Julian of Norwich. Mother’s Day 2021 John 15: 9-17
Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
From our Gospel reading, John chapter 15, verse 15’ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ‘
Today we are going to look at someone who was an intimate friend of Jesus, and on this Mother’s Day, are also going to briefly mention her thoughts about the mothering side of God.
She lived in the middle ages, in England. How she ended up with a male name, we’ll come to soon.
Norwich is north east of Cambridge, just a few kms upriver from the coast that looks towards Belgium. It was a major wool port. It was no easy time. The black plague came through 3 times during her life. Her country was in the midst of a 100 year war, and the Catholic church was caught up in all sorts of issues about power and control. In the last year, people in Covid ravaged countries have found her insights and quiet strong faith very important in the last year.
As a mature woman, she became an anchoress, stayed living in a room at this church. She looked into the church for worship, and to receive the sacrament. She had a window out, and people would come to her for prayer and wise counsel.
We don’t know her actual name, we know nothing of her personal history. Was she married? Did she lose a husband or a child to the black death. She took her name from the church of St Julian, and, if we ever get to travel overseas again, and you go to England, consider going to visit where she was. What led her to being an anchoress, anchored within this church?
AS a 30 year old, she was on the point of death over 5 days. Her friends despaired of her, and the priest was called in to administer the last rites, to give her communion and to bless her for passing through death to be with Jesus. God answered her deep longings of faith in an amazing way. She experienced profound visions of Christ that stayed with her. She recovered. She didn’t rush around telling everyone around her, ‘I’m really special because I’ve had these visions of God.’ She held them inside herself, processed them prayerfully, checked them out with what the Bible says. Only 20 years later did she write them down – in fact her book, ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ was one of the first books written in English as it was spoken then.
This happened to her when she was in a very difficult place. That can be a reminder to us – God’s best work inside us can happen when we are weakest, or in most trouble. I believe we all have moments of insight from God, maybe every day. We just rush past them on to the next thing. Savour then, check them out against scripture and learn to trust the God who cares about us each day.
What did Julian experience? The vison of the hazelnut.
It was at this time that our Lord showed me spiritually how intimately he loves us. I saw that he is everything that we know to be good and helpful. In love he clothes us, enfolds and embraces us; that tender love completely surrounds us, never to leave us. As I saw it he is everything that is good. And he showed me more, a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like a ball. I looked at it thoughtfully and wondered, ‘What is this?’ And the answer came, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marvelled that it continued to exist and did not suddenly disintegrate; it was so small. And again my mind supplied the answer, ‘It exists, both now and for ever, because God loves it.’ In short everything owes its existence to the love of God.
Can you hear the themes: God is love, you are deeply loved.
Here is how her thinking about this vision continued.
In this little thing I saw three truths. The first is that God made it. The second is that God loves it. The third is that God looks after it.
Sin, for Julian was very real, but she saw the God’s love profoundly shown even in the fact that we do sin and gets things wrong, sometimes badly wrong. ‘We need to fall, and we need to be aware of it; for if we did not fall, we should not know how weak and wretched we are of ourselves, not should we know our Maker’s marvellous love so fully.
She saw Jesus death on the cross as the great way in which God reaches out to us, with forgiveness and new life.
She did not experience God as vindictive or angry.
(allow time to read)
The deep and utter love of God for each one of us does not mean that life is always light and easy.
If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love. Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes away except God.
Mother’s Day. There are Bible verse that use mothering pictures for God at work. For instance, Jesus is looking down on Jerusalem from the Mt of Olives, and tears are going down his face. ‘How often I wanted to gather you together, like a mother hen with her babies, but you refused’. He knew that he would die, and come alive again. He knew that the message of forgiveness and new life would spread through the world. He also knew the pain in store for those who refused to get it. He knew that the city would be pulled down by the Romans in the near future. Jesus as a mother hen. Biblical picture. Julian also pictured Jesus to herself as being like a mother. She thought of him, as he went to the cross, as a willing sacrifice to take away the sin of the world, as a mother in great labour to bring forth new life. She thought about receiving the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament as a mother feeding a baby.
You might like to reflect on what images or thoughts you have of God that show a mothering, nurturing side.
Finally, a saying of hers that summarises her whole understandingAnd all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. There is her deep underlying trust that God holds everything in love.
And that means.
Our loving God, who holds everything together, hasn’t finished with any of us yet.
