mediation on Noil me tangere

Opening statement: before I being this unfortunate task I feel forced to express my disquiet with it. I was brought up in a primitive Methodist tradition a tradition that stood foursquare against the idolisation of the works of man and man’s insane lust for the image. To demand that anyone act against their own conscience merely to become a lay preacher seems at best odd and at worse evil.

The postcard I have chosen is Roy De Maistre’s: “Noil me tangere”

Find you self-tired and thirsty. Your lost in the middle of New York, strangers rush past you, beggars beach you, there is danger and fear on every turning and it is stifling hot.

You’ve been abandon here, alone among million, a lost ant in the biggest ant hill; All that human indignity, all that man built grandeur gently mocking you, gently entombing you, suffocating you in its heartless embrace.

Above all, above the hellish din, there is the unremitting heat. Man’s great buildings offer no respite from it; man’s great wonders cannot aid you now. You’d give your arm now for just a drop of water, just a drop of human kindness.

Your tiredness over takes your weak body, right there in the flood of inhuman humanity you collapse on your knees.

You open your tired eyes and before you is Christ.

The heat Has left you, your exhaustion has left you

Show Roy De Maistre’s: “Noil me tangere”

He dwarfs the skyscrapers and towers of the city, all around you is silence.

 He is covered in the purest white cloths but his frail body is visible, his crucifixion scares still shine with God glory.

He is so vast and so powerful, yet so weak and so pitted by his experience

You rest your tried body against his leg

All creation is dwarfed by him, yet you feel like a child in his presence

In this timeless moment what does Christ whisper to you?

Look into his eyes – what is it he whispering to you?

Silence:

Prayer:

Oh great high priest – ordained sacrificial lamb, hold your son and daughter closely

Oh scared and injured Christ hold your daughters and sons closely

Come to us, people of sin and scarlet

Come to us, lost though we are

Show us your mercy

Show us your majesty

For we kneel in your weakness, in your awesome presences

We know our failings our many

We know that we held the nails that crucified you

But do not leave us, do not forsake us.

The Lord speak

My child, all this I have endure for you

These wounds where for your salvation

This mortal frame was so we could meat

This blood is for you

All for the love of you

I shall never leave you

I shall never forsake you.

*Said responsively*

Oh mighty God, source of all salvation

Oh might Christ the grand high healer of the world

We devote ourselves to you

We will walk gladly with thee

We thank thee for they kindness

We bless thee for they mercies