One Line Haiku Storm Clouds

grey smoldering sky
binding summer in chains
a restless confinement

storm clouds by dreambird

One Line At Still Pond

at the still pond even my watch stopped

still pond 1 by warren

One Line At Still Pond

soft morning light falls on to the still pond

still pond by warren

One Line August grasses, trees and sky

the wind's strong currents, scatters clouds, tears at grass and bracken


pastoral perfect by kandyjaxx

One Line White Grasses

like a spring, a crop of wild and white grasses, spray and score the summer air

white fountain grass

by warren

One Line Ivy Collage

on the garden fence, a green collage, like the still and sleeping scales of reptile

Ivy collage

by warren

One Line Green Ferns

the bracken full grown, stands shoulder high, buries sign posts, park benches and Red deer.

Green Ferns by barnp

One Line Summer Grass

the summer grasses brown to a crust, flecked with amber, flash of red

kansus long-grassed prairie

by rita be

One Line Bracken

A layered maze of radiant green

Bracken

by Kwozie

One Line Bracken

wild green light arcs, rises into shadow and light

Bracken

by treescaper

One Line Street lights

the banished darkness hovers above the wide white beam of street lamps

street by Sicko Thelford

One Line June Tree

June, a thick voluptuous green

tree by squeegeed

One Line June Trees

the trees heavy headed, the air drenched in fierce green light

tree by Squeegeed

View of the Road

This is the first full poem I've written since October 2007. It has been rushed and will be edited a little over the next couple of weeks. Hope you like it P?

View of the Road

I miss the nights we lay awake
perched on our elbows
reading the sleeping street
from behind the open blinds,
the black bars of our bedstead
and our heavy headed sleepiness.
Our view obscured by the darkness
And the birch tree
that rung out with a thousand silver tongues
like a distant ocean.

On sleepless nights
when the spell of Faure’s “Pie Jesu” had broken
I’d watch for occasional movement
sculptured out of dark incubating shadows.
A fox rummaging in bins,
a cat’s majestic prowl,
a police car’s purr.

Some nights we’d wake together
to the sudden slam of a car door,
an unexpected cough,
or the wind wrestling the silver birch.
And I’d wake to see our rain sequined window.

And I remember lying on our backs
on lazy Sunday mornings,
watching the shadows of leaves,
and sunlight reflected off car windscreens
through the open blinds and dappled light
throwing pretties onto the bedroom ceiling.

But now the contours of this new road are different.
Instead of the silver birch
an open and exposed view of the road
and a disused telephone pole.
Only its bare wires to hold the weight
of the neighbourhood pigeons,
gold finches and long tail tits.

I watch them from the upstairs window
where I have only a muffled sense of the street below.


© David Loffman

5 June 2008

One Line Telephone Pole

wood and wires, disused, suburban furniture

Telephone Pole by drigllybean

One Line Spring Trees

spring trees, a rich and blooming radiant green


spring trees by whimsical Chris

One Line Ferns Unfolding

suddenly the ferns appear, thin green stems spearheaded out of the cradle of a dead brown bed of stalks

Photo fiddleheads

by ellenmac 11

One Line Spring Fern

a thin green tongue of fern unfolds itself, tastes new spring light


unfolding by sbisson

One Line Night Forest

Early May morning, before dawn, in the dark woods, the gathering call of birds.


Night Tree by Chris Tengi

One Line Spring and Winter entwined

The last of the winter trees, smudged, pencil grey, stalks the shadows

Spring's coming

by starrynight1

One Line Winter Trees in Spring

The last of the winter trees, smudged, pencil grey, stalk the shadows

The old and the new
by foxypar4

One Line Spring Tree

each day the leaves, at first a vague green dusting, then clean green buds, emerge, strong and insistent into the clear spring air

Photograph Leafy Tree

by shadowfall

One Line Spring Trees

Spring unwraps its new green gifts in the opening palms of the trees

Why Trees Grow Tall

by simonsterg

Spring Sky through Bare Branches

April’s low strong sun hurts, and the air, a sharp and cleansing cold, scours the park from the east.

