Meta tags:
description=Posts about Easter written by Stephen Cherry;

Headings (most frequently used words):

another, angle, on, blog, time, management, stephen, cherry, archive, for, the, easter, category, dying, true, barefoot, disciple, old, stone, poem, follow, via, email, prayer, theology, sin, forgiveness, humility, recent, posts, stats,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (95), and (69), that (32), this (23), god (23), was (19), you (18), not (13), are (13), another (12), jesus (12), his (12), what (12), angle (11), time (11), but (11), with (10), for (10), who (10), barefoot (10), have (9), blog (9), more (9), than (9), #easter (9), way (9), just (8), has (8), person (8), other (7), all (7), they (7), how (7), others (7), many (7), death (7), about (7), being (7), like (6), one (6), end (6), perfect (6), when (6), hannah (6), much (6), them (6), people (6), him (6), your (5), read (5), from (5), though (5), can (5), know (5), did (5), any (5), take (5), would (5), through (5), always (5), book (5), had (5), human (5), story (5), will (5), com (4), follow (4), email (4), full (4), last (4), into (4), too (4), old (4), there (4), knows (4), might (4), their (4), walking (4), easy (4), understand (4), our (4), which (4), difficult (4), christ (4), off (4), because (4), lent (4), well (4), love (4), dying (4), some (4), find (4), compline (4), wordpress (3), address (3), humility (3), theology (3), post (3), out (3), hope (3), here (3), word (3), talk (3), then (3), around (3), stone (3), come (3), posted (3), tagged (3), april (3), own (3), look (3), her (3), experience (3), quite (3), lot (3), such (3), point (3), these (3), few (3), years (3), week (3), may (3), disciple (3), really (3), subject (3), night (3), those (3), perhaps (3), both (3), resurrection (3), different (3), home (3), died (3), mind (3), agony (3), dust (3), nunc (3), dimittis (3), evensong (3), magnificat (3), cambridge (3), joe (3), site (2), reader (2), log (2), sign (2), subscribed (2), subscribe (2), account (2), now (2), june (2), 2022 (2), october (2), 2023 (2), say (2), posts (2), management (2), forgiveness (2), enter (2), new (2), live (2), let (2), took (2), briefly (2), darkness (2), came (2), tomb (2), over (2), move (2), said (2), taken (2), poem (2), together (2), long (2), comments (2), year (2), make (2), www (2), reflecting (2), venture (2), days (2), http (2), weareus (2), before (2), feet (2), enough (2), instead (2), walk (2), happened (2), learning (2), learnt (2), simply (2), don (2), thing (2), reality (2), vulnerability (2), share (2), faith (2), often (2), must (2), guide (2), path (2), grass (2), rather (2), gravel (2), thought (2), never (2), idea (2), step (2), holy (2), very (2), kind (2), meditation (2), could (2), wrote (2), been (2), bit (2), indeed (2), weekend (2), where (2), peace (2), someone (2), greatly (2), things (2), yes (2), die (2), lord (2), almighty (2), grant (2), quiet (2), question (2), even (2), compassionate (2), familiar (2), means (2), huge (2), expect (2), same (2), vital (2), nothing (2), words (2), something (2), fully (2), humanity (2), day (2), ness (2), expense (2), aspiring (2), christlike (2), wise (2), pain (2), isolation (2), went (2), crucifixion (2), were (2), whole (2), life (2), ancient (2), service (2), fact (2), chapel (2), song (2), homily (2), chad (2), college (2), seemed (2), miss (2), 2015 (2), healing (2), get, started, design, collapse, bar, manage, subscriptions, view, report, content, privacy, already, join, 464, subscribers, wpthemes, 168, 185, hits, stats, hello, again, graduating, students, demon, dehumanization, recent, published, february, 2016, sin, prayer, receive, notifications, via, sac, sneeze, joy, divine, themselves, cry, solid, stones, spirit, breathe, dead, mouth, spat, unstoppable, gobstopper, eternal, eject, great, snort, sharp, destiny, cursing, final, stop, late, gang, gag, gap, seal, jam, ignored, worthy, rejection, walked, stumbled, temple, built, centuries, passed, steady, sedate, settled, big, while, 2012, poetry, empty, christian, wish, supportive, donation, https, justgiving, pages, phillips7, learn, inspired, also, raising, money, formerly, uspg, org, highlighted, judgemental, condemn, mad, poor, plain, stupid, why, bare, vulnerable, seek, understood, feel, listen, soon, after, rode, glory, hierarchy, saw, difference, challenge, embracing, fought, spare, condemned, every, past, street, behaving, slightly, differently, judge, complicit, welcome, stranger, house, welcoming, written, cakeandtheology, blogspot, want, myself, mean, cold, scratchy, dirty, explain, radical, prophetic, gesture, pointing, down, earth, poverty, invited, footsteps, think, journey, faced, decisions, trust, onto, right, hurt, felt, tempted, speak, missing, world, option, route, explains, challenged, expected, however, anyone, pick, further, exactly, phillips, done, deciding, bold, decision, weather, made, especially, challenging, writing, shoes, socks, large, overgrown, former, rectory, garden, call, wincing, hardy, remain, glad, frosty, damp, memory, ago, called, archbishop, canterbury, 