Julian of Norwich

This year instead of following a set of Bible readings during Lent, I led a series of studies thinking about the spirituality of Julian of Norwich.

Julian was a remarkable woman who lived 1342 –1416. She is one of the most important of the English Mystics, though not much is known about her, not even her real name before she entered holy orders.  She lived on her own in a small room attached to a parish church in Carrow just outside Norwich.

Julian had a series of visions on what she believed was her death bed when she was in her early 30’s about the depths of God’s unconditioned love for us. She wrote them down, though they were not read widely or considered important, and it is believed they were forgotten about for around 600 years.

One of her most famous lines was the focus of our thinking in holy week. ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well’.

If you come to this though, without knowing something of Julian’s very positive all-encompassing vision of God’s love and grace for all creation, then it makes no sense at all. It sounds hollow – another ‘don’t worry be happy everything will be ok’ bland throwaway line, but this is anything but that. This is Julian’s faith – whatever happens to us we remain enfolded in love and cherished by God.

For Julian the struggles pains and sorrows of life are not ignored, but they are seen through the prism of faith in a God who is love.  Suffering is not a punishment inflicted by God – God loves and saves – ‘All shall be well’ reflects this theology.

Julian wrestled with real life just as we do, she lived in difficult times and experienced deep sadness, but she also knew the depth of God’s love and His faithfulness.  Julian’s positive outlook does not ignore suffering, but her complete picture of God is big enough to hold suffering and pain in tension with faith and hope.

One of the most important things we have talked about during our time this Lent has been the nature of God; Julian referred to God as Mother as well as Father, she called Jesus Mother too.  We thought long and hard about how difficult that was, but also about how important it is to move beyond just using traditional strong male images to describe God like Father, Lord or Almighty.

The Easter story reminds us so powerfully that if our imagery and language is to be whole then it has to contain too something of the vulnerability of our God and the lengths to which Love goes that we might know we are never alone. Part of the revelation of God brought to us in and through Jesus is that God is willing to walk steadfastly toward Jerusalem, towards suffering, rejection and death; His life laid down so that we might know God’s love now and forever.

Of course that vision of Saviour and Messiah was at odds with the Messiah imagery back then for many and remains difficult for some now, but how can we ever enter into relationship with God if we cannot know He is present in the humiliation of the cross?

‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well’ is embedded in the knowledge of the faithfulness of God suffering and dying, so shamefully crucified. It is a wisdom that has brought encouragement to me in difficult days and it will I am sure do so in the future.

God is love and His love is ours in Christ; in the light of that we all can know that all shall be well. I pray that if you are walking in difficult paths today that you would know with a real profound certainty that God holds you and always will.

God bless you

Neil Adams

St Johns Newsletter March 2012

During Lent we focus our minds on the journey Jesus made through his ministry towards the cross and eventually the empty tomb of Easter. It is a journey that begins on Ash Wednesday where we confess that we fail and fall short and that we rely completely upon God's grace. That humility is a prerequisite for true faith; you cannot believe you know everything about God and still worship Him, if you could that would make you by definition bigger than God which wont do at all!

Humility and openness to new revelation was sorely lacking amongst most of the religious people in Jesus day. They thought they had their knowledge of who God was and what He was like all nailed down. They knew quite clearly whose side God was on and who He rejected. 

So when Jesus came along and ate with sinners and called tax collectors to follow Him and embraced lepers and welcomed women with questionable pasts to touch Him they didnt know what to do with Him. His behaviour and ministry challenged their assumptions about God's character and love, and He was rejected as mad bad and dangerous to know. 

Today we live in the light of God's revelation of grace and love in and through Jesus; we know that God has revealed that none are beyond the scope of His redemptive love, but please lets not get to think we have all the information we need to understand God. That of course is exactly the sin of those religious folk that first Easter time, who rejected God in Jesus because He didnt look or sound anything like they thought God should. 

In our Lent course looking at Julian of Norwich we have been challenged to think more deeply about the nature of this God who constantly is at work amongst us. We have thought long and hard about how little we truly can ever understand or nail down about the nature of this God who creates women and men in His image. We have recognised that all the titles we use to describe God are limited and in a way unsatisfactory.  

So lets continue to be stretched and challenged; please allow God to constantly be about His business of recreation and revelation within you, or else you too will fall away from the new thing God might need to be doing in your life just like those religious folk were when Jesus came. 

God bless you this Easter time

Revd Neil

Circuit blog

I am coming up to my 29 birthday as a Christian and I still remember so much of that Saturday night in Hockley Pentecostal Church when I made a decision to accept Jesus as Lord. I am so glad that God took a hold of me all those years ago.

Yet really my journey of faith began well before then, well before that moment when I choose to accept Jesus.

It began in a way with Maggie who pestered me about the faith she had in Jesus during my time a Dudley College and wouldn’t let up until I came with her to the Christian Union and eventually a few weeks later to that service in Hockley.  

But years before the journey started when as a very young child I heard of the hope of Jesus at the Sunday School we were sent to by my non-Christian parents.

After my ordination my mom told me that it began years before that, with prayers and a prophecy shared over me by my grandparents neighbour who worshipped at the local Methodist Church and told my mom when I was just a few days old that God had plans for me and that I would serve Him as a minister in the church. If only she had told me sooner, like when I was wrestling with my call to ministry!

God always reaches out to us, laying opportunities before us over and over and over again, longing that we might hear His love song and turn to Him.

Yet really where the journey begins isn’t anywhere near as important as how well it goes after we are out of the starting blocks. As Christians we of all people should recognise that we are not meant to stand still and stay the same, yet sometimes we do get caught up in how things start and forget that we are called to work out our faith, to walk with Jesus, to be changed.  

Sometimes as Churches we make the same kind of mistakes looking back more than we look forward, and missing opportunities for new  fresh ways for today.

All of God’s people are called to grow, develop and be changed so that day by day we are more like Jesus.

I pray that we all might use these days of Lent to ask God to give you a real sense of His presence and as His Sprit fills you, may you take more steps towards becoming the people God called us to be.

Don’t be content with who you are, don’t sit back and think Church is yet as it should be, we are meant to be growing and changing!

God bless you  

Neil