Mary and Elizabeth

A reflection by The Reverend David Moore

Luke 1: 26 - 38

Most of you will no doubt will love a good story - very long novels, however well written, are not for me. In fact the storytelling which appeals most to me is poetry. I always circumvent being disappointed at Christmas by buying myself a new book of poetry.

In a poem a word can mean whatever the poet or the reader, choose it to mean. I am not suggesting that with poetry we abandoning all reason, but that in reading a poem the conjunction of pace, rhythm and form, plus where you are sat, can create such juxtapositions in ones head that more than we ‘know’ can come to mind. It has been said that a poem is never finished, simply abandoned.

Alan Horner gave his book of poetry the title ‘ A picture with the paint still wet’ - suggesting that poetry is not completed and that the reader can always reads as if for the very first time.

I consider much of the Biblical narrative to be first cousins, if not non-identical twins, of poetic form. Over and over again we can be readi it as if for the first time.

Mary and Elizabeth, what beautiful literature, what precise storytelling, touching the heights of the very best poetry ever penned. So, what better Christmas gift can I offer you but Alan’s poem ‘a picture with the paint still wet.’

A picture with the paint still wet

The Word became flesh

and had his portrait painted,

but not hung in the Gospel Gallery,

gazed on by the multitudes

for a fixed fee. His

was a picture with the paint still wet,

changing with the changing light,

open to interpretations, all correct,

depending where the viewer stood.

The virgin Birth was a stroke

of genius, an inspiration of eternity,

unique in its conception,

delicate in its portrayal,

showing the seeming simple

life of obedient faith.

Bethlehem background

might have been predicted,

being the home town

of that most honoured king,

himself a son of God,

though wayward with it,

the singer of God’s praise.

He was a shepherd too, of sheep

and of God’s nation flock,

but shepherds were but common folk,

at home in sheepfolds

or in sheltering barns,

no airs and graces, though sufficient grace.

Angels and stars were messengers

in that ancient world, where

all such forces were servants

of the most high God,

and served to indicate

the face of the divine.

the source and end of wisdom

for all who love the truth,

whatever their religion, race

and unlikely gifts. Such are

the Magi, also in the canvas,

moving across the screen, adding

their own flavour, colour to the whole.

That the paints run and the lines blur

is not matter of surprise. This

is not the stuff of science or of history’s

assumed or proven fact. This is not prose,

but poetry, with its own power

to reach the heart, which static pictures lack.

A poem of lasting worth does not give up all of its treasures on the first reading - nor do the biblical narratives. Last year, for all its worth is not today - read, reflect, experience the story now, whatever it may say.

Thanksgiving for the life of Edna Read FRSA

Background

Edna Read was a remarkable woman compared by one friend as ‘a ball-bearing, eg shiny, beautiful, indestructible and always on the move’. Sadly indestructible she was not!

Her life was shaped first by her history - an Anglo-Japanese teenager in Britain during the 1940s - and, secondly, by the intuitive way she embraced the visual arts as a critical and vital humanising presence in the life of the emerging new city of Milton Keynes.

She remained beautiful into her 80s, remaining energetic, persuasive and also completely impossible at times. She died aged 83 following a road accident in November 2012.

The Remarkable Edna Read

Address by The Reverend David Moore

Tuesday 13 November 2012

There is no avoiding it - I cannot avoid being political!

The news that a Henry Moore sculpture sold to Tower Hamlets Council in East London at a reduced price is now to be sold to offset the impact of Government cuts is, I fear, a clear sign of the true terror of our times - that of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

It is not just that the economy is in trouble, but far more critically, the vision of civil society, of our life together, has itself become disposable! Can you imagine what Edna would be doing about the Moore sculpture - she would be firing off letters and emails in all directions, whilst the rest of us go Tut, Tut,Tut and carry on as usual!

Edna understood value and worth in terms of human enrichment, community enrichment ..... for her, cities were not battery farms for people, but launch pads for exploring the, as yet, unknown. For Edna art was far more than decorative, she believed it to be transformative, the very stuff that leads the human adventure/development.

With the death of Edna Read this city has lost an arts Champion at a terribly dangerous moment for the arts. We must all pray - believers and unbelievers together (!) - that the challenge of taking up the baton of her vision will be accepted as a high priority in these austere times. We dare not allow the present restraints to lull us into believing that austerity means the loss of artistic vision, that the new, the unknown is somehow unattainable or put on hold.

There was a time when Edna regularly drove down to London in an old van, convincing Gallery owners to lend her paintings for her to hang in the new offices and other work places of Milton Keynes! You heard earlier John Napleton’s comment on an Arts Loan Scheme Edna organised with the Library Service.

Edna believed to her very bones that the visual arts were as important to civil society as public footpaths, clean water and roundabouts! It is because she was so driven by her vision that I want to nudge you again with words from John Chapter 1 and the Andrew Motion poem A Garden in Japan.

St John writing to an early community of Christians described how he saw things: They heard the conversation still going on, here, now, and took part, discovering a new way of being people.