2011, received, fair, feedback, still, birmingham, parish, number, recently, apparently, discussion, foot, washing, during, thursday, met, warmly, saying, enjoyed, moments, deeply, touching, humbling, rewarding, response, scale, passionate, march, 2013, leave, comment, discipleship, pilgrim, uncategorized, true, extent, emulate, heroic, suffering, generous, loving, knowing, feeling, believing, loved, good, aware, level, beloved, small, inhabited, desire, should, deeper, communion, honest, humble, relationships, ordinary, exotic, believe, despite, beings, relationship, drop, middle, certainly, couldn, shouldn, relate, reflected, changes, everything, makes, inter, relations, absolutely, cross, incarnate, son, comparably, believes, yet, teaches, mission, energetic, affirmation, bounds, towards, bewildered, completely, committed, respecting, tell, entirely, unique, tells, present, without, diminishing, nature, wrong, try, complex, theological, argument, case, sense, body, sure, hard, imagine, unless, overwhelming, excruciating, public, shame, earnest, attempts, edge, seem, mistaken, suggesting, happily, terms, grand, narrative, salvation, history, anything, wasn, taking, hand, killed, forces, politics, envy, religious, irritation, anyway, sleep, once, properly, homilist, touch, mortality, general, particular, normally, embrace, season, begins, remember, return, ends, standing, alone, creates, atmosphere, closer, exacerbated, beginning, office, itself, please, noctem, quietam, finem, perfectum, its, ingredients, vespers, attend, probably, realise, structured, two, gospel, canticles, survey, spiritually, rejoicing, mother, man, ready, depart, lived, next, door, durham, principal, canadian, jesuit, became, anglican, married, grew, lovely, family, remarkably, formidable, amazingly, friendly, real, intellectual, sophistication, tough, mindedness, tender, hearted, moral, courage, institution, astonishing, individuals, incalculable, mostly, paying, intelligent, attention, connecting, thinking, alongside, younger, less, knew, underestimated, older, decade, ever, youthful, able, sensibly, assumed, alive, longer, truth, quality, personally, follows, text, gave, clare, part, king, festival, yesterday, delivered, found, involuntary, thoughts, feelings, friend, cassidy, suddenly, spirituality, sermons, archive, category, stephen, cherry, reviews, books, reimagining,

Text of the page (random words):
easter another angle home a guide to healing agony reimagining forgiveness me and my blog my books reviews of healing agony another angle stephen cherry s blog archive for the easter category on dying posted in cambridge sermons easter spirituality tagged dying theology on april 2 2015 3 comments what follows is the text of a homily that i gave at a service of compline in clare college chapel cambridge as part of the easter at king s festival yesterday 1 april 2015 as i wrote and delivered it i found that i had on my mind in an involuntary kind of way many thoughts and feelings about my friend joe cassidy who died suddenly last weekend joe lived next door to us in durham and was principal of st chad s my old college a canadian jesuit who became an anglican married and grew a lovely family joe was both remarkably formidable and amazingly friendly a person of real intellectual sophistication tough mindedness tender hearted ness and moral courage what he did for st chad s as an institution was astonishing what he did for many individuals was incalculable and the way he did it mostly by paying them intelligent attention connecting and thinking alongside those who were younger and much less wise than him as i always knew i was though i always underestimated how much older he was than me it was in fact just a few years i thought it was more like a decade not that he ever seemed old he was always youthful but he just seemed to know so much more have had more experience be able to look at things more sensibly than me so i assumed he must have been alive longer than he had the truth is that he was just a different quality of person many will miss him greatly and many will miss him personally as will i so here is that homily if you attend this or any other chapel in cambridge you will probably be familiar with evensong and realise that it is structured around two gospel canticles the magnificat and the nunc dimittis taken together these survey of the spiritually of the whole of life the magnificat being the song of the rejoicing mother to be and the nunc dimittis being the song of the man who is ready to depart in peace compline is a more