Dear Friends,

“No human being can be unaffected by Jolene,” said Nelson Mandela. As one person on Substack reminded me this week, Mandela requested that Dolly Parton’s Jolene be played over the prison loudspeakers when he was on Robben Island. And he’s right, you know. Dolly Parton was a powerhouse of a person and loved by so many. But it wasn’t obvious. In fact, she was beloved exactly because she didn’t pretend to be anyone she was not. As Mary Towsend wrote this week, it is hard to imagine how the “tacky” country style we now know so well – the fringe, the stylised leaves, flowers and animals on the boots, hats, guitars and epaulettes – could inspire so many people from so many different political, cultural and economic backgrounds at once. We might even want to conclude that “it wasn’t God who made honky-tonk angels”.

But seriously: why is that? Why did Dolly inspire so many people? I think Towsend gives a good answer:

“Dolly Parton is not simply a good person, or a beautiful poetess; she is both beautiful and good, in a way the philosophy of character strives to explain but can’t always illustrate convincingly. Usually, our heroes disappoint us with flaws or scandal, or our admiration and interest wanes and we move on to the next person to admire. But the more I come to learn about Dolly, the stronger my feelings become.” 

See, Dolly didn’t just sing and wear her shiny suit….

Dear Friends,

On Sunday, we will be ordaining new elders in our congregation – a joyous occasion in the life of any congregation and one that we are particularly excited about. Officially, the Church of Scotland describes the role of an elder as being “one of the spiritual offices of the church and is concerned with the oversight and pastoral work of a congregation”. In fact, the word that is used to describe our denomination, “Presbyterian”, is a translation of the Greek word presbyteros, meaning “elder”. We place a certain weight on the role of eldership in our congregations. No wonder appointing elders takes such a long time! We as a congregation discerned, nominated, and conversed until we could finally welcome these individuals, who will give guidance to our congregation over the coming years.

Dear Friends,

This Sunday’s Gospel reading, Matthew 15:21–28, is particularly challenging – one we might be tempted to overlook. A Canaanite woman approaches Jesus and begs him to heal her suffering daughter. What follows is upsetting: Jesus initially ignores her, then responds in a way that seems harsh and out of character: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

Did Jesus really call this woman a dog? Was he perhaps, as many commentators have suggested, prejudiced toward women? Toward Canaanites? Did Jesus really believe that his mission was only meant for the Israelites?

We’ll get into those details on Sunday. For now, I simply want to flag that this reading challenges us in how we think about Jesus’s divinity. It’s certainly not a new question. Already in the Apostles’ Creed, we see signs of how the early church struggled to make sense of a God who is both fully divine (We believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord…) and fully human (born of the Virgin Mary, suffered, crucified…)

Dear Friends,

A few years ago, I underwent quite the conversion while sitting under a mango tree with a missionary in Mozambique. He would cringe at me describing him as a missionary. In fact, he used to say, in Afrikaans, “’n sendeling is gelyk aan ’n ellendeling” (badly translated as: “a missionary is the same as a misery-nary”). He wasn’t wrong. Missionaries in Africa are known for terrible acts of colonialism and segregation. In fact, the president of Rwanda famously dissuaded missionary activity after the genocide, even recently referring to some of those churches as “a den of bandits”. Desmond Tutu also famously said: “When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.”

Be that as it may, there I was, sitting with this missionary under the mango tree. He was one of the good ones. Their organisation, run by Mozambicans, provided microloans to small businesses in the area, built community-led clinics, and set up many schools. We began speaking about…

Dear Friends,

Have you ever thought about nature as a living classroom, ready to teach us something at every opportunity? In his book The Man Who Talks with the Flowers, the celebrated agricultural scientist George Washington Carver says it beautifully: 

“I love to think of nature as unlimited broadcasting stations through which God speaks to us every day, every hour… 

How do I talk to a little flower? Through it I talk to the Infinite. And what is the Infinite? It is that silent, small voice … that still, small voice.” 

An unlimited broadcasting station of God’s glory – isn’t that beautiful? John Calvin similarly saidthat the whole of creation is the “theatre of God’s glory”. 

Over the last three weeks of our holiday, we were immersed in the classroom of creation….

Dear Friends

"Humanity created 'in God's image'..."

It is commonplace to cite the Biblical paradigm which speaks about humans being created in God's image - but what can we understand by this? And thinking further: Do we realize how scandalous that paradigm is? How dare we? Humans and God so close to each other? 

Still, Biblical imagery works with…

Dear friends,

"Good and evil under God's heaven... "

The Bible is very realistic: It acknowledges that people are not just nice by default. It actually reminds us as well that even we ourselves are not just nice... (always). There are those moments when our 'ego' distorts our behavior in ways we would in other moments rather not have it interfere, but it does! What we can learn from Biblical reflection is: People of God should be clear in identifying what is right and…

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…