Sermon by the Reverend John Bradley, for Environment Sunday 2008
Note: 6th June 2010 is Environment Sunday. The following sermon from 2008 is as relevant as ever.
Isaiah 24.4-13 Matthew 11.16-30
Matthew 11.19 God’s wisdom is proved right by its results
I can remember a time when the word ‘environment’ was a technical term used only in geography, when few people had heard the word ‘ecology’ – let alone knew what it means – and to call somebody ‘green’ was not a compliment! It was when I learnt French that I realised that the root meaning of environment is what you see around you. The problem is that despite modern television news, many people only take notice of a small part of what surrounds them.
The crisis we are constantly reminded of today first came to my attention through a book called Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. She was a lonely voice in the early 60s warning that if we kept on spraying our crops with pesticides such as Aldrin and Dieldrin which not only killed the agricultural pests but also the birds which fed on them, the day would dawn when there would be no birdsong left and the trees would bud in a silent Spring. Hers was a prophetic voice which was dismissed by the agri-chemical industry but a movement began which challenged the major powers. Until then, most people believed that modern technology was always a good thing and anyone who thought otherwise was just being old-fashioned.
But the movement grew and its prophets were largely secular. One ecologist actually blamed the growing crisis on the spread of Christianity. As long as people believed that divine spirits lived in every tree and river, he said, they treated them with respect. But when Christian missionaries came and taught them that there were no such spirits, only one God in heaven, this new teaching gave them permission to cut down the trees and pollute the rivers without fear. The criticism was valid but the answer was not to stop spreading the Christian Gospel but to make sure it was the whole Gospel. That includes the affirmation of the Psalmist that the earth is the Lord’s and everything that it contains. That statement underlies the Hebrew economy of the land where, at its best, land was not bought and sold as a commodity but lent for a while to those who would take care of it. In Israel, the people did not own the land because it all belonged to God. There are still some places in the world today, considered primitive by most Westerners, where individuals do not own land any more than we own the air we breathe. It works when everyone recognises their share in the responsibility for caring for the earth together.
Today, the threat of major damage to the earth is far greater than the extinction of songbirds. If we needed more evidence of rapid climate change, it is there on the news every week. The latest I saw was an expedition in northern Canada which found ice which had been rock solid for thousands of years is now starting to crack. Christian Aid has reminded us that the effects of this rapid change fall mainly on the poor. Subsistence farmers depend more than most on the regularity of the seasons and have no cushion to protect them against drought, flood or unusual temperature. In the past, we would have had confidence that the scientists would fix it. Still there are some who expect that one day soon a technology will be announced which will put it all right. But the sober message is that the disturbance of the world’s climate is under way and cannot be stopped. The best we can do is stop making it worse. We can change only three things: change the way we live, change the way we help the victims and change our understanding of wisdom.
It has often been explained that the burning of fossil fuels releases gases into the atmosphere which change the way its temperature is kept in balance. I once met Dr Jim Lovelock, a brilliant scientist whose book The Gaia Hypothesis showed how the earth and its atmosphere behaves as if it were one huge living creature, regulating and balancing the composition of gases in the air in order to maintain life. His theory was also dismissed by some at the time but it has now been developed into the science of geophysiology. Our modern economy is changing the atmosphere on which life on earth depends. We have become so dependent on burning oil, coal and gas that it will cost us more to find alternatives. Some proposed solutions have themselves proved to cause other problems. In America, thousands of tons of wheat are being converted into bio-fuel as an alternative to oil. But the side-effects have been an increase in the virgin forest being slashed and burnt to clear land for growing grain and a world-wide rise in the cost of grain for human consumption leading to food riots in many countries.
Even if the world stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, climate change would continue to happen for at least the next century. Pharaoh needed the wisdom of Joseph to prepare for seven years of famine. We have other means of predicting disaster. It means that in order to prevent large scale starvation, we will need to double at least our giving for world development and famine relief for the rest of our lives. If we do nothing, or just carry on doing what we have done so far, all the benefits of relief and development so far will be swept away. That is a hard message but we must be prepared to hear it.
The third change is the hardest and will be the most unpopular; we need to change our idea of wisdom. In some ways it is a return to a former wisdom which has been eroded and abandoned. But it is also a new way of combining the best of the old and the new. Jesus said that when a teacher of the law has become a learner in the kingdom of Heaven, he is like a householder who can produce from his store things both new and old (Matthew 13:52). It won’t be easy because there is a huge industry out there which is dedicated to proving to you that what I am saying now is wrong. I like the version of Psalm 23 which begins ‘the Lord’s my shepherd; I have everything I need!’ but they don’t because they want to convince you that you need more things. Satisfied people don’t make good customers; their aim is to convince you that you need to buy things you never knew you needed. They don’t want children to grow up because the clamouring toddler, pestering its mother to buy sweets, is their icon of success. Combine that appetite for more things with the spending power of an adult and you have the ideal customer! Consumerism thinks the wisdom of God is foolishness. God’s wisdom shows that human beings need one day of rest a week and that a healthy society has a shared pattern of work and rest. But consumerism campaigned to end restrictions on Sunday trading and now Sunday is one of the busiest days at the ‘cathedral of mammon’ across the road! God knows we all need some things and will need to buy most of them. The wisdom is in keeping the buying of things in its proper place. Jesus taught us that if we make our priority the reign of God and the right relationships which come from that, all the rest will come to us.
There are still some people who question whether climate change is really happening, but they are becoming fewer. There are more people who see it happening but think there is nothing we can do about it. I believe we need the wisdom of God in this more than ever. God’s wisdom is proved right by its results but if we wait for the results of our present folly, it will be too late to save the earth. If we do nothing, in fifty years time our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will blame us for our selfish short-sightedness. When we lived in Devon, one day a letter came to the school where Marian taught addressed to ‘The Teacher Responsible for Saving the Planet’! It went around the staff room and ended up on her desk. So what about you today? You can’t do it all but you needn’t do nothing. Let us all renew our commitment to care for the environment, to reduce our own carbon footprint, to care for those who are already suffering most from climate change and to choose the wisdom of God rather than the foolish wisdom of this world.
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The glory of creation, throughout the universe,
So wonderful in essence, delightfully diverse.
Antarctica to Asia; the jungles of Brazil,
Established by the Father, with loving care and skill.
From mountain tops to valleys; in forests and in parks,
We watch the playful squirrels; we hear the joyful larks.
Wild orchids so unusual; bright parakeets so loud,
Rare butterflies so fragile; the tiger standing proud.
Deep mysteries, of oceans and unknown outer space,
Migration paths of swallows, the eagle’s nesting place.
The more we gain in knowledge, the less we understand
This world so rich and complex, created by God’s hand.
But crisis looms upon us; the planet’s under threat,
The global climate’s changing, the balance is upset.
The melting of the ice caps; diversity declines,
Extinction of key species; we’re overwhelmed with signs.
So Father please forgive us for spoiling Planet Earth,
Give us a chance to change it; to instigate new birth,
Let’s care for your creation, in details and in whole
Protect, preserve and cherish; may this be our new goal.
© Denzil Walton
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The Reverend John Bradley, 16th May 2010
Sermon preached at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone
Sunday 16th May 2010 (Easter 7)
Acts 16.16-34 John 17.20-26
Today’s Gospel reading is the one most frequently read on ecumenical occasions. It was probably read when this church was opened and certainly on many occasions since then. It reminds us that the visible unity of the Christian Church is not just a good idea; it is central to the will and purpose of Jesus Christ. Let us remember that if we are honest when we say that Jesus Christ is Lord of our lives and Head of the Church, what matters is not what I want or what you want but what He wants. This passage in the Fourth Gospel is at the climax of what is often called the Final Discourses, the last teaching of Jesus to his disciples before he is taken from them to suffer and die on the Cross. So clearly this is of central importance.
