Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, marks the end of the Christmas season for people in the United Kingdom. It is also an occasion for Christians to celebrate the visit of the Magi (or Wise Men, or Kings) to Jesus shortly after his birth. Some Christians attend special church services on the 6th January or the Sunday nearest to that date. Figures representing the Magi are often placed in some crib scenes on Epiphany. The Festival marking the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus is called Epiphany because it signifies the manifestation of God in the Person of Jesus to Gentiles as represented by the Magi. The ancient Greek word epiphaneia means ‘manifestation’ or ‘striking appearance’ and is indicative of an experience of sudden and striking realization. So right from the beginning of the Gospel Story we see that the birth of the Promised Messiah or Saviour is good news for everyone and not just for the Jews!

We know very little about the Magi. Matthew is the only one of the four Gospel Writers to describe their visit. (Matthew 2:1-12). He tells us that they came ‘from the east’ to worship the Christ, ‘born King of the Jews’. The Magi are popularly referred to as ‘Wise Men’ and ‘Kings’. The word ‘Magi’ (the actual word Matthew uses in his account) is a term dating from the 6th century BC, to denote followers of Zoroaster, who placed great stress on the ability to read the stars, and manipulate the fate that the stars foretold. It is the root of the word ‘magician’ – a practitioner of magic, including astrology, alchemy and other forms of esoteric knowledge. It is suggested that the Magi who visited the infant Jesus were members of the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. As part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars and gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science.

Tradition identifies a variety of different names for the Magi. In the Western Christian Church they have been commonly known as: Melchior, a Persian scholar; Caspar, an Indian scholar; and Balthazar, an Arabian scholar. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Balthasar was the king of Arabia, Melchior the king of Persia, and Caspar the king of India. In reality, we cannot be sure who they were, or what their background was. What we can be sure of is that, like those Greeks who approached Philip (John 12:20), these ‘wise men’ came seeking Jesus. The Magi or Wise Men or Kings from the East were, according to Christian tradition, a group of distinguished foreigners who visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the Magi found Jesus by ‘following a star’ which thus traditionally became known as the Star of Bethlehem. On finding him, they gave baby Jesus three symbolic gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:11).

Gold was a gift offered to a king, and Jesus is King of kings! Not just ‘king of the Jews’ (John 19:9) but ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’ (Revelation 19:6). His kingdom, however, was not of this world. He was to reign not by force but by love. To rule over our hearts from a cross not a throne. And his resurrection from the dead confirmed him as King with all authority given to him (Matthew 28:18)!

Frankincense was a gift offered to a priest – it was a sweet perfume used in Temple Services – and Jesus is our Great High Priest. The Writer to the Hebrews tells us that ‘we have a great high priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God’ (Hebrews 4:14). The function of a priest is to represent God to humanity and humanity to God. The Latin word for priest is pontifex which means ‘bridge-builder. This is exactly what Jesus has done for us. Through his death he removed the barrier of sin between us and God, and through his resurrection he opened a new and living way back to God for us.

Myrrh was a gift used in those days to embalm the bodies of the dead – and the very reason Jesus came was to die on Calvary’s cross to redeem us from the power and penalty of our sin. Before he was born he was already ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ (Revelation 13:8). And at his birth he was given the name Jesus ‘for he shall save his people from their sins’ (Matthew 1:21).

Epiphaneia can also mean ‘a comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization’ or ‘a spiritual flash that changes the way we see ourselves’ (as one writer has put it). Both these definitions would appear to have applied to these visiting Magi. After their visit the Magi leave the narrative by returning another way so as to avoid King Herod (who is determined to involve them in his plot to kill the infant Messiah) and do not reappear. There are many traditional stories about what happened to the Magi after this, with one having them baptised by Thomas on his way to India. It has been suggested that what we have here is the story of the first converts from Zoroastrianism. And of course throughout Scripture and history we have thousands of stories of people, from all walks of life, religious and non-religious, who also have had a similar epiphaneia for themselves, right up to the present day.

