The Word of the Lord surrounding all being

After four years of theological study and church placements, my pre-ordination training draws to a close. Hopefully, in 10 days time I will receive my leaving certificate from Westminster College, Cambridge, which will state that I can go forward for ordination into ministry of Word and Sacraments in the United Reformed Church. A long, tiring, exciting, and sometimes scary journey is coming to a close, although in fact it is only the beginning!

So how do I feel about this?

Well, in my normal style, as I think my tutor has come to know so well over the years: I don't really know! Or do I...

Meet Henri, my third morph sculpture...

When I started to think back over my time on the living ministry programme, which is the final piece of my pre-ordination training, I came to the conclusion that the only way I might go some way to expressing where I have come to is through another sculpture. Here is a figure, who could be controversial; who speaks of insecurity; who is open to receive whilst quietly, even prayerfully, reflecting on all that they see and hear. The words of Scripture have come to cover them, some words and phrases standing out, whilst others have been interpreted to give meaning to what lay ahead in the future. What it means to live with and in the Word of God is a reality, yet causes the individual to bow their head in humility and honour of the awesomeness that knowledge holds.

The prophet Isaiah wrote: "All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flowers fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever." (Isaiah 40.7-8, NRSV) The words of God are weighty and can cause one to crumb and wither. Yet, there is much strength, freedom and reassurance in the words of God.  The fact that it was there in the beginning and will be there at the end, should prevent one from fading, and really truly enliven them.

In the past four years, in just the past nine months, I have wrestled with Scripture. I have listen for God's word and struggled to hear. Yet, as I have found myself more and more drawn into Scripture, I have come to know although I may not always hear it, God's Word surrounds me and is within me. And for this I am truly thankful, because it is this that has truly prepared me for the next phase on my journey as a Minister of Word and Sacraments.

It's like being in a scene from "Mona Lisa Smile"...

I thought I'd take a break from reading and put my mind to more reflective use. Now, if I felt like being a real swot, I could of course get on with next week's homework for Pastoral Theology and start a narrative theological reflection on something or other. But since I have absolutely no idea what I'm meant to do and currently can't be doing with reading another slightly obscure text to try and work out what I'm suppose to be doing - I'll blog instead!

Now, as some of you out there know, I'm dyslexic. Which means, though I'm apparently a visual learner, reading is really not one of my strengths, and when I see page after page of words I get slightly disheartened and start wondering what's on telly. And of course in lectures, when we do get handouts or even the odd powerpoint, they are general pages and pages of words. This is why my first degree was in engineering - very few words and lots of pictures!

But this year, things have changed slightly - I've found a paper which involves pictures! To be precise it is all pictures (well there is talking from the lecturer too, but all the same there are no words on the screen). Being that the course is entitled 'Icons and Images', I suppose I shouldn't have been so surprised, all the same I did find it very amusing when in the first lecture the lecturer walked in to the class with a box of slides tucked under his arm.

I don't know how many of you have seen the Julia Roberts' film 'Mona Lisa Smile', but at that point this lecture started I was transport to a scene in the film where the Julia Roberts who is teaching art history to a group of girls is going through picture after picture, exploring what these pictures represent, what the artist is trying to get across to observer. I never thought I would every find myself in such a class, but every Tuesday afternoon this is now what I do - look at picture after picture, being taken on a journey through religious art and iconography, learning to see what the artist is trying to show me. I may not agree with some of the theological aspects of the art, and I definitely can't get my head around veneration of images and icons. But I'm being to appreciate how artists have tried to depict pictorially things that even the most esteemed theologians struggle to put into words.

So here's to images and icons - my picture-based theology paper, when I get two hours off from looking at words (bliss).