The whole of chapter 17 is a prayer. You can learn things about a person from what they pray for that you cannot learn in any other way. There are many occasions when the Gospels report Jesus praying to his heavenly Father but this is the most extended. Jesus is praying for his disciples, knowing that what is about to happen to him will also be a severe test for them. Judas Iscariot has already betrayed him; Peter will soon deny that he ever knew him. They will all let him down in some way yet it is to these that Jesus has entrusted his message and the future of its communication rests with them; there is no plan B. Jesus is also praying for people who haven’t yet heard of him such as the Philippian jailer who we shall come to in a moment. When Jesus prays for those who will put their faith in him through the words of his disciples, that includes every Christian from then until now and from now until the end of time. When you read in the Gospels of the many different people to whom and about whom Jesus spoke, do you realise that includes you and me? If we have become believers, it is because some other Christian believers put their faith into words that we could understand so that we could believe too. But it doesn’t stop there! We live in a world where many people are putting their trust in Jesus Christ and being added to his Church but we are living in a part of that world where currently the going is tough. Yet the need for the transformation which Jesus alone can bring has never been greater. That’s where you come in: when you tell your story of how and why you became a Christian and what Jesus means to you, others can catch on and become transformed believers too.
The unity that Jesus is praying for is not that we should all be the same; how boring that would be! You only have to look at the trees and flowers bursting into life around us to see that our Creator God loves variety! It is wonderful that people from all over the world have come to this city and to this church and we are seeking a dynamic unity in our diversity. Jesus’ prayer shows that this is the evidence that he is sent by the Father. Christian disunity is a denial of the incarnation; it really is that important. Jesus also prays that the glory which the Father gave to him and which he gives to us might make us one. Glory has several meanings; one of them is a good reputation. We often fail to glimpse the glory around us because we judge other people by their outward appearance rather than their heart. It is when we see one another as the saints which God is making us into rather than just the sinners we were that He makes us His ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.’ There is a danger in an ecumenical partnership like Cornerstone, with its prominent position and iconic history, that we become complacent and think that we have already done all the ecumenical journeying we need to do. But the ecumenical challenge to make visible the unity which the Spirit is giving to the whole Church and to remember that the whole inhabited earth – the oikoumene – is our concern because it is God’s concern is constantly before us. If we think we have arrived, we most surely have not!
So what about our first reading, one of the amazing missionary stories of the apostle Paul? First we meet a girl who would be considered in this country to be mentally ill. Like some in the Gospels who are described as being demon-possessed, she shows clear perception of who Paul and Silas are and what they are doing. But to her masters, she is a source of wealth, a ‘nice little earner’! I don’t think Paul was exasperated with the girl but he was disturbed by what her condition was doing to her. In setting her free, he deprived her masters of their income so they had the missionaries arrested. They had no compassion on the girl or joy at her healing, only anger at their loss of revenue. So Paul and Silas are flogged and thrown into jail. Instead of complaining about the injustice or worrying about the misfortune to their venture, they fill the jail with songs of praise to God! Praising God isn’t always easy; sometimes it really is a sacrifice of praise. But when we do give thanks to God in all circumstances, not just the nice ones, there is a power in praise! This time it led to an earthquake. The jailer assumed that the broken walls meant that any prisoners who had not been killed by the earthquake would have escaped. He knew that he would be held responsible and if any of the prisoners were held on capital crimes, his life would be forfeit. So he decides to take his own life rather than face his masters. Then Paul stops him and tells him they are all safe! When the jailer asks them “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” what did he mean?
In the first sense, Paul had saved his life by preventing his suicide. Secondly he was saved from the wrath of his masters because the prisoners had not escaped. But there is a deeper danger from which he needs to be saved, a prison in which he was a prisoner not a jailer, and it is to that that Paul responds. Wise counsellors know that there is often a hidden agenda; the presenting problem may not be the real problem. Paul told him to believe, trust, put his confidence in the Lord Jesus – a person of whom the jailer had probably never heard. Apart from Lydia and the other tiny band of Christians, the only Lord in which the people of Philippi had been told to believe, trust and put their confidence was Caesar Augustus! So when Paul and Silas had been accused of ‘advocating practices which it is illegal for us Romans to adopt and follow’, the Gospel they preached was at least subversive of the Emperor cult. The name to which every knee shall bow and whose Lordship every tongue shall confess is not Augustus; it is Jesus. We have an understandable reluctance to give such subservience to anyone because all those who set themselves up as Augustus Caesar did have proved to be fallible and inadequate. This is why our democracy is so precious: not because the majority is always right but because no individual leader is ever entirely right because they are not Jesus Christ.
So Paul and Silas, the wounds of their lashing washed and dressed, told the jailer and his household the message of Jesus. They put their trust in him and were baptised. Since ‘household’ normally would mean all the family including children, this may be the first recorded instance of infant baptism. Presumably these new Christians then met Lydia and the others and so the Philippian church grew.
The risen Christ has ascended to his glory and his appearances have ceased until the end of time. But there are still people who need to know what they need to do to be saved and the Gospel which Jesus brought can still transform them and us into those who reflect his glory. In our ecumenical journey ‘we are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, through the power of the Lord who is the Spirit.’ (2 Corinthians 3.18)
May we be one as you, Father God, are one with Christ our Saviour so that the world might believe that you sent him.
May we so reflect the glory which you gave to him that others may catch a glimpse of his presence in us. Fill us with your love so that our joy may be complete.
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Reverend John Bradley, 18th April 2010
Sermon preached at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone
Sunday 18th April 2010 (Easter 3)
What happened to Saul of Tarsus as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles was the classic ‘Damascus Road Experience’; it has put that expression into our vocabulary. Today such a radical change is treated with suspicion. No politician likes to be accused of ‘doing a U-turn.’ Before another election, Mrs Thatcher famously declared ‘the lady’s not for turning!’ But Saul did change direction, specifically with regard to Jesus of Nazareth and the Christian faith. He had tried to stamp it out but now he became one of its great ambassadors. The change was unexpected and unsought but utterly life-changing. What kind of change was it?
Conversion doesn’t just mean changing religion or denomination. This September when the Pope comes to Coventry, he will declare Cardinal John Henry Newman to be a saint. When Cardinal Newman described himself as ‘the only convert’ at the 1st Vatican Council, he meant that he had been an Anglican and had become a Roman Catholic. What happened to Saul of Tarsus was not that he changed from one religion to another. Many years later, when the Roman commandant in Jerusalem asks him who he is, he still says “I am a Jew…” (Acts 21.39; 22.3), not “I was a Jew but now I have become a Christian.”
So what is conversion? Conversion is the work of God. Ever since the time of Paul, some people have thought us preachers are proper fools. Some might say to me “you’ve been preaching for over forty years; how many people have you converted?” The answer is none, but whenever by God’s grace someone has heard what I have said and believed it and been converted, the work of conversion is entirely God’s. It seems ridiculous to imagine that people can actually be radically changed for the better by listening to someone preaching. But we keep on preaching and God keeps on converting people. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about his preaching he said that ‘the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.’ (1 Cor 1:18) Notice that these are not fixed categories of ‘the lost’ and ‘the saved’; they are ‘journeying’ words. God’s work of conversion is changing ‘being lost’ people into ‘being saved’ people.