Spring Sky through bare branches

by sbisson

Spring Prosperous

clotted blossom pierces the bitter air, sharp with the sting of hyacinth

Prosperous Spring

by xiaotmjm

One Line Snow Blossom

on the branches, delicate blossom and fragile snow

Snow Blossom

by webgirlpip

One Line Sunlight Reflection

jagged pieces of winter sun, slashes out of muddy puddles, sears our eyes

Sun Reflection

by kumquatgirl

One Line Richmond Park, Storm Coming

Thickening waves of cloud, carries the grey weight of rain.

Photo Richmond Park, London #8
by Flickering Image

One Line Lichen and Winter Trees 2

Lichen coats the open arms of winter trees, sky rooted

Photo Winter Tree by Eskimimi

Sermon 17 March 9.30 Service

This was the fourth sermon delivered to Christ Church, New Malden, by me. It was, without doubt, the hardest sermon I've prepared so far. It was a real challenge. The 9.30 service uses slides. And the congregation are relatively new Christians, or Christians with young famalies, or people thinking about becoming a Christian. It took a long time to prepare.

Jesus Never Said Religion and Politics Don’t Mix

Good morning.

This is the third sermon in a series of sermons titled Things Jesus Never Said. One saying that is often quoted is Religion and Politics don’t mix. And that’s the title of this sermon.

Today is Palm Sunday when we remember and celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. All the crowds came out, they lined the streets. They shouted praise and welcome. The air was charged with excitement and expectation. Was this the messiah, the man to liberate Israel from Roman rule? “Hosanna to the son of David” they shouted. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” It must have felt like a political rally.

Jesus’ reputation had preceded him, “the prophet of Nazareth”, the teacher, the man that healed. The man that could bring the dead to life.

But as Jesus comes to Jerusalem he all too quickly collides with the religious, Jewish and Roman authorities. Suddenly within just a few days of Jesus’ arrival his teaching and healing ministry come to an abrupt and brutal end with his Crucifixion.

[Slide Burma 2 Monk]
In Burma in 2007 a small string of protests began against the sudden price rises of petrol and the decline in living standards of people who are among some of the poorest in the world. Surprisingly the protests were started by Buddhist monks. They usually live at a distance from the ordinary citizens of Burma. Thousands of them left their monasteries to march through the streets.

[ Slide 3 Burma Monks on march]

As a result Burma’s military regime attacked the monks. Within days they were scattered. Monasteries were ransacked. And many protestors were killed or arrested as we all saw on our television screens.

Religion can be a dangerous business. Perhaps it would have been better if the monks just kept their heads down. Didn’t make too much fuss. Perhaps that’s what Jesus should have done too. Perhaps religion and politics just don’tmix.

So what place does religion have in politics? What place should we as Christians have in the political situations around us? What do we do? It’s with questions like these you just know you’ve got to turn to the Bible.

The passage that thingy read is one of the most well known passages thought to show Jesus’ view on politics. Some people think that Jesus was saying that religion and politics don’t mix.

So one day The Pharisees and the Herodians try and trap Jesus.

But Jesus knows this is a set up. He is in a tight spot. Herodians stood to on one side of him and Pharisees on the other. These were two Jewish groups strongly against one another. The Herodians were supporters of Herod, Caesar’s puppet king of Israel. Although Herod and his supporters were Jewish, their allegiance was to Caesar, and the Roman Empire.

The Pharisees were the religious rulers of the Jews that adhered closely to the commandments in the law of Moses. They were a deeply nationalistic and religious group. They did not recognize the authority of Rome. They despised paying taxes to the self proclaimed ‘deified’ Caesar. They wanted the Romans out.

And so here are the two groups working together for one purpose to bring Jesus down. Because he was a threat to both their authorities.

