VOLMOED : April 2014 NEWSLETTER

April 2014

Dear Prayer Partners,

At our Morning Prayer times we end the service, looking at one another, saying “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen” and then in unison we say “Hallelujah!” But, now that we are in Lent we omit to say Hallelujah. This was of interest to one of our guests who asked John “why?” His answer is to build up anticipation towards Easter so when the time comes we are bursting to say with joy “Hallelujah – Praise our Risen Lord.”

During Lent, John has been doing Lenten meditations at our Thursday prayer times and one of these was entitled “BUT” ...... He wrote:
“Isobel tells me that when I get into a discussion, such as we had the other evening about the Pistorius trial, I use the little word "but" in virtually every sentence, like in the following. "Yes, I think you are right in what you say, but..." And, of course, my "but" qualifies or even contradicts what the other person has said, even while affirming him or her! So I decided to check out and see how often the word "but" occurs in the Bible and discovered, in my very large concordance, that it occurs far too often to list! I often tell students to avoid overusing the words "but," "nevertheless," and "however," because in doing so they lose their significance and one's argument is killed by too many qualifications. Yet these words, judiciously used, are sewn into the very fabric of Scripture. And often when they are, they contradict the cynical and assert the conviction that God's redemptive love and power is at work even in the worse case scenarios. "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." Ephesians 2:1-10

We saw a wonderful French movie last week at Volmoed entitled Intouchables (The Untouchables). Within weeks of its release in 2011it became the second biggest box office hit in France, then attracted large audiences world-wide, winning many awards. The movie is based on a true story of friendship between a very rich white man of culture. Philippe, a quadriplegic as a result of a paragliding accident, and Driss, a black former criminal who is hired to look after Philippe. Driss does not want the job; all he wants is a signature to prove to social welfare that he is looking for work. But Philippe hires him because he is the only candidate for the job who does not treat him as an object of pity. I won't tell the whole story, but as I watched it, now for the second time, I kept on thinking of the dinner party question about discerning redemption in unlikely situations. Who would have thought that this former jailbird and member of the drug underworld, could become the unwitting instrument of redemption for a quadriplegic in upper-crust Parisian society? He was no saint; he was just being himself -- a swearing, fornicating, gangster through whom somehow -- to speak as a believer -- God worked a miracle of redemption. For through Driss, Philippe experienced genuine love and friendship, and in the process got a new life, met the woman of his dreams and, according to the true story on which the movie is based, now has two daughters! "Can you believe it?" is the only response I can think of, because the story beggars belief!
The truth is, God's way of redemption does beggar belief! It quite literally reduces us to silence or stuns us, as the phrase "beggar belief" suggests. Who could have thought this? It goes against all that we think is normative, all that common sense teaches us, and a great deal of religious thinking as well. "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." Who could possibly have seen on that terrible day when Jesus and his companion criminals were crucified that somehow written into the plot was a divine "nevertheless," "however," "but"? This is the good news of Christian faith, and it always begins with a word of contradiction, a divine "but." If it were not for God's interjection "but!" humanity would be a lost cause, without hope of redemption. God's redemption may happen in strange ways, even through a blaspheming ex-con like Driss, but that is sometimes how God's love and grace breaks into our lives and the situations that confront us that seem beyond any redemption. We may feel drowned in our sorrows, burdened by our sins, overwhelmed by the woes of the world, "but God..." You can complete the sentence for yourself. “

Easter is a time of new life, new beginnings and perhaps new understandings. Nothing can separate us from the love of God except our refusal to accept it – and that would be unforgivable!

Di Miller, our UK agent, spent 7 weeks in Somerset West with her Mum who was recovering after surgery. Di came out to visit one day and shared prayer time and a luncheon with us. It is always good for her to come and get a feel of Volmoed so she can keep our prayer partners up to date in the UK. Please continue to pray for her to have peace and for her Mum to recover well.