Rex Knowles tells how his wife went Christmas shopping one afternoon and left him to look after the children. Suddenly they disturbed his peace by announcing, ‘Daddy, we have a play to put on. Do you want to see it?’ Daddy didn’t but he knew he would have to so he went into the living room and sat down – a one man audience. He saw that it was a Nativity Play. At the foot of the piano stool was a lighted torch wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a shoe box. Rex (aged 6) came in wearing Daddy’s bathrobe and carrying a mop handle, followed by Nancy (aged 10) who announced ‘I’m Mary and this is Joseph!’ Then Trudy (aged 4) entered with pillow cases over her arms which she waved about saying, ‘I’m an angel!’ Finally in came Anne (aged 8) riding a camel – at least she moved as though she was riding a camel because she had on a pair of her mother’s high heeled shoes. She was bedecked in all the jewellery available and carried a pillow laden with certain items. She bowed before the Holy Family and announced, ‘I am all three wise men! I bring precious gifts: gold, circumstance, and mud!’ That was all. The play was over. But Daddy didn’t laugh. He prayed as he thought how near his little daughter had come to the truth. He thought of the way materialism had gripped him. Of how circumstances were overwhelming him. And how everything seemed to be crumbling around him. That prayer marked a new beginning for Rex Knowles as he allowed Jesus Christ to break into his life anew!

Jim Binney

‘Hope’ by George Frederic Watts

George Frederic Watts’ symbolist oil painting Hope shows a scantily clad female  figure (Hope herself) sitting on a globe, blindfolded, clutching a wooden lyre with only one string left intact. She sits in a hunched position, with her head leaning towards the instrument – perhaps so she can hear the faint music she can make with the sole remaining string – a single lonely star blinks hesitantly in the dark night sky.  The desolate atmosphere is emphasised by Watts’ soft brushwork, creating a misty, ethereal scene, in tones of green, brown and grey. A second version of the painting was painted by Watts in 1886, shortly after the death of his adopted daughter Blanche. This second version omits the star – Watts felt that it was too much a symbol of optimism?!  The first version is now held in a private collection, but the second version was presented to the Tate in 1897. It is said that two ladies were overheard discussing the painting one day. ‘Why do you think that it is called Hope?’ asked the one. Looking at the precariously placed figure on the globe, the other replied, ‘Probably because she hopes she won’t fall off!’

The English dictionary defines ‘hope’ as an ‘emotional state that promotes belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life’. ‘Hope’ it would seem, is a psychological necessity if we are to envisage any kind of real future. Even if there are no rational grounds for it, we still continue to hope. I recall my father taking me to watch Brentford FC when I was about 9 or 10 years of age. I forget who Brentford were playing but with only two minutes of the game left they were losing 1-0. I do remember, however, a very optimistic Brentford supporter shouting out at this point in the game, ‘Come on Brentford! All we need is a goal, and a last minute penalty!’ The sad reality is that all too often ‘hope’ for us is actually transient and illusory. It is hope against hope. Hopeless hope. Fingers crossed, and hope for the best, kind of hope?!

In the New Testament, however, the word for ‘hope’ is very different. It is the Greek word ‘elpis’ signifying ‘a favourable and confident expectation regarding the future’ both in this life and in the life to come. It is this kind of ‘hope’ that the Apostle Paul refers to when he prays for the Christians at Rome (and for every other Christian down through time), ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 15:13). ‘Elpis’ literally means ‘guarantee’ which led Martin Luther, in his translation of Romans to refer to God here (in Romans 15:13) as ‘the God of the guarantee’.

We can feel confident about the future – whatever it may hold – because we can trust the God of hope, the God of the guarantee! He has a plan for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11), he has a purpose in life for each one of us (Ephesians 2:10), he has our best interests at heart (Romans 8:28) and he will fulfill all his promises to us in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). Indeed, as Paul tells us here, it is possible to be so confident about the future that we are ‘filled with joy and peace’ and actually ‘overflow with hope’ ourselves in such a way that it inspires others!

None of us know for certain what the future holds … but we do know who holds the future! Life is not random. The bible tells us that ‘our times are in God’s hands’ (Psalm 31:14,15) and we can be confident that God has a bright and purposeful future for us as we step out into another new year. I appreciate that lots of people today don’t find life easy, ourselves included. Julia and I have no money, we don’t have jobs, we don’t even live in our own home (we live with Julia’s mother in a cottage that belongs to her). I shall be 70 at the end of 2013. I don’t look it! I don’t feel it! And I am really excited about all that God has for Julia and myself in the next thrilling chapter of our lives as, God-willing, we return to some form of ministry together.