First they flatter him and then they ask “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” This is a trick question. If he answered pay the taxes he would have undermined the Jewish book of the Law in favour of Roman laws and Gods. And angered the Pharisees. If he answered don’t pay taxes to Caesar then he was liable to be arrested for subverting Roman rule. Jesus answers by calling for a coin. He asks whose head is inscribed on it and then proclaims.
[Slide 5 Reading]"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

If he answered yes or no it would have revealed where he thought true sovereignty lay. Either it lay with Caesar or with God. Either answer would have got him arrested by one party or the other.

People think that Jesus was saying here that spiritual matters should be left to God and that earthly matters should be left to kings and emperors.

But I don’t think that is what Jesus was really saying.

Jesus says whatever bears the seal; the likeness of Caesar belongs to Caesar. So what is Caesar’s exactly? And what belongs to God exactly? Well apparently a small circular piece of metal about the size of a two pence coin belongs to Caesar. The Pharisees would have been really amazed at Jesus’ answer. For they knew, as Jesus knew that

”God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness”.

Jesus is saying that we bear the stamp and seal of our Creator. Our God’s seal is upon us. Not Caesars.

And the Pharisees also knew as Jesus knew that

“The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;”

and that includes its money and politics.

For there are no no go areas of human life that are separate from God.

[Slide 8 Tutu Quote]The former Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu said

“If we are to say that religion cannot be concerned with politics, then we are really saying that there is a substantial part of human life in which God’s will does not run. If it is not God’s, then whose is it?”

[Slide 9 Hitler, Stalin] According to some estimates these two men were responsible for the slaughter of 100 million people.

It is inconceivable that Jesus would see the two separated like this. Even the history of Israel is a history based on a ruler that combined both religious and political realms starting with Moses.

So what would it mean for us if Jesus had said that politics and religion don’t mix? Imagine for a moment that Christians like William Wilberforce [Slide 10 Martin Luther King and William Wilberforce] had not helped to abolish slavery. Or that The Rev Martin Luther King hadn’t actively campaigned against racial segregation in America.

Instead imagine if Christians looked on at these great injustices and did nothing while it was left to others to do the work of justice and mercy. Surely the best way to be a Christian in the world is to be active in changing the world for good.

As the Irish Political Philosopher and Politician Edmund Burke said

[Slide 11 Edmund Burke Quote] “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

So what about today? What about our own society? And the world around us? Imagine a Christian silence as the nation debates [Slide 12 Slogans] [Gay Rights, Abortion, poverty, crime, the environment, terrorism, the middle east, third world debt, the spread of HIV/AIDS.]

At its best a strong and prayerful Christian voice can change the world for good. But often public Christian voices are ridiculed in the press [Slide 13 Headlines] when they speak making them sound awkward and embarrassing. They are told to mind their own business and stop meddling.

[Slide 14 Archbishop of Canterbury]

But the truth of what they say can frighten politicians, anger multinational corporations, and challenge governments and the law. A Christian voice can be a voice that no one with power really wants to hear.

Helder Camara used to be an Archbishop in Brazil. He put his finger on this when he said this.

[Slide 15 Quote] “When I feed the hungry they call me a saint. When I ask why the hungry have no food, they call me a communist.”

Helder Camara was criticised by a corrupt Brazilian government because he challenged their policies that reduced most of the population to extreme poverty while a small minority lived like kings.

Like Arch Bishop Helder Camara we should challenge causes of poverty and injustice.

Last year about 40 people in Christ Church did a course here. It was run by members of Tear Fund and they shared with us the Micah Challenge. The challenge is to put into action the famous verse in Micah where it says

[Slide 16 Reading] “And what does the LORD require of you? To do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

The course leaders helped us think of ways of putting that key verse into practical action. They showed us how we could help the poor here in New Malden. And discussed fair trade and third world debt. We talked about ways we could campaign to bring change about.