We have been blessed with a wonderful gift of many things! Bernhard’s cousin is renovating his house in Hermanus and said “come and collect!’. There was furniture, linen, curtains, kitchen cupboards, windows, doors, shutters, light fittings, and even roof sheets and more – what a blessings for which we give grateful thanks. Bernhard and Alyson had great fun as they thought about where everything should go! We revamped Vyeboom Down with the lounge and dining furniture we were given and moved the old lounge suite to Faith Cottage where it looks so good. A touch of paint and different paintings and lamp shades and “voila” the houses look wonderful. While we were busy we took a good look at Keurboom (the first house we built) which we have always thought needed something so have booked it off for a week to paint the kitchen cupboards and doors which will give the place a lift and also make it much brighter. With the gift of the doors and windows we are now going to do the office renovation which has been on the drawing board for years. So things are always happening here and we are busy revamping and making Volmoed comfortable for our guests to enjoy.

The solution to not retrenching any of our staff which we came to last year was to “out source” them and the money received would supplement their Volmoed wages. It is working well and they have been used away from Volmoed doing repair and maintenance jobs and are in demand! They have also been busy making firewood and charcoal and we have been selling this to bring in extra income. Sadly, the small team at Karwyderskraal which we hoped would benefit from the charcoal project have not played their part and not returned to work so it has become a Volmoed project.

Please pray for Maggie and Wendy who have trouble with their legs and varicose veins. Wendy has to go for a scan to see how serious they are and if an operation is needed which will mean a trip to Worcester to the provincial hospital. As the weather gets colder the coughs and colds are arriving, especially with members of our team that have school going children, so please pray for protection and good health during the winter months.

VOLMOED APRIL HAPPENINGS:

1st – 18th          No groups but individuals enjoying Volmoed
4th                    Learn to Earn, Hermanus - Alpha Holy Spririt Day 
4th                    Sharon Maintz & Shaun Jacobs wedding
4th – 6th            PRIZE WINNER of our Facebook competition - Mark Hazelden & family.   
18th – 21st        Easter Weekend - Grace Pentecostal Church – Frank Mentoor
21st                  EASTER MONDAY – 28th THANKSGIVING SERVICE @ 10.30 IN CHAPEL                  
22nd – 30th        Individuals enjoying Volmoed

I end with something from Isobel’s book “Walking On” – her poems, payers and pictures.

EASTER PRAYER

Lord, I see the beauty of your world, 
The sparkling turquoise of the sea, 
The solid mass of the mountains, 
The fragile loveliness of a flower, 
And I can praise you.

But there is that other ugly world, Lord,
That frightens me –
It overwhelms me, renders me helpless:
That world where people are prisoners to poverty, 
Violence and misery mark the measure of their lives;
They tread an endless treadmill with 
No stopping – to stop is to fall off 
Into worse – a dark and endless pit.

May this Easter be a very meaningful time for you and the “Hallelujah”
God bless and love from us all, Jane

Meditation: BUT … by John de Gruchy

BUT...

Ephesians 2:1-10

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

I guess the dinner party to which Isobel and I went last week in Hermanus was no exception to what was happening elsewhere around the country and even beyond.  We were discussing the Oscar Pistorious trial, going over each bit of the drama as it was unfolding in the media, helped by the presence at the table of a judge and a lawyer.  Whatever the gory details of the case, or its rights and wrongs and possible outcome, we were saddened by the tragedy that had led to Reeva Steenkamp's brutal killing, and sad that a sporting icon's life was in tatters.  It was all too horrific to discuss dispassionately.  But the question was asked: can we discern anything redemptive in such a tragedy?  Are Reeva's death and Oscar's demise the last words on the subject?  Or to put it more broadly: can anything good come out of evil?  Is it possible to discern something, anything, redemptive in situations which, humanly speaking, seem beyond redemption? 

