Let not your hearts be troubled

 John 14:5

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Thomas - the pragmatist

The one courageous enough to ask the daft questions

“How can we know the way?”

Give us a map, Jesus

Or, at least, a diagram

Where is your 5-point plan

Your carefully worked-out schemata?

Oh, how quick we have been to fill in the gaps

To continue in the tradition of Thomas

(and NOT Jesus)

in coming up with grand plans

purporting as silver bullets

that will chart out a way

that we simply need to follow

For those of us who are weary

of such declarations and formulae

- and so many abound - 

Jesus words are the perfect antidote

I AM THE WAY

Following the way of Jesus consists in

living now

with hopes and dreams

and fear and betrayal

living with death and resurrection

in our everyday

Seeing Christ present

not as a future proofing

but in the here and now

The one who shows us God

hidden in plain sight

May we look into the eyes of Jesus

present in all whom we meet today

and see the reflection of the image of God

God’s dream for the world*

Liz Crumlish 2023

(*Desmond Tutu, God has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for our Times, Rider 2005)

Mission on the Emmaus Road

 Luke 24:13-15

The Walk to Emmaus

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them

The Risen Christ

Drew alongside

Listening as they shared their hopes and dreams

their fear and disappointment

He stayed

a quiet companion on a long road

paying attention to all that they shared

And when he had listened carefully

And only then-

did he share

how Scripture had been fulfilled

He showed them gently 

where God was - and is - at work

Igniting a spark within them

that saw them racing forward

to share what they had discovered

Those disciples did not run back 

the way they had come

But forward into new possibilities

They moved into a new reality

not with a formula to practice

but with a conviction to be shared

When the Risen Christ

drew alongside 

(Liz Crumlish Easter 2023)

The one who got it!

 John 20:24-25

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

Thomas - forever dubbed as the doubter

Yet I believe…

That you were the one who truly got it

You were the one whom, realising the enormity

of all that resurrection meant,

took off and took time

to process

For something as momentous as that

needs time

You weren’t prepared to take anyone else’s word

You weren’t prepared to learn second hand

You demanded your own experience

And even then, you knew that this was so much bigger

so much weightier

than anything you - or the world

had ever known

It wasn’t at all that you didn’t believe

It was that you believed so completely

You saw that the world was forever changed

and you were doing what you needed to do

to be part of a new calling

a new chapter

in being a disciple.

Thomas - you got it.

And, today, we might take our cue from you.

(Liz Crumlish Easter 2023)

Faith and Politics

Matthew 26:14-15

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver.

At this midpoint of Holy Week

we return, for a moment

to recall the Hosannas,

the waving of Palms 

and the joy-filled hopes

with which the week began

And we might ponder:

Are we still ready to champion 

the donkey-riding king

to hold our nerve, to watch what unfolds

even amidst the forces of darkness?

Or have we already moved on

to call for his arrest and torture?

Are we already siding with another mob

who are baying for blood - 

indeed perhaps even the same mob

whose instincts have grown ugly 

as we work out the safest strategy for our own survival?

As politics keeps step with unravelling faith

are we prepared to listen to the evidence,

to hold back our judgment

Will we allow compassion and curiosity

to prevent us from reaching easy conclusions

that condemn and crucify

The spotlight is on us as much as him.

How will we be revealed?

Liz Crumlish 2023

The journey back

As the sun rose on the day

that the ferry would carry us homeward

we gathered up the treasures

of time spent in community

with those who simply “get it”

packing them carefully away

to be unwrapped at our leisure

in those moments given to ponder.

Perhaps in this week that we call holy

we will take time to contemplate

gifts of laughter and tears

and graces of wisdom and insight.

And as we follow

and lead others

to the foot of the cross

and beyond

to Resurrection

may we be reminded yet again

of all that draws us

to a life of love and service

and with renewed purpose

may our steps be joyful

and our words be hopeful

as we proclaim the mystery of faith

Christ has died

Christ is risen

Christ will come again.

Liz Crumlish Iona 2023

Invitation to dance

 John 6:66-69

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

When we are discouraged

Ground down

Finding it harder and harder to dredge up hope

in a system that seems determined to stifle

What brings us back

to our sense of vocation?

What enables us, even as we bind up our wounds

and pray through our disappointment that feels so familiar

to hear the voice of God

calling us by name

reaching through the hurt and frustration

to whisper anew

You are my beloved

Follow me

Those words penetrate

the core of our being

and drag us back 

to what we know

and to the One who knows us

And we are gradually restored to the rhythm

of the God who invites us to dance

Written in the dust

 For Ash Wednesday

We gather up the crosses from last year’s palms

and set them alight to create ash

so that we may remember

that we are dust and to dust we shall return

While in the rubble of communities destroyed by earthquake

no reminder is needed of the fragility of life

We mix the ashes with oil

and wear them on our foreheads

to symbolise our need to repent

While those who live in the grime

of war ravaged cities

wear their weariness

and their courage

in their determination to survive another day

Will our rituals go beyond ancient symbol

and connect us with the dust of the earth

that cries out for justice

and compassion

dust that spells out faith

in the goodness of creation

dust that holds out hope

that justice shall prevail

dust shot through with love

for the healing of the world

Liz Crumlish 2023