Bring me to life

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Peter's Nevendon this afternoon:

Imagine a bed surrounded by the debris of a week’s illness, soiled sheets and slashed pillows, pills and vodka bottles, used condoms and tissues. This is ‘My Bed’ an installation by Tracy Emin was first exhibited in 1999. You’ll probably remember reading about it in the press at the time as it prompted the usual “call that art, my two-year old could have done better” kind of articles. A bed is a powerful symbol of birth and death, sex and intimacy but this controversial installation was perhaps an image of our culture’s sickness and dis-ease surrounded by the remnants of those things through which we seek a cure; sex, alcohol, drugs, tears, aggression. And the bed, like many lives, was empty. The morning after the cure that never came.

Sometimes our lives feel like that installation. Our relationships may have broken down, we may have been abused, we may be anxious, stressed or worried, our work might be under threat or have ended. For all these reasons and many others we can feel as though our lives have closed down becoming barren or dry or dead. Our communities and culture can feel like that too. Many years ago now, at the end of the 1970’s, The Sex Pistols sang about there being no future in England’s dreaming. And many people still think that our society is changing for the worse. When I had a holiday in Spain a few years ago I stayed on a street that was mainly occupied by British people who had left because they didn’t like the changes that they saw in British society. Such people think of Britain as being diseased and dead with no future for them. Being in the Church it is also easy to feel the same. We are regularly told in the press that the Church is in decline and the Church of England continues to deal with major conflicts that threaten to pull it apart. Again, it is easy to feel as though the Church is washed up, dried out and dying.

Whatever we think of those issues and views, the God that we worship is in the resurrection business. And that is where we need to be too. In our Gospel reading (John 11: 1-45) Jesus said that he is the resurrection and the life and demonstrated this by bringing Lazarus back to life. Through his ministry, Jesus resurrected a society and culture transforming the entire world as he did so. He calls us to follow in his footsteps by looking for the places where our society and culture is dried up or dying and working for its transformation and resurrection. Each of us can do the same as Jesus through our work and community involvements and we need to be asking ourselves how God wants to use us, through those involvements, to transform parts of our society and culture.

Raising Lazarus from death was a sign of what would happen after Jesus’ own death on the cross. By rising from death himself, Jesus conquered death for all people enabling us to enter in to eternal life after our physical death. This is good news for us to share with other people around us wherever we are - in our families and among our friends, neighbours and work colleagues.

Jesus also resurrected lives before physical death came. Look for a moment at John 11 with me. In the first section of that chapter from verses 1 to 16 we see the disciples struggling to understand what Jesus was saying and doing. He wanted them to see how God was at work in Lazarus’ illness and death. They kept looking only at their physical and material circumstances - if Jesus went back to Judea then he would be killed, if Lazarus was asleep then he would get better, and so on. Jesus wanted them to see that God can work even through death and in verse 16 he drew out of them the commitment to go with him even though they might die with him.

Then in verses 17 to 27, Jesus helped Martha move beyond her theoretical belief in the resurrection to a belief that Jesus himself is the promised Messiah. Finally, in verses 38 to 45, he helped all those present to move beyond their focus on physical realities to believe in God’s ability to do the supernatural. Throughout, Jesus was challenging all the people he encountered to move beyond their comfort zones, to step out in faith, to encounter and trust God in new ways. He wants to do the same with each one of us. Wherever our lives have got stuck, have become dried up or closed down or have died he wants to challenge and encourage us to move out of our comfort zones and to encounter him and other people in new and risky ways. He wants us to come alive to God, to the world, to other people and to life itself in new ways.

Jesus is in the resurrection business. Whether it is transforming society, sharing the good news of eternal life or encouraging us to step out in faith, Jesus wants to bring us to life. How will you respond to Jesus this afternoon? Is there an area of your life that he can bring back to life? Will you commit yourself to join in sharing the good news of eternal life with others and transforming society where you are?

As you think about that challenge let us pray together briefly, using the words of a song by Evanescence: Lord Jesus, we are frozen inside without your touch, without your love. You are the life among the dead, so wake us up inside. Call our names and save us from the dark. Bid our blood to run before we come undone, save us from the nothing we’ve become. Bring us to life. Amen.

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Evanescence - Bring Me To Life.