I know that cynics will say that there are events that are so evil that it is impossible to discern anything  redemptive in them, and that there are people who are so evil that they are beyond redemption.  The Holocaust and Hitler immediately come to mind, but they are not the only examples we can think of.  Unbelieving cynics for whom there is no God don't really have a problem in this regard for this is just how things are.  Christians have generally thought otherwise.  Even if there is no redemption in this life or on earth, perhaps there is afterwards.  But there is disagreement even amongst Christians, some of whom believe in a hell in which people suffer everlastingly for their sins, and others in the annihilation of unrepentant sinners.

In my book Led into Mystery I have dealt with this problem in some detail so I am not going to repeat here what I have said there.  But let me say this: I have far less difficulty with the idea that evil along with evil people who have no remorse will simply be extinguished than I have with the idea of everlasting punishment in some kind of hell.  What kind of a God would inflict that on anyone, even someone as evil as Hitler?  Yes, I do believe that in the end this is a moral universe, or to use biblical images, there is a judgment, that justice will be done, and evil destroyed. But I also believe that God's justice is not punitive but restorative -- God does not desire the death of the wicked, the prophet Ezekiel tells us, but that they should turn around and live; God does not want the prodigal son to remain in the pigsty, but prompts him to return home and runs to embrace him.  Or, in the words of our text this morning: "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."

Isobel tells me that when I get into a discussion, such as we had the other evening about the Pistorious trial, I use the little word "but" in virtually every sentence, like in the following.  "Yes, I think you are right in what you say, but..."  And, of course, my "but" qualifies or even contradicts what the other person has said, even while affirming him or her!  So I decided to check out and see how often the word "but" occurs in the Bible and discovered, in my very large concordance, that it occurs far too often to list!  I often tell students to avoid overusing the words "but," "nevertheless," and "however," because in doing so they lose their significance and one's argument is killed by too many qualifications.  Yet these words, judiciously used, are sewn into the very fabric of Scripture.   And often when they are, they contradict the cynical and assert the conviction that God's redemptive love and power is at work even in the worse case scenarios. "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."

We saw a wonderful French movie last week at Volmoed entitled Intouchables (The Untouchables). Within weeks of its release in 2011it became the second biggest box office hit in France, then attracted large audiences world-wide, winning many awards.  The movie is based on a true story of friendship between a very rich white man of culture. Philippe, a quadriplegic as a result of a paragliding accident, and Driss, a black former criminal who is hired to look after Philippe.  Driss does not want the job; all he wants is a signature to prove to social welfare that he is looking for work.  But Philippe hires him because he is the only candidate for the job who does not treat him as an object of pity.  I won't tell the whole story, but as I watched it, now for the second time, I kept on thinking of the dinner party question about discerning redemption in unlikely situations.  Who would have thought that this former jailbird and member of the drug underworld, could become the unwitting instrument of redemption for a quadriplegic in upper-crust Parisian society?  He was no saint; he was just being himself -- a swearing, fornicating, gangster through whom somehow -- to speak as a believer -- God worked a miracle of redemption.  For through Driss, Philippe experienced genuine love and friendship, and in the process got a new life, met the woman of his dreams and, according to the true story on which the movie is based, now has two daughters!  "Can you believe it?" is the only response I can think of, because the story beggars belief!

The truth is, God's way of redemption does beggar belief!  It quite literally reduces us to silence or stuns us, as the phrase "beggar belief" suggests.  Who could have thought this?  It goes against all that we think is normative, all that common sense teaches us, and a great deal of religious thinking as well. "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."  Who could possibly have seen on that terrible day when Jesus and his companion criminals were crucified that somehow written into the plot was a divine "nevertheless," "however," "but"?  This is the good news of Christian faith, and it always begins with a word of contradiction, a divine "but."  If it were not for God's interjection "but!" humanity would be a lost cause, without hope of redemption.  God's redemption may happen in strange ways, even through a blaspheming ex-con like Driss, but that is sometimes how God's love and grace breaks into our lives and the situations that confront us that seem beyond any redemption.  We may feel drowned in our sorrows, burdened by our sins, overwhelmed by the woes of the world, "but God..."  You can complete the sentence for yourself. 