ancient service than evensong and is in fact one of its ingredients the other being vespers the ancient home of the magnificat so in compline we find the nunc dimittis standing alone and as such it creates a rather different atmosphere for if you find the whole of life at evensong you find you are closer to death at compline something exacerbated by the time of day the darkness and indeed words that come at the beginning of the office itself may the lord almighty grant us a quiet night well yes please and a perfect end noctem quietam et finem perfectum once you know this you might properly expect your homilist to touch on the subject of mortality in general and dying in particular at some point this week it s not normally a subject we embrace though the season of lent begins with dust remember that you are dust and to dust you will return and ends as we all know with the death of jesus and what of that is that a perfect end there is a lot of talk about aspiring to be christlike these days i am not sure it is always wise talk it is hard to imagine aspiring to a christlike death unless overwhelming pain excruciating isolation and public shame are your idea of a perfect end earnest attempts to take the edge off the agony of this seem to be mistaken to me there is no point in suggesting that jesus has a god like mind that could happily understand his own pain and isolation in terms of the grand narrative of salvation history if jesus went through the crucifixion as anything other than fully human then he wasn t as it were taking us with him on the other hand if jesus went through the crucifixion as just another person being killed by the forces of politics and envy and religious irritation then there would be nothing much more to be said about his death the story of easter would simply be the story of a resurrection that would have happened anyway even if jesus had died in his sleep this is the wrong time of day to try to enter into complex theological argument and in any case the reality is that jesus died as a human being though as a human being who was in some sense god though his god ness was not at the expense of the humanity of his mind any more than it was at the expense of the vulnerability of his body in other words and this is my last bit of theology the death and resurrection of christ tell us something entirely new and unique about the nature of god it tells us that god can make his home in a human person and be fully present without diminishing the humanity of that person in any way at all quite what that means for us human beings in our relationship with god is a huge question huge enough to drop into the middle of holy week certainly it means that we couldn t and shouldn t expect to relate to god in the same way as those who do not know or have not reflected on the jesus story that story changes everything and it makes inter faith relations both really difficult and absolutely vital difficult because how can a person who knows of the cross and resurrection of the incarnate son of god understand the word god comparably with someone who knows or believes nothing of it and yet vital because one thing this story of god s love teaches us is that god s love god s mission god s energetic compassionate affirmation of others knows no bounds and so we move towards others who are different to us and find that we are both bewildered by them and at the same time completely committed to respecting and learning from them and this is not despite what we believe about god in christ but because of what we have learnt of god in and through christ which is perhaps a long way from the question of what a perfect end might look like but let me venture this that a good death is one where the dying person is aware at some level of their being that they are beloved of god even perhaps in some small way inhabited by god and that their desire should they die is deeper communion with god and if they live to share the love of god through compassionate honest and humble relationships with others familiar ordinary and exotic others all others may the lord almighty grant us a quiet night well perhaps and we might hope so and a perfect end well yes to the extent to which we can emulate jesus not in his heroic suffering but in his generous loving to die knowing and feeling and believing that you are loved and that you love others well that s the way to go read full post a true barefoot disciple posted in easter lent lent book uncategorized tagged barefoot pilgrim discipleship us weareus on march 30 2013 leave a comment a few years ago i wrote a book called barefoot disciple walking the way of passionate humility because it was the archbishop of canterbury s lent book 2011 it has been read by quite a lot of people i received fair bit of feedback at the time and still do indeed i am this weekend in a birmingham