A new glory?

Morning Prayer, Saturday

Psalm 23:4

 Even though I walk

       through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,

       for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

 

Haggai 2:1-9

    'Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?  But now be strong … Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the LORD, 'and work. For I am with you,' declares the LORD Almighty… And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear…. and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty. … 'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty.

Revelation 21:1-5a

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the

Holy

City

, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them … I am making everything new!"

Reflection

“We are living in a world of Easter Saturday:

Somewhere between the death

            Of what we thought we could trust

And the birth of new hope”

 

Easter Saturday: the moment when doubt appeared complete;

“If only… why couldn’t he? Why did they?”

Haggai’s friends, re-building the temple,

started to lose hope

“It’ll never be the same” they grieved.

 

It’s Easter Saturday; can we see any hope?

Or are we blinded by credit crunch, recession,

         the end of churchgoing,

                 the ruins of an abbey or

                           a way of doing church?

 

“It’ll never be the same…”

No, maybe not,

but what will the present glory,

the New Jerusalem, look like?

What will we, new builders, make of it?

Comments

[Tory Burch Outlet]

So, for me, I'm challenged by the high value that I put on success, doing my job well, being praised for doing a good job. It's all too important to me. Now, maybe I could think about giving up my present job and going for a less prestigious one? I think that the work I'm doing is what God has called me to do, but maybe I could do it in a different context (not a university). Now, I might be able to explore that idea further when I go on retreat next week, but I might also be able to experiment with some ideas. Just giving up my job would, I think, be too extreme, but what could I do that would try out a new way of valuing 'success'? Two options spring to mind. I've got to write a report on a project that I've been involved in. I don't think that I'm going to write a good report (too long to explain why) and I've been delaying, putting off the evil day when I'm criticised, and maybe found wanting by colleagues I value, maybe I won't be asked to do a project again? How will I handle that? Secondly, I'm going to try to organise some time over the winter to take my work up to a community house I know well. What will it be like to fit my academic research writing within the rhythms of a 'monastic' day?

So what explorations or experiments could you try to test out your emerging 'ideas'?

[North Face Sale]

The second story happened to me. About 5 years ago, I went for a promotion at my previous university.

[Timberland Boots]

There followed a painful period where I had to come to terms with the fact that any chance of progression at that university was over for me and, given my age, I was probably going to struggle to get to another un iversity and get promotion there.

[North Face Outlet]

I was probably going to struggle to get to another un iversity and get promotion there.