John de Gruchy

Volmoed Lent  20 March 2014

Meditation: An Enchanted Forest by John Gruchy

AN ENCHANTED FOREST

I Chronicles 16:29-34

Colossians 1:15-19

Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy.

Less than an hour's drive from Volmoed, hidden behind the hills above Stanford and Gansbaai, lies a beautiful valley.  And in that valley is an enchanted forest of indigenous trees named Platbos.  It should not really be there.  The rainfall is too sparse to support a forest which numbers amongst its trees a milkwood  reputed to be a thousand years old.  On the surrounding hills fynbos flourishes, and invasive aliens struggle for control.  But in this enchanted forest above a sand dune with neither a river or spring to sustain it, indigenous trees grow and flourish.  Botanists say it is all an unfathomable mystery.  But there it is!  And Isobel and I have only just discovered it through the kindness of Mike and Moi who took us there the week before last. 

I will not dazzle you with the botanical names of the trees in the forest, but let me mention their popular ones and  how they are described by those who lovingly manage Platbos and extract their essences.  The milkwood is the tree of wholeness; the white pear, the tree of joy; the rock alder,  the tree of bliss; the bladder nut, the tree of self-knowledge; the wild peach, the tree of courage; the hard pear, the tree of forgiveness; the spike thorn, the tree of loving kindness; the saffron wood, the tree of tears; the sea guarrie, the tree of inspiration; the wild olive, the tree of faith; the pock ironwood, the tree of intuition; the cherry wood, the tree of serenity; and  the white stinkwood, the  tree of light.  Their names let alone their smells conjure up a world of mystery and enchantment. 

Forests are the stuff of fairy tales and legends.  In olden times, they were the boundaries between villages, and most villagers seldom ventured alone into their foreboding darkness.  They were places where  danger lurks, strange things happen, monsters hide, aliens dwell and big bad wolves eat straying boys and girls.  It was not impossible, as C.S. Lewis once said, that an ogre might live less than an hour away!   But Platbos, less than an hour from Volmoed, is not a place to fear, it is a place to be renewed, to regain a sense of proportion, a place to discover oneself and share with others your deepest thoughts.  You can walk through its shaded paths, sit under its trees, marvel at its shapes and forms, and sometimes on a moonlit night you might even see a shy leopard seeking its prey or a striped genet clinging to the branches of a stinkwood tree.  But it is also a metaphor for another dimension to life, the world of soul and spirit that is threatened by the often barren environment created by science and technology, and controlled by machines.

I am not decrying science or its passion to find an answer to every question, solve every problem, uncover everything long hidden, or explore new territory.  After all, to be human is too seek answers to questions that baffle, and find solutions to that which threatens life.  Nor am I decrying machines, after all, I love my Isuzu bakkie, the Festool mitre saw in my workshop, the computer on my desk, and we all applaud advances in medical technology.  We are the grateful beneficiaries of the achievements of science and technology. We could not have easily got to Platbos without Mike's 4x4!  So it is necessary to find a creative balance.  Machines, forests, animals and humans can live in harmony to our mutual benefit.    But science can be destructive as well as life enhancing, and machines that improve the quality of life and facilitate work also pollute the air we breathe, greedily devour ancient forests, and build soulless cities of concrete and steel where cars rule.  

It is true that the Old Testament prophets sometimes identified enchanted forests or sacred groves with idolatry, superstition and sorcery, yet they  and the psalmists also used nature and forests as metaphors for the renewal of life, anticipating the day when the trees of the forest would once again clap their hands in joy and sing praises to God.  Think about our OT reading today.  After placing the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle or tent of meeting, King David sang a hymn of thanksgiving.  When we truly worship God in his holy splendour, he declared,  the heavens are glad and the earth rejoices, the sea roars, the fields exult, and " the trees of the forest sing for joy."  That is why, as St. Paul puts it, the whole creation groans in expectation of a humanity that has come to its senses and begun to care for it with renewed love and energy. 