New ways of being people - that was Edna.

Or again the concluding verses of A Garden in Japan :

but the real event

will be my decision

to lift a red leaf

from the fang of rock

overhanging the pool,

and so free the current

to fall to earth

which will never again

be one and the same (Andrew Motion The Cinder Path)

Edna refuted the view that we could do nothing. She believed there were things we could all do which would make a difference. She was a ‘believer’! We could all find a leaf to lift which would release some energy!

‘Visions’ don’t have a particularly good press at the present time - perhaps to a certain genre of film makers - but visions, or if you prefer, deep seated change, only takes place in real time - never somewhere else, and that was what Edna was always about. Deep seated change and Public art was her gateway and her highway.

She knew in her heart the immense potential of the arts and how a place as ‘barren’ as a new city could be gently transformed by the arts, especially public art, that a culture could be led through infancy and puberty to becoming a life-giving entity.

As we might give a meal a lift by the addition of a twist of black pepper, so Edna knew the arts was charged with a similar mystery and as such was as important as anything else - a twist by the hand or imagination of an artist can produce/uncover the deepest mystery of life!

A work of art can last for ever while almost everything else in life must change or die!

To my mind, the arts are the permanent hand and footprint of God in the world. Edna also knew the art of lifting the leaf, allowing the water to flow and everything being transformed. But this has to be done on the hoof, in the hustling and bustling of everyday life. It is not reified activity.

I remember, as yesterday, the first time I met Edna. It was 18 years ago in her small office on the lower floor of Saxon Court. I was the newly-appointed City Centre Chaplain and had an interest in the arts. I was looking for a brief introduction to the arts in Milton Keynes and I got far more than I had bargained for!

The fact that I had stumbled upon more than I could quantify or comprehend did not matter - that first conversation sealed a friendship which sadly concluded a few days before her death. It was in the Guildhall of this church, a Fair Trade Sale - we had a coffee, lots of laughter and as usual plotting, plotting, plotting. And I must say that although she was frail, she looked spectacular! She was herself a fantastic work of art!

Over the years she introduced me to artists, arts administrators, politicians and community leaders - her address book must have been phenomenal - and it was in and through that address book that she steered her own vision of a ‘world made right’. (How I would like to get my hands on it!)

I recall her speaking of her burning desire as a 14 year old (1943) of not wanting to appear to be Japanese, of wanting to pass as English. She wanted to be tall, white and blonde, not small and dark. The fact that her best efforts were futile probably led to even greater determination, ingenuity and guile in later life!

The Exhibition at this Church ‘The Japanese in Britain’ was an outstanding success. It involved me being driven by Edna to London to meet with possible funders, but also hearing stories from her childhood. Her driving certainly did encourage one to pray! On one occasion she drove straight into the Royal Academy and demanded to park outside the College of Antiquarians and we were immediately admitted. We had tea and cake and left!

You have already heard mention of those three exhibitions in the CBX building - they were absolutely outstanding by anyone’s standards - she put down markers about vision and quality and audacity which are hard to live with and that is the point. ‘A world made right’ does not come cheap and you can’t buy it. It has to be worked for.

Paul Tillich fled Nazi Germany for America. To my mind he was one of the 20th century’s most remarkable theologians - he learned to squeeze himself beyond the immediate mysteries and problems of life to a position where he could form a grand, more detached vision - indeed not unlike Edna. Tillich wrote this about the arts:

“.... the arts open up a dimension of reality which is otherwise hidden, and they open up our own being for receiving this reality.  Only the arts can do this: science, philosophy, moral action and religious devotion cannot.  The artist brings to our senses, and through them to our whole being, something of the depth of our world and of ourselves, something of the mystery of being.” 

Edna may not have put things quite like that but that is what she was about and that is why she was so passionate in her support for so many artists. Her vision outstripped most of our dreams! For her, what she did was not passing fancy, no time filler, this was the STUFF of life itself. She “heard the conversation going on” and joined in! And she was at it until the very end.

Recently Edna was in conversation with this church as to how it might be possible to fund the reinstallation of a Ronnie Rae Sculpture in front of this church. Her proposal was a lease-lending arrangement leading eventually to a transfer of ownership. She just could not stop working against impossible odds, for public sculpture in this city.

It was, of course, Edna that we have to thank for the beautiful Willi Soukop papier maché sculptures in the Reception Area of this Church and the fantastic Madonna and Child in the Chapel. Most of us, including me, have no idea of the debt we owe to this woman.

Public Sculpture in Milton Keynes was a deep, deep concern for Edna - she considered it to be the Jewel in the Crown of Milton Keynes and as such required care and conservation. One of her dreams (that did not come to fruition) was for vacation time courses in art conservation for young people - both in terms of care for our heritage but also in terms of opening windows to career opportunities for young people in this city. She ached for her vision to spread beyond the art specialist, to cascade down to the poorest streets and homes of Milton Keynes.

Find a piece of public sculpture in MK and you will find a trace memory of Edna.