So what happens when God converts someone? There are many famous accounts where people have described their conversion. As well as Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan wrote an account of his conversion which he entitled Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. The classic sequence is conviction of sin – realising the gulf between the person you are and the person you should be, repentance – a change of heart, mind and direction, receiving forgiveness and assurance. It is still valid, but there are other roads. As well as The Damascus Road, there is The Jericho Road – being cared for when at rock bottom and brought to safety and health. And there is The Emmaus Road – from confusion and despair to a realisation of the transforming presence of the risen Christ.
Conversion is more than repentance. Repentance is something that God enables us to do but we have to do it. Every time we gather for worship, our prayers include an element of repentance. It is a reality check because we live in a culture where we are constantly expected to present a positive image – hordes of candidates are scouring the country doing it right now! – but when we come before God who sees us as we really are, such veneers are pointless. Some repentance can be frequent but short-lived; like the man who said “it’s easy to give up smoking – I’ve done it dozens of times!” It is after we have had a change of heart, mind and direction that God changes the actual person you are, and that is conversion.
What about those people who have never known a time when they didn’t believe? Do they still need to be converted? Most people brought up in a Christian home experience a time of drifting, or rebellion, or reassessment. We began with our parents’ faith and assumed it was true but eventually came to the point of asking “what do I believe for myself?” God’s work can be quiet, almost imperceptible. You could catch the Eurostar from St Pancras to Paris and fall asleep on the train. When you reach Paris, you know you have arrived, even though you have no idea when you crossed the border.
Conversion is not only for individuals; there is a need for both personal and social conversion. Social conversion is more than the benefit to society when more individuals are converted. It is the transformation of society itself by the power of the Gospel. Engaging in social conversion inevitably brings us into the realm of politics, whichever party you support. When we pray that God’s kingdom may come and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are asking for a changed society and offering ourselves as agents of that change. It is a good thing to aim in life to leave the earth a little more like heaven than you found it. Social conversion addresses the national disgrace of 85,000 people in prison, the widening gap between rich and poor, the causes and consequences of marriage breakdown and broken families. It does so not by condemning those who have failed but by reaching out in costly compassion as Jesus did in Galilee, leaving us an example to follow in his steps.
Our Gospel reading this morning is one of my favourite parts of the Easter story. Peter was still under the cloud of having denied knowing Christ. He only knew how to do two things: following Jesus and fishing! How could he follow Jesus now? Better go fishing… Then comes another turning point – an unexpected appearance of Jesus, a life-transforming encounter. Peter can’t wait for the boat to land; his enthusiasm reminds me of Forrest Gump jumping out of his shrimp boat when he sees Lt Dan! Peter learns that Jesus still loves him and recommissions him to love others. 153 fish represent 153 Gentile nations; Peter is still to be a fisher of men.
Cynics will always scorn the possibility of conversion, just waiting for the reformed criminal to reoffend or the recovering addict to relapse. But the power to change the heart of a person, a change as radical as that from death to life, flows from the resurrection of Christ. It is because of Easter that we can be changed, not just when the last trumpet sounds, but now!
In some ways conversion is unrepeatable, like baptism, but at the same time, it is not just a once-for-all crisis. It is a stage in the process of becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. In fact, the renewal of your conversion can be a reaffirmation of the faith in which you were baptised. The hymn writer Philip Doddridge wrote ‘High heaven, that heard the solemn vow, that vow renewed shall daily hear.’ Whether or not there has been such a life-changing moment in your life, each one of us can know that we have been and are being changed from ‘being lost’ people into ‘being saved’ people. When you think what God has done in your own life, you are better equipped to tell your story of growing faith to others. That is the best way to pass the faith on. Paul was ‘not disobedient to the heavenly vision’ he received on the Damascus Road and Peter never denied again the Master’s commission to feed his flock. Through their faithfulness, the faith reached us. Through our faithfulness, this same life-transforming message will reach others as yet unborn when they, too, need God’s gracious work of conversion.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Prayers for 22nd November
Prayers for Sunday 22nd November 2009, prepared and read by Cheryl Montgomery.
CHRIST THE KING
Daniel 7:9-10 & 13-14
Revelation 1:4-8
John 18:33-37
O Christ our King, the beginning and the end:
who is and who was and who is yet to come,
who rules the rulers and the speech of the nations,
hear us as we pray for your Dominions in heaven, on earth and in our hearts.
We thank you Lord for the Dominion of heaven which enfolds us in a spiritual past, present and future. We remember with gratitude your faithful witnesses who touched our lives and brought us into your glory. We lift up to you the work of our Cornerstone Volunteers who demonstrate your reign through their ministry of welcome. We give thanks for the Hospice Movement and especially our own hospice here at Willen where respite and care are generously given. Give us all beautiful language and meaningful action which will testify to your Truth.
Give us grace to cherish and respect your Dominion of earth. Strengthen the people in the northwest with hope and determination as they come to start again after the flood. Bless the rulers of this world with courage to give meaningful pledges of hope for the earth as they prepare to meet in Copenhagen. Bless us with awareness of our own impact on the earth and help us to live with responsibility.
Look, Lord, into the Dominion of our hearts as we prepare to celebrate the birthday of our King. Compel us to take a prayer from the basket and hold close by an anonymous someone asking for aid. Touch the hearts of our church leaders with true thirst for an ecumenical tomorrow and send your spirit to seek out and call a new minister for our congregation. On the brink of Advent, help us to put aside resentment and throw off our old ways like rags. Let us drink in the power of your testimony that WE are the royal priesthood of the most high, our God.
O Christ our King, the beginning and the end,
whose glorious kingdom will never fail;
O faithful witness, firstborn of the dead,
Who loves us and freed us and made us your own,
In your name we pray.
AMEN
CHRIST THE KING
Daniel 7:9-10 & 13-14
Revelation 1:4-8
John 18:33-37
O Christ our King, the beginning and the end:
who is and who was and who is yet to come,
who rules the rulers and the speech of the nations,
hear us as we pray for your Dominions in heaven, on earth and in our hearts.
We thank you Lord for the Dominion of heaven which enfolds us in a spiritual past, present and future. We remember with gratitude your faithful witnesses who touched our lives and brought us into your glory. We lift up to you the work of our Cornerstone Volunteers who demonstrate your reign through their ministry of welcome. We give thanks for the Hospice Movement and especially our own hospice here at Willen where respite and care are generously given. Give us all beautiful language and meaningful action which will testify to your Truth.
Give us grace to cherish and respect your Dominion of earth. Strengthen the people in the northwest with hope and determination as they come to start again after the flood. Bless the rulers of this world with courage to give meaningful pledges of hope for the earth as they prepare to meet in Copenhagen. Bless us with awareness of our own impact on the earth and help us to live with responsibility.
Look, Lord, into the Dominion of our hearts as we prepare to celebrate the birthday of our King. Compel us to take a prayer from the basket and hold close by an anonymous someone asking for aid. Touch the hearts of our church leaders with true thirst for an ecumenical tomorrow and send your spirit to seek out and call a new minister for our congregation. On the brink of Advent, help us to put aside resentment and throw off our old ways like rags. Let us drink in the power of your testimony that WE are the royal priesthood of the most high, our God.
O Christ our King, the beginning and the end,
whose glorious kingdom will never fail;
O faithful witness, firstborn of the dead,
Who loves us and freed us and made us your own,
In your name we pray.
AMEN
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Revd Alan Hodgetts, 15th November 2009
Prisons Week, Sunday 15th November 2009
Revd Alan Hodgetts, Chaplain of Woodhill Prison, Milton Keynes
Revd Alan Hodgetts, Chaplain of Woodhill Prison, Milton Keynes
Four years ago, as a Rector, I had the Cure of Souls of 10,000 – 400 of whom were on the church’s Electoral Roll. Today, as a prison chaplain, there are 1500 – 700 of us are staff and 800 are prisoners. Today I am preaching to around 100? I’m talking about sinners! On Prisons Sunday, we must preface every one of our reflections with Jesus’ words Luke 5:32:-
"I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."