We are fortunate to be living in an age today when people across the globe are seeking to reclaim the enchanted forests that are so necessary for life in its fullness, protesting against the greed that  destroys the trees that renew the very air we breathe.  For we have come to see that if you rid the world of its enchanted forests and all that they symbolize as well, you rid it of the essences of life.  So it is not surprising that there has been something of a hankering for places of enchantment to which we can retreat, a desire to escape into the forests in search of solitude and the renewing of soul.  Or, as the young couple I married last Saturday decided, the desire to marry in the vineyards beneath the towering Klein Swartberge outside Ladismith in the Klein Karoo.   Is this not why Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis'  fantasies and J.K. Rawlings tales have captured the imagination of so many?  And is this not why there are encouraging projects in our often barren townships to plant trees and make gardens?  And is not the reason for this a thirst for life in its fullness, a rediscovery of soul and spiritual well-being, even if only vaguely acknowledged?

The desire for and attraction of enchanted forests is not just naive romanticism; it is the recognition that we need  places and spaces like Platbos and Volmoed because we are more than meat, and desperately need to recover and renew our souls.  For the enchanted forest is about more than forests and trees;  it is a metaphor for the spiritual dimension of life, the realm of soul, the mystery of being human, and being encountered by  the ultimate  mystery we name God.   So it is not surprising that a  walk in an enchanted forest or garden, a wedding beneath towering mountains, a stroll along the coastal path or to the waterfall on Volmoed  can lead us deeper into the mystery of God revealed in Christ.  For "in him all things in heaven and earth were created," through him "all things have been created," and "in him all things hold together."  

There is an intriguing verse in the Gospel of Thomas, the most important of the apocryphal gospels from the first centuries of Christianity.  It is a saying of Jesus: "Raise the stone, and there you will find me; cleave the wood, and there I am." (77)  It was probably excluded from the New Testament because it seemed to support the idea that everything is God, what we call pantheism.  But another reading could be that while everything cannot be identified with God, the Spirit of God is the energy that pervades and gives life to the whole of creation.  So if you are looking for Jesus the Christ you might well find him not only in the church or in Scripture but also in nature.  In celebrating this Eucharist we give thanks for and with the whole of creation for the Christ in and through whom everything holds together.  For us the whole earth is the Lord's and everything in it is a sacrament of his beauty and love.  No wonder the trees of the forest clap their hands and sing for joy.

John de Gruchy

Volmoed     

20th February 2014

Meditation: Sawdust & Shavings by John Gruchy

SAWDUST & SHAVINGS

Matthew 7:1-5

Why do you see the speck in your neighbour's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?

There is a German proverb which reads: "Wo gehobelt wird, da fallen Spähne!" Loosely translated it means that shavings fall to the ground wherever shaving takes place.  You can't shave and expect no shavings.  In other words, there are always consequences to our actions.  I learnt this proverb last Saturday after a long conversation with German visitors about sawdust -- what interesting topics we sometimes get into!  Earlier I had mentioned to them the book Bill Everett and I are writing called "Sawdust and Soul" and my friends asked me to tell them what sawdust is as they had never heard the word before.  So we discussed all the possible German translations and in the end realised that, as in English, so in German, there at least two words that can be used.  These distinguish between the small specks of dust that result from sawing wood, and the shavings that are made when you plane wood.  Of course, when you turn wood on a lathe you get plenty of both because you cut, shave and sandpaper!  Today the upmarket vacuum cleaners used in a workshop collect shavings in one bin while the sawdust, being lighter, is sucked into another.