In conclusion, a personal comment - I started making sculptures at the age of 50. The first object I exhibited was at Edna’s insistence! It was at an exhibition she had organised at the then De Montfort University in MK. Since then, somehow, I have curated 16 exhibitions as far afield as Edinburgh, Taunton, Winchester, Westminster, Tower Hamlets and, of course, Milton Keynes, including places where exhibitions were virtually unknown. It was her, she set that ball rolling! She caused something dormant within me to kick start into life. I also “heard the conversation still going on and joined in”. Edna the evangelist!

A Champion has left us ... another red leaf has been lifted, causing much to change .... painful change, untimely change ... and for the moment there is a pause in the conversation. Rest in Peace dear friend .... we will find ways to honour your memory. Remembering your fortitude we will face the new challenges ahead of us.

In Biblical terms Edna was the Good Samaritan - the one who did the right thing. None of us can say we have not been given a good example.

PS This morning I received an email from Ronnie and Pauline Rae in Edinburgh. It is their wish to donate one of Ronnie’s granite sculptures to the memory of Edna and it is their wish that it be sited in front of this Church - that means, it being granite, her memory will be here forever and ever. Amen.

Milton Keynes-Leipzig link: 25 Years

Silver Anniversary service Saturday 6th October 2012

Sermon by the Reverend Elizabeth Welch

Minister of Clapton Park United Reformed Church 

Luke Chapter 7. 1 - 10

1 Corinthians 9. 16 - 27.

I am delighted to be here at this twenty-fifth anniversary service of the Leipzig-Grunau Milton Keynes partnership. I remember the early days of the formation of this partnership including the key role that Clive Fowle played from the English side in setting it up. 20 years ago this month, I was one of the group that went to Leipzig-Grunau. I had previously visited Potsdam for a World Council of Churches conference, before the wall came down, but the visit to Leipzig was my first visit to the east after the wall came down.

This evening I want to reflect back on three memories from that visit, within the setting of the readings chosen for this service, in order to see the significance of this partnership for the future.

The readings chosen for today pick up on the theme of the ‘other’, the person who is outside, the person who might seem to be the stranger or the alien.

In the Gospel, the focus is on the Centurion who seeks healing for his servant lying on his death bed. In the Jewish world, the centurion, as a Roman and representing the powers of the death, could well be thought to be the stranger and the alien. Yet it was clear that this centurion had already built bridges with the Jewish community, for he had indeed physically built them a synagogue. He is portrayed as a person who is open to the one who is different. The point of the story is not so much the healing of the servant as the trust the centurion puts in Jesus. Jesus comments favourably on this, that he sees more trust in this Roman centurion than in the whole Jewish community.

Out of this story come the words which I hear said regularly in the Roman Catholic Mass, words of complete trust in Jesus: ‘Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.’ Week by week the faith of the centurion is remembered throughout the Christian world, as the basis of the faith that we can share in Jesus Christ today. In an increasingly secularised Europe, we are drawn back to the centrality of our faith in Christ and the ways in which we can grow in that faith by our sharing together.

In the letter to the Corinthians, we get a different angle on the building of bridges between people. Paul writes of his desire to so identify himself with the ‘other’ that he will win them for Christ. He is even identified with the community from which he has come, the Jewish community, for the sake of the Gospel. He comes as one who is in Christ, but who desires to share the good news of Jesus with others as they are, so that they may know Jesus’ blessings. His starting point is not to look to the other and say ‘here is a stranger or an alien’ with whom I will have nothing to do. His starting point is to be alongside the ‘other’ and build the relationship.

These two passages are resonant of Paul’s words in Ephesians, in chapter two when he writes of the way in which Christ breaks down barriers between people, who then are ‘no longer strangers and aliens, but citizens with the saints and members of the household of God’.

Jesus comes to heal, to teach, to build bridges between people of different backgrounds and communities, that all might be one in him.

Building bridges between God’s people involves giving and receiving. It involves that difficult work of becoming the ‘other’ for the sake of receiving the ‘other’. Building bridges becomes possible because we recognise that we are each sharers in the bridge that has been built by Christ, in reconciliation of the world.

Building on the setting of these two passages, I want to share three memories and reflect on what they stand for in terms of this partnership and of our proclamation of the Gospel today.

The 1st memory is the story of the peace prayers at the Nikolai Kirche. I remember on that visit to Leipzig 20 years ago, being taken in to the Nikolai Kirche and listening to the voices of those who had been involved in the peace prayers and the lighting of candles as a sign of the hope for change. I remember particularly hearing of the day when the people came out of the church to face the soldiers outside, not knowing whether they might arrest people or fire on the protesters. Gradually the soldiers just moved back and let the crowd go. It was a sign of the possibility of peaceful change. I was moved to tears at hearing the witness to these significant events. People from different backgrounds and faith positions had come together to protest peacefully and change had come.