This, I believe, is the datum against which we should judge our actions – the reality that we are all sinners. In fact, unless we do then we might say that Jesus has little relevance for us.
However, many of us simply pay lip service to this truth because although we can say ‘we are all sinners’ we then begin to put a ‘spin on sin’ and begin to create a kind of moral highground, and like some kind of grotesque Harry Enfield character find ourselves thinking or even saying, ‘I am considerably less sinful than you!’
On Wednesday I was grabbed by the meditation in ‘Every Day with Jesus’ a little booklet of daily reflections we make available to prisoners. Last Wednesday the meditation was based on a passage from the Epistle of James :
If you show favouritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as law-breakers
The meditation ends …
“The whole point of this passage is to show that this sort of prejudice and judgmentalism is sin, just as adultery and murder are sin. The God who said that you must not steal, lie, murder, cheat or be unfaithful to your wife, says also through James that you must not be a snob. O God, save me from the central wrong of thinking of big sins and little sins. All sin is abhorrent to You.”
This is stark contrast to our society who’s attitudes are inflamed by our tabloid media, implying that those of us outside the walls or who have the privilege of drawing prison keys have the right to look down on what I have heard someone refer to as the pond life behind the walls. We currently have over 85,000 men and women behind bars in this country. Our current government is planning for 95,000 prison places and the opposition are planning for over 100,000. Many refer to this as ‘warehousing’ prisoners.
The theme for society seems, therefore, to encourage the imaginary plaque above the prison gate ‘Abandon Hope all Ye who enter here.’ Whereas Prison’s Sunday offers the very real antidote: Hold Fast to Hope.
As Christians we must walk in step with Our Lord who famously said
“… you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.”
But to do this is break step with the mores of the world and this takes courage and commitment. As Christians, we must not look for some imaginary ivory tower or moral high ground from which we can look down on those in prison because the voices we can hear wafting over the walls of Woodhill could so easily be ours or those of our sons.
So what, we might ask, are prisons for, if they aren’t to separate the sinners from the sinless amongst us. There are two phrases in the National Offender Management Service 2009 Strategic Business Plan from which I take great heart:
We work to protect the public and reduce re-offending
by delivering the punishment and orders of the courts
and by helping offenders to reform their lives.
by delivering the punishment and orders of the courts
and by helping offenders to reform their lives.
How, then, can we reduce re-offending by helping offenders reform their lives? Well, to start with we need to acknowledge the results of a culture of punishment. Recently I showed a group of prisoners a small extract from the film Wilde which showed the realities of the Victorian prison’s Exercise Yard and the Treadmill. They were visibly shocked. One prisoner on Wednesday called me over and said
“Father, have you got the DVD of what real prison was like.”
He inferred that if we had prison like that today it might work. I reminded him of the reality of that punishment culture and the three ‘S’s’ of Separation, Silence and Solitude which often resulted in madness. There is also the reality explored with great insight by Timothy Gorringe in his book ‘God’s Just Vengeance’ that punishment does not work as a deterrent.
The reality is that punishment results in the opposite to Hope – Despair. And even in today’s prison environment which is light years away from the prisons of the 19th and early 20th Century – there are still extreme cases of despair that result in self-inflicted death. Self inflicted death in prison is 4 times greater than in the normal UK population – on average around 100 out of the 85,000 prisoners in the UK. It doesn’t take much to calculate that at Woodhill with around 820 prisoners, we can expect around one self inflicted death every year.
Fortunately, such abandoned hope happens to a small minority of prisoners - around 4% of prisoners confide in having suicidal thoughts or have self-harmed. But it will be exacerbated unless there are committed men and women of faith offering the antidote – Hope.
If I had written this sermon before today’s service was put together, I would have asked for the Franciscan hymn ‘Make me a Channel of your Peace’ because of the verse:
Where there’s despair let me bring hope
This is what the Chaplaincy team of ministers and volunteers do by their very presence – we are visual aids for Hope. This is the marching song we sing as we break step with the march encouraged by the media and many politicians.
So are there signs of hope in Woodhill? There are indeed, let’s hear four prisoners explain what difference the Chaplaincy makes:
1. “As some of us were suddenly whisked away with less than 4 weeks to serve on an overcrowding draft from Woodhill to Lincoln, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your care and excellent Sunday services…… for our brilliant Monday bible studies where we benefited much from our studies of Romans …. The sacrifice you’ve made to work with prisoners brings a blessing.”
2. “Sir, I’m just writing to say thank you for helping me to become a better person. Before I came to prison I didn’t think about my actions. I’ve just finished the Sycamore Tree Programme which has really helped me. (This is a Victim Awareness and Restorative Justice Programme run by the Christian group – Prison Fellowship). I now think about my family more and other people’s families. I’m not going to excuse my actions with my bad past as I know what’s right and wrong.”
3. “you guys turned it around for me …. Remember on the last class David gave us the IF and THEN assignment, this is mine from Philippians 2:
IF I be encouraged, comforted and compassionate
THEN my joy will be complete on being like-minded with the same love and being one in spirit and purpose.
IF I consider others better than myself
THEN my attitude will be the same as that of Christ Jesus
IF I be humbled
THEN God will lift me up
IF I do everything without complaining and arguing
THEN I become blameless and pure as a child of God for Him to boast that he did not labour for nothing.
Thank you for giving me the encouragement and it has paid off and I will carry on.”
4. “Sometimes you look into others eyes and you see that sometime they have a look on their face of an endless chore of no hope. But they plod on regardless and receive no thanks. Sometimes when small things are asked you might think they go unnoticed. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. God bless.”
The antidote to punishment and despair not to give up Hope even when we see a familiar face who has come through what can often be the revolving door of the prison gate. We do this by our very presence and our work, because our work is to help grow the self-esteem of prisoners and to strengthen their moral compass as they try to steer themselves through life.
I have always believed this core value and if you feel that God might be calling you to answer his call to do the same as a Chaplaincy Volunteer or Prison Visitor – please see me after the service.
This week, we are asked to pray for those who find it hard to Hold Fast to Hope.
1. On day 1 we pray for Victims of Crime,
2. On day 2 we pray for Prisoners
3. Day 3 for Families who serve “the silent sentence”
4. Day 4 for those who do extraordinary jobs – prison staff
5. Day 5 for the community
6. On the last day – for those engaged in the justice system
You can use the intercessions in today’s service to help you if you too would like to pray for those who sometimes struggle to Hold Fast to Hope. When I felt called to this ministry myself, I had to preach a sermon at my interview, and this is the story around which I based it and I would use it again:
Once upon a time there was a man who had two water jars – but years ago one of the jars had got a small hole knocked in it. Every morning the man would put a pole across his back and carry the jars, one on each end, down to the river at the bottom of the hill.
Each day the man returned home with only one and a half jars full of water. The perfect water jar was rather pleased with itself, but the other jar felt miserable because it always got home half full. In fact, it felt so bad, that one day it surprised the old man and spoke to him,
"I’m ashamed of myself,” she said, “and I want to say sorry."
"Why?" asked the old man, "What are you ashamed of?"
"Every day I’ve wanted to get home full to the brim with water, but this hole in my side means I lose half on the way. Compared to the other jar I feel useless.”
The old man felt sorry for her, and to cheer her up said, "On our way home, take a look at the lovely flowers by the roadside.”
The water jar took his advice and as they walked she smiled at the beautiful wild flowers by the road, but when she got home she still felt sad because once more she was only half full and so, again, said she was sorry.
