Psalm language

Although I have used the psalms for a great part of my life they are not the first thing I usually turn to in worship. Mostly because I often struggle to connect with the language. Images of God are limited in most translations: it's all Lord, Lord, and other images seem ancient and far away.

Psalm 127 is part of the lectionary today. It's short and whilst the translation I'm readying has Lord, Lord it's also about building and protecting cities. The second part has the image of children being like 'the arrows in a soldier's hand'. In Helmand today arrows are not much prized I suspect. How to pray with women and men serving out there when we all yearn for peace and wonder at the right action to take to get there? So my rewrite of Pslam 127 in a week that saw deaths of British service personnel pass that of any year since the Falklands. Maybe these words will not sit comfortably with us and maybe that's the thing about Pslams. Too much emphasis on the comfy ones and not enough attention to the uncomfy ones.

Revised Psalm 127

If God does not build the peace
the work of the peacemakers in useless;
if the Holy One does not protect the city
then what hope for those who stand guard.
Your work is useless;
the early mornings and late nights wasted.
Whilst your are sleeping
God nourishes you with love.

We consider children to be God’s gift:
a real blessing.
The offspring a young parent has
are like ammunition to a soldier.
A soldier feels satisfied with a full clip;
such a one feels ready
when face to face with the enemy
or surveying the ground for an IED.

copyright Janet Lees: 08.11.2009

Cross-wards through the cross woods

On Good Friday about 20 folks associated with Waverley URC aged from 10-80 years walked 7 or so miles through West Yorkshire countryside to Castle Hill for a service of witness. They were joined at the hill, which shows signs of human activity since 4,000 BCE, by about 30 other less energetic people. Along the way we often went through small woodland areas. Just breaking into bud, these woodlands were small oasis of wildlife undergoing to natural process of regeneration. Last years fallen leaves were still a blanket in some hollows. Twisted roots and fallen branches, the odd dead hedgehog, all witness to the life and death of the woods. On this edge day there was a fresh awareness of the path between life and death as we trod our way through these woodlands. On the hill we heard the story of the hill far away and the Suffering One. Amongst those who gathered on the hill to listen, some were not associated formally with any organised Christian fellowship. These are the Good Friday people of our age, who walk cross-wards through woods and up the hill to remember and who still count.

Christ of the Easter Vigil,
as you hung on for us,
help us to hang on
to and for each other.
Remind us that we all still count,
in that endless crowd of witnesses.
Confirm us as cross people
as we take the steps that lead us
from death to life.

copyright Janet Lees: 12.04.2009

Remembering the cross

Harry, aged 85, keeps this cross in his pocket. It was given to him 15 years ago by Constance, who died three weeks after she gave it to him. He keeps it in the pocket where he has his loose change and every time he puts his hand in his pocket he feels it there. It reminds him of his friendship with Constance, a disabled woman from Jamaica who he used to give a lift to church to each week, and of his committment as a Christian.
Baptised as an Anglican, he tried the Baptists as a teenager, before become a Presbyterian after the war, like his late wife, Ruby. Apart from when he had a virus last year for a couple of weeks, he never misses going to Waverley URC, where he is the oldest male member.

You can find plenty of these little crosses to make or for sale on the internet. As we approach cross-week I thought I'd make a video piece about crosses. I've been using some photos of crosses in the school assemblies I've been doing for the last few weeks. Today it was year 7 and they were a bit braver/less self-consious than some of the other groups, so a few people offered their views and opinions. On Friday there's an Easter bonnet competition.

Cross-wise Christ,
with us still
in love, loss and memory;
as we approach your cross-week
keep us mindful of you and each other,
in life and in death.

JAL: 01.04.2009