This story still speaks to me of the possibilities that God opens up of hope and of unexpected change. Who would have thought that the wall would have come down without violence? Who would have thought that Mandela would walk free without civil war? Who would have thought that the Burmese protester You +1'd this publicly. Undo Aung San Suu Kyi would be talked about as a next possible president of her country? We need to go on looking for and telling the stories where faith in peaceful change has led to courage to resist the powers that oppress. We need models of resistance, when we look to those parts of the world which are moving towards ever increasing violence, such as Syria, or Afghanistan. We need to go on telling the stories of peaceful resistance, and open up new ways of peace-making

My 2nd memory is of a different kind.
I remember the music that was played at the beginning and end of the services, and the way in which people sat still and listened. It struck me because of my experience in this country of the way in which the music at the beginning and end of the service is often a time for movement, for people to come or go.

I have also a larger memory of the musical tradition of Leipzig through the life and work Johann Sebastian Bach and his 27 years as cantor and Director of music. The magnificent music of Bach has been a gift to the whole church and across the world. We have all been his inheritors of Bach. One of the great gifts of music is the way in which it unites a people in a way that goes beyond words. Bach’s settings of music for the Mass lift people together to the heights of heaven.

Music is both a reality of worship that transforms God’s people and is a symbol of what it’s like when God’s people come together. Each musician has his or her own instrument. Each person who sings has his or her own voice. Yet together, something much more powerful happens. In both Milton Keynes and Leipzig we celebrate the way in which Christians across different traditions can share together. It’s an important gift to be offered to the wider church. When we participate in God’s music, our differences our taken up together in a larger harmony, to the greater glory of God

My 3rd memory is only of a small incident, but one that has major implications. At the end of the visit 20 years ago, I went into a big store in Leipzig, in order to buy gifts to take back home with me. I specifically wanted to take back something that was from Leipzig, or from eastern Germany. So went to a counter and asked where I could buy something that was made in the east. The person just looked at me and said ‘we only sell goods made in the west.’

The question of economics and the issues of the financial crisis Europe and the rest of the world are going through, is one of the biggest challenges we have to face at present. The framework for the debate is often one which puts money, consumerism and the free market at the heart of the matter, with the assumption that these are normative values. The danger is that the pursuit of these values fragments the human community and puts people against each other – rich against poor, German against English, north against south.

As Christians, we stand together against values that fragment human communities and are destructive of people and of creation. We stand together for values that come out of our faith – faith in God who chose a person and a community and the creation through which to reveal himself. Our shared Christian faith values the person and the community at the heart of the matter, not in isolation, but in fundamental solidarity with all God’s people.

Paul, in the passage we heard from the letter to the Corinthians knew that the road he was travelling down was not going to be an easy one. But he wanted to give himself fully to this race he was running, whatever the cost. We share today in that costly journey, as we build partnerships that take us across boundaries and as we witness together to the Christ who comes to overturn this world’s values.

To God be the glory, in Christ Jesus and to all eternity.

“I want my house full!”

1 Corinthians 12:12–27 One body, many parts;

 Luke 14:12-24 Filling God's house

Sermon by the Reverend John Bradley

2nd September 2012

Last month the Olympic Games brought together the fittest, strongest, healthiest people in the world to compete in a wide range of sports. The original Olympic Games in Ancient Greece were also a festival of the highest ideal people. For the Greeks, the ideal person was young, male, fair-skinned, clean-shaven, healthy and athletic. Anyone else fell below the ideal. So if you were no longer young, you were less than the ideal. If you were female, you fell further below and if were dark skinned or had a beard, you were simply a barbarian! Those who were not in good health or had some kind of physical or mental impairment were right off the scale. The Ancient Greeks would find the concept of the Paralympics where people compete despite their impairments totally incomprehensible.

Of the seven billion people in the world today, one billion have some kind of physical or mental impairment. If we all belonged to one nation, it would be the third largest in the world after China and India. It would have the highest rate of unemployment, the lowest standard of education and in terms of Christian mission would be one of the most unreached nations in the world. The rise of the Paralympics from its beginning at Stoke Mandeville Hospital near Aylesbury through years of widespread neglect by the media to today when the same organisers and venues provide both the Olympics and the Paralympics has been a long and arduous one.

There was a time when those who saw the world population growing exponentially seriously proposed that people with disabilities should be exterminated. ‘Social Darwinism’, which was not the view of Charles Darwin himself, said that if nature teaches the survival of the fittest, only the fittest should be allowed to survive. Those who consume the earth’s resources but make no contribution to its production were termed 'useless eaters' an expression favoured by the Nazis. In many parts of the world today, children with disabilities are hidden away from sight because they are considered a curse on the community. Not long ago in this country it would have been unthinkable to have a Home Secretary who was blind. Whenever President Franklin Roosevelt appeared on television, his wheelchair was always hidden to camera. Seventy years ago it was politically unacceptable for the Commander in Chief to be disabled, even though his wheelchair enabled him to manage his impaired mobility.