The secret, of course, is keeping our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus. In the Gospel Story (Matthew 14:22-33), when the Apostle Peter stepped out of the boat, and found himself walking on the water, he was fine as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. It was only when he took his eyes off Jesus, and looked at the wind and the waves, that he begun to sink. To his credit, Peter actually did far more walking than sinking because when he began to sink Jesus was able to reach out and catch him. Peter had managed to get all the way from the boat to Jesus without sinking! And if we will keep our eyes on Jesus, we too will be able to walk on the water of our circumstances … however difficult they may seem! As the old poem suggests:

When we look within, we see failure and sin!
When we look around, troubles abound!
But when we look to Thee, the Lamb of Calvary
Hope, and peace, and joy are found!

Jim Binney

The Incarnation

About 20 years ago I wrote a controversial article entitled ‘Don’t Just Do Something … Stand There!’. The gist of the article was that too many of us are simply too busy for the sake of it. All too often our activity, for all its energy, is fruitless. Like the Seven Dwarves we are ‘busy doing nothing’ in real terms. We are ‘driven people’ … driven by a sense of ‘ought-ness’ self-imposed or imposed on us by others. Finally, after two years of being ‘retired’ and living in rural Dorset, I think I am at last beginning to get the hang of what I was suggesting all those years ago. At long last I am learning to slow down, take life at a more leisurely pace, and enjoy and learn from all that God wants me to see, hear and get involved in.

I seem to have spent so much of my previous life rushing around … I even ate my food as quickly as possible?! This was partly because of spending time in the ‘poor house’ when I was around 8 or 9 years of age – my father lost his job and we were literally put out on the street because we lived in tied accommodation – and in the particular institution where we were housed you had to eat your food quickly before others got it. Only in the last few years – since discovering ‘fine dining’ – have I learned to eat more slowly and savour my food. And of course subconsciously ‘buying into’ the ‘Protestant work ethic’ early on in my Christian journey – the ethic that drives so many of us evangelical Christians – did not help me to stop rushing around either.

One of the things that I have increasingly come to enjoy in recent years is working through the whole Advent-Christmas-Epiphany event in the Christian calendar. This season in the Christian calendar provides us with a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time prayerfully reflecting on the various aspects of this particular chapter in the Christian Story. I love the fact that from the end of November through to the first week in January, we can take time individually as Christians, and corporately as Church, to ‘chew the cud’ of the various aspects of the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany event: the God who comes; the God who speaks; the Forerunner; Mary’s faith; the Incarnation; the visit of the Magi, and so on.

We evangelical Christians don’t always make best use of these few weeks to unpack the biblical record covering this period, in the life and teaching programmes of our churches. How often do we hear sermons today on Biblical Prophecy, the Second Coming of Christ, Mary the Mother of Jesus, John the Baptist, even the significance of the Incarnation itself? The story of the Visit of the Magi usually gets lost somewhere in the mad rush to get into the New Year, and the modern trend for a church ‘Motto Text’ for the year, usually preached on on the first Sunday in the New Year (which is normally Epiphany). As a result, the Visit of the Magi, and the significance of their gifts for the Christ-child,  is usually reduced to a few comments at a Children’s Nativity or a Candlelight Carol Service? But if we don’t give time to these significant themes during the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany period in the Church Calendar … when will we?

I am also, personally, somewhat concerned by our obsession as evangelical Christians with the ‘Easter Story’? Time and again it has been suggested to me (wrongly, I believe) that ‘the Incarnation would have been pointless without the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!’ Now before I get burnt at the stake for heresy, let me say straight away that the whole of the ‘Passion of Christ’ (not just the events of Easter Sunday, by the way) are also an essential part of the Christian Story, indeed the Christian Gospel! But so is the Incarnation! The Incarnation – the fact that in the Person of Jesus Christ, God became flesh – is also an essential part of the Christian Story, the Christian Gospel. It is essential, and significant, in its own right, and is not just a kind of ‘preliminary’ to the real story, the Easter Story. This, for me, is why learning theology at bible or theological college is so important? This is why it is important for those of us called to preach and teach in the Church  continue to ‘do theology’ today even though we may have left college and are ‘in the ministry’? We are called ‘to proclaim the whole counsel of God’ (Acts 20:27) … not just emphasise the bits we think are important, whilst at the same time ignoring the bits we think irrelevant or haven’t go to grips with yet?