Our old story ends and a new one begins

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Catherine's Wickford:

Fyodor Dostoevsky was a famous and talented author who was born in 1821 in St. Petersburg, Russia, and died in 1881. At 27, he became involved in a group of authors who got together regularly to discuss ideas. The ideas they discussed were considered treason. They were all arrested and imprisoned.

At Peter and Paul Fortress, Dostoevsky and his book club were sentenced to execution by firing squad. This was actually a mock execution but they didn’t know that. They were brought out, told they were going to be executed, taken to the spot, blindfolded, their crimes read out, the command was given, and the rifles were raised. Then, at the last moment, the execution was stopped and their sentence changed to four years hard labour in prison in Siberia and then four years in exile. Dostoyevsky writes a lot about this; how life was given back to him, how he had thought he was seconds away from being executed.

He was put in chains, put in a sleigh, as it was winter, and travelled to Siberia. He suffered with severe frostbite and for the rest of his life would have scars from the chains. As he was going into the prison, he was given a little New Testament. So, the only thing he had to read for four years was this New Testament. He read it over and over, especially the gospel of John, especially the story of Lazarus.

He came to believe in Jesus and, in his writings, he compares himself to Lazarus having a chance to live again. All his novels after that contain in some form, his Christian faith. Richard Harries notes that “He wrote that his faith had come ‘through a furnace of doubt’ and was focused on a deep attraction to the person of Jesus Christ.” “He entered deeply into the atheism of his age” so that, as Malcolm Jones has written, “in reading Dostoevskii we are in the presence of a genius wrestling with the problems of rethinking Christianity in the modern age.”

His most famous novel is ‘Crime and Punishment’, a novel written in 1866. People say that ‘Crime and Punishment’ is a poor translation and that the title would be better translated ‘Crime and Consequences’.

The novel centres around the main character – a young man – named Raskolnikov who is a young intelligent, college student, very poor, and living in St. Petersburg. He is an atheist who believes that ‘exceptional men’ are beyond good and evil. Normal laws of morality do not apply to such men. He gives the example of Napoleon; a man who killed hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, but is regarded a great man because he’s exceptional. Ordinary laws of morality didn’t apply to him. Raskolnikov believes he is an exceptional man and, to prove it, murders two old woman who are sisters. Obviously, he is a very lost young man.

Most of the novel is spent inside his head, as he is “locked up in a mental prison”. Ultimately, though, it’s a book about redemption. In the end, Raskolnikov - the murderer, the atheist, the man who convinced himself that he was beyond good and evil – finds redemption. He finds redemption in a young woman named Sonya, who has been forced into prostitution through poverty and to provide for two orphaned children. She is like Mary Magdalene, having found redemption and meaning in Christ.

In one of the most moving scenes, which is actually “the turning point in the book”, the two are together. Raskolnikov has not confessed his crime to Sonya, but will later. She has a bible laying on her table. Raskolnikov picks up the bible and asks, “Where is the part about Lazarus?” She flips to it and reads him the story of the raising of Lazarus, tears streaming down her face as she reads. Afterwards, he says “Do you believe this?” She replies, “With all my heart.” He’s not asking if she believes in the story, what he’s really asking is: “Do you believe there’s redemption for someone like me, a murderer?”

The closing sentence of this scene reads as follows:

Sonya says “That’s all about the raising of Lazarus.” she whispered. The candle was flickering out and the battered candlestick casting a dim light in this destitute room upon the murderer and the harlot strangely come together over the reading of the eternal book.

They are two lost souls on the road to redemption reading about the raising of Lazarus.

Eventually, Raskolnikov confesses his crime to Sonya; that he’s murdered the two older women. One of these women was Sonya’s close friend, Lizaveta. In fact, it was Lizaveta who gave the bible to Sonya. Sonya’s response to Raskolnikov is, “What have you done to yourself?” and she cries. She gives him her cross, which was also given her by Lizaveta, and urges him to confess in public and give himself up for arrest and punishment. Eventually, he wears her cross, goes to the police and confesses. He is convicted and sent to Siberia to prison. Sonya travels with him, to be near him and to visit him in prison. She is a picture of Christ, who doesn’t forsake him.