In our Gospel reading, we heard Jesus turning the world upside-down again! “When you give a dinner party,” he tells his wealthy, healthy host, “don’t invite your wealthy healthy chums. Instead, invite the people on the margins, the ones you usually ignore.” Then he presses the point home with one of his subversive stories! The healthy wealthy people had accepted the invitation to the banquet but when the time came, they all found something more important to do. But the host no more wanted empty seats at his banquet than did the organisers of the Olympic Games. So the uninvited – those whose diaries were empty because nobody ever invited them to anything – became the invited. But still there were empty seats so he sent his stewards out again to the margins, to the excluded, and told them to make them come in because, the host says, “I want my house full!”

Here at Cornerstone there is good news and bad news about the car park outside. The good news is that on most Sunday mornings, particularly damp ones, the car park is usually full. The bad news is that most people are not here worshipping God but are across the road worshipping Mammon! What do you think would happen if I were to go across there and grab complete strangers by the arm saying “you thought you were coming here today just to get your weekly shopping but actually you are invited to the greatest banquet in the universe? Even the long-life bread you buy here today will go stale and leave you hungry for more but come now and receive a foretaste of the heavenly banquet prepared for all mankind!” Perhaps they won’t come until they are hungry enough.

Then the second reading was Paul’s familiar picture of the members of the Church being like the different organs which make up a human body. The analogy wasn’t original to him but he used it in a different way. In the version in the Hindu scriptures, the head represents the Brahmin priests, the shoulders represent the warrior princes, the thighs represent the merchants and the feet represent the ordinary labourers who tread the dusty road. The untouchable dalits, the ‘crushed’ people, don’t get a mention; they are like the downtrodden dust. Paul doesn’t have a hierarchy like that. Instead, like Jesus, he turns the world’s way upside down. No part of the body of Christ can say to another part “I don’t need you.” There is no appendix in the Church; no part of the body that we had no idea was there until it started causing us trouble! Those of us with impairments, far as we are from the world’s ideal, not only have a place but have a special place of honour in the body of Christ.

Since the Disability Discrimination Act made it a legal requirement for all public buildings to be reasonably accessible to people with impairments, in my experience the Christian churches have generally made more effort to comply with this than have commercial shops and restaurants. That is to be expected, not because churches are more charitable than businesses but because there is a radical welcome at the heart of the Christian faith for those who are otherwise marginalised and rejected. But before we congratulate ourselves, we should remember that we are still on the journey. I often find that church buildings which have been made totally accessible for wheelchair users like me to join the congregation have barriers to prevent us from taking part in leading worship. When we first came to Cornerstone, the ramp for the dais was stored away in a cupboard and only Jim knew that we had one! When I’m invited to preach in an old parish church where there is a steep winding staircase up to the pulpit, they usually suggest I stay seated in my wheelchair in the chancel. I feel as if I should preface my homily with a disclaimer “don’t worry, I’m not the bishop!”

Much has been said about the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The colossal amount of money has been spent not just for a few weeks of sporting entertainment or for the regeneration of a run-down area East of London but that the whole nation shall be inspired to become healthier, more active and engage in sport. For people with impairments, the focus shifts from what we can’t do to what we can do. My own experience of acquired disability has been one of learning to let go of what I can no longer do in order to be available for what I can do. Because of the Centre for Integrated Living in particular, this building is more familiar to people with impairments than are many church buildings. They are most welcome guests here, not only because our practical needs can be addressed but also we are most especially cherished by the Lord of the Banquet who wants His house to be full!

Church Mission

Revd. Canon John Robertson 

Sermon given 8/7/12

Mark 6:1-13 (2 Corinthians 12:2-10)

Introduction

I have now been in the post of Director of Ecumenical Mission in Milton Keynes for 2 months. Before that I was vicar of Grove Parish Church in Oxfordshire, having previously been Chaplain at York University and before that I trained and worked as an engineer.

I am slowly getting used to MK especially the size of it, all the roundabouts and its many churches.

Mission Partnership

Hands up all those who have heard of the Mission Partnership? What do you think it does?

The Mission Partnership brings together churches across MK and other Christian Agencies under the same umbrella. They are brought together to enable, encourage and stimulate MISSION.

Mission

Mission is the central calling of all churches.

It is NOT a separate entity from the churches;

It is NOT just for Local Ecumenical Partnerships

It is NOT a bureaucratic structure

Mission depends on following the 5 Marks of Mission:

- to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

- to teach, baptise and nurture new believers

- to respond to human need by loving service

- to seek to transform unjust structures of society

- to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation

The five marks outline an enormous and grand vision but..

It leads us to ask the following questions:

- how effective are we in the central calling of Mission?

- how do we gauge our effectiveness?

Story

When I was a Chaplain at York University I was involved in a scheme to promote skills beyond degree/academic but broadened out to languages, IT, city action, even theology. The launch of the scheme brought together students, academics, business sponsors who were formed into teams to solve a problem.

Problem: A pile of about 40 lego bricks had to be assembled into a complex 3D model which we were only allowed to view for a short period of time.

