Dear friends,

As much as the summer weather and possible vacation period radiate “good life” for most of us, we are all aware of the fact that this world is in urgent need of healing and reconciliation. There are so many places and situations where life is barely liveable for people. War, climate-change induced disaster, heartlessness... The reasons are manyfold. This can make us feel helpless - not knowing how to help. The Biblical narrative knows about and acknowledges these feelings and situations. They have always been part of the story of people in search of God as they have been part of the story of God in search of people... It offers no cheap solution, but invites us to a different way of life, knowing that this will not change the world on the spot. But it may, to start with, change the world of those we closely live with. As it will change us! It offers a changed perspective on life, where healing lovingkindness may unfold itself…

Dear friends,

In a moving article I read this week, “Desire, Use, Repeat: An Addict Looks for a Way Out”, James Mumford reflects on his journey in a twelve-step programme, formerly known as AA. His life, as he explains, had been reduced to a demolished and reductive core: desire, use, repeat. He was addicted to everything he could get his hands on, he says: “Nicotine. Alcohol. Caffeine. Prescription meds. Food. Sex. Spending. It doesn’t matter what the substance is (…) My drug of choice is more.” Desire was central to all of this. He expected, and perhaps hoped, to find a total negation of desire in the twelve-step programme. In fact, the preamble at the beginning of each meeting says: “The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.” To his surprise, though, he found desire to be a moving target.

Dear friends,

On Sunday, we will continue exploring the work of the Holy Spirit in our Pentecost series. More specifically, we will focus on the Spirit and creativity.

As I was preparing, I was struck once again by how full of beauty the pages of the Bible are. In our readings from Exodus, for example, we see a season of high-level artisanship during the construction of the tabernacle. Everything is measured, planned, detailed, and thoughtful. From the stones to the cloth to the colours, everything has meaning. This is not unique to the Exodus accounts. When Noah built the ark, God gave him detailed instructions for its construction. When Solomon built the temple, God was involved as co-constructor and, certainly, chief architect. God is extraordinarily attentive to detail when involved in the creative process, not least when God selects the clay with which to form the human person. What is more, the precious metals and stones used to build and beautify the tabernacle, the ark, and the temple are tangible products of God’s creation, now being used by these craftspeople to continue the beautifying project. Through our art, music, construction, writing, and so on—through using raw materials responsibly and respectfully—we contribute to God’s creative work…

Dear Friends,

On Wednesday, we hosted the second of two events involving the Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa, Thabo Makgoba. The title of the lecture was “Troubled Times: Can we be surprised by hope again?”

We’ve spoken about hope quite a bit over the last few months in church, not least when we read through the letter of 1 Peter. On Wednesday, I realised again that we can never stop talking about hope. There is no limit to what we can discover by keeping it on our agenda, not to mention its social, political, spiritual, and moral importance for our time. No wonder people from so many different backgrounds came on Wednesday to listen to a religious leader speak. We need hope now, not as a nice theological concept locked up in thick books gathering dust on the shelf, but in the day-to-day struggle with the realities of…

Dear Friends,

As I prepare for our Consistory Away Day tomorrow, I am once again struck by the fourth mission statement of our congregation: to transform the unjust structures of society.

Last Sunday we spoke about how the Holy Spirit is not simply some ominous, ghost-like figure that descends upon the church in a mysterious and unknown form. Instead, what is surprising about Pentecost is the profound knowability and understanding created by the Spirit in that moment. People could hear, each in their own language. This Spirit certainly moves like the wind; it cannot be controlled or domesticated. Yet that is not the same as saying that this Spirit is simply unknowable. We can know what it looks like when the Spirit animates human beings. Throughout the Bible, we come to know this Spirit as one that comes to “rest” on certain individuals, especially in situations that are profoundly unjust and unloving. Isaiah 11, 42, and 61 are all good examples of this.

In each case….

Dear Friends,
On Wednesday, just before returning to Amsterdam from Edinburgh, I was fortunate enough to visit the National Gallery. I was a bit rushed and only had time to walk around the first floor if I didn’t want to miss my flight. Nevertheless, I was brought to a standstill when I saw The Awakening by Phoebe Anna Traquair. As the plaque on the wall informed me, this mysterious image represents the awakening of the human spirit. An angel points, with an arrow, to several figures sleeping in a meadow…

Dear Friends

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.”

During our morning prayers on Friday, someone noticed that the church ceiling wasn’t painted perfectly all the way through. Somewhere there was a visible gap in the paint, making them wonder if it was done on purpose—a reminder to churchgoers that not everything always needs to be perfect. I thought it was a beautiful thing to notice imperfections during prayer. Perhaps that is the point of prayer: to notice that we are human, frail, vulnerable, dependent on God and others. To notice that we, and the institutions we are part of, have gaps and vulnerabilities. Yet what matters is the appreciation of these imperfections, the acknowledgement that this is what separates us…

Dear Friends,

Someone once said that, “if you go against the grain of the universe, you get splinters.”

In many ways, it can seem as though this is the message of the First Letter of Peter: keep your head down, do what you know to be good, and be a quiet, law-abiding citizen, even in the face of dehumanisation. Don’t go against the grain of society! Slaves, don’t question your masters, and women, don’t question your husbands. This becomes especially problematic in this week’s reading from the third chapter of the letter. Peter boldly proclaims: “wives, be subject to your husbands.” Continuing to read does little to ease how jarring these passages sound to our modern ears. But shouldn’t we …

Dear friends,

Over the past few weeks, we have explored what living hope looks like in the First Letter of Peter. We considered hope amid suffering as being accompanied by her two daughters, Anger and Courage. Last Sunday, we suggested that Endurance could be seen as the third daughter of hope.

This week I received an encouraging text from someone who attended our Green Service on the 19th of April. That service was also centred around hope. The organisers had the wonderful idea of printing the liturgy sheets for that service on seeded paper. That is, paper laced with seeds so that, once you had finished using it, you could simply plant it in the ground and, as the paper decomposes, wildflowers begin to grow. It is a lovely idea, but what we did not realise is that it is apparently quite difficult to print on this sort of paper. The print shop’s printers kept jamming, and eventually they only managed to print 40 sheets. I was quite stressed about it all. 

So, this week I received a text: someone, quite unfamiliar with church, planted their liturgy sheet and little green sprouts started to appear. Isn’t that wonderful? Those words and hymns did not remain locked up in the church after the service had ended. They continued to grow, not only physically, but also in the hearts and minds of those…

Dear friends,

How do Christians relate to the broader culture around us? How are we to act, think, speak, shop, rest and so forth as Christian people situated in a predominantly non-religious environment? In our news and politics, not least in the shockingly disconcerting image of Donald Trump portraying himself as Jesus Christ, it often seems as though those in power want to get Christ on their side. Christ becomes a by-product of culture….