The closing paragraphs of the book read as follows:

Under his pillow lay the New Testament. He took the book out. It belonged to Sonya, it was the same one from which she had read to him about the raising of Lazarus. At the beginning, he had thought she would hound him with religion, forever talking about the Gospels and forcing books on him. But to his great amazement, she never once spoke of it, never once even offered him the New Testament. He had to ask her for it himself.

He had not even opened it yet. Nor did he open it now, but a thought flashed in his mind: “Can her convictions be mine?

Here begins a new account, the account of a man’s gradual renewal, the account of his gradual regeneration, his gradual transition from one world to another. It might make the subject of a new story—but our present story is ended.

So, the “reading of the Lazarus story to Raskolnikov and the wearing of the cross bear fruit as the novel proceeds.” “Raskolnikov’s state is effectively death; and the significance of Christ’s command to Lazarus, ‘Come forth!’ is obvious.” That is what happens to Raskolnikov as the novel proceeds. “The divine words addressed to Lazarus – ‘Come forth’ – have been heard” and Raskolnikov stumbles out of the death of his mental tomb.

Dostoyevsky who became a Christian because of the New Testament, especially the story of Lazarus, then wrote a book about a murderer finding redemption through the New Testament and the story of Lazarus. Neither Dostoevsky or Raskolnikov die physically, but their experiences lead them to a place where they see themselves as having been given new life in Christ. Their old story ends and a new story begins. That is what the story of Lazarus promises; when we’re scared and feel defeated – caught up in our despair, sorrow, anger, guilt, or shame, Jesus comes and brings redemption into our stories. That is what the story of Lazarus is about and that is how we regain balance after trauma, grief, imprisonment, shame, guilt or whatever. Dostoevsky knew this in his own life and described it in depth in the story of Raskolnikov.

I wonder whether you have ever been locked in a mental prison and how you got free.
I wonder what Jesus’ words to Lazarus, ‘Come forth’, mean for you.
I wonder whether there is a story in your life which needs to end, so another can begin.

(Adapted from David Eiffert, ‘The God who bleeds 8: Lazarus and Dostoevsky’ - https://gospelanchor.org/the-god-who-bleeds-8-lazarus-and-dostoyevsky/; with additional quotes from Richard Harries’ ‘Haunted By Christ’ and Rowan Williams’ ‘Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction’)

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Joseph Arthur - Dear Lord.

The Big Picture: Meeting Christ in Sundry Places

The Big Picture 16, from The Kirby Laing Centre, explores third places: the social spaces between home and work that are so influential in community life but increasingly under threat in our fragmented, digitised world. As usual, they have a diverse group of contributors who help us to think through how such places contribute to human flourishing, and the relationship of third places to public theology and Christian formation.

Issue 16 features articles about health clubs, coffee rooms and even cigar lounges as sites of encounter and missional opportunity, as well as considering how we might reconceive of churches as active third places that engage our wider community. They also feature articles about anime, art, film, philosophy, books and their Decalogue project.

The Big Picture regularly republishes articles previously published through ArtWay and, on this occasion, is re-publishing my interview with Francis Hoyland: 'ArtWay: Meeting Christ in Sundry Places — Jonathan Evens interviewing Francis Hoyland. Evens interviews painter Francis Hoyland about his decades of depicting Christ’s life, and the role that his Catholic faith plays in his art.'

By Friday, you will be able to order full-colour hard copies on Amazon, and Substack readers will get access to the whole magazine (paid subscribers) or the first batch of articles (free subscribers). You can read the contents page with descriptions here.

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Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis.

We can do nothing without Jesus

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Andrew's Wickford: 

Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.” (John 5. 17-30)

“God wants to communicate with humanity, and … Jesus represents the essence of that desire to talk,” says Mike Riddell. As God’s Son, Jesus was in a constant conversation with both God the Father and with God the Spirit. In these verses and others, the Son claims that he hears from the Father and speaks just what the Father has taught him (John 8: 26 – 29). He also claims that his relationship with the Father is not just one way, rather the Father also always hears the Son (John 11: 41 & 42). Similarly, he says that the Spirit will not speak on his own but only what he hears (John 16: 13). The Spirit is sent, like the Son, by the Father, but comes in the name of the Son to remind the disciples of everything that the Son said to them (John 14: 26 & 27). This interplay or dialogue within the Godhead between Father, Son and Spirit can be summed up in the words of John 3. 34-35: “For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God; to him God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.”