The Apostle John tells us, in the prologue of the Fourth Gospel, that in the Person of Jesus Christ, ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.’ (John 1:14 NRSV). That, my friends, is truth worth getting to grips with … not as a ‘sound bite’ but as an aspect of ‘Incarnational Theology’ that requires thought, prayer, reflection, and response!

‘And is it true? And is it true.
The most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained glass windows’ hue
A Baby in an ox’s stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?’

~ John Betjeman

Jim Binney

In the West Bank, Israel’s security barrier has started to resemble the western side of the Berlin Wall in its heyday.  The Israeli side is bleak and clean, but on the Palestinian side graffiti flourishes.  A few years ago the British graffiti artist Banksy stencilled a number of his famous cartoons on the wall and they have subsequently become one of Bethlehem’s tourist attractions. They even help bring a little money into Bethlehem’s tourist economy, which was crushed when Israel built the security wall in 2002. Israel argues that the wall has stopped suicide bombings – before the security barrier was constructed over 800 Israeli civilians were murdered by Palestinian terrorists – but ordinary Palestinians claim their livelihood has been squeezed as a result of the wall.

I have been thinking about this as I continue to sort through the hundreds of photographs we took during our recent sabbatical in Israel-Palestine. I am reflecting on our own visit to Bethlehem, firstly, because it is almost Christmas, and secondly, because the Iona Community recently made use of another Banksy cartoon – depicting Joseph, with the heavily pregnant Mary seated on a donkey, unable to get into Bethlehem because of the wall – on its Facebook page. Their use of this particular cartoon roused up quite a reaction with some people finding it aptly poignant and others politically offensive?! Personally, I thought the cartoon very clever. It makes you think! I recall reading of an incident a few years ago when a BBC correspondent rode a donkey across the Holy Land, following the route taken by Mary and Joseph according to the Gospel of Luke, only to be refused entry into Bethlehem by Israeli soldiers at a Check Point because the ‘donkey did not have the correct paperwork’?!

I also vividly remember our experiences of crossing from Israel into the West Bank on various occasions – including being stopped and searched – and the oppressive nature of the wall itself. I understand the reasons why the Israeli Government erected the wall – militant Islam is the greatest threat to world peace that exists today and civilians being deliberately targeted whilst travelling in buses or sitting in restaurants by Muslim extremists had to be stopped – but it is only a minority of Palestinians who are extremists. The building of the wall may have prevented extremist attacks but it has also had a disastrous effect on the ordinary people of Bethlehem. Present-day Bethlehem is completely surrounded by a wall of separation. Palestinians have to go through a checkpoint and show documentation to go in or out for work, medical care, to visit relatives in other towns, etc. The tourist trade, on which the livelihood of many of the inhabitants of Bethlehem is dependent, has been badly hit, and unemployment is very high. Walking through Bethlehem on the way to Manger Square you cannot help but become aware of the poverty and the pain being experienced by so many ordinary people. Entering the Church of the Nativity we were immediately besieged  by ‘tourist guides’ anxious to secure our business and earn a little more to help keep their families afloat.

For me, there is a huge difference between God’s Old Testament People and the modern secular Jewish State – a fact clearly recognised by the majority of religious Jews (if not by many fundamentalist Christians) who are very critical of the secular Israeli government. But if any appeal is to be made to the Bible, then it needs to be recognised that in the Old Testament, God’s promised protection for Israel was predicated on their obedience to his Law, and that included kindness to the ‘aliens’ or foreigners within their lands. Taking their farms, bulldozing their orchards, and cutting them off from their families is hardly kindness. God calls on his people to ‘Do justice and love mercy’ (Micah 6:8). I wish we could see a bit more of that in the world!

