Category: Christian

Praying for the glory

If Jesus is in John and is glorified, John shares in that glory too! Even if John doesn’t fully grasp what exactly the glory is, he certainly grasps that through Jesus that glory is already in him.

Greek commentary on John’s gospel dated 1190-1200 (Bodleian Library)

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Cruising the gospel – John 17:24-26

Bible text – Read it yourself (opens in a new tab)

Sharing what he wants

A fragment of John’s gospel
(Wikimedia)

17:24-26 – If these verses do not astound you, you need to pay closer attention to what Jesus is saying. Let’s break the material down to consider it carefully. The first thing to note is that Jesus is not conversing with his followers here, he’s speaking with his Father. He’s not asking for strength during his coming ordeal on the cross, instead he’s just telling his heavenly Dad what he wants. And the first thing that comes to mind is that he wants his followers to be with him where he is and to see his glory. Well, they are with him, he’s in the upper room in Jerusalem and so are they.

Seeing the glory

But do they see his glory? No, I don’t think they do – not yet, not fully. Peter, James and John had been with Jesus on the mountain and had seen and heard what happened there. But they didn’t understand what was really going on. Peter, always the practical doer, was going to build three shelters. James might have had more intuition about it, but I imagine John would have got closer than the other two. John was the disciple ‘Jesus loved’, he viewed things from a more spiritual dimension, it was his nature to dwell on spiritual truth and look for hidden depths of meaning.

I think John is already aware that Jesus thinks of himself as Yahweh’s Son, he’s referred to himself as the Son, and he often talks about ‘My Father’. And I suspect John understood that was an eternal relationship. Jesus spells it out again here in the Garden as he prays to his Father. The Father loved him before the world was created and loves him still. And I imagine for John it was not too great a leap to see that this love is eternal and will remain even after the end of time itself. And in verse 26 Jesus says to his Father that he has made his followers aware that the Father has sent him (Jesus), that he’ll continue to show them that so the Father’s love will be in them and so that Jesus himself will be in them too.

Does this take us back to Jesus in glory on the mountain? Yes, I think it does! And John must have understood that if Jesus is in him, that he too must have been gloriously transformed on the mountain, so that he, John, can also talk freely with Moses concerning law and with Elijah concerning prophecy. If Jesus is in John and is glorified, John shares in that glory too! Even if John doesn’t fully grasp what exactly the glory is, he certainly grasps that through Jesus that glory is already in him and raises him to the giddy heights of the law and the prophetic.

And this is where we all stand if Christ is in us. We just need to see, as John did, that the glory arrives when Jesus does, that we share in him and in his glory permanently. So when my body dies (as it must) I continue to live gloriously because Jesus is in me. I’m sure Peter and James came to understand this too, certainly at Pentecost if not before. That was the moment when Jesus’ glory was fully revealed to the entire church, not just in theory but in full experience.

This was a moment they had been told to wait for, but when it came it was far beyond what they had imagined or expected.

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Living in the presence
A glorious sunset
The city on the hill

Cotinus in autumn

Petal doubling makes flowers more showy, but often at the cost of the ‘doubled’ flowers being less interesting to pollinating insects. The additional petals may be modified stamens so less pollen is produced. Compare a wild rose to a garden rose and you’ll see what I mean.

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Image of the day – 180

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

Click images to enlarge

These autumn leaves are on a purple Cotinus coggygria bush, common name ‘smokebush’. Like many trees and shrubs at this time of year, Cotinus leaves change colour in autumn before falling to the ground. The shrub will produce fresh, new leaves in the spring. But look more closely and you may see something else.

The leaves in the image have developed interveinal patches of necrotic tissue, making the plant even more striking in autumn. I had never noticed this condition before moving to Cirencester, but there’s a Cotinus in the grounds of the Stratton House Hotel and Spa that does this annually. The shrub seems healthy in the spring and summer. For a week or two at the end of October this patterned necrosis makes the autumn leaves look even more spectacular.

Irregularities of this kind are common in both animate and inanimate natural systems and not infrequently appear as deliberate ‘enhancements’. Here are one or two notable examples:

  • Leaf variegation – Gardeners and plant breeders select and propagate from stable variegations. Normally plants with variegation grow more slowly because the efficiency of photosynthesis is compromised.
  • Petal doubling – This make flowers more showy, but often at the cost of the ‘doubled’ flowers being less interesting to pollinating insects. The additional petals may be modified stamens so less pollen is produced. Compare a wild rose to a garden rose and you’ll see what I mean. How often do you see bees working garden roses?
  • Variations in animal characteristics – amongst cats and dogs (and also budgerigars, canaries, parrots and chickens you’ll see size and shape changes as well as behavioural, colour and pattern modifications. Compare a Jack Russell with a retriever or a blue budgie with a green one and you’ll find plenty of differences to ponder.
  • Frost hardiness in plants. Frost sensitive species cannot survive winter in temperate or arctic conditions, so hardiness is a prized feature of many garden plants, and plant breeders pay attention to things like this. A Dahlia or Chrysanthemum that can flower for an extra week or two in the autumn may be worth a higher price, for example.
  • Fruit colour and flavour components. These days strawberries are much larger than when I was child, and they are often red inside, not just on the outer surface.

