A spark exists within us all - Richard Rolle wrote of the fire of love - this hymn reflects that theme but also alludes to John Wesley’s experience of a strangely warmed heart on the 24th May 1738.
1 A spark exists within us all that, fanned, will form a flame of love; so let cold embers warm and glow then, flickering, dancing, leap above.
2 This sign of pre-existent power, the ground of all enlightenment, the blaze of which we share a part is love that shimmers heaven bent.
3 So let that universal flame, that fire which cannot be confined, ignite a spirit in the world transcending bounds of space and time.
4 Then all the earth consumed by love; awakened, warmed, and fused as one, will know a single sense of joy as all rejoice beneath the sun. Amen!
How can God, condemned, be hanging? –the test of all that deserves to be called Christian… (See Jurgen Moltmann The Crucified God)
How can God, condemned, be hanging? False messiahs meet such ends, and the ones then testifying, have no need to make amends. Educated folk were laughing, they foresaw what was to come, saw disciples hiding, crying, feeling both distraught and numb.
But that early Easter morning brought another scene to bear, Jesus mission had not ended, he was risen, standing there. Still the story, more than foolish soon gave rise to talk and doubt. ‘Surely God could never suffer?’ taunting people tease and shout.
Signs and wisdom are confounded by that stumbling block, the cross. Things that we once saw as wisdom now dismissed as foolish dross. God had shown such strength in weakness. Those who shared Christ’s dying breath now at last could claim dominion, love defeating hate and death.
A mind, it seemed, adrift. No sea anchor, but fronds, or tendrils, tangled about thoughts, pulling forward through mists, or pulling down into near forgotten depths. Then a ripple would align two glimpses of reality, momentarily, and be gone, sliding through fingers losing strength, a tenuous grip. AEP
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