My team struggled and ultimately had to admit defeat. However, a student working alone produced a perfect solution. How did he manage it? Where did he get the extraordinary collection of abilities in spatial awareness, memory and logic necessary for the task which my team so singularly lacked? He was a very ordinary looking student, a mere teenager, whereas my team possessed the best part of 10 degrees. Did he cheat? I noticed a look of collective jealousy as he was awarded a bottle of champagne. We clapped and smiled and took offence. Somebody suggested his talent was God-given, which excused us from competing with him but hardly lessened our envy and rejection.

Text

Our reaction to the student was identical to the response of the citizens of Nazareth to Jesus in Mark 6^2-3. It is not that his neighbours deny his wisdom or his ability to perform mighty works, but that the source of his activity lies with God. It is not that they deny the ordinary humanity of Jesus, quite the reverse, but that God is revealed in that humanity, that it is as ordinary flesh and blood that Jesus shows forth God and manifests the power of God to transform human lives.

The effectiveness of Jesus is found in the question: Where did this man get all this? Of course Jesus has no control over the reaction of the citizens of Nazareth who take offence, but the effectiveness of his ministry is already indicated by the fact that the people find themselves asking that question “Where did this man get all this?”

Now look at the episode which follows. Jesus sends the disciples out two by two to reflect his ministry in theirs

• they have authority over unclean spirits

- they anoint the sick

• they proclaim a message of repentance. ( Compare Mk.1 v15 “The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news.” Implication is that ‘repentance’ here is shorthand for this wider programmatic message of Jesus)
• Jesus anticipates the same response of offence vs 10-11.
• Which means that he expects their activity to raise the same question

“Where did the disciples get all this?”

Their effectiveness will be shown in the raising of that question by their activity.

Church

Which brings us back to the Church here and now and the question of our effectiveness.

a) We are now the disciples: like them, the church is now sent by Jesus

our mission reflects their mission

our mission reflects the mission of Jesus

Note the impulse towards the 5 marks of mission in the task of the disciples:

Repentance (in extended sense of Mark 1v15) is about proclaiming good news of Kingdom

Casting out demons concerns a confrontation with evil which reflects the transformation of unjust structures in society

Anointing of sick is an example of acts of loving service

b) Are we doing those things??

i) Reflection Day produced 84 things to celebrate under 5 marks

That was just one morning with 40 people

Cornerstone will have its own list

Added to which there was a real willingness to work at improving what we do

ii) My own observations would reinforce that

eg Christian Foundation, Sector ministry in hospital/prisons/hospice, Venture FX, Foodbank, winter shelter, bridgebuilders, soup runs, holiday clubs.

c) Is the Question being raised?

“Where did these Christians/this Church get all this?”

What’s behind all this activity? What drives it?

And the implied answer that it is driven by faith, with God known in Christ at the source of all we do.

It is the raising of that question which shows how effective we are.

d) I don’t know the answer to that yet….

BUT I have yet to hear it coming back at me

Which means that if it is being raised, it is only in muted form.

Does that mean that we are afraid of generating offence??

If so, does that mean that the church has become a nice club like the Rotary or the Round Table doing nice things because we’re nice people?

To that extent, mission is constrained, discipleship half-hearted.

We need to be bold about articulating why we do what we do. When we dare to do that, however tentatively, the Question will be raised

Some may take offence: like Jesus, we have no control over the response of others.

Others will respond positively and seek to know the God revealed in Christ, and then we will know that our mission is truly effective. Amen.

Belonging

Ephesians 2:11–22 and Mark 6: 30–34:  53–56

A sermon by Maggie Prisk

Sunday 22nd July 2012

What goes around, comes around. History repeats itself. There is nothing new under the sun.

Over the last couple of weeks I have heard several discussions on the radio around the subject of circumcision. Periodically this matter is raised and aired whether on religious, moral, ethical or medical grounds however the latest focus appears to have arisen because the medical authorities (not the government) in Germany have decided that the practice of circumcision should be banned except for where there is a medical necessity for the procedure to be carried out. Naturally the Jews and Muslims are up in arms because it is so much part of their religious heritage. The practice clearly still has the ability to cause division and controversy.

Unlike many of Paul's letters, the epistle to the Ephesians seems to be more general in its approach rather than being written to address a particular issue or issues. Neither does it appear to have been written in response to questions which the young churches have posed to Paul to get his view of. And since I am neither of the Jewish or Muslim faith nor a man I do not intend to dwell on the ins and outs, rights or wrongs of the circumcision debate. However it gives us an opportunity to consider the 'reality of our unity in Christ'.

The pious Jews of Jesus' and Paul's day 'considered all non-Jews ceremonially unclean. They thought of themselves as pure and clean because of their national heritage and religious ceremonies'. The very familiar story told by Jesus of the 'Good Samaritan' is a good illustration of this point of view. The fact that Paul is addressing this issue suggests that it has given rise to divisions amongst the Christian communities to whom Paul is writing. He is very concerned that they should live together in unity having all been made alive in Christ because as he points out at the start of this chapter all were 'dead in their transgressions', Jews and Gentiles alike.

