EXPLORING GOD’S MERCY tonight in a lovely little Churches Together group at Woodford. I’m always as happy as a sandboy in that kind of small, open, prayerful, discussion group environment. The group itself was the best illustration of The Song of Calm – Psalm 107.23-34 which was the bedrock of our explorations. “Then they rejoiced because they were at rest. And he brought them to the safe harbour they longed for.” And once again a group of relative strangers became deeper friends. God has a habit, it seems, of drawing people together as one. And as I drove home something Meister Eckhart said, around 700 years ago, circled across space and time into my heart and mind:

Earth cannot get away from heaven: let the earth drop down or rise upward, heaven still penetrates it, imbuing it with strength and making it fruitful, whether it will or no. That is how God treats man: when he thinks to escape God, he runs into God’s bosom, for every hideout is open to him. God begets his own Son in you whether you like it or not, whether you sleep or wake – still God is at work. That man is not aware of it is the fault of his [spiritual] tongue, which is smeared with the scum of creatures, in which there is none of the salt of God’s love. If we had God’s love in us, we could taste God in all his works and we would accept anything as from God and finish his work along with him. In sameness [of intent] we are his only begotten Son.

Meister Eckhart (c.1260-1327)
Dominican friar and German mystic

Exploration of God’s mercy tonight revealed again for me that, awake or asleep, we are brought to the safe harbour we long for. That, indeed, is Mercy.