I am writing this just after are Harvest Festivals and lovely Harvest suppers. A word that jumped off the page to me in the Harvest service lessons, I have realised can help me with Christmas!
One of the things I find extraordinary in the wisdom of the New Testament is how even when reading the teachings of Jesus hundreds of times, some new depth can jump out at you, (a mixed metaphor, I know!)
The lesson for Harvest was from Jesus’ teaching on the Sermon on the Mount – the bit when Jesus says learn not to worry, because it adds nothing and achieves nothing. He gives a picture to help – consider the lilies, they neither toil nor spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
“Consider” is the word that jumped out at me. We live in this most beautiful place with tranquility surrounding us. Do we “consider” it? Consider is much more focussed than simply noticing and running by. There is a beech tree in the woods opposite the pond. I have started making friends and family stop by it and look up. It is so tall, you literally cannot see the top from immediately below. It is smooth and beautiful.
In a garden do we just say “what a nice flower” or do we really look at it and see the wonder in its changes?
That depth of consideration – which is deep in the mystical tradition in Christianity and other religions – is life-changing. We are told that Jesus, before starting his ministry, spent 40 days in the wilderness just considering the enormity of his purpose (hence the season of Lent). We live in an age of increasing business and social media, all of which lead to distraction – the opposite of consider the lilies! Yet the deep-down things, (to steal a phrase from Gerard Manley Hopkins), which lead to wonder and thankfulness are so much more important.
Christmas is just round the corner and there is a link. It can be the busiest season – even thinking now about all that has to be done and organised is daunting. I am going to try and stay during the run up to Christmas with that word of Jesus “Consider” – each day to put time aside to contemplate that wonder of the Christmas story and what it teaches us about the love of God and our hope for the world.
Peter