Many variations of this kind are deliberately selected for by plant and animal breeders.

Certain other changes have been caused deliberately, even in humans. Lower lip enlargement, neck ringing to generate extended neck length, foot binding, and forms of male and female circumcision have been required for a variety of religious and cultural reasons. Hair styling, removal, or transplantation, piercing of ears, noses and other body parts are common, and don’t forget tattooing. And in plants; pruning, clipping, or bonsai are widely employed.

In the world of rock and stone, coloured and uncoloured crystals may be prized as jewels and fetch fantastic prices. I wrote about an example of this, a geode I spotted in an ordinary, traditional, Cotswold dry stone wall.

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Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

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Crystalline inclusions in Cotswold stone
A rose in the rain
Is church unbalanced?
A glorious colour contrast
Sculpted tree

This is very good

Aforgetfulsoul

Just a short message this time, I read the latest from ‘Aforgetfulsoul’ and she expresses very clearly what it really means to follow Jesus. So if you want some good, wholesome, thought-provoking wisdom, look no further. Here’s a brief extract…

I am excited to think that my life as a believer is not a matter of rigid scheduling of ‘religious’ activities, but is a pattern woven by my Father according to his purposes, where he asks for my yielding, my desire to be attuned to his promptings, my availability to be ‘interrupted’ and to recognise in the smallest event some sign that God is at work and asking me to share it.

But do read the whole article. This is exactly the way I feel about my own life, it’s one of the reasons I often add a tiny, ‘throw-away’ remark in my articles whatever the major topic, drawing attention to spiritual aspects of the everyday things I notice or am involved in. If he’s worth following (and he is) Jesus will be in every little part of my life. Often partly hidden – but there.

We often make things far too complicated. Too structured. Too organised.

Cirencester Abbey

The abbey’s construction was a huge project continuing throughout the 12th century. To fund the ambitious project, Henry I and his successors, Henry II and Richard I, granted the abbey revenues and privileges, such as exemption from tolls, access to commerce, and timber and stone for construction.

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Image of the day – 179

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every few days.

Click images to enlarge

In medieval times there was an Augustinian Abbey in Cirencester. Like so many abbeys and monasteries in the United Kingdom it was dissolved during the reign of King Henry VIII and afterwards demolished. The outline of the walls is marked in the Abbey Grounds with small, square paving slabs, and a few of the column bases are visible too, but that is all that remains above ground where the Abbey once stood. There are some additional carved stones and other items in the Corinium Museum.

The photo shows a Lego model of the Abbey, currently on display in the Parish Church. You can see a Lego tree in the garden within the cloisters, and part of the nave of the Abbey church. The model is complete with its tower although this doesn’t appear in the main photo, but it’s there in the image below.

Construction and history

The Abbey and tower

Some of the political and practical history of the founding and later dissolution of the abbey are well described in blog articles published by the Corinium Museum. These articles, and the Wikipedia article are well worth reading. They are linked below.

Long before the Abbey was built the land where it later stood was part of the Roman City of Corinium Dobunnorum; the River Churn (in those times named Kern, Kerin or Corin) had been divided into two, one part outside the city walls as a defensive feature, the other part within the city as a source of water for drinking, washing, for industry, building and so forth. The Saxons, moving West into the still Romano-British part of what is now South-West England, took control of the area, but had no use for a derelict Roman city. However, there was a Roman church building in the area where the abbey would later be founded, and a Saxon church was built over the Roman church.

Early in the 12th century, King Henry I founded St Mary’s Abbey, building the chancel on the site of the Roman and Saxon churches. About 1130, Abbot Serlo arrived with a community of canons to set up residence .

The abbey’s construction was a massive project continuing throughout the 12th century. To fund the ambitious undertaking, Henry I and his successors, Henry II and Richard I, granted the abbey revenues and privileges, such as exemption from tolls, access to commerce, and timber and stone for construction. Henry II allowed the abbey the revenues and control of the town (or ‘vill’) of Cirencester around 1155, initiating centuries of friction with the local townspeople. The abbey church was consecrated in 1176 in the presence of King Henry II and several bishops, but building work on the cloisters, refectory, dormitories, and the abbot’s house continued for many more years.

The result of all this effort was the most wealthy and influential Augustinian abbey in the Kingdom. The abbey flourished through its ownership of very large estates in the Cotswolds and an important role in the very profitable medieval wool trade.

Dissolution

The townspeople repeatedly asked the Crown to grant them a borough charter, but this was consistently and strongly opposed by the abbots. In the end, Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries ended with the destruction of the abbey and the confiscation of much of its wealth and property. A Royal Commisioner, Robert Southwell arrived in the town on 19th December 1539 to receive the surrender from the last abbot, John Blake. There was no resistance, and the abbot and monks received pensions, but the buildings were torn down and everything of value was sold off.

