February, 2008.

Hello Everyone,
Well how did your week start; with an incredible High or a Big Bang? Mine? Oh thanks for asking. Well mine started with a dull thud actually. The story goes, as retold by Jeanette, as I wasn’t around at the time, that she heard the aforementioned thud in the bathroom and opened the door to find me collapsed on the floor. I was allegedly not very forthcoming with information, save for telling her that I loved her, but was about to leave! Brittany looks in and thinks, for some strange reason, that there is an inflatable dummy on the floor – some of you may concur with this description of me(!), but I should reassure you that there are NO INFLATABALE DOLLS OR DUMMYS IN THE HALL HOUSEHOLD! Just to clear any misconceptions!

Anyway, one ambulance ride and a short 4 hour stay at Frenchay Hospital later, they diagnose me with Noro (or Norwalk) Virus and send me home. ‘We don’t want you hanging around ‘ere. This virus has closed 7 Wards in Bristol, thank you and goodbye.’

So, I’m now in quarantine. 72 hours from the initial symptoms manifesting themselves and a further 72, as ‘it may come back again’!

Quarantine is an interesting word which derives from the Italian quarantina meaning a period of 40 days. What do people do in quarantine? Well, I’ve prayed. Had some serious chats and rants to God, not about the illness, but about our cultural, spiritual malaise and the vomitable sentiments expressed in Mother’s Day cards. Serious stuff.

Jesus in his ‘quarantine’ period was tempted over the provision for the staples of life, over God’s ability to protect Him and idolatrous worship. I know, pretty topical stuff, pretty pop culture in fact. In the end, the devil departed and angels came to minister to Him. 1-0 to our side!

John’s political quarantine on the island of Patmos wasn’t so much for temptation, but out of Caesar’s displeasure. Quarantine the blasphemer, only Caesar is Lord! Reduce his effectiveness. God had other plans, however. God doesn’t respect socio-political quarantine zones! Out from Patmos is ‘smuggled’ a little book of poetry written to 7 Asian Churches, which culminates in the vision of redemption, without Caesar’s tyranny and oppression. Of a tree of life straddling the waters of the river of life. A Tree which miraculously brings forth fruit every month for the healing of the nations, of a land wherein ‘we shall reign’ (Revelation 22:1-5) and not the earthly Caesar’s. It is poetry born out of the expectation of redemption, through troubled times.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was another saint who suffered political quarantine and wrote frantically. Funny how his words also found themselves an audience in the wider world. Whilst incarcerated at Tegel Prison in Berlin, Bonhoeffer wrote, on 30th November, 1943:

The wish to be independent in everything is false pride. Even what we owe to others belongs to ourselves and is part of our own lives, and any attempt to calculate what we have ‘earned’ for ourselves and what we owe to other people is certainly not Christian, and is, moreover, a futile undertaking. It’s through what we ourselves are, plus what we receive, that we become a complete [person].

Redemption is a dish best served hot; not to one, but to many! The biggest hurdle for the future is whether we maintain our independence, or serve the dish to others in the group; in our work and our play. The days of my quarantine will soon be over!

Oodles of Love,

Geoffx

Monday, 3rd March. The ‘Tree House’, @ St Steve’s Café, 7:45 to 10pm.

• Charlie Groves will be providing the angelic music during the evening.
• Janice Russell will be ‘discerning the spirits’ in a seminal work from the history of art.
• We are also hoping at some point to start a ‘Philosopher’s Corner’, with sound bites of wisdom from our resident ‘wise and looks it’ man from Radstock, Richard Russell.
• I’ll be showing clips from Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ and Godfrey Reggio’s ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ films; checking out prophecies and perceptions of the human condition.

If anybody else wants to read, perform, or present work, then please give me a call, or email me as soon as you can. Thanks. Tea, coffee & tapas available. I love you all!