Stephen Verney calls this interplay between Father, Son and Spirit, which he believes we are called to enter, ‘the Dance of Love.’ He writes: “”I can do nothing”, [Jesus] said, “except what I see the Father doing”. If he lays aside his teaching robes and washes the feet of the learners … it is because he sees his Father doing it. God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, is like that; he too lays aside his dignity and status as a teacher. He does not try to force his objective truth into our thick heads, but he gives himself to us in acts of humble service; he laughs with us and weeps with us, and he invites us to know him in our hearts through an interaction and an interplay between us. It is this knowledge that Jesus has received from the Father, and in the to and fro of this relationship he and the Father are one. They need each other. That is the pattern of how things potentially are in the universe, and of how God means them to be”.

Just as Jesus does nothing on his own but does everything together with the Father and the Spirit, it is to be the same for us. Jesus told his disciples that he was going to leave them (as happened at the Ascension) and then that he would send the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, the comforter and advocate, to them (as happened on the Day of Pentecost). The Spirit speaks to the disciples whatever he hears from Jesus; both the many things he wanted to say to them but which they could not bear at that time and also the things that are to come. Earlier, he also said that the Spirit will teach them everything and remind them of all that Jesus had said to them. The result will be that they will do greater things than him.

Jesus said many amazing things that people still repeat regardless of whether they follow him or not. But his farewell discourse to his disciples must be among the most amazing, because in it Jesus says that those who follow him will do greater things than him and will be led into all truth. When you think how amazing Jesus’ own actions were, it is hard to imagine how people like us could do greater things than that, and, when you think how profound his teaching was, how could we be led into deeper or greater truth than that?

But Jesus was articulating something that all good teachers think and feel; the sense that all the time he had spent with them and invested in them was not so they would be clones of him, simply repeating the things he did and said, but instead that he had equipped, empowered and enabled his followers to follow him by using their own gifts and abilities and initiative which would inevitably mean that they would do and say different things from him but still with his Spirit and based on all they had learnt from him. He was saying that each one of us is a unique combination of personality, abilities and potential and, therefore, each of us can make a unique mark on the world. His followers can do greater things than Jesus because they will do different things from him in his name and Spirit – things that only they can do for him because they are that unique package of personality, ability and potential.

As Jesus put it, the Spirit will teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus said so that we intuitively do those things on an improvisational basis. The Spirit comes to remind Christians of all that Jesus did and said, so we embody it in our lives. In this way we can do greater things than Jesus because we will do different things from him, but in his name and Spirit. Like him, we can do nothing on our own, but only what we, through his Spirit, see Jesus doing. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Inner City - Unity.

Artlyst: Bruegel To Rembrandt Drawing The Rise of Naturalism Compton Verney

My latest exhibition review for Artlyst is on ‘Bruegel to Rembrandt: Drawing Life, Sketching Wonder’ at Compton Verney:

'‘Patience’ shows naturalistic drawing utilised in the service of fantastical moral fables, while ‘Prudence’ shows the same style utilised in the service of realist moral fables. This shift from a focus on a fantastical demonic scene to a realistic rural scene in which, ‘as now, people look for a sense of control in times of uncertainty – preparing for harder days, these peasants store food and money, repair dilapidated buildings, and gather firefighting equipment’ – is part artistic, part social and part theological.

Religion plays a significant role throughout the changes explored and the genres displayed. An exquisitely illustrated 16th-century Flemish Book of Hours illuminates the relationship between prayer books and the depiction of everyday country life across the Netherlands in this period. However, a secularising element can also be seen, particularly when the Biblical content is minimised within an image to focus on the landscape in which the scene is set. An example of this tendency can be seen in Abraham Bloemaert’s ‘Landscape with the Prodigal Son’, where Bloemaert’s interest is mainly with the dilapidated house or barn against which the miniscule Prodigal leans and the living trees that the barn is built around.'