Circumcision was given to Abraham as a sign of the covenant relationship between God and his special people. When Abraham first circumcised all the men in his household, Isaac had not been conceived never mind born and Isaac was the promised son, the start of a whole new nation. It appears that the practice had slipped because at the beginning of the Book of Joshua it states that all those who left Egypt had been circumcised but all who had been born during the wanderings in the desert had not. The act of circumcision both in Abraham's story and the event recorded in Joshua are reflections of new beginnings. The old has gone, the new has come. In fact in the story of Joshua this is made quite clear because all those whom God said would not see the promised land as a result of the disobedience, had died in the dessert, these men that Joshua addresses were the new generation, a new start, a new beginning. The same is true for the Christians of Paul's time, through Christ whether they were from the Jewish faith or Gentiles, all who had become believers were part of the new beginning.

As so often is the case, when something is new, fresh and exciting people set aside their differences for the project, adventure or cause, but as things settle down the old prejudices begin to surface and when insecurities creep in then divisions come more and more to the fore. Instead of individuals pulling together for the good of the whole they begin to focus on their differences with the result that dissent and discord take over. Relationships, bands, businesses, sports teams - the list goes on and on, high profile break ups and splits, the the world watches as accusations are thrown around and what had been a successful union begins to disintegrate and pull itself apart. Paul doesn't want that; for the sake of the gospel he wants all believers to work together as witnesses to God's saving grace through the death of Jesus Christ.

In my wallet I have a number of loyalty cards. Cards which if I use them in a certain place will give me something back. I have a Costa coffee club card which gives me points every time I buy a drink in one of their cafes. I have a card from Marks and Spencer which gives me a free greetings card whenever I have buy six and and have the card stamped. I have Tesco club and Nectar cards on my key ring. Belonging is very important to most of us. For some it may only be wearing the colours of the football team you support. For others it might be a particular way of dressing which shows they are part of the group. Some go further by getting a tattoo or other identification as a more permanent reminder of belonging. Then there are those who go to the extreme of showing they belong by undertaking a task and sadly for those wanting to become a member of a gang it could involve attacking someone who has nothing to do with the group. To be accepted is part of who we are.

You have had a busy hectic week, you're exhausted and someone suggests you go away for a long relaxing weekend. Sounds idyllic doesn't it? The disciples were well and truly ready for a rest, they have lots to tell and they want time alone with Jesus to relate to him what happened when he sent them out but no sooner have the set out for their well deserved break when they arrive they realise that the people have got their first both times. But Jesus had 'compassion on them'. The people were looking to this young teacher to give them guidance and more importantly to heal their sick. They recognise their needs and are looking to Jesus to meet them. If the disciples had had their way they would have been sent back to where they came from but that's not Jesus' way. Jesus ministry is not only 'spiritual', (the story of his feeding a huge crowd sits in between the two parts of Mark chapter 6 we read this morning), he 'ministers to their every need, touching every part of their lives, accepting them, healing them, teaching them'. And is not just to individuals, when he arrives in Gennesaret the whole community has come out to work together to bring their sick to be healed.

However by the time Paul was writing his letters to the Ephesians both Jewish and Gentile Christians have become divided by the issue of circumcision. Part of the covenant relationship these believers were to demonstrate to others was 'the divine riches of God's grace' to those who did not believe. Yet again on our television screens and in newspapers are pictures of men, women and children fleeing from their homes and countries as a result of famine or war, searching for somewhere to live. 'What refugees want above all, assuming they are not able to return to their homeland is to be accepted into a new community where they can rebuild their lives and their families'. Nearly two years ago my nephew married a young Canadian woman. For the year after their marriage he waited, having provided masses of information, for his citizenship to come through, until it did he couldn't leave the country without the penalty of beginning the process all over again. Now he was not a refugee but in many ways it is the same, he has been accepted into a new community. The relief felt in my sister's family when he got both his citizenship and his work permit was immense, for refugees too getting their passports is the sign that they have been accepted.

Paul wants the Christians to work together, for there to be unity. He wants the Gentiles to recognise that they have hope because of Jesus' death and resurrection, they have been received into God's family not because a ritual has taken place but because of the love and grace of God. He wants the Jewish believers to accept their right to be God's special people but not because they have been circumcised but like the Gentiles they too were lost and in need of the saving, healing power of Christ's death and resurrection. This was the new beginning, the new start, the 'creating of a new humanity which is radically different from both groups and open to all'. The issue of circumcision was dividing the fledgling church and possibly putting off others who might be in need of God's mercy, healing and acceptance. God has accepted both Jew and Gentile, 'they are all citizens of God's people and members of God's household'.

Abraham and the nation of which he was the founder had a covenant with God their side of this agreement was to be a blessing to all nations. The challenge for us today is to 'work in the power of the Spirit, both to break down social and ethnic barriers within the church, and to encourage those currently outside God's people to become part of his new creation'. The cross means nothing if divisions persist whatever their origins, the cross also means 'peace between believers and peace with God, in a community where God himself dwells'. We like the Israelites are to be a blessing to others and divisions will hinder that, we are all members of God's household and part of his new humanity which lives together in unity.

