June 2025

VIEW FROM THE HEIGHTS               

June 2026

Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.

Let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

James 1: 19, 21 The Message

Greetings!

Yesterday, we celebrated Pentecost. The high point of our service was Thomas, Grace, and Mrs Momah singing “Washed in the Blood” – in English and Igbo. It was brilliant!

The blending of languages and the bonding of cultures is at the heart of Pentecost.

And the message of Pentecost is at the heart of Christian teachings:

The Good News of God’s love is for all people from all ethnos.

When Spirit came in power to Jesus’ disciples, it was to bring the gift of multilingual communication. Speaking and listening in the languages, accents, and cultural idioms of others: to share God’s love and heal fractured humankind.

In his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV emphasized how important this is. He writes:

"War is not only fought, but also culturally conditioned through simplistic narratives, a friend-or-foe mentality, disinformation and fear."

Simplistic narratives cause division and conflict.

Spirit-inspired narratives connect people and communities.

Spirit-inspired speech gives voice to God’s love.

It is authentic and affirmational.

When I grew up, accents were everything. The crispness of the consonants, the shape of the vowels, determined a person’s whole life. My headmistress sent to me to elocution classes to lose my South-East London ones. She said that I would never get into a London teaching hospital speaking as I did.

I followed her advice and learnt to say garage vs. “garrige”, cold with an “l”, and “Rome” with only 2 syllables. (Versus 3: Row-ah-um)

Speech classes worked! I trained as a nurse at one of London’s best hospitals.

And eventually studied preaching with Peter Gomes, one of American Baptist’s greatest preachers. Recently, however, I’ve found myself going back to South-East London speak. I never quite mastered “Rome” – now, I don’t try!

In grammar school, I learned to “code switch” to the middle class via my diphthongs and triphthongs. Now, I’ve switched back!

It’s partly nostalgia for my childhood community. But it is also a rebellion against the current obsession with poshness & wealth.

Well, we have to do something…

Blessedly, Spirit does not demand posh accents or the “right” language.

But she does try to improve our speaking styles: emphasizing our love words, eliminating syllables of scorn, retraining tetchy tongues.

Spirit does silences too…

All at once, a strong wind shook the mountain and shattered the rocks.

But the Lord was not in the wind.

Next, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

Then there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

Finally, there was a gentle breeze.  

(Or “a soft whisper” or “hardly a sound.”)

1 Kings 19: 11-12 C.E.V.

Sending you gentle blessings and soft whispers of God’s love,

Brenda

May 2026

VIEW FROM THE HEIGHTS               

May 2026

“Pursue the goal of peace  with everyone—and holiness as well.”

Hebrews 12: 14 C.E.B.

Greetings!

Driving to church last week, I began listening to an NPR broadcast about hate groups. As my anxiety & blood pressure increased (!), I had the gradual presence of mind to change to classical music.  Marvellously, CRB was playing Ralph Vaughan Williams, “A Lark Ascending.” Its haunting beauty was immediately calming. My pent-up angst morphed into worry about larks.

Vaughan Williams wrote his best-loved opus in July 1914. On the eve of the humanitarian, ecological, and financial disaster we call, “The First World War.”

“A Lark Ascending” is a testament to peace - and nature unharmed by human conflict.

Even though he was 42 years of age, the composer enlisted. He served in the thick of battle, including at Ypres. After the Armistice, works such as the “Pastoral Symphony” were his lament, and his protest against, the horrors he had witnessed.

Edward Elgar was similarly impacted by WWI, albeit too old to enlist. Best known for his pre-war Imperialist marches, Elgar’s music became more contemplative and introspective after 1918. The 1919 “Cello Concerto” is a meditation on grief and struggle in E minor. It is one of the greatest works for the instrument. (Listen to it played by Jacqueline du Pré.)

Music has the power to transform hearts and minds. As do all the Arts. From poets to painters to photographers, great artists movingly convey the horrors of conflict and destruction, and the blessings of peace.