I recall the Bible story that tells us that Joseph and Mary ‘went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David’ (Luke 2:4) and wonder if they would not only have difficulty finding accommodation for Mary to have the baby, but actually find it difficult to even get into Bethlehem at all today? Perhaps the Banksy cartoon has a point? I recall a story Dina Donohue tells of Wallace Purling, a rather big, clumsy nine year old who wanted to be a shepherd in the school nativity play but was given the role of the innkeeper instead. Although Wallace was ‘slow in movement and mind’ he was ‘a helpful boy, willing and smiling, and the natural protector of the underdog’. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake to give Wallace the role of the innkeeper, but it is on such ‘mistakes’ that things change, sometimes for the better. Wallace Purling had been chosen to play the innkeeper because, being rather big, his teacher thought him to be exactly right to play the part of someone who could throw his weight around and refuse even a heavily pregnant woman a room! But when Wallace’s big moment came, and faced with the key decision in a story that had become much more than just a ‘nativity play’ for Wallace, he just couldn’t turn Mary and Joseph away. Meant to look stern and mercilessly and turn the holy couple away, Wallace suddenly broke into a bright smile as a great idea crossed his mind – ‘You can have my room!’ he said! A few people thought the nativity play had been ruined but most considered it the best play they had ever seen!

On our way back out of Bethlehem we once again passed the towering security wall. On the Israeli side, the only bit of colour to relieve the unrelenting concrete at the crossing was a monumental banner rich with unintended irony, since no one in the West Bank sees the security barrier as anything but a prison wall. ‘Peace Be With You!’ it said in three languages, and in smaller print: ‘Israel Ministry of Tourism’.

Jim Binney

I am reflecting once again on some of the lessons learned during our recent sabbatical in Israel-Palestine. I am remembering the time Julia and I caught the No. 15 bus back to Saint Margaret’s Guest House in upper Nazareth (where our group was staying) after church one Sunday morning. The No. 15 bus route in Nazareth is a circular route – rather like the Circle Line on the London Underground but with buses not tube trains. It doesn’t matter which side of the road you catch the bus – either way will eventually get you to your chosen destination. Of course if you don’t know where you are going to begin with, or haven’t travelled the route before, or think you know where you are heading but don’t really, you can end up just going round and round in circles!? I am thinking about our nightmare journey that Sunday morning attempting to get back to our hostel at Saint Margaret’s. I recall a friend of mine – who worked in the City – who had a recurring nightmare about being permanently stuck on the Circle Line?!

In my last ‘blog’ I started to write about the way our cultural influences affect what we believe and how we behave as Christians – far more than we are probably prepared to accept? I am still working through the implications of this, and suspect I will be doing so for quite some time to come. My thesis is that we need – both as individuals and as local churches – to re-examine all our beliefs and behaviour patterns to determine what is genuinely born of the Spirit of Christ, what is truly ‘kingdom stuff’, what is truly ‘Christ-cultural’ … and what is actually simply the product of the various secular and ‘religious’ cultural influences around us?

One of the things that forcibly struck me during our time in the ‘Holy Land’ – perhaps especially because I was ‘out of my comfort zone’ and therefore the discrepancy stood out all the more – was the cyclical nature of so much belief and behaviour. ‘Cyclical’ simply means going round and round in the same old circles – rather like a worn old gramophone record suck in the same groove. The more time I spent listening to Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, Orthodox Jews, Zionists, and even many Evangelical Arab Christians and Messianic Jews, the more I heard the same old well rehearsed cyclical arguments used to justify outworn beliefs and behaviour patterns. A visible example of this while we were there were the tee-shirts, with their ‘political’ slogans on sale in many of the market stalls and gift shops, championing the various intransigent views passed down the generations that keep Israel-Palestine perpetually locked in the same negative scenario. One would hope that in the white hot heat of the crucible that is the Middle East situation today, it would be the Christians, particularly the Arab Christians and Jewish Believers – those who have been ‘reconciled to God in Christ and entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation’ (2 Corinthians 5:18) – who would together be at the heart of endeavouring to broker peace and reconciliation between the Jews and the Palestinians? They, of all people, are surely in a unique place to be able to do so? Sadly they are so caught up in cyclical traps of their own that they appear unable to do so.