Religion or faith?

As with so many JHM articles, as I write I am deeply struck by the huge gulf between religion (usually a very worldly affair as in the history of Cirencester Abbey) and faith (with its basis not so much in what we think as in who we are and how we live.) The distinction is essential if we are to live full lives, discovering who Jesus is and why he matters so much.

See also:

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If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

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Image of the day – 66
Season’s Greetings 2025
Dark sky, bright light
Inside out

Season’s Greetings 2025

The UK is a rich mix of people from many cultural backgrounds. That’s why the title is not ‘Christmas Greetings’. Please accept the greetings and replace the word ‘Season’ with whatever you like.

This great cross hangs from the high ceiling between the nave and the chancel of Cirencester Parish Church of St John Baptist.

Click to enlarge

This cross was carved and carefully gilded by craftsmen from Cirencester’s past. It hangs on stout iron chains from the heavy timbers of the chancel roof and for centuries has been the focal point for worshippers sitting in the pews of the nave. At first glance it almost seems to have been studded with jewels, but in fact it’s plain wood with gilded ornamentation.

In the centre of the cross is a lamb carrying a banner marked with the cross of St George. This lamb represents Jesus, the sacrificial ‘lamb of God’. At the top of the upright timber is a winged St Matthew, author of Matthew’s Gospel, at the extreme left of the cross beam is St Mark portrayed as a winged lion and at the right hand end St Luke as a winged ox wearing a crown. Right at the bottom of the upright timber is St John, shown here as an eagle.

More about those images

The lamb with the banner of St. George represents the Agnus Dei (the Lamb of God), symbolising Jesus Christ, and later iconography mixes symbols of sacrifice and victory. Jesus Christ was seen as both sacrificial (the lamb) and a victorious king (the banner). 

The winged man represents St. Matthew because his gospel emphasises Christ’s human nature. His account begins with a genealogy of Jesus’ descent from Abraham highlighting his human, earthly origins. The winged aspect signifies divine inspiration of the gospel message and the angelic wings refer to Matthew’s task as a messenger of God’s word. 

St. Mark is shown as a winged lion because his gospel starts with the roaring voice of John the Baptist in the wilderness, (roaring like a lion) while the wings refer to the four winged creatures described in the books of Ezekiel and Revelation. The lion represents the strength of Mark’s message and the resurrection of Christ, the wings speak of the four evangelists being guardians of the throne of God.

St. Luke the Evangelist is traditionally symbolized by a winged ox (or bull or calf). The symbol is derived from the four living creatures in the Book of Ezekiel and Revelation, which early Christian tradition associated with the four Gospel writers. The ox was chosen for St. Luke because it was an animal of sacrifice in the Old Testament, representing the sacrificial aspect of Jesus’ ministry, which Luke emphasizes in his Gospel by beginning with the priestly duties of Zechariah. The wings signify that the Gospel message is to be spread throughout the world.

St. John is shown as an eagle because it’s his symbol as one of the four evangelists. His gospel is seen as soaring into theological heights, also true of his visionary writings in the Book of Revelation. And the eagle is associated with divine power, heavenly vision, and spiritual insight as seen in the book of Revelation. 

These medieval traditions are all very well, but the carved, gilded cross is also a distraction from the dreadful truth that a wooden cross was an instrument of torture and death. It’s easy to get wrapped up in traditions and forget that Jesus died to provide the opportunity for us to turn back from the brink. The heavy timbers to which Jesus was nailed to die were not ornate or gilded, and there were no traditions portrayed on them. Jesus (Yeshua, Isa) came in simplicity offering a simple opportunity and sharing simple truth. You don’t need a degree in history or theology to follow him, just an open, willing mind and a light touch from his spirit of love and truth.

In that vein, here’s something I add every year, I’ll offer it up to you again now. The UK is a rich mix of people from many cultural backgrounds. That’s why the title is not ‘Christmas Greetings’. Please accept the greetings and replace the word ‘Season’ with whatever you like. If you’re Hindu you could choose Pancha Ganapati, or Jewish friends might go with Hannukah in December, if you’re Muslim you might look forward to the start of the holy month of Rajab; Buddhists might consider Bodhi Day, and there are more groups of people I haven’t mentioned specifically. But whatever you celebrate, please take my greetings as a blessing for the whole of next year – spring, summer, autumn and winter. I’m not here to press you into a new and different tradition. I’m here to dismiss tradition in its entirety and offer love, peace and grace in its place. The teachings of Jesus are simple and there are thoughts about them throughout the articles on this website.

PS – If you like the photo, click the thumbnail for the full size version. Print it out, put it in a frame and hang it on the wall. Give a copy to friends if you think they’d like it; or send them a link to this message.

Other years

2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016

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