Amy Boucher Pye

Author: Amy Boucher Pye

For the Love of Tea

Photo: Tony Walmsley, flickr

This morning, my primary-school-aged daughter made herself her first cup of tea. On her own, without asking for help. Minor burns were suffered by the tea-maker, but thankfully nothing major.

I thought maybe she’d not catch the tea-bug, but perhaps living in a tea-saturated society, she can’t but help love the nation’s favo(u)rite drink. I even enjoyed some tea today – chai, naturally – but it’s not something I drink every day. Although lately I’ve been drinking a lovely peppermint/licorice mix. Some people hate licorice, I know. I’m not one of them.

I have a chapter on tea in my book, Finding Myself in Britain, for tea played an important role in the first date Nicholas and I shared. I certainly didn’t know how to brew a proper cuppa!

I love author Julie Klassen’s blog on tea that she shared last autumn, in which she shares what she learned from a tea-making class at the national Jane Austen society gathering, from A Social History of Tea, and from my book! Do have a read – with a cup of tea?

You can buy Finding Myself in Britain: Our Search for Faith, Home & True Identity (Authentic Media, 2015). from Christian bookshops, from me, or online at Eden, Amazon UK or Amazon US.

Please could you write a review if you’ve read it at Amazon UK, Amazon US, Eden, orGoodreads. Thank you!

March 30, 2016
Easter Poems – “Peace be with you!” (38)

by Meister des Schöppinger Altars, public domain

The disciples are still stunned, hiding out behind locked doors, fearing for their lives. Jesus comes and stands among them, breathing his Spirit on them and bestowing to them his peace. We too can receive his breath of life this day, as we rejoice in the new life we receive from him. May we be Easter people whose song is “Alleluia!”

March 30, 2016
Easter Poems – “He is risen!” (37)

Photo: James Emery, flickr

Stunned shock turns into joy when Mary wonders first where Jesus’ body is, and then when he speaks her name, she knows immediately it’s him. I love that – the instant recognition of the one who loves you most who speaks your name. And note Peter in true form, dashing ahead of John to burst into the tomb.

I pray that this day, you, like Mary, can say, “I have seen the Lord!”

March 27, 2016
Celebrate – He Is Risen! Alleluia!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

After forty days of no alleluias, we bring out the word in style today, speaking it with joy and gratitude. As I say in my book, Finding Myself in Britain:

We build up to Easter with a forty-day season of reflection, and yet we seem not to celebrate more than a day. Just like the twelve days of Christmas are lost on our culture. Tom Wright, the prolific and engaging theologian, rues this oversight. He says that Easter ought to be a long festival:

“with champagne served after morning prayer or even before, with lots of Alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection if we don’t do it exuberantly in our liturgies? Is it any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom? It’s long overdue that we took a hard look at how we keep Easter in church, at home, in our personal lives, right through the system. And if it means rethinking some cherished habits, well maybe it’s time to wake up.” (Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope [London: SPCK, 2007], 268.)

I agree with him; as Christians we should be known for the joy that marks our faces and our characters as we exude hope and grace. As I’ve learned on my journey to finding myself in Britain, in this life we will face disappointment, disease, and hardship, but as God’s beloved, his promises and gifts should change our disposition. He helps us to forgive; he gives us hope and strength; he showers us with grace. As St Augustine of Hippo reminds us: “We are an Easter people and our song is ‘Alleluia!’” (“Being Easter People,” Finding Myself in Britain, 144–45)

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

March 27, 2016
Lenten Poems – “It is finished” (36)

Watercolor by Leo Boucher.

On this most holy of days, I have to go straight to the crucifixion of Jesus and come back later to the wonderful Last Discourse. For on this day we remember the biggest sacrifice our Lord could have made – giving his very life that we might have new life. The story unrolls like a boulder gathering speed as it slams down a hill. At the end, we lay stunned and bruised, wondering what just happened.

March 25, 2016
Lenten Poems – “The True Vine” (35)

Photo: Ian Livesey, flickr

Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. He prunes us that we’ll be more fruitful. Painful pruning, but for growth and flourishing. How is he pruning you? How are you growing?

March 24, 2016
Lenten Poems – “The Welcoming Trinity” (34)

Oh how I love these words of Jesus: “I and in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.” What a concept, that the three persons of the Trinity dwell in each other, and we dwell in them, and they in us. Utterly transforming. Mind-boggling. Humbling. Wonderful. On this day when Jesus taught from the Mount of Olives before returning to Bethany, might you not ponder this wonderful mystery?

March 22, 2016
Lenten Poems – “The Father and the Son” (33)

Photo: Waiting for the Word, flickr

We’ve made it to some of my very favorite parts of Scripture – the Last Discourse as it’s known, when Jesus prepares his friends for his death and resurrection. In these chapters (roughly 14 to 17), he promises the coming Advocate (the Holy Spirit) four times. He won’t be leaving them as orphans, for the Spirit will come to live in them and be with them. And as we see in today’s text, he goes to prepare a room for them – and for us – in his Father’s house. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus.

March 21, 2016
Lenten Poems – “The Betrayal” (32)

“The Last Supper,” Carl Heinrich Bloch

Not only does Judas betray Jesus, but he knows that Peter will too. How deep Jesus’ love, that he knew what was to come and yet submitted to the abuse and murder, all the while loving and forgiving.

March 20, 2016
Lenten Poems – “The Basin and Towel” (31)

Dirck van Baburen (circa 1594/1595–1624)

Those who lead must serve. The messengers aren’t greater than those who send them. The servants aren’t higher than the master. May we serve and love as we live today.

March 18, 2016