The Reflectionary

I’ve just come back from a labyrinths day at the beautiful St Deny’s Church in Evington, Leicestershire. A quintessentially English church yard filled with forget-me-nots, a modern parish centre filled with lovely people, and a sunny day filled with prayer, peace and biscuits. Bliss!

But building labyrinths is quite a physical activity (lots of crawling on the floor measuring things) and I’m aching all over. I’ll tell people it’s from an excess of kneeling and they’ll think I’m super-holy – Win!
We explored prayer with finger labyrinths using Psalm 139 and built a couple of full sized versions. Here’s a Baltic-style processional labyrinth (one way in and one way out so that you don’t bump into people) constructed from muslin strips. They look like bandages and I love how this combines with the vines placed around the edge – the leaves of the tree of life are for healing.

That got me thinking about vines and paths and our readings this week. In John 15 Jesus talks about vines and how a branch must stay attached to the plant or it wilts. He links that to us abiding/remaining in God and God abiding/remain in us. The Greek word is μένω = meno, meaning  “to stay, remain, live, dwell, abide; to be in a state that begins and continues.” It’s a juicy word with many layers of meaning. The 1 John passage uses the same verb to talk about us abiding in God’s love and that love abiding in us, permeating and coursing through us like the sap of a plant, without which it wilts.

And this brought me back to the labyrinth. There is nothing stopping me marching over the carefully-laid lines, straight to the centre without any of that fussy to-ing and fro-ing, or namby-pamby circling around and back, pausing to contemplate, waiting, listening. Why not simply cut to the chase and crash straight to the middle? So much simpler. So much quicker.

Simpler? Yes. Quicker. Certainly. Missing the point? By a country mile.

Abiding is not a quick thing. It’s not supposed to be. And while it is simple, it is not easy. Waiting and listening for the still, small voice is, let’s be blunt, a pain in the bum. How many of us would not prefer flashing neon lights in the sky telling us God’s will?

Instead, we slowly walk; we tread the path we can see for today; we abide, we remain, we meno in God; we follow the guiding bounds of scripture and spirit through life’s unforeseen, unintended twists; and we are brought finally to our goal in God’s good time. 

And we will will look back, from the viewpoint of eternity, at the wounded times and places where we could not understand God’s seeming absence, and we will see God’s loving hands hemming us in, behind and before, and the leaves that were for our healing.

Liturgy Resources for Fifth Sunday in Easter

1 John 4:7-21

Confession and Absolution

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.
We love because God first loved us.

God’s love was revealed among us in this: God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him.
We love because God first loved us.

And this is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
We love because God first loved us.

But we know that our love has been frail
and we have fallen short of your calling.
We are worthy of your right judgement.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

In your mercy, O God, forgive us,
Wipe away our wrong doing, thinking and speaking,
create in us new hearts that will rightly love and follow that love with action.
Amen. We love because God first loved us.

Blessing and Dismissal

May you know and believe the love that God has for you.
May you abide in God; may God abide in you.
May you love as he first loved you,
and the blessing …

Go in the strength and love of God
confessing Jesus as Lord
and filled with his Spirit.
Amen.