Love

Last night was RevJen's last day at our church. She was 'de-commissioned' - heh.
Church was a pretty amazing place to be last night, because as well as mourning the loss of our most amazing pastor, we were also mourning the loss of a parishioner who had died last week in quite tragic and shocking circumstances.

Jen preached on 1 John 7-21, focusing on v. 10

In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The church was filled with a great sense of love - for God, for Jen, for Mark, and for each other... trying to care for one another in the confusion that we all feel at the moment. You see, Mark committed suicide, having battled mental illnesses for most of his life. He wasn't that old mad man shouting at the clouds, but a young-ish guy quoting great chunks of the bible, and blessing all and sundry. He could be as frustrating as hell, but we just kept trying to love him, and always welcomed him as a fellow worshipper on Sunday evenings.

Anyway, Jen quoted a poem from here. It is about an amazing minister in the UK, but I think it can be applied just as much to the amazing RevJen.

Rob's God
I want to follow Rob’s God;
God-the-goal of my soul’s education.
Rob’s God is approachable, articulate and artful,
A glowing God, of graceful inclination.
Rob’s God snowboards cloudscapes
And paints daisies on his toes,
While watching Chaplin re-runs
On his i-Pod.
He smiles at cats and children,
Jumps in puddles with his shoes on,
A ‘where’s-the-fun -in-fundamentalism?’ God.
Rob’s God doesn’t shoot
His own wounded,
Or blame the poor for failing
At prosperity.
He doesn’t beat the broken
With bruised reeds from their garden,
Or tell the sick that healing’s their
Responsibility.
Rob’s God is a poet,
Painting people as his poems;
A sculptor shaping symphonies from stone
A maker of mosaics
Curator of collages
Woven from the wounds and wonders
We have known
A furnace of forgiveness;
Rob’s God radiates reunion
Pouring oil on every fight
We’ve ever started
A living lover
Loving laughter
Lending light
To the helpless and the harmed and heavy-hearted
Other Gods may claim more crowded churches
Higher profiles
Better ratings
Fuller phone-ins
But in the contest for commitment
In the battle for belief
In the war to woo my worship;
Rob’s God wins
In the fight for my faith’s fervour:
In the struggle for my soul;
In the race for my respect
Rob’s God wins.
Absolutely.
Gerard Kelly May 11th 2006

That she quoted the poem, talking about her discomfort at the gratitude being showered upon her, when really last night should have been about mourning Mark, just further underscores what an amazingly gracious and humble servant of Christ she is.

I'm losing her sermons and her ministry, but not her friendship, which is the only way I held things together last night!

And I've been thinking that there's probably one very good thing that will come out of Jen going... I no longer have any links with the hierarchy of the church - I resigned from Parish Council about 6 months ago - so I go back to being a punter in the pews and not let anger and frustration at Church politics impede me from worshipping God. Because, as John continues...

20 Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.