Julian of Norwich. Mother’s Day 2021 John 15: 9-17
Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
From our Gospel reading, John chapter 15, verse 15’ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ‘
Today we are going to look at someone who was an intimate friend of Jesus, and on this Mother’s Day, are also going to briefly mention her thoughts about the mothering side of God.
She lived in the middle ages, in England. How she ended up with a male name, we’ll come to soon.
Norwich is north east of Cambridge, just a few kms upriver from the coast that looks towards Belgium. It was a major wool port. It was no easy time. The black plague came through 3 times during her life. Her country was in the midst of a 100 year war, and the Catholic church was caught up in all sorts of issues about power and control. In the last year, people in Covid ravaged countries have found her insights and quiet strong faith very important in the last year.
As a mature woman, she became an anchoress, an anchored presence, living in a room at St Julian’s church. She looked into the church for worship, and to receive the sacrament. She had a window out, and people would come to her for prayer and wise counsel.
We don’t know her actual name, we know nothing of her personal history. Was she married? Did she lose a husband or a child to the black death. She took her name from the church of St Julian, and, if we ever get to travel overseas again, and you go to England, consider going to visit where she was. What led her to being an anchoress, anchored within this church?
As a 30 year old, she was on the point of death over 5 days. Her friends despaired of her, and the priest was called in to administer the last rites, to give her communion and to bless her for passing through death to be with Jesus. God answered her deep longings of faith in an amazing way. She experienced profound visions of Christ that stayed with her. She recovered. She didn’t rush around telling everyone around her, ‘I’m really special because I’ve had these visions of God.’ She held them inside herself, processed them prayerfully, checked them out with what the Bible says. Only 20 years later did she write them down – in fact her book, ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ was one of the first books written in English as it was spoken then.
This happened to her when she was in a very difficult place. That can be a reminder to us – God’s best work inside us can happen when we are weakest, or in most trouble. I believe we all have moments of insight from God, maybe every day. We just rush past them on to the next thing. Savour them, then check them out against scripture and learn to trust the God who cares about us each day.
What did Julian experience? The vison of the hazelnut.
‘It was at this time that our Lord showed me spiritually how intimately he loves us. I saw that he is everything that we know to be good and helpful. In love he clothes us, enfolds and embraces us; that tender love completely surrounds us, never to leave us. As I saw it he is everything that is good. And he showed me more, a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like a ball. I looked at it thoughtfully and wondered, ‘What is this?’ And the answer came, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marvelled that it continued to exist and did not suddenly disintegrate; it was so small. And again my mind supplied the answer, ‘It exists, both now and for ever, because God loves it.’ In short everything owes its existence to the love of God.’
Can you hear the themes: God is love, you are deeply loved.
Here is how her thinking about this vision continued.
‘In this little thing I saw three truths. The first is that God made it. The second is that God loves it. The third is that God looks after it.’
Sin, for Julian was very real, but she saw the God’s love profoundly shown even in the fact that we do sin and gets things wrong, sometimes badly wrong. ‘We need to fall, and we need to be aware of it; for if we did not fall, we should not know how weak and wretched we are of ourselves, not should we know our Maker’s marvelous love so fully.
She saw Jesus death on the cross as the great way in which God reaches out to us, with forgiveness and new life.
She did not experience God as vindictive or angry.
The deep and utter love of God for each one of us does not mean that life is always light and easy.
If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love. Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes away except God.
Mother’s Day. There are Bible verse that use mothering pictures for God at work. For instance, Jesus is looking down on Jerusalem from the Mt of Olives, and tears are going down his face. ‘How often I wanted to gather you together, like a mother hen with her babies, but you refused’. He knew that he would die, and come alive again. He knew that the message of forgiveness and new life would spread through the world. He also knew the pain in store for those who refused to get it. He knew that the city would be pulled down by the Romans in the near future. Jesus as a mother hen. Biblical picture. Julian also pictured Jesus to herself as being like a mother. She thought of him, as he went to the cross, as a willing sacrifice to take away the sin of the world, as a mother in great labour to bring forth new life. She thought about receiving the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament as a mother feeding a baby.
You might like to reflect on what images or thoughts you have of God that show a mothering, nurturing side.
Finally, a saying of hers that summarises her whole understanding. And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. There is her deep underlying trust that God holds everything in love.
And that means.
Our loving God, who holds everything together, hasn’t finished with any of us yet.
