
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
Janet Bone
Thoughts about life, faith and scripture, often prompted by the Bible readings set for the Sunday but taking a ‘sideways look’ that you might not get in a church sermon.
Why i-Llan? Well, I am based in Wales and a Llan is the enclosure where a group of Welsh Christians would gather in community, living and worshipping together. And i- for the virtual community of the internet.
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i-Llan: 5th January 2025 – January pathways – Wisdom for the journey
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
01/06/25 • 6 min
A reflection on wise ways to plan for the year ahead.
You can read the podcast with some additional material on https://www.alisteningspace.org.uk/i-llan-2025-01-05/
The episode refers to the Book of Proverbs which is a collection of succinct wise sayings attributed to King Solomon, and possibly dating from an oral tradition before 1000BCE, but still relevant today.
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk

i-Llan: 4th August 2024 – the Olympics of life
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
08/06/24 • 5 min
Watching the Olympics prompts thoughts on life as a team effort needing varied gifts.
Some sporting references from the New Testament (all from the NRSVA):
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. ( 1 Corinthians 9. 24)
I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3. 14)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12. 1)
And in the case of an athlete, no one is crowned without competing according to the rules. (2 Timothy 2. 5)
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk

i-Llan: 14th April 2024 – Scars and stigmata
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
04/13/24 • 5 min
A reflection on the emotional and spiritual scars life inflicts and the way God sees them.
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk

i-Llan Sunday 17th December 2023 - Preparing the Way
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
12/16/23 • 4 min
'Transcript:
Advent is a season of preparation. It’s nearly Christmas and shops are full, delivery drivers are busy, presents are being wrapped, carols are being sung. I’ve even got my Christmas cards into the postbox before the last posting day—a record!
But, what about preparation for beyond Christmas? Not just plans for 2024 but the note of judgment that sounds throughout Advent?
‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’ is the cry of the Old Testament prophet and of John the Baptist. In ancient times, when a king was going on a journey, working parties would be sent out to prepare the route, remove obstacles, make sure all was smooth riding. If we look around the world today, there are so many obstacles in the way of peace, justice, and right living that ‘preparing the way of the Lord’ may seem an impossible task. We are so small and powerless. We can’t make much difference in global terms, can we?
Have you ever walked into a room where there has been a quarrel, sensed the tension and immediately felt tense? Or stood in a peaceful place and soaked in the peace? Atmosphere influences us.
I trust that is true on the large scale, that every act of love increases love in the world, every gentle word or touch increases gentleness in the world, that our small acts—for good or ill—influence world affairs.
In other words, we prepare the way of the Lord by living in a way that God desires.
For the prophet Isaiah, in today’s first reading, that means becoming ‘good news’ for those in trouble. And, in the second reading, St Paul exhorts the Christians in Thessalonica to:
‘Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.’
Or, as Gandalf puts it in the film of The Hobbit:
‘Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.’
Perhaps we can’t directly bring peace to Ukraine or Gaza or other places where violence holds sway, but we can continue to stay informed and offer our prayers for them. And we can strive to make our corner of the world a place where God’s way is made straight, trusting that God uses that for the greater good.
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk

i-Llan 24th December 2023 - Welcoming the Stranger
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
12/23/23 • 6 min
Transcript
This Sunday is both the last Sunday in Advent and Christmas Eve, which brings together two contrasting moods.
One of Advent’s themes, as I mentioned last week, is judgement. The Bible speaks of a last day when a victorious Christ comes on clouds to the sound of trumpets accompanied by triumphant saints and angels, after which this earth comes to a fiery end.
The gospels tell us that Jesus himself used such images when he spoke about a future day of judgement. They portray a God who seizes authority over the earth with frightening power. They are images drawn from ancient apocalyptic writing, but the terror they inspire is only too real for those existing in the war zones of today.
Then, Christmas Eve brings us to Bethlehem, reminding us that at that first Christmas God came as a vulnerable baby born in borrowed lodging and cradled in an animals’ feeding trough. Jesus’s later life shows a similar willingness to be vulnerable: immersed in the waters of baptism, riding into Jerusalem ‘humble and seated on an donkey’, tortured and bleeding as he dies on a cross.
Even after the resurrection, he is often unrecognised: a stranger in the garden until he calls Mary Magdalene by name (John 20. 11 - 18), a stranger on the shore who invites the disciples to share breakfast (John 21. 1 - 14), a stranger on the road who explains the scriptures to two despondent travellers so that their hopes are rekindled (Luke 24. 13 - 35).
How can we reconcile the contrasting moods of judgement and vulnerability to find a way of living which respects them both?
They tell me of a God who created and sustains the universe and has the power to bring everything to an apocalyptic end. Yet a God who risks becoming vulnerable in order to heal divisions of hatred by the power of love, [a God who waits patiently] for us to get the message and act on it.
This God invites me—and you—to risk welcoming the reality of divine love into our lives; invites me—and you—to risk accepting the Bethlehem baby as living Saviour.
Moreover, God also invites me to risk being open to those who are different from me. For God yearns for us to help build the future in which strangers become companions, enemies become friends. Then, judgement is not punishment but healing.
Welcoming the stranger is a vision which can be romanticised. I am certainly no St Francis or Mother Theresa. Pragmatically, I know that safeguards are a sensible precaution. I understand that charities implement vetting procedures to protect against scams. Yet, when I risk seeing beyond the labels that divide the world into factions, and when I engage with the human beings behind the labels, then I discover how Christ is present in the most unexpected places and people. In welcoming them I welcome him, and am welcomed in turn.
I wonder who offered Joseph and Mary a place to stay that night, and whether they ever realised how they had welcomed God into the world.
I wonder, too, how often (God forgive me) I have shut the door in his face—and how often I have welcomed him without realising it. This Christmas I pray again with the carol:
O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to me, I pray;
cast out my sin and enter in; be born in me today.
May Christ find room in your heart and soul today and every day, and may you always be open to the possibility of love in unexpected places and people.
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk

i-Llan: Words for Winter
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
01/01/24 • 5 min
Words for Winter
I wonder what words you associate with winter. One that I came across in a book, Winters in the World: a journey through the Anglo Saxon Year by Eleanor Parker, comes from an Anglo-Saxon poem: it’s ‘winter-sorrowful’. I love the sound of it and, for me, it sums up how I so often feel at this time of year. The days are short, dark and cold, and, although the solstice is past and days are growing longer again, I know there’s more hard weather to get through before spring finally arrives.
Perhaps that sounds depressing, but I find something positive in accepting winter sorrow rather than denying it. Too often, western culture wallows in other people's tragedies while putting pressure on people to present a cheerful facade. Sorrow is seen as a mental illness rather than a natural part of life's cycles. (I am not thinking here of the genuine illness and tragedies that befall us, but the normal ups and downs of life.)
The rhythm of the seasons is deep within us, and it’s as well to listen to it even though it’s hard to resist the pressure to stay as cheerful and busy in winter as in summer. In the north, winter is a natural season of rest, retraction, hibernation. For pre-industrial societies it was certainly a time of hardship. Anglo-Saxon poets describe winter as an invading army bent on destruction, imprisoning everything in 'fetters of frost’—a stark reality for war-torn areas today. For those in financial hardship, it’s still a time of struggle to survive. I’m grateful for the technology and good fortune which provides me with warmth, shelter and food. (Two days without water because of a burst water main made me even more appreciative when the taps started running again.) But the poets also wrote of spring and hope.
The winter solstice is the turning point of the year. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, midwinter is often used to mean Christmas. Just as the year is at its darkest, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, ‘the true light that lightens the world’ (John 1. 9). So this Sunday, in midwinter darkness at the dawn of a New Year, I offer you words of hope in two blessings of light. Take time to dwell on them, and receive their warmth and encouragement.
The first is from today’s readings, ancient words that resonate with St John’s imagery of divine light.
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. (Numbers 6. 24-26)
The second is an Irish blessing that is warm and homely in tone as it reminds us to offer welcome to others who may be winter-sorrowful.
May the blessing of light be on you.
Light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire,
so that the stranger may come in and warm himself at it,
and also a friend.
May the light of the Lord shine from your eyes
like a candle in the window, welcoming the weary traveller.
To close, here’s a short poem on hope. Whatever your level of winter-sorrow, may you have hope to carry you through:
Dark days
and bitter nights;
Soil seized in ice-hard grip.
As the earth turns towards the sun
Bulbs stir.
May 2023 be a year of blessing for you.
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk

i-Llan: 31st December 2023 - the Animals at the Crib
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
12/30/23 • 4 min
Transcript
The animals at the crib
On Christmas Day in the chapel where I was worshipping, I was struck by the number of sheep at the crib. Then it occurred to me that a Christmas crib is incomplete without animals—the ox and ass, and at least one lamb. And, of course, the camels with the magi on a nearby windowsill making their way to Bethlehem to arrive on 6 January.
Of those, the Bible only mentions sheep out in the fields. And given that the ‘shepherds went with haste’, I don’t imagine they took any of their flock with them. I assume some unlucky shepherd—probably the boy, or perhaps the oldest and slowest—was left in charge in the fields.
We can infer the nearby presence of animals given that Jesus was cradled in their feeding trough. And I really hope Mary didn’t have to walk all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem given her advanced pregnancy. So I’m grateful for the donkey. (Yes, the donkey is there in the photo.) Similarly, camels, even horses, are a safe bet, though would they have gone in or would they have been left out in the street in the charge of the smallest pageboy?
Whatever the facts of the matter, it comforts me that animals are such an integral part of our imaginings of the nativity.
Ruminating further, I realise there is a deeper theological aspect to this. I often talk about God, in Jesus, coming to share our human life. But, the Christmas gospel tells us that
‘Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.’ (John 1. 3)
And St Paul writes to Christians in Colossae that
‘all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. . . through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.’ (Colossians 1.16, 17, 20)
In other words, in Jesus, God came to share all life on earth. Animals have as much place at the birth of the Lord of Creation as humans do.
Jesus grew up a country boy and his teaching is full of examples from farming life and the natural world. Miracle stories tell how he had power over natural forces: he calmed a storm, walked on water, fed 5000 people with five barley baps and two small fish. At his death, the earth quaked and the sun was hidden.
Today we are well aware of the climate crisis. I sometimes wonder whether, when people express concern for the planet, their concern is actually only for the human race. The planet may change but will survive. But human activity condemns many species as well as our own to hardship and possible extinction.
The animals at the crib remind me that I am one small part in a web of connections that bind all life together. Christmas is not just for humans but for the whole earth.
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk

i-Llan: 23rd February 2025 – Thoughts on Creation Sunday
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
02/24/25 • 6 min
At the end of a stormy week, a reflection on the story of Jesus calming a storm and asking, 'where is your faith?'
The Sunday readings referred to are:
Genesis 2. 4b-9, 15-25
Luke 8. 22-25
They, and the full text of the collect prayer, can be found here.
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk

i-Llan: 24th March 2024 – Holy Week and the Valley of Baca
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
03/26/24 • 6 min
A reflection on two verses from Psalm 84 and their relevance to the spiritual pilgrimage of Holy Week.
The podcast mentions this prayer, a litany of the disciples of the servant
from Andhra Theological College, Hyderabad, South India:
Help us to follow you on the road to Jerusalem, to set our faces firmly against friendly suggestions for a safe, expedient life, to embrace boldly the way of self-offering, of life given for others’ gain:
Help us to follow you, Christ the servant.
Help us to follow you into the city, to claim its whole life for God. whose image man bears, to confront the ambitions of the power-hungry, the inhuman orthodoxy of the legalist, with the startling message of your present action, your living power:
Help us to follow you, Christ the servant.
Help us to follow you into the temple of your chosen people, to erase from the worship of your Church all that hinders the sense of your presence, the free flow of your Word, to open up your house so that it may be a house of prayer for all people:
Help us to follow you. Christ the servant.
Help us to follow you into the upper room to share your meal of bread and cup, to accept our common place in your one Body, broken to create a new Man:
Help us to follow you, Christ the servant.
Help us to follow you into the garden, to watch with you, ever vigilant for signs of the dawning of your new day, to struggle unsparingly to understand and to carry our your perfect will:
Help us to follow you, Christ the servant.
Help us to follow you into the judgement hall, to stand mocked and condemned for daring to speak direct of divine forgiveness, daring to claim God’s personal commissioning, daring to disrupt the plans of unscrupulous leaders for the control of the masses; to stand for those whose right to stand has been usurped:
Help us to follow you, Christ the servant.
Help us to follow you even unto the Cross, to share in carrying your cross like Simon the African, to recognise our life in your death, our hope in your self-spending love, to die to all within us that is not born of your love:
Help us to follow you, Christ the servant.
Help us to follow you out of the dark tomb. to share daily your resurrection life, to be renewed daily in your image of love, to be used daily as your new Body in your service to the world:
Help us to follow you, Christ the servant. Amen
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk

i-Llan: Sunday 26th May 2024 – the Trinity and the dance of love
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
05/29/24 • 6 min
The Trinity is a doctrine that uses big words and abstract philosophical concepts.
But, at its heart, the Trinity is about personal relationship and mutual desire.
This episode reflects on how the doctrine developed and uses Leonard Cohen's song 'Dance me to the End of Love' to explore the idea of the Trinity as a divine dance of shared love.
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk
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How many episodes does i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture have?
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture currently has 53 episodes available.
What topics does i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture cover?
The podcast is about Christianity, Spirituality, Faith, Religion & Spirituality, Prayer, Podcasts, Reflection, Scripture, Christian and Life.
What is the most popular episode on i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture?
The episode title 'i-Llan 3rd March 2024: Roots and Regulations' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture?
The average episode length on i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture is 6 minutes.
How often are episodes of i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture released?
Episodes of i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture are typically released every 7 days, 4 hours.
When was the first episode of i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture?
The first episode of i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture was released on Dec 16, 2023.
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