The unquestioned dispensationalist and Zionist views held by the Messianic Jews, rather than enhancing and commending the Gospel, hinder cooperation between Jewish and Arab Evangelical Christians. The traditional Arab ‘shame-honour’ views held equally strongly by Evangelical Arab Christians, are equally cyclical, and rather than help the cause of the Gospel make it difficult for ‘singletons’, divorced people, and the many casualties of this broken and hurting world to fit in. There is a lot that I respect and admire and love about both the Evangelical Arab Christians and the Messianic Jews, but both groups need to discover prophetic figures within their midsts who will stand up, think ‘outside the box’, challenge the status quo, break the repetitive cycles of purely culturally based belief and behaviour!

Of course we evangelical and charismatic Christians here in the West are often equally bound by our own versions of cyclical belief and behaviour? In a number of ways we mirror both the Messianic Jews and the Evangelical Arab Christians. Probably the majority of evangelical and charismatic Christians in the West subscribe to the same dispensational views as the Messianic Jews, completely unaware that a) such views are less than 200 year old, b) the implications of such views concerning the ‘right’ of Israel as a nation to ‘the Land’ is probably more harmful than helpful, and c) there are other views of the ‘end times’ that may actually have more biblical support behind them? Equally, a growing number of evangelical and charismatic Christians in the West appear to be lining up behind our own version of the ‘honour-shame’ concept, with a seemingly ‘zero tolerance’ approach to ethical problems such as divorce and re-marriage, abortion, and homosexuality – all of which are far more complex issues than many of us are prepared to concede? And I haven’t even got on to some theological matters – such as there being other valid and insightful ways of understanding the atonement as well as penal substitution, or that there may be alternative ways of interpretting those Scriptures that have resulted in the intransigent negative attitude of Anglo-Catholic and Conservative Evangelical Christians to the Ordination of women?

On all of these subjects one gets sick and tired of the same old cyclical arguments getting churned out again and again. In biblical hermeneutics (the science of interpreting scripture), one interesting method is known as the hermeneutic of ‘suspicion and retrieval’. The concept originated with the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur who suggested that when considering any text (including the Biblical text), we need to first be critically aware of our tendency to project our own pre-conceived wishes, concepts, ideas, and views into those texts instead of listening with an open mind and heart to what those texts are truly saying to us. Whenever we read a passage of Scripture, therefore, we need to begin by being ‘suspicious’ of everything we have been taught or believed about that passage and allow God to speak afresh to us by his Spirit. In this way we will be able to ‘retrieve’ what is good and true about what we had previously learned (whilst leaving the dross behind) but see it afresh and anew, whilst at the same time probably learning new things we had not seen before. We too need God to raise up those prophetic voices among us who will be prepared to stand up and be counted, who will ‘think outside the box’, challenge the ‘status quo’, and break the cyclical chains of purely secular and religious cultural beliefs and behaviours that have been handed down to us, many of which are never fully explored because we are trapped in a predetermined cyclical web of handed down cultural belief and behaviour.

In one of my previous churches there was a couple who had gone through the Alpha Course some seven times? They had not simply done it once, and then become helpers. They simply kept on going over old ground again and again. They were spiritual Peter Pans who had never grown up?! Instead of heeding the biblical exhortation to move on from baby milk to solids spiritually (Hebrews 5:11-14) they stayed baby Christians. We ourselves may not be like this couple in this particular way – but maybe we are just like them in our own particular way? Still rehearsing the same old cyclical views and arguments about … well about all sorts of things … without actually having really thought and prayed them through with an openness of heart and mind since the year dot!? We remain trapped on the Circle Line?!

So, after an hour or so we finally manage to catch the No. 15 bus in Nazareth!. Nobody told us that it only runs in one direction on a Sunday, and that therefore we had to get the bus on the other side of the road … but we eventually worked it out for ourselves having watched a couple of buses go by the other way? When we eventually get on the No. 15 it is going a way we have never been before? We don’t know where we are going? We don’t know where to get off? We don’t know how to get to Saint Margaret’s Hostel from the bus stop, even if we knew what stop to get off at? The bus driver has never heard of Saint Margaret’s? We look as though we are just going to be stuck on this particular bus going round and round in circles for ever? Suddenly Julia has a ‘moment of inspiration’! ‘It used to be the old orphanage!’ she tells the bus conductor. ‘Ah!’ he says … and promptly turns off the regular route, takes us down various new roads … and delivers us right to the door!

Jim Binney