When I first got married I saw this in action in a very powerful way. I did a series of part time jobs. One of them was for a Christian charity. Every part of the charity was involved important current social and political issues. I didn’t always agree with their campaigns but what really impressed me was their commitment and determination to social and political change.

When I was working there the law on abortion was being amended. On one level they were lobbying members of parliament on the issue of abortion. But at the same time they were providing real, practical help and support for hundreds of young and vulnerable pregnant women.

[Slide 17 Iona Abbey] I was looking for retreat when I first visited the Iona Christian Community. It’s on the remote island of Iona, which is an hour on the ferry from mainland Scotland. I expected a place of quiet reflection and meditation away from all the stresses and tensions of London.

I remember visiting the Community bookshop in the ancient Abbey expecting books on prayer and Christian meditation.

Instead I found political books from a Christian perspective on subjects such as nuclear disarmament, the environment and the role of women in society.

There I was looking for spiritual retreat right on the edge of our British Isles. But out there I found a clear and confident Christian political voice. That was completely plugged into the contemporary issues of the day.

[Slide 18 Iona Cross] Let us…I must learn that lesson for myself. Politics whether it be party political, campaigning on domestic or international issues is a God given requirement. But it is difficult to think of politics as a valuable and God given pursuit today. Politics has a dirty reputation. The papers are full of political scandals and corruptions. But we must not let that put us off.

On the Micah course we learned that to do justice is to be political because justice arises out of the law. To love mercy is to show compassion for our neighbours. And to walk humbly with God is live lives filled with praise and worship. It shows that politics love and religion are inseparable. And the Lord requires that we do all three. So when Jesus says give to Caesar what is Caesars and give to God what is God’s he is showing that we have political responsibilities as well as spiritual responsibilities. Because everything is stamped with God’s image.[End Slide]

Floating Felts The Forest

Here is a Floating Felt by my friend Mary-Clare Buckle, an artist living and working in Dorset.

When we visited Mary-Clare's gallery and studio recently we were overwhelmed by some of the pieces.

I love the way she fills her surfaces with stong and vibrant colours. I love the rich and sensuous textures and depth of her work. I love the intricate patterning and the strong contrasts of colours and shapes.

A Floating Felt is a fine, translucent, abstract fibre art picture, using wool and other fibres – framed by mounting between sheets of clear acrylic, giving a feeling of the piece floating in three dimensions.

I've added a link to Mary-Clare's website on the title of this blog and on the Felt.

The Forest by Mary-Clare Buckle

One Line Rubbish Caught in Trees

torn rags of plastic hang like discarded flags on bare black branches

Photo by Tina 1960

One Line Lichen and Winter Trees

The sun peels away from the horizon, to illuminate green lichen on dark winter trees, a luminescence

Photo Trees in Forest

by simonsterg

One Line

Circular frames of bare iron, skeletal against the grey winter sky

Photo Gas Works 3# by mr_phillip

One Line

Chesil Beach stretches out into mist, a long scythe into the sea

Photo by Flash of Light

One Line Richmond Park, dawn, frost and mist

In the hollows, where frost and mist is thickest, the dregs of night

Photo by David Chare titled Richmond Park February 2008

One Line

Beyond the dark veins of winter tress, a grey dissolve, the muffled lantern sun, rises

Photo Foggy winter sunrise

by sundornvic

One Line

Clear twilight sky, where beads of light, soar low and long above the river's line

Photographed by Vector1771

Uncle Vanya at The Rose Theatre, Kingston

We went to the new Rose Theatre in Kingston this evening to see Chekhov's Uncle Vanya - the first production in the new theatre.

It was the usual ingredients of declining Russian middle class, haunted by the meaninglessness of life, filled with unfulfilled longing.

Suffused with a hint of peasant, an alcoholic stupor and a rant about the decline of the Russian forest.

Laced with tragic foreboding and dark ironic humour.

All done very well. Peter Hall directed an impressive cast.

