North Queensferry Church

6th. June 2020. Daily Devotion.

3rd June 2020 A Candle in the Window Peter Millar

Words to encourage us in tough times. ionacottage@hotmail.com

Rook – a large Eurasian passerine bird, with black plumage and a whitish base to its bill. The passerine bird family known as corvids, includes crows, ravens’ rooks, jackdaws, magpies and jays. (Collins Concise Dictionary)

This week I thought that a reflection on the rooks in a wood in Harlech In Wales would lift our thoughts to the constant joys of Nature, and to the celebration of a corvid which sometimes gets a bad press. Jim Perrin – the writer of this piece is intrigued by his rook neighbours and their lifestyle.

*** The leaves on the ash trees at the foot of my garden are open now, pale green fans of foliage unfurled to give shelter and privacy to the dozen nests at the small rookery. The corvids’ nesting season this year has coincided quite closely with the Covid19 lockdown, so I have not had to travel far for daily nature study. Rooks are noisy, shrill and squabbling birds, but they make interesting neighbours. In March they settled into an industrious round of nest selection and repair, copulation and incubation. Their clutches of four green-blue speckled eggs having hatched early in May – weeks later than those in more southerly countries – the female birds can now join their mates in the hurried gathering of earthworms and leatherjackets. So the clamorous scolding that once welcomed the males back to the nest after each foraging trip have been replaced by shrill alarm calls from the whole colony when local ravens approach the unattended nests.

I see the rooks down in the pasturelands each afternoon on my walk. They use their bills to flick aside clods of dung from the winter’s muck-spreading before devouring the rich harvest of worms beneath and hastening back to regurgitate them into fledglings’ gapes. As light relief from this incessant reproductive activity, I’ve been enjoying music sessions with a tuneful cock blackbird, perched on the roof of the garden shed. If I whistle to him, he puts his head to one side, listens attentively, and then exactly reproduces the musical phrases before embellishing them with his own riffs and trills. He’s up on the roof now, singing out his raucous songs. ***

*** In this quieter time, if we are fortunate, we can pause and observe differently than before the beauty, intricacy and mystery of crows, rooks, ravens, magpies, and jays. The joys of creation enriching our lives. ***

The person reborn:

The God whom we know in Jesus Christ is known in others under widely varying names and attributes. They seek Him or Her in nature; in the truth pursued by science; in social justice and international peace. When we are embarrassed by our wrongdoing and try to hide it, we often still seek; in each generation the search continues. This something we search and long for is what I call ‘the spirit’.
Many people today are thinking about the crisis through which the world is passing. Although they are of the most varying beliefs, they are arriving at the same conclusions. They realize that modern civilization has lost its soul; that technical skill divorced from faith does not suffice to bring peace and happiness; that the spirit has been relegated to the narrow confines of the church and of private belief; that is has ceased to be a real power in the lives of women and men – in politics, economics, art and intellectual life. They believe that this is why the world is no longer able to find any solutions to the personal, family, national and international problems that beset it. If we try to make a particular orthodox belief the indispensable credential for anyone who wants to join in work for the spiritual reconstruction of the world, we shall turn away the majority of people of goodwill, whom we ought to be welcoming with open arms. Bring them our Christian convictions but let us hold out the hand of friendship to them. We shall be able, without denying our faith, to find a basis for common action, for they, like us, believe in the spirit.
Dr Paul Tournier who wrote these words was a popular writer on Christian spirituality and its importance in daily living some years back. In some ways his words may be dated, but the core vision remains true. We just need to look at our political leaders to see the emptiness of much of public discourse. Tournier argues for a spiritual voice to be once again heard in the marketplace, not a strident, dogmatic voice such as in the contemporary New Right, but one of humility and faithfulness that encompasses compassion linked to justice. A voice of integrity linked to an ability to communicate in a technological age. A voice of love that is not faked. He reminds us of the need for an awareness that the natural world must no longer be dominated by the greed of humans. He is convinced, as many of us are, that there can be no lasting peace without a much deeper understanding and respect between religions. A truth which the German theologian Hans King wrote about with such clarity. (The words quoted above come from Tournier’s book, The Person Reborn, 1971)

Postscript: As I send out this weekly reflection, America is again engulfed in a new wave of violence on the streets of many cities. Why is that we humans cannot welcome the stranger or the one who is different from us? Do we ever learn? The American leadership can think only of repressing the violence with arms. No dialogue: no listening: no awareness of the heart-felt cries of millions of our sisters and brothers. We must be with them in this time – in our thoughts, in our prayers, in our campaigns, in our messages to political leaders, for if we remain silent, we remain part of the problem. Tournier and many others before us were right. We need to be reborn, all of us, in our understanding of the global, connected human family in all of its difference and vitality: in all of its struggles for justice and peace.

Prayers

We pray for those who are sick: for those afflicted with coronavirus; for those with other illnesses and conditions which leave them vulnerable; for those with poor mental health; for all who suffer; remembering especially …

The LORD of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Lord, we trust in you, because your love is constant:
bring us comfort and healing,
for you are always willing to save.

We pray for the Church: for our fellow members in the body of Christ throughout the world; for the Church of Scotland our Ordained Lay Ministers Deacons and Readers and all the people in their care; for our hospital and hospice chaplains; for all who minister to the sick and the dying; for…

The LORD of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge.

Lord, you are among us:
keep us fearless in proclaiming your Word and works,
and make us to be lights in the darkness.

We pray for those who have died for those taken suddenly; for those taken unexpectedly; for the families they leave behind; for their friends; for those who have died alone; for … ; and for those who have no one to remember them.

The LORD of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge.

Lord may those who have waited for you
and hoped in your word
know your steadfast love face to face.

We offer up our hopes and fears,
our joys and sorrows
to God, our refuge and strength.

Lord, listen to our prayers,
and hear the voice of our supplications,
as we, who trust in your word,
eagerly await your help:
for you are the God of our salvation.
This we ask through your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.