See also my reviews of 'Cranach: Artist and Innovator', 'Albrecht Dürer Travels Of A Renaissance Artist', 'Siena: The Creative Achievement Of Christendom' and Rehanging the Sainsbury Wing.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

• Michael Petry Discusses In League With Devils with Revd Jonathan Evens
• Sean Scully A Humility Towards Nature
• Winslow Homer: American Passage An Interview With Biographer Bill Cross
• Grayson Perry Tapestries On Show At Salisbury Cathedral
• Sidney Nolan’s Africa: Interview With Andrew Turley
• Ilona Bossanyi: Tate’s Ervin Bossanyi Stained Glass Window Mothballed After 2011 Redevelopment
• Louis Carreon: Sampling Art History
• Modus Operandi - What Makes Successful Public Art: Vivien Lovell Interviewed
• Genesis Tramaine: A Queer Devotional Painter
• Lakwena Maciver: Review-Interview Hastings Contemporary
• Nicola Ravenscroft - Sculpture With A Peaceful Stillness
• Artist Hannah Rose Thomas – Tears of Gold – Interview
• Marcus Lyon: Human Atlas Explorations
• Elizabeth Kwant Interview
• Helaine Blumenfeld: Undulating Structures
• National Gallery Explores ‘Sin’ In New Exhibition – Interview Dr Joost Joustra Curator
• Betty Spackman: Posthumanism Debates
• Christopher Clack: Connecting The Material And Immaterial
• Peter Howson Artlyst Interview
• Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker On The Legacy Of ArtWay
• Alastair Gordon A Testament To His Faith
• Katrina Moss Chaiya Art Awards Interview: Where is God in our 21st century world?
• Apocalypse Now: Michael Takeo Magruder Interviewed
• Jonathan Anderson: Religious Inspirations Behind Modernism
• Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
• Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
• Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields
• Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar

Monthly diary articles -

• March 2026 Art diary
• February 2026 Art Diary
• January 2026 Art Diary
• The December Art Diary
• The November Art Diary
• The October Art Diary
• The August/September Art Diary
• The July Art Diary
• The June Art Diary 2025
• The May Art Diary 2025
• The April Art Diary 2025
• The Art Diary March 2025
• The Art Diary February 2025
• The Art Diary January 2025
• The Art Diary December 2024
• The Art Diary November 2024
• The Art Diary October 2024
• The Art Diary September 2024
• The Art Diary August 2024
• The Art Diary July 2024
• The Art Diary June 2024
• The Art Diary May 2024
• The Art Diary April 2024
• The Art Diary March 2024
• The Art Diary February 2024
• The Art Diary January 2024
• The Art Diary December 2023
• The Art Diary November 2023
• The Art Diary October 2023
• The Art Diary September 2023
• Jeremy Deller In Rennes And Brittany Post-Impressionism – August Diary
• The Art Diary July 2023
• The Art Diary June 2023
• The Art Diary May 2023
• The Art Diary April 2023
• The Art Diary March 2023
• The Art Diary February 2023
• Surveying New Exhibitions With A Spiritual Twist January 2023 Art Diary
• Christmas: The Art Of Faith December 2022 Diary
• Soulages And Strange Clay November 2022 Art Diary
• Alexander de Cadenet And Michael Forbes October 2022 Diary
• Spiritual Joseph Beuys Plus More: September Diary
• Holiday Snaps – End Of Summer Art Diary
• Art Search: August 2022 Diary
• Re-imagining Essex July 2022 Diary
• Art Illuminating spirituality June 2022 Diary
• Venice To London May 2022 Diary
• Jacob Epstein, Louis Carreon, Titus Kaphar, Betty Spackman – April 2022 Diary
• Audrey Flack Carlo Crivelli And Robert Indiana – March Diary
• My Art Diary And Other Thoughts February 2022
• And On An Art Note: End Of Year Diary 2021
• International Autumn Art Exhibition Reviews
• And On An Art Note: End Of Year Diary 2021