Sermon Sunday 20 January 2008 8.0 Holy Communion

SERMON 20 JANUARY 8.00 COMMUNION 10 MINUTES

This is the third sermon I've been invited to give at Christ Church. The service is a 8 O'clock Holy Communion service. It uses the book of Common Prayer 1662. I love the service. It has no songs or hymns. Just the liturgy, the readings, sermon and communion. There are usually no more than 25 people present and this gives an intimate and reflective atmosphere.

It takes me a long time to put together a sermon. I start preparing for it when I get given the date and the reading - about 6-8 weeks before the service. And I try and spend some time every day working on it from then on. In the last 3-4 weeks I try and spend an hour a day on it.

Hope you enjoy it.

Love David

Reading Matthew 20:1-16

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

1"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.

2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3"About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

4 He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.'

5 So they went.

"He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.

6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'

7" 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
"He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'

8 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'


9 "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.
10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.

11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.

12'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

13 "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius?

14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.

15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

16"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

SERMON

Jesus came to turn things upside down. And our reading ends with Jesus’ saying “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.” The beginning of this chapter in Matthew is partly an illustration of this saying.

At the beginning of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre’s parents die and she is adopted by an aunt who mistreats her. The aunt spoils her own privileged children and sends Jane to a school for orphans, eventually she becomes a servant in a great house.

Yet at the end of the novel we find those that had treated her badly, despised her, abused her and rejected her have either died or their lives had been ruined. And Jane herself becomes the wife of the wealthy man she has loved for years.

For Jane Eyre “the first became the last and the last became the first.”

In the parable of the workers in the vineyard Jesus gives us a picture of what the kingdom of heaven will be like. He tells us of a vineyard owner going out into the market place and inviting men to work in his vineyard. Throughout the day he goes out to hire more and more people. And to each one he promises to pay them ‘what is right’.

At the end of the working day starting with those that have worked the least he pays them one denarius – a generous day’s wages for this unskilled work.

But those who had worked all day complained that it wasn’t fair. They had worked all day under the blazing sun not just one hour in the cool of the day!! But the vineyard owner protests, if he wants to be generous what is it to you what he does with his money?

It is in this openness, this outpouring of care and full hearted generosity that Jesus offers his disciples and us a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven.

You see behind the scenes the disciples have been arguing among themselves. Two chapters earlier in chapter 18 the disciples ask Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And Jesus gives an astounding reply. “Unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” And later James and John’s mother asks Jesus “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

The disciples like the complaining vineyard workers expect honour, status and reward. They are measuring their work according to the values of men. But Jesus calls his disciples to be different. This call to be different is a key theme that runs throughout Matthew’s gospel. And I think this parable is an illustration to the disciples, showing them in what ways they are to behave and think differently in the world.

Because Jesus is not interested in status or hierarchy, he rejects this worldly way of looking at people. In fact he tells his disciples that far from expecting honour, they should seek to serve people. Later on in the chapter Jesus even says to his disciples that the greatest among you should serve you, the first among you should be your slave. He tells them that he has come to serve them, even to give up his life for them.

Jesus had come to turn the world upside down. This was a hard message for his disciples to grasp. And it is a message that we struggle with still, today.

He has no concern for earthly judgments or an earthly perspective. The complaints of the vineyard workers reveal their bitterness, their self importance and their jealousy and small mindedness. Jesus instead elevates those in society that are forgotten, the ignored, the unimportant and the unemployed. He is concerned with the ones left out, those hanging around the market place – a Judean job centre - with nothing to do and nowhere to go. In this parable he echoes The Beatitudes, encouraging his disciples to look with God’s eyes at our world and not with the eyes of the Romans or the Pharisees.

And this is still a challenge for all of us today, for me today. For who do you think you are in this parable? I know who I am. I am one of the vineyard workers whose been working all day. And sometimes I look at the world around me, and I am filled often with jealousy or bitterness.