The old man smiled and said to the water jar, "Didn’t you notice that the flowers were only on your side of the road, and not on the other? That's because I’ve always known about the hole in your side – so I planted flower seeds on your side of the road, and every day on our way back from the stream, you've watered them. So now, I can pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my table. Without you being just the way you are, my house would have no beauty in it.”
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Reverend David Gamble, 20th September 2009
Covenant Renewal Service, 10.30 Sunday 20 September 2009
The Reverend David Gamble, President of the Methodist Conference
Let me first say what a delight and privilege it is to share this service with you today. I’ve brought you a present.
It’s a candle, in a presentation bag. It’s a candle from this year’s Methodist Conference, which was in Wolverhampton. It has on it the Wolverhampton cross of nails. It’s become a sort of tradition, for what Methodists might call connecting the connexion. Wherever the Vice-President and I travel and lead worship, during this year, we are taking one of these candles. So we have already taken candles like this to London, Leeds, County Durham, and to various town and cities in Scotland, and Shetland. We’ve taken them to Wesley’s Chapel and Westminster Central Hall. Currently the Vice-President is in Chile. And I’m in Milton Keynes and am delighted to bring a candle for you. Last Monday I was officially opening the new offices of Methodist Insurance Company, so I took them one – but I don’t think they’ll be taking it out of its presentation bag and light it. Too risky. May keep it in a bucket of water!
Today is a special Sunday in various ways. Of course, it’s particularly special here in Christ the Cornerstone, because it’s the Sunday of your annual Covenant Renewal. But, in the wider church, it’s also the Sunday designated as ‘Peacemaking Sunday’. And in the lectionary which many churches use today, this Sunday has the snappy title of the twenty-fifth Sunday in ordinary time. Our Old and New Testament readings are the readings for that Sunday. And I’m hoping this sermon might make a few links between these three different things – well, actually, I know it will because I wrote it.
So, let’s go straight to today’s gospel reading, which was from Mark 9, 30-37. Jesus and the disciples are on the way to Jerusalem. The disciples already know that Jesus is someone very special. They’re even thinking he might be the Messiah. But Jesus has made it quite clear that if he is the Messiah, he’s not going to be the kind of Messiah they were hoping for and expecting. At every opportunity, Jesus tries to explain what kind of Messiah he is. Not a strong, violent, warlike, powerful, ruling one coming to smash the Romans and throw them out of the country and establish his own military government. But a loving, caring, vulnerable, even suffering and dying one. But the disciples don’t really get it. And they’re confused and sometimes argumentative. And so, in the second part of the passage we heard this morning, it turns out they’ve been arguing over who is the greatest between them. The most important. Who’s the best, maybe. Who is the greatest?
Who is the greatest? And Mark probably included the story in his gospel because it wasn’t just those first disciples of Jesus who argued about it. The problem kept coming up. One of the most memorable images in several of St Paul’s letters is that of the church as the body of Christ. But he didn’t just invent it because he knew that in centuries to come it would make the basis for a good children’s address. He used it because people in the early church kept arguing about who was the greatest, the most important. So Paul says, ‘Look. Think of a body. It’s made up of lots of different parts. And it needs all those different parts and it needs them to be different or it wouldn’t work as a body. The parts are different – not better or worse, greater or lesser. Simply different. Apostles, teachers, preachers, administrators, pastoral workers – all important. All different. None greater than others. All essential.
So, back to Mark’s story. Here’s Jesus, faced with his followers arguing about who is the greatest. So, what does Jesus do or say? Well, first Mark says Jesus tells his disciples that ‘whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then Mark says Jesus picks up a little child, holds the child in his arms, and says ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’ To be honest, as you read this it’s a rather strange answer to the question. Indeed, it isn’t really an answer to the question about who is the greatest. There were several sayings of Jesus about little children around for Mark and the other gospel writers to choose from. In his version of this story, Matthew chooses one that fits much better (Matt.18.4) ‘Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’ Who is the greatest? Whoever becomes humble, like a child.
But in Mark the argument about who is the greatest finishes with Jesus talking about receiving, welcoming, accepting children. And he says that anyone who welcomes a child welcomes him – and not just him, but the one who sent him. So, how you respond to a small child is how you respond to God. And I suppose I read Mark as saying something like this. I’m not going to help you answer the question of who is the greatest, because it’s the wrong question. God’s way, the Jesus way, is not about squabbles over power and people setting themselves up as the most important, the best, the greatest. Just the opposite. God’s way is about caring for the smallest, the weakest, the least powerful, the most vulnerable. It’s a totally different way. Pointing to a totally different kind of world if people took it seriously.
A totally different kind of world. Things could be so different!
And our reading from the Hebrew Scripture, Psalm 1, suggests there are 2 different ways – the way the world usually seems to operate, with people after the best for themselves and not too worried about how others are doing, and the way of those whose delight is in God. A totally different kind of world.
Things could be different – lots. And by drawing attention to the little child, Jesus points to how different the world would and could be. If only......
I said earlier that, as well as being your Covenant Renewal Sunday, today – September 20th - has been designated as Peacemaking Sunday. It links with tomorrow, September 21st, which since 1982 has been the United Nations’ International Day of Peace. And, because it’s important for Christians as individuals and as churches to align themselves with those who care about the same things, more recently the nearest Sunday to September 21st has been named Peacemaking Sunday. Why the title ‘Peacemaking’ Sunday, rather than, say, just Peace Sunday. Peacemaking Sunday.
And I guess the answer is because peace is something you have to work at. It doesn’t just happen. In the beatitudes, that purple passage at the beginning of his sermon on the mount (Matthew 5), Jesus says ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ Not ‘Blessed are those who think peace might be quite a nice thing sometime.’ But ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’. The people who work to make peace come about. Peace doesn’t just happen. It has to be worked for.
When I was a child at Sunday School, we were told of a game played by Hebrew children as they were taught their scriptures. This was before football was invented. The game was that you had to try to find a text from the scriptures that began and ended with the same letters that your name began and ended with. Like a harder version of ‘I spy’. So, if your name was Fred you looked for a line of scripture that began with F and ended in D. Psalm 14, verse 1: ‘Fools say in their hearts there is no God.’ Ben. B. N. Psalm 137, verse 1. ‘By the rivers of Babylon – there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.’ Ingrid. I. D. John 1.1 ‘In the beginning was the word’ – it’s quite catching. You might like to try it. Anyway, my name is David. And after some research I came up with my verse as Psalm 34, verse14. ‘Depart from evil and do good.’ I’ve remembered it ever since. But actually, that verse has a second half. ‘Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it!’ Peace doesn’t just happen. People have to pursue it, actively to seek it, to try to bring it about, to make it. Peacemakers.
And in how many parts of the world today do we need peacemakers? People who believe that the world could be different. In Iraq. In Afghanistan. In Palestine. In Somalia. People who don’t squabble over power. Who don’t argue over who is the greatest, and seek top p[rove they are, but who accept and welcome and receive and care about the little ones. The powerless ones. The hurting ones. The vulnerable ones. Things could be different.
At the beginning of last week, having delivered my candle to Methodist Insurance, I went on to Liverpool. To the TUC Conference. I heard the anger of people who fear their jobs are going to be cut. And of people who have no jobs, and whose fathers had no job, and whose grandfathers had no jobs. I heard the wrath of postal workers describing their working conditions and what they get paid and then asking how could it be justified that the head of the Post Office gets paid 175 times more than they do.