Articles/Reviews -

• Into Abstraction Meaning Connection And Hope Firstsite
• Nigerian Modernism Explored Tate Modern
• Can We Stop Killing Each Other? – Sainsbury Centre
• Millet Life on the Land National Gallery
• Lubaina Himid With Magda Stawarska Kettle’s Yard
• Arpita Singh Social Observations Serpentine North
• Siena: The Creative Achievement Of Christendom
• An Uncommon Thread Hauser & Wirth Somerset
• Michelangelo Leonardo Raphael At The Royal Academy Review
• Modern Art Oxford Reopens After £2million Redesign
• Leonora Carrington Still Relevant Firstsite Colchester
• Ken Currie, Kehinde Wiley, Susie Hamilton Three Exhibitions About Communities
• The Victorian Radicals And Other Related Exhibitions
• Cedric Morris And Arthur Lett-Haines Gainsborough House
• Lunar Lullabies, David Lock and Concrete Dreams Three Shows To See At Firstsite
• Tate Expressionists Exhibition Reveals Spirituality and Past Gender Disparity
• The Last Caravaggio National Gallery
• Issam Kourbaj Kettle’s Yard And Heong Gallery Cambridge
• Li Yuan-chia And Friends Kettles Yard Cambridge
• Antony Gormley Explores Self Awareness White Cube Bermondsey
• Holbein: Politics Religion And Draughtsmanship – The Queen’s Gallery
• R B Kitaj And Philip Guston: Figurative Painting Celebrated
• Paula Rego And Lord Harries Respond To Art And Religion
• A World In Common: Contemporary African Photography Tate Modern
• Chris Ofili Exploring Sin At Victoria Miro
• Ai Weiwei - The Artist of Resistance - The Design Museum
• Saint Francis of Assisi A Timely Exhibition - National Gallery
• Why Critics Have A Problem With The Pre-Raphaelites?
• Religion and Spirituality in Post Impressionism National Gallery
• Black Artists From The American South Royal Academy
• Donatello: The Divine Fused With The Human V&A
• Lucian Freud And His Circle Surveyed In Two London Exhibitions
• A Question Of Clay: Strange Clay – Hayward Gallery
• William Kentridge: Merging Politics With Aesthetics – RA
• Winslow Homer: Beyond The Sea – National Gallery
• Hidden Depths: The Woman in the Window – Dulwich Picture Gallery
• Heavenly Visions: Churches As Spaces For Contemporary Art
• In The Black Fantastic London’s Best Summer Exhibition
• Hew Locke And The Christian Roots Of Carnival – Tate BritainLes Lalanne, Schütte And Gursky London Spring Exhibition Highlights
• Sensuous Sickert and Philpot Two Major UK Solo Exhibitions
• Raphael The Human And Divine – National Gallery
• Damien Hirst The Visceral Reality Of Death
• Ali Cherri: Artist in Residence National Gallery
• Surrealism Outside The Usual Story – Tate Modern
• Marcus Lyon Creates Fields of Vision At St Martin-in-the-Fields London
• Van Gogh Self Portraits The Infinite And The Ordinary
• Marvellous Icons: The London Jesuit Centre
• Albrecht Dürer Travels Of A Renaissance Artist – National Gallery London
• Diasporan Identities: Life Between Islands Caribbean British Art – Tate Britain
• Isamu Noguchi: Socially Engaged Art – Barbican Centre
• Pablo Bronstein: A This-World Vision Of Hell
• Bosco Sodi: In The Beginning Of Wisdom
• George Condo Lockdown Works Hauser & Wirth
• Theaster Gates Clay As A Profound Metaphor
• Mark Rothko: Mesmerising And Intimate Works On Paper
• Roger Cecil: A Once In A Generation Welsh Painter
• Tino Sehgal: Location, Nature And Pandemic – Blenheim Palace
• Michael Armitage And The Power Of Art – Royal Academy
• Marie Raymond And Post-War Avant Garde Painting In Paris
• Rachel Kneebone: A Complex Tableau Of Organic And Geometric Forms
• Rodin: Suffering And Conflict – Tate Modern
• Barbara Hepworth: Symbols Of Art & Life – Hepworth Wakefield
• 20th Century Women Artists Challenging Conventions In Britain
• Chaiya Art Awards 2021 Gallery OXO
• Marc Chagall’s Exquisite Stained Glass Window Commissions
• George Gittoes Equal parts artist and warrior
• Keith Haring: Personal Spiritual Imagery
• Sean Scully: Philosophical Poetic Pastoral The 12 / Dark Windows
• Arthur Jafa: The Art Of Cutting And Pasting
• Blackpentecostal Breath: Spirit-Led Movement Jumps From Music To Visual Art
• Made in USA Ed Ruscha An American Perspective
• Robert Smithson: The Archetypal Nature Of Things
• If Jesus Is A Man Of Colour Why Did We Make Him Aryan?
• Cosmic Patches And Quilts Five Exhibitions
• Everyday Heroes: Southbank Exhibition Celebrates Low-paid Key Workers