In this parable Jesus offers me a way of tackling those human feelings. Firstly helps me to recognize when I get angry or bitter or jealous. Naming how I feel helps me to distance myself from these emotions and to realize that I have a choice. I can chose to continue feeling these negative thoughts, or I can chose to see things in a more positive and loving way. And be generous as the owner of the vineyard.

It was a radical teaching for his disciples, what did they make of it? Peter asks Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us." Jesus was in the process of tearing down the very foundations on which the disciples had built their lives. And that work still needs to be done today. Especially as we come to this table this morning.

Jesus throughout this gospel again and again with love and a great deal of patience tries to show his disciples and us what he means.

One thing I think he means, is that all human merit shrivels before God’s burning self giving love. It is the vineyard owner’s open generosity of spirit and his concern for those that were in most need that were important to him.

Another episode that illustrates God’s priorities comes when Jesus is being crucified. A criminal being crucified beside him recognizes Jesus’ innocence and his divinity. That recognition alone draws Jesus’ immediate assurance of salvation. "I tell you the truth", he says to the man, "today you will be with me in paradise.”

If anyone was less deserving of God’s love it was that criminal. He had committed a capital crime; a court of law had condemned him. This was Justice.

And yet Jesus accepts him with open arms.

Therefore it is God’s gift of love alone that enables us to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

I remember once when I was a teenager being asked to help out at a Christmas lunch in an old people’s home run by nuns. I thought I’d arrived in good time to do work. But when I arrived most of it had already been done. There was not much more that needed doing. So I just sat and chatted with the people in the home for awhile until their Christmas dinner was ready.

I remember going into the kitchen to help serve the food. But instead one of the nuns ushered me out of the kitchen and told me to sit down at one of the tables. So I found an empty seat and began chatting again to the people around me. And then a huge plate food was put in front of me. That was a great Christmas lunch. I didn’t deserve that lunch. Looking back I probably arrived too late to be of any help. But that did not seem to matter to the nuns. I just remember their wide open smiles of acceptance.

And may we turn again today from our worldly view of the world and open up our hearts and minds with a renewed, open, self giving love full of acceptance, as we have been accepted.

One Line

Twilight city, a translucent amber glow, pulsating, haloed blue.

Photo by Kayode Okeyode

One Line

The river writes its name, dipped in ink blue sky.

Photo by six-austins

One Line

Cobalt blue sky seeps through the grey weight of cloud.

Boxing Day 2007

We came to Richmond Park to get some fresh air. As always a dead tree becomes a seat for me and a playground for the children.

Everyone seems to be doing and looking at different things.

It was an uncomfortable walk for me but it was great to get outside. And unlike most London Parks on Boxing Day this one was deserted.

Reading Treasure at The Troubadour

I'm reading this revised poem at The Troubadour on Monday 17 December. The theme of the evening is beaches. I originally wrote the poem in 2006 during our family holiday to the Isle of Mull. It was a very difficult holiday as you can see from the photograph.

We camped on the west of Mull on open and esposed beaches at Fiddon and on this Loch at Killechronin. I moved the car to try and shelter the tent. But it was useless.

Treasure

Drive them to a mountain stream.
Bring them to a rocky beach.

Give them thirteen hours in the back seat of the car
with a book, a pillow and a toy monkey.

Watch the wind splinter the spokes of our tent
Splayed out and flattened against the wind bitten grass.

Make them sleep in the tent
with three inches of rain water at the bottom.

Tell them it will be better tomorrow.

Make them set up camp three times in four days
on abandoned, wild, wind swept beaches.

Bring them biscuits for breakfast,
hot chocolate for lunch and chips for dinner.

Leave them on a deserted rain-drenched beach
for two hours until their hands turn blue.

Tell them this is a holiday.

Show them an eagle,
a shipwreck and a standing stone.

Don’t let them see you cry.

Let them drink mountain water
from Sphagnum Moss.

Show them a rainbow
stretched over the island.

And watch a golden light
shine from their wet and wind weary faces.

© David Loffman