Did you know that sawdust has many uses?  Making particle boards and fake snow, providing grip on wet or icy road, soaking up oil spills, feeding plants, starting a fire, filling wood holes and defects, chasing away weeds, lightening up cement and providing fuel for boilers.  There is a whole conversation on the web about how people use sawdust and shavings, some of it quite graphic and not particularly salubrious!  I have also discovered that there is a sawdust art festival, several design studios called sawdust , someone called the sawdust girl, and even a sawdust mountain which is described as " a melancholy love letter of sorts" whatever that means!  There is also a web page of sentences in which the word "sawdust occurs."  Take these as an example:

• The unreduced nose of the wine combines figs, apricots, nectarines, scented candle wax and hard wood sawdust.  (Life's too short to drink that one!)
• Are you on a yeast free diet and tired of eating sawdust or cardboard tasting bread?  (Yes, indeed, sounds like a gluten free diet!)
• Small wonder its promoters can't see the wood for the trees: they all have sawdust in their eyes.

This last one could well have been said by Jesus!  After all, as a carpenter he would have been very familiar with sawdust and shavings.  The problem with many people is not that they cannot see the wood for the trees, as we often say, but they cannot even see the trees because their eyes are full of sawdust!  And sometimes it is not dust a sprinkling of sawdust that gets into their eyes with stinging effect, but a whole log that blinds them totally! 

Sawdust may have many uses, but it is also toxic.  When it gets into your eyes it burns, when it gets into your body it can cause serious allergies, and some is also carcinogenic.  It is precisely for this reason that there is such a strong emphasis today in woodworking, especially when using power tools, on the need to suck up sawdust not just from the floor after you have finished working, but to suck it up out of the air as it comes off your machines and before it gets into your lungs.  It is not so much the shavings and dust particles you can see that are the problem, but the very tiny specks of dust that float in the air and get into your eyes, your lungs and, I might add, into your hair as well!  So don't mess with sawdust, it can be a killer.

Sawdust is not only physically toxic, when used as a metaphor, as it is by Jesus, it refers to a spiritual blindness that destroys relationships, preventing us from seeing ourselves and others as we should.  But it is, as Jesus also says, nothing compared to having a whole chunk of tree, bark and all, in your eye!  "Why do you see the speck in your neighbour's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?" asks Jesus.   Imagine not noticing a log in your eye and yet being able to see a tiny speck of sawdust in someone else's.   What a good example of Jesus' humour as a way of undermining our self-righteousness.

Jesus is speaking about the danger of judging others -- something we are all prone to do, and sometimes do too often for our own and others good.  But the saying could apply more widely.  If we have sawdust or logs in our eyes, we not only cannot see the wood for the trees but, as I have already mentioned, we also cannot see the trees.  In other words sawdust and logs in our eyes is a metaphor for that spiritual blindness, that prevents us from seeing the world with open eyes.  Not only do we fail to see the beauty around us, not least in trees themselves,  or the good in other people, we also fail to see the plight of people who suffer from poverty, illness and old age, or the despair in the eyes of angry unemployed young people, or that other people are hurting.  When Jesus opens the eyes of the blind, it is not only those who are physically blind, but also those of us who cannot see as we should, and above all see things differently from Jesus' own point of view.

Sometimes it may be necessary to exercise and express criticism, to challenge people about things that are wrong.  So I don't think Jesus is saying that it is always wrong to do so.  What is toxic is when we do so in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons, especially in a self-righteous and destructive way.  Before we criticise others for a speck of sawdust in their eyes which prevents them from seeing our side of the argument, we must be aware of and get rid -- not just of the speck in our own eyes, but the LOG!  In other words,  we need to be more self-critical and far less critical of others.  It is the same as not casting the first stone.  How easy it is to find fault with others; how difficult to see our own faults, the shavings that fall to the ground all around us, in fact the chunks of wood that blind us and so prevent us from seeing!  And it is not just us as individuals who sometimes cannot see, or who are wrongly judgmental, it is also true of the church.  For  this reason Peter writes in one of his letters in the New Testament that "judgment begins with the house of God!"  In other words even before the church begins to challenge faults in the lives of others and of society more generally, it is judged for its own failures and should therefore get its own house in order.  So don't let sawdust get in your eyes, or logs blind you.  We might miss seeing the wonder and beauty that surrounds us.  And let us be slow to judge, for we will certainly be judged in turn.   

John de Gruchy

Volmoed    

13 February 2014