parish where a number of people read it just recently apparently their discussion really took off when it came to the subject of foot washing during the peace on thursday night someone i had never met before greatly me warmly saying i really enjoyed your book such moments are deeply touching humbling and rewarding but this blog is about a response to the book which is all of those things but in a way that is off the scale when i was writing barefoot disciple i did from time to time take off my shoes and socks and step out into our very large and overgrown former rectory garden and do a kind of walking meditation you could call it a wincing meditation as i am not very hardy but i remain glad for the memory of walking barefoot on frosty grass and damp gravel what i never expected however was that anyone would pick up the idea and take it one step further but this is exactly what hannah phillips has done these last few years deciding to go barefoot through holy week come what may it was always a bold decision but the weather this year has made it especially challenging this is how hannah explains how the experience has challenged her when my feet hurt i often felt tempted to take the easy path to walk on the grass rather than on the gravel so to speak but i thought this would be missing the point many people around the world don t have the option to take an easy route i think our journey of faith is like this we are often faced with difficult decisions and we must trust in god to guide us onto the right path hannah s barefoot experience is one from which i have learnt quite a lot simply by reflecting on how much i don t want to do any such thing myself i mean so cold so scratchy so dirty and so difficult to explain it is a radical and prophetic gesture pointing to the reality of the down to earth poverty of so many of god s people and the vulnerability that we are all invited to share as we follow in the footsteps of jesus christ on her blog http cakeandtheology blogspot co uk hannah has written about her own learning too soon after jesus rode in in his glory people in the hierarchy saw his difference as a challenge to them instead of embracing his humility they fought it they did not spare the time to understand him instead they condemned him to death every time we walk past the person in the street behaving slightly differently and judge them we are complicit in what happened to jesus just as when we welcome in the stranger to our house we are welcoming jesus in too walking barefoot has highlighted for me how judgemental i can be it is easy to condemn others before you understand them it is easy to look at me and say i am mad poor or just plain stupid when you do not know why i have bare feet i am vulnerable and i seek to be understood how many other people feel like that and do i do enough to listen there is much to learn by reflecting all this and who knows a reader of this blog might be inspired to a barefoot venture of their own hannah barefoot days are also raising money for us formerly uspg http www weareus org uk if you wish you can make a supportive donation here https www justgiving com account your pages hannah phillips7 read full post old stone a poem posted in christian year easter tagged easter empty tomb god poetry stone word on april 16 2012 4 comments it has taken a while for this easter poem to come together not too long though i hope old stone too big to move they said steady sedate settled for centuries passed over when the temple was built more walked around than stumbled over not worthy of rejection just ignored perfect then to jam the gap seal the tomb end the talk gag the word late in time came the gang of destiny cursing a final full stop into the darkness but briefly briefly all it took was one sharp snort from the eternal to eject that great god gobstopper unstoppable you you spat it out here at last a mouth of hope now let spirit breathe dead live stones themselves cry out solid joy divine sneeze sac 16 4 12 read full post follow blog via email enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email email address follow another angle on prayer another angle on theology another angle on sin published 25 february 2016 another angle on forgiveness another angle on time management another angle on time management 2 another angle on humility recent posts the demon of dehumanization october 15 2023 more to say october 15 2023 address to graduating students june 29 2022 hello again june 29 2022 blog stats 168 185 hits blog at wordpress com wpthemes subscribe subscribed another angle join 464 other subscribers sign me up already have a wordpress com account log in now privacy another angle subscribe subscribed sign up log in report this content view site in reader manage subscriptions collapse this bar design a site like this with wordpress com get started