Victims

Mark 6. 14-29

A sermon by The Reverend Wendy Carey

Sunday 15th July 2012

‘Have you been injured by an accident that was not your fault?’ Or ‘Have you been mis-sold insurance in connection with a loan from a Bank?’ If so, you are a victim. And being a victim today, appears to call for one of two things – anger, or compensation, or perhaps both.

Over many years of work in prisons I have thought a great deal about victims. When I was often asked to speak outside the prison of my work as a Chaplain, a common comment was to chide me that in showing so much concern for convicted prisoners, I was failing to be aware of, and respectful to, the needs of victims. This was a rather simplistic comment, as it failed to recognise that dealing with the needs and the motivation of current prisoners was an effective way of ensuring that the number of future victims of crime was reduced. But a more compelling reason that the comment is too simple, is that a community of criminal offenders is likely to contain a much greater proportion of victims of crime, than does the general population. The matter is complex. Being a victim of crime, can never excuse or support becoming an offender, a perpetrator of crime, but it can go a long way to explain the matter, and that is a first step towards a solution.

These thoughts were prompted by reading our Gospel passage for today, St. Mark’s account of the beheading of John the Baptist, following the conspiracy of Herod and Herodias and her daughter. At first glance, this story seems quite simple, we have a victim, John the Baptist, and we have three perpetrators of varying culpability, Herod, Herodias, and her daughter, Salome. Surely this is a straightforward story of good and evil. But wait a minute, think again about Salome, is there not a case for viewing her as in some ways a victim as well? Is she a victim of the subservient role of young unmarried women at this time? Is she a victim of Herodias’ implacable hatred and desire for revenge? Is she simply a victim of poor parenting, and the lack of what has sometimes been called a moral compass? And what of her mother? Is she purely a perpetrator of crime, or is she a victim of circumstance, or treatment by others. Is Herod her victim, or she his?

If we think deeply about any situation, small and personal, or global and of major significance, we will see this complex web of perpetrators and victims. Court cases and judicial enquiries devote themselves to searching out whose fault lies at the bottom of any issue, but searching for such an answer may be just too simple. In a situation where journalists feel the need to tap phone calls and hack into emails, is there no recognition of the culpability of a society which loves to read a bit of scandal or gossip, and in general doesn’t much care how it is gathered, until the chance arises to become sanctimonious.

The complexity and interweaving of cause and effect, victims and perpetrators is bewildering, and almost inexplicable. But it can be, and is explained by a word we shall use several times in this and in most of our worship. It is, on the whole, an unfashionable word, but it lies at the heart of our Christian understanding. The word is sin. I suppose very few preachers set out to preach about sin in our times, but today you can go home and report that the sermon was about sin.

This evening, at St Mary’s church Bletchley, eight people, teenagers and adults, from the Parish of St. Frideswide, Water Eaton, where I now minister, will be confirmed. They will confirm the promises made by themselves, or on their behalf at Baptism:
‘Do you repent of your sins?’
‘I repent of my sins’.

Our Confirmation candidates have been preparing together using the ‘Start!’ course, led by two lay people. One young teenager had not been baptised, so last Monday evening at her baptism, I asked her that question: ‘Do you repent of your sins?’ How can one explain and help a young person to understand what is being asked? One way would be to point to this complicated and interminable web of victims and offenders, stretching back through time, to a root cause that can be explained by the word sin. Janet Morley wrote a collect for the readings that centre on the story of the Fall of humanity in Genesis chapter three. She writes: ‘Holy God, we are born into a world tissued and structured by sin....’ So where do we find an answer?

Before I began to write this sermon, I looked up the word Victim in the dictionary. Its earliest use in English is in the late 15th Century, denoting a creature killed as a religious sacrifice. So here we are, taken straight back to those words of a much used Good Friday hymn, whether or not you agree in detail with its account of Jesus’ sacrifice:

There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin
He only could unlock the gate of heaven, and let us in.

And here it is, the answer to our questions about how we untangle and begin to cleanse that unending trail of victim and perpetrator, of accusation and counter accusation that so besets our life as a community. Jesus, the ultimate Victim takes upon himself in crucifixion the sins of the whole world. Soon we shall recall again Jesus words at the Last Supper: ‘this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sin’.

One of the most worthwhile things we can do for one another is to begin to break the unending chain of sin, of victim and offender, of action and reaction, of offence and response: ‘he hit me, so I had to hit him back’ that begins in the playground, and can continue into, and even dominate our adult life. Supporting those who decide to stop this chain of action and reaction, by absorbing the hurt rather than passing it on, is one of the most vital and the most privileged tasks of the Prison Chaplain. It is in the conscious decision not to pass on the hurt, not to create more victims, that we ourselves can become Christlike. But we cannot do this alone.

And that is precisely why in Baptism, in Confirmation, and in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we turn to Christ, the Victim, and the Victor.

So we pray Janet Morley’s prayer:

Holy God, we are born into a world
tissued and structured by sin.
When we proclaim our innocence,
and seek to accuse each other,
give us the grace to know that we are naked;
that we may cry out to you alone, through Jesus Christ, Amen