I heard Gordon Brown trying to respond to the questions the union representatives had. To their concerns and the things that made them angry. Tomorrow I go to Bournemouth to hear the Liberal Democrats setting out their stall for a general election that is bound to happen by next summer. And in the next two weeks there will be the Labour Party and Conservative Party Conferences (unfortunately I shall miss them, as I’m going to India and Sri Lanka). But over the coming months we’ll be faced with the struggle for power. Who is the greatest? Who is most able to govern? Who’ll get the most votes?
And I wonder what alternative societies we shall be offered. Is there an alternative enough alternative? Where will the little ones, the powerless ones, the hurting ones, the marginalised ones feature in what we are asked to vote for? Will we be shown that things could really be different?
One of the roles of Christian people and people of faith; one of the roles of faith communities, is to place a question mark against how things are happening in the wider world. And I hope we shall become involved as the election approaches – and maybe go to meetings and write letters and keep ourselves well informed. But maybe it’s not just about asking questions in words – though that is important. Maybe part of what we do is to model the alternative. Not just to ask why things can’t be different, but to show that they can.
Which is at least one reason why this Church and what it seeks to demonstrate is so very important. Because just as it was with the first followers of Jesus, and just as it was in the early church, so it has been through history. Christians and their churches sometimes fall out, and argue over which church is more important and which church has the right answers. And this church, Christ the Cornerstone, has committed itself to a different way. It has said ‘Things could be different’. The people here have committed themselves to a covenant in which you work together not against each other or in competition. Rather, the opposite. As you renew your covenant later in this service you will say that you commit yourselves – again -
To work together in love
To pray and care for one another and for our neighbour
To serve together the community based in the City Centre
And to live together in fellowship
To the greater glory of God.
And it is a privilege for me to share in this renewing of your covenant. A commitment to things being different in this church. A prophetic statement that things can be different. A sign of God’s kingdom.
Things really could be different.
The Kingdom - RS Thomas
It’s a long way off but inside it
There are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
Is king and the consumptive is
Healed; mirrors in which the blind look
At themselves and love looks at them
Back: and industry is for mending
The bent bones and the minds fractured
By life. It’s a long way off, but to get
There takes no time and admission
Is free, if you will purge yourself
Of desire, and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf.
The Reverend David Gamble, President of the Methodist Conference
Let me first say what a delight and privilege it is to share this service with you today. I’ve brought you a present.
It’s a candle, in a presentation bag. It’s a candle from this year’s Methodist Conference, which was in Wolverhampton. It has on it the Wolverhampton cross of nails. It’s become a sort of tradition, for what Methodists might call connecting the connexion. Wherever the Vice-President and I travel and lead worship, during this year, we are taking one of these candles. So we have already taken candles like this to London, Leeds, County Durham, and to various town and cities in Scotland, and Shetland. We’ve taken them to Wesley’s Chapel and Westminster Central Hall. Currently the Vice-President is in Chile. And I’m in Milton Keynes and am delighted to bring a candle for you. Last Monday I was officially opening the new offices of Methodist Insurance Company, so I took them one – but I don’t think they’ll be taking it out of its presentation bag and light it. Too risky. May keep it in a bucket of water!
Today is a special Sunday in various ways. Of course, it’s particularly special here in Christ the Cornerstone, because it’s the Sunday of your annual Covenant Renewal. But, in the wider church, it’s also the Sunday designated as ‘Peacemaking Sunday’. And in the lectionary which many churches use today, this Sunday has the snappy title of the twenty-fifth Sunday in ordinary time. Our Old and New Testament readings are the readings for that Sunday. And I’m hoping this sermon might make a few links between these three different things – well, actually, I know it will because I wrote it.
So, let’s go straight to today’s gospel reading, which was from Mark 9, 30-37. Jesus and the disciples are on the way to Jerusalem. The disciples already know that Jesus is someone very special. They’re even thinking he might be the Messiah. But Jesus has made it quite clear that if he is the Messiah, he’s not going to be the kind of Messiah they were hoping for and expecting. At every opportunity, Jesus tries to explain what kind of Messiah he is. Not a strong, violent, warlike, powerful, ruling one coming to smash the Romans and throw them out of the country and establish his own military government. But a loving, caring, vulnerable, even suffering and dying one. But the disciples don’t really get it. And they’re confused and sometimes argumentative. And so, in the second part of the passage we heard this morning, it turns out they’ve been arguing over who is the greatest between them. The most important. Who’s the best, maybe. Who is the greatest?
Who is the greatest? And Mark probably included the story in his gospel because it wasn’t just those first disciples of Jesus who argued about it. The problem kept coming up. One of the most memorable images in several of St Paul’s letters is that of the church as the body of Christ. But he didn’t just invent it because he knew that in centuries to come it would make the basis for a good children’s address. He used it because people in the early church kept arguing about who was the greatest, the most important. So Paul says, ‘Look. Think of a body. It’s made up of lots of different parts. And it needs all those different parts and it needs them to be different or it wouldn’t work as a body. The parts are different – not better or worse, greater or lesser. Simply different. Apostles, teachers, preachers, administrators, pastoral workers – all important. All different. None greater than others. All essential.
So, back to Mark’s story. Here’s Jesus, faced with his followers arguing about who is the greatest. So, what does Jesus do or say? Well, first Mark says Jesus tells his disciples that ‘whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then Mark says Jesus picks up a little child, holds the child in his arms, and says ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’ To be honest, as you read this it’s a rather strange answer to the question. Indeed, it isn’t really an answer to the question about who is the greatest. There were several sayings of Jesus about little children around for Mark and the other gospel writers to choose from. In his version of this story, Matthew chooses one that fits much better (Matt.18.4) ‘Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’ Who is the greatest? Whoever becomes humble, like a child.
But in Mark the argument about who is the greatest finishes with Jesus talking about receiving, welcoming, accepting children. And he says that anyone who welcomes a child welcomes him – and not just him, but the one who sent him. So, how you respond to a small child is how you respond to God. And I suppose I read Mark as saying something like this. I’m not going to help you answer the question of who is the greatest, because it’s the wrong question. God’s way, the Jesus way, is not about squabbles over power and people setting themselves up as the most important, the best, the greatest. Just the opposite. God’s way is about caring for the smallest, the weakest, the least powerful, the most vulnerable. It’s a totally different way. Pointing to a totally different kind of world if people took it seriously.
A totally different kind of world. Things could be so different!
And our reading from the Hebrew Scripture, Psalm 1, suggests there are 2 different ways – the way the world usually seems to operate, with people after the best for themselves and not too worried about how others are doing, and the way of those whose delight is in God. A totally different kind of world.
Things could be different – lots. And by drawing attention to the little child, Jesus points to how different the world would and could be. If only......
I said earlier that, as well as being your Covenant Renewal Sunday, today – September 20th - has been designated as Peacemaking Sunday. It links with tomorrow, September 21st, which since 1982 has been the United Nations’ International Day of Peace. And, because it’s important for Christians as individuals and as churches to align themselves with those who care about the same things, more recently the nearest Sunday to September 21st has been named Peacemaking Sunday. Why the title ‘Peacemaking’ Sunday, rather than, say, just Peace Sunday. Peacemaking Sunday.
And I guess the answer is because peace is something you have to work at. It doesn’t just happen. In the beatitudes, that purple passage at the beginning of his sermon on the mount (Matthew 5), Jesus says ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ Not ‘Blessed are those who think peace might be quite a nice thing sometime.’ But ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’. The people who work to make peace come about. Peace doesn’t just happen. It has to be worked for.