Which brings me to politics! I wonder whether we ask the wrong questions of our representatives in government. We inquire about their fiscal policies, their [supposed] faith beliefs, and their attitudes to families, foreigners, and formalised othering.

What if, instead, we questioned their taste in music, and fine art, and literature?

A reader of Wilfred Owen would not quickly rush us into war. Dickens’ fans are, by definition, compassionate to the poor. Elgar’s “Cello Concerto” played by du Pré, is at once a plea for peace, a call for rights for the differently- abled, and a demand that governments support scientists in their search for cures for terrible diseases as MS.

A cello concerto, an echo of lark song, a portrait of “Gassed” soldiers,[1] and of children held in detention[2] …

Pretty soon, we could save the whole world.

May you be blessed by good books and beautiful music.

May you be blessed by God’s peace.

Brenda

Tina Datsko de Sánchez, “Poem 30”, Dancing Through Fire

Remember, dear ones, peace is a choice.

Even amidst crashing waves of grief, pain, despair

stands a lighthouse with a glowing beacon,

warm as sunlight, pouring out love.

Swim for it.

Even amid the cacophony of worry, frustration, anger

a clear true note shimmers.

Tune your ears to peace.     

---

[1] John Singer Sargent, 1919

[2] Charles Dickens, “Oliver Twist”, 1838

April 2026

VIEW FROM THE HEIGHTS               

April 2026

Eastertide Greetings!

And Happy April!

Last Sunday, we celebrated Jesus’ donkey ride into Jerusalem. It was neither a “triumphal entry” nor a death march to fulfill an angry God’s lust for blood.

Our God is LOVE[i] and LOVE only seeks blood when somebody needs a transfusion or a plasmapheresis.

Jesus’ journey was part of his mission to stop oppression in all its forms. He preached against violence, proclaimed equality for the disadvantaged and differently-abled, and provided care for the discarded and abused. Finally, he took this protest to Jerusalem: to the top civil, military, and religious authorities. His donkey-led march was the G.O.A.T. protest marches!

As his compatriots and kindred Jews gathered to commemorate the Passover, Pilate rode into the City with a show of force. Foot soldiers, mounted soldiers, weapons and armoury, were paraded before the occupied nation to declare that Rome was watching.

They could commemorate their ancient victory against Egypt and slavery if they wanted to. But if they tried any real-time resistance, they would be obliterated.

 As I shared this story of Jesus’ courage and love, I inquired whether he thought his protest would succeed. Most people looked cautious - worried about saying anything that might demean him. Then a little girl put her hand up. “Yes!” she said triumphantly.

Her simple faith assured her that Jesus CAN get things done!

“From the mouths of babies and infants you’ve arranged praise for yourself”![ii]

Jesus had the strong, Grownup of God, version of our young worshipper’s faith. He trusted that God always wills the best for Creation. He was sure that all people are precious to our Heavenly Parent. Jesus also believed – hoped - that men and women would do the right thing when push came to shove.

They failed him that weekend. But then came Resurrection and Pentecost and the Church!  Jesus’ new followers embraced his teachings on justice and fairness, mercy and love. The God whom Jesus called “Dad”, the One who is LOVE, was lifted up. Great acts of compassion and goodness were – and are – done in Jesus’ name. His protest march DID succeed!

Sadly, we have waivered considerably over the centuries. Theologies that only serve the powerful are still proclaimed. Love of neighbour remains under discussion.

Humanity’s will to harm has made a mockery of Jesus’ message of peace. Our hurtful pettinesses marring his Good News of God’s inclusive love.

After 2 thousand years, it’s high time we finally and forever confessed that his WAY of peace and love are the only way.

Let’s say “YES” to his success!

Eternal Spirit,

Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!

The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!

Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!

Your commonwealth of peace and freedom

sustain our hope and come on earth.[iii]

Eastertide Blessings,

Brenda

---

[i] 1 John 4:8

[ii] Matthew 21:16 C.E.B.

[iii] From the Maori Lord’s Prayer, The New Zealand Prayer Book