reading and the prayers. I have been praying and asking God to speak to me during this time, and especially asked for help to listen for his voice even when, like this morning, I knew I might have a slightly critical spirit. The vicar in his prayer, asked God to rouse us from our sleepiness and wake us up. My attention sharpened at those words. That was particularly apt for me as I have been struggling with sleepiness (physical rather than spiritual) for the past two or three years to the point where I recently had an appointment in a sleep disorders clinic. Is that relevant you might ask? Well I often find God gives small pointers like this to focus our attention.
The Gospel reading was from John 10, the Good Shepherd. Verses from that reading have been haunting me, if that's the right word, since it appeared in the Morning Prayer lectionary last autumn. Especially the references to hearing the Good Shepherd's voice, recognising it, listening to it and following it. When I composed a prayer for people to use for me on my Sabbatical I included a sentence about asking for me to hear the Good Shepherd's voice.
Tomorrow I'm heading north along the coast to Alnmouth Friary to have a time of retreat.
No comments:
Post a Comment