When I was a child at Sunday School, we were told of a game played by Hebrew children as they were taught their scriptures. This was before football was invented. The game was that you had to try to find a text from the scriptures that began and ended with the same letters that your name began and ended with. Like a harder version of ‘I spy’. So, if your name was Fred you looked for a line of scripture that began with F and ended in D. Psalm 14, verse 1: ‘Fools say in their hearts there is no God.’ Ben. B. N. Psalm 137, verse 1. ‘By the rivers of Babylon – there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.’ Ingrid. I. D. John 1.1 ‘In the beginning was the word’ – it’s quite catching. You might like to try it. Anyway, my name is David. And after some research I came up with my verse as Psalm 34, verse14. ‘Depart from evil and do good.’ I’ve remembered it ever since. But actually, that verse has a second half. ‘Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it!’ Peace doesn’t just happen. People have to pursue it, actively to seek it, to try to bring it about, to make it. Peacemakers.
And in how many parts of the world today do we need peacemakers? People who believe that the world could be different. In Iraq. In Afghanistan. In Palestine. In Somalia. People who don’t squabble over power. Who don’t argue over who is the greatest, and seek top p[rove they are, but who accept and welcome and receive and care about the little ones. The powerless ones. The hurting ones. The vulnerable ones. Things could be different.
At the beginning of last week, having delivered my candle to Methodist Insurance, I went on to Liverpool. To the TUC Conference. I heard the anger of people who fear their jobs are going to be cut. And of people who have no jobs, and whose fathers had no job, and whose grandfathers had no jobs. I heard the wrath of postal workers describing their working conditions and what they get paid and then asking how could it be justified that the head of the Post Office gets paid 175 times more than they do.
I heard Gordon Brown trying to respond to the questions the union representatives had. To their concerns and the things that made them angry. Tomorrow I go to Bournemouth to hear the Liberal Democrats setting out their stall for a general election that is bound to happen by next summer. And in the next two weeks there will be the Labour Party and Conservative Party Conferences (unfortunately I shall miss them, as I’m going to India and Sri Lanka). But over the coming months we’ll be faced with the struggle for power. Who is the greatest? Who is most able to govern? Who’ll get the most votes?
And I wonder what alternative societies we shall be offered. Is there an alternative enough alternative? Where will the little ones, the powerless ones, the hurting ones, the marginalised ones feature in what we are asked to vote for? Will we be shown that things could really be different?
One of the roles of Christian people and people of faith; one of the roles of faith communities, is to place a question mark against how things are happening in the wider world. And I hope we shall become involved as the election approaches – and maybe go to meetings and write letters and keep ourselves well informed. But maybe it’s not just about asking questions in words – though that is important. Maybe part of what we do is to model the alternative. Not just to ask why things can’t be different, but to show that they can.
Which is at least one reason why this Church and what it seeks to demonstrate is so very important. Because just as it was with the first followers of Jesus, and just as it was in the early church, so it has been through history. Christians and their churches sometimes fall out, and argue over which church is more important and which church has the right answers. And this church, Christ the Cornerstone, has committed itself to a different way. It has said ‘Things could be different’. The people here have committed themselves to a covenant in which you work together not against each other or in competition. Rather, the opposite. As you renew your covenant later in this service you will say that you commit yourselves – again -
To work together in love
To pray and care for one another and for our neighbour
To serve together the community based in the City Centre
And to live together in fellowship
To the greater glory of God.
And it is a privilege for me to share in this renewing of your covenant. A commitment to things being different in this church. A prophetic statement that things can be different. A sign of God’s kingdom.
Things really could be different.
The Kingdom - RS Thomas
It’s a long way off but inside it
There are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
Is king and the consumptive is
Healed; mirrors in which the blind look
At themselves and love looks at them
Back: and industry is for mending
The bent bones and the minds fractured
By life. It’s a long way off, but to get
There takes no time and admission
Is free, if you will purge yourself
Of desire, and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
God's in the Dark.
Sermon presented by David Moore at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, 30 August 2009
I Kings 8 v 12
From the beginning of recorded histories there have always been taboos about depicting God. The second Commandment is explicit - no graven images.
In other words do not depict what you have not seen or cannot see. It sounds akin to a total block on imagination and creativity. The problem with idolatry is that it can very quickly lead to expressing as fact what you do not know for sure to be true! So, beware, do not overstate your convictions!
I find it strangely attractive, perhaps poetic, that the God who chooses to dwell in darkness has shone his light upon us in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Now then, why might God choose to dwell in darkness?
These may not be burning issues for you but for me as a theologian and an artist - these are issues we neglect to our peril! Or, put in another way, why might it be that the deepest mystery of our faith can be encapsulated in a slice of bread and a cup of wine.
The God ‘concealed’ in bread and wine is the one who chooses darkness that we might enjoy the light.
You will recall these words from John 6. ‘My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him.’
What do we really think these words mean? Are any of us like those first hearers who said “This is more than we can stand”. Some who heard Jesus speak voted with their feet! At the heart of this issue is the God of light choosing to dwell in darkness.
A possible clue!
Those of you who are parents will have had the experience of teaching a child to ride a bicycle and having to let go of the saddle for the first time - it has got to be done, not just once but in 1000 other ways - letting go. If we over-protect our young we weaken their autonomy. It is not for nothing we refer to God as father - which of course equally means mother! - the one who steps back into darkness and allows the other the light.
Another clue!
The director of the play, or the stage manager must disappear into the shadows of the wings for the actors to perform. Without a fully autonomous performance, that exquisite interaction between the actor’s voice and the audience’s ear; without that magic the audience cannot engage heart, memory, emotion, imagination - mysteriously offering it as part of the total performance. Not only is play-write, director and prompter all in the darkness but so is the audience! The play does not exist for the actors, neither does it solely exist for the audience!
Somehow in worship the rules of theatre apply - no wonder we close our eyes to pray – we, like God, also enter the dark! Collectively, we help each other to ‘balance our bicycle’, to ‘act’ to ‘sing’, to remember, to engage ... to have faith!
Bread and wine, the evocative symbols of faith ONLY exist in order to disappear. Any nourishment that occurs is not from the nutriments but the mysterious ‘conversations’ which occur within; within the darkness and with the One who chooses that darkness?
I want to park all of that for a moment or two and ask you some questions. These are questions which do not have a right or wrong answer. Will you answer ‘yes’ by raising a hand.
So without doubt most of you are artists - to do any of the tasks I mentioned you have to imagine - to engage your inner world with your outer world. That is how the practice of creativity occurs - the inside and the outside, if you like, the light and the dark. When that which dwells in darkness combines with practical physical movements.
How many of you draw? How many of you, if asked, would automatically reply ‘ I can’t draw?’
Picasso was perhaps the greatest artist of the 20th century - as a boy and young man he drew with amazing skill and dexterity, producing drawings of photographic accuracy. Yet later his great quest was to learn to draw with the freedom of a child – drawing where precision and accuracy no longer mattered. Capturing the essence became the big issue.
You know why am I telling you all this, but I will tell you again - every year in October there is a national drawing campaign called The Big Draw - it aims to encourage those of you who say ‘I can’t draw’ to un-believe – to have faith and have a go!
Here at Cornerstone we plan to cover the wall of the entire cloister with drawing paper and to invite people to draw Bible stories - the work can be done at home and fixed to the wall or can be drawn straight onto the wall. I am asking all the churches in Milton Keynes to join in, also company workplaces, residential homes and those in the prison. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a healing miracle drawn by a doctor, St Paul’s prison break by a Police Officer and the widow’s mite by the Bank Manager.
Any Bible story or reference – pencil, charcoal, paint, crayon, pastels, photography, collage, fabrics, calligraphy - have faith, make a picture ... allow the God who shares the darkness of your doubt to give you the courage to have a go?
