Skip to main content

Grace Comes...


We've just come to the end of the 2025 Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland. It's been a short but busy agenda, not leaving too much room for blogging... But as our former President Rev Dr John Alderdice reflected on his year in office at the opening Ministerial Session, he pointed us again to his installation service the previous year and the image of a cracked, clay jar allowing the light to get in (as per Leonard Cohen and, long before him, Rumi) but also out... but also that of Paul's unknown "thorn in the flesh" revealing the surpassing grace of God... 

And from those thoughts came this...



Grace comes in the form of a thorn
that can never be extracted
but gets down deep beneath the skin
and cosmetic surface shallowness,
working its way into the heart,
and probing at raw nerves en route.

Grace is conveyed in cracked vessels,
free flowing through jagged fissures.
Only broken bread can be shared.
Only a broken heart can heal.
Only when we see we are weak,
can we know what real strength is.

Grace is received when we admit,
that we might possibly be wrong,
that we don't know all the answers,
or even what questions to ask;
that we truly need each other,
to be more than we imagine.
Selah

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that ...
2 comments
Read more

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the ...
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more