My son and family recently returned from holiday – before they left I gave him and his two daughters a blank postcard each with the request - ‘don’t just send me a postcard, draw me one’. Last week I received three beautiful postcards from Thailand - it made my heart glad in ways that completely surprised me. I was quite unprepared for the impact their work had upon me!
I like to think that if some of you were to have a go, it would be like sharing your light with the God who chooses to be in the shadows, and perhaps more!.
The plan is to draw the Bible in a month – which is a surprising and interesting way of saying ‘we believe’. That we even believe in what we think we can’t do! Now that is faith or is it not?
In John 6 v56: Jesus was talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood - he is not speaking about cannibalism, or proposing belief in magic! This is about participating, about joining in, about discovering that the effects of joining-in always bring us closer to the deeper mysteries in life.
During my ministry I have met people who would never take communion because they thought they were not good enough. But you know and I know, that this is not what communion is about, ultimately it is about saying ‘I’m in’.
A person saying ‘I can’t draw’ usually means ‘I won’t draw, because I don’t think I am good enough at it’. I know - I have said that all my life! Might we ‘non-drawers’ be somewhat akin to the person refusing communion on the grounds they are not good enough.
Go on, make God smile - create a drawing - YOUR drawing. Make God smile, not as in laughing at you, but as delighting in you. You might for a moment draw God out of the shadows – sorry about the pun!
The Big Draw will happen at Cornerstone during October. Wherever you are you are most welcome to join in - you could make a small drawing and scan it into your computer and send it to us. Or if you might wish to create an electronic drawing. We still do use the postal service and our address is on the website, so you can mail your contribution to us. Please address it to 'Cornerstones Big Draw'. Click here for our contact details on our website.
I Kings 8 v 12
Then Solomon said: The Lord has caused his sun to shine in the heavens, but he has said he will dwell in darkness.
From the beginning of recorded histories there have always been taboos about depicting God. The second Commandment is explicit - no graven images.
In other words do not depict what you have not seen or cannot see. It sounds akin to a total block on imagination and creativity. The problem with idolatry is that it can very quickly lead to expressing as fact what you do not know for sure to be true! So, beware, do not overstate your convictions!
I find it strangely attractive, perhaps poetic, that the God who chooses to dwell in darkness has shone his light upon us in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Now then, why might God choose to dwell in darkness?
These may not be burning issues for you but for me as a theologian and an artist - these are issues we neglect to our peril! Or, put in another way, why might it be that the deepest mystery of our faith can be encapsulated in a slice of bread and a cup of wine.
The God ‘concealed’ in bread and wine is the one who chooses darkness that we might enjoy the light.
You will recall these words from John 6. ‘My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him.’
What do we really think these words mean? Are any of us like those first hearers who said “This is more than we can stand”. Some who heard Jesus speak voted with their feet! At the heart of this issue is the God of light choosing to dwell in darkness.
A possible clue!
Those of you who are parents will have had the experience of teaching a child to ride a bicycle and having to let go of the saddle for the first time - it has got to be done, not just once but in 1000 other ways - letting go. If we over-protect our young we weaken their autonomy. It is not for nothing we refer to God as father - which of course equally means mother! - the one who steps back into darkness and allows the other the light.
Another clue!
The director of the play, or the stage manager must disappear into the shadows of the wings for the actors to perform. Without a fully autonomous performance, that exquisite interaction between the actor’s voice and the audience’s ear; without that magic the audience cannot engage heart, memory, emotion, imagination - mysteriously offering it as part of the total performance. Not only is play-write, director and prompter all in the darkness but so is the audience! The play does not exist for the actors, neither does it solely exist for the audience!
Somehow in worship the rules of theatre apply - no wonder we close our eyes to pray – we, like God, also enter the dark! Collectively, we help each other to ‘balance our bicycle’, to ‘act’ to ‘sing’, to remember, to engage ... to have faith!
Bread and wine, the evocative symbols of faith ONLY exist in order to disappear. Any nourishment that occurs is not from the nutriments but the mysterious ‘conversations’ which occur within; within the darkness and with the One who chooses that darkness?
I want to park all of that for a moment or two and ask you some questions. These are questions which do not have a right or wrong answer. Will you answer ‘yes’ by raising a hand.
- How many enjoy cooking?
- How many of you make cakes or bake bread?
- How many of you are gardeners by choice rather than of necessity?
- How many use make-up?
- How many of you do cross-stitch or the like?
- How many like to sing?
- How many of you knit or make things of fabric?
- How many make things of wood or DIY?
- How many of you draw, or paint or make collages?
- How many of you have raised their hand one or more times?
So without doubt most of you are artists - to do any of the tasks I mentioned you have to imagine - to engage your inner world with your outer world. That is how the practice of creativity occurs - the inside and the outside, if you like, the light and the dark. When that which dwells in darkness combines with practical physical movements.
How many of you draw? How many of you, if asked, would automatically reply ‘ I can’t draw?’
Picasso was perhaps the greatest artist of the 20th century - as a boy and young man he drew with amazing skill and dexterity, producing drawings of photographic accuracy. Yet later his great quest was to learn to draw with the freedom of a child – drawing where precision and accuracy no longer mattered. Capturing the essence became the big issue.
You know why am I telling you all this, but I will tell you again - every year in October there is a national drawing campaign called The Big Draw - it aims to encourage those of you who say ‘I can’t draw’ to un-believe – to have faith and have a go!
Here at Cornerstone we plan to cover the wall of the entire cloister with drawing paper and to invite people to draw Bible stories - the work can be done at home and fixed to the wall or can be drawn straight onto the wall. I am asking all the churches in Milton Keynes to join in, also company workplaces, residential homes and those in the prison. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a healing miracle drawn by a doctor, St Paul’s prison break by a Police Officer and the widow’s mite by the Bank Manager.
Any Bible story or reference – pencil, charcoal, paint, crayon, pastels, photography, collage, fabrics, calligraphy - have faith, make a picture ... allow the God who shares the darkness of your doubt to give you the courage to have a go?
My son and family recently returned from holiday – before they left I gave him and his two daughters a blank postcard each with the request - ‘don’t just send me a postcard, draw me one’. Last week I received three beautiful postcards from Thailand - it made my heart glad in ways that completely surprised me. I was quite unprepared for the impact their work had upon me!
I like to think that if some of you were to have a go, it would be like sharing your light with the God who chooses to be in the shadows, and perhaps more!.
The plan is to draw the Bible in a month – which is a surprising and interesting way of saying ‘we believe’. That we even believe in what we think we can’t do! Now that is faith or is it not?
In John 6 v56: Jesus was talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood - he is not speaking about cannibalism, or proposing belief in magic! This is about participating, about joining in, about discovering that the effects of joining-in always bring us closer to the deeper mysteries in life.
During my ministry I have met people who would never take communion because they thought they were not good enough. But you know and I know, that this is not what communion is about, ultimately it is about saying ‘I’m in’.
A person saying ‘I can’t draw’ usually means ‘I won’t draw, because I don’t think I am good enough at it’. I know - I have said that all my life! Might we ‘non-drawers’ be somewhat akin to the person refusing communion on the grounds they are not good enough.
Go on, make God smile - create a drawing - YOUR drawing. Make God smile, not as in laughing at you, but as delighting in you. You might for a moment draw God out of the shadows – sorry about the pun!
The Big Draw will happen at Cornerstone during October. Wherever you are you are most welcome to join in - you could make a small drawing and scan it into your computer and send it to us. Or if you might wish to create an electronic drawing. We still do use the postal service and our address is on the website, so you can mail your contribution to us. Please address it to 'Cornerstones Big Draw'. Click here for our contact details on our website.
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