• Entwining Spiritualism And Art – Three Shows
• Of Church And The Visual Arts
• Has The Word Master Reached Its Sell-By Date?
• The People Behind Community Is Kindness Billboard Campaign
• André Daughtry: Art, Rebellion And Racial Justice
• Salisbury Cathedral 800 Years Of Art And Spirit
• Home Alone Together Twenty Five Artists
• Botanical Mind Online: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree
• Salvador Dalí The Enigma of Faith
• Art And Faith A Time For Seeing
• Andy Warhol: Catholicism His Work, Faith And Legacy
• Kiki Smith: Embodied Art
• Art and Christianity Awards A Positive New Millennium Legacy
• Arnulf Rainer: 90th Birthday Exhibition Celebrated At Albertina Museum
• A Belonging Project And Exiles Loss and Displacement
• Robert Polidori: Fra Angelico Opus Operantis
• Art, Faith, Church Patronage and Modernity
• Contemplating the Spiritual in Contemporary Art
• Mat Collishaw Challenges Faith Perspectives With Ushaw Installation
• Waterloo Festival Launches At St. John’s Waterloo
• John Bellany Alan Davie Spiritual Joy and Magic
• RIFT Unites 17 Art and Science MA Graduates At Central St Martins
• Visionary Cities: Michael Takeo Magruder – British Library
• Van Gogh’s Religious Journey Around London
• William Congdon Holy Sites And The Kettle’s Yard Connection
• Mark Dean Premieres Pastiche Mass At Banqueting Hall Chelsea College of Arts
• John Kirby: The Torment
• Underlying The Civilised Facade
• Curating Spiritual Sensibilities In Changing Times
• Homeless Highlighted: New Beau Exhibition At St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Ken Currie: Protest Defeat And Victory
• Bosco Sodi: A Moment Of Genesis
• Bill Viola And The Art Of Contemplation
• Art In Churches 2018: Spiritual Combinations Explored
• Sister Wendy Beckett – A Reminiscence
• Guido Guidi: Per Strada Flowers Gallery London
• Peter Howson: The play is over – Flowers Gallery
• Camille Henrot: Scientific History And Creation Story Mash Up
• Nicola Green Explores Recent And Contemporary Religious Leaders – St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Art And The Consequences Of War Explored In Two Exhibitions
• Helaine Blumenfeld Translating Her Vision
• Sam Ivin: Physically Scratched Portraits Of Asylum Seekers Exhibited
• Sacred Noise: Explores Religion, Faith And Divinity
• Bill Viola: Quiet Contemplative Video Installation St Cuthbert’s Church Edinburgh
• The ground-breaking work of Sister Corita Kent
• Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited
• Michael Takeo Magruder: De / coding the Apocalypse – Panacea Museum
• Giorgio Griffa: The Golden Ratio And Inexplicable Knowledge
• Arabella Dorman Unveils New Installation At St James Church Piccadilly
• Can Art Transform Society?
• Art Awakening Humanity Conference Report
• Central St Martins in the Fields Design Then And Now
• The Sacramental And Liturgical Nature Of Conceptual Art
• Polish Art In Britain: Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
• Refugee Artists: Learning from The Lives Of Others
• The Religious Impulses Of Robert Rauschenberg
• The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement
• Artists Rebranding The Christmas Tree Tradition
• Art Impacted - A Radical Response To Radicalisation
• The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?

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De'Borah Powell - Open My Eyes.

Transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope

Here's the reflection that I shared this evening at St Andrew's Wickford:

My family recently celebrated my mother’s 89th birthday. My niece, her granddaughter, had made a photograph album showing all the different stage of Mum’s life. We all enjoyed looking through the album with Mum as she remembered the people and times shown in the photographs.

Remembering, both in the sense of bringing back to mind and also of re-enacting is central to who we are as people. As Katherine Hedderly has highlighted, “The community of the church has a special place in this work because it is a community of remembrance and resurrection. “‘Do this’ in remembrance of me.” We remember what Jesus did and we act upon it in the present. We are witnesses to the living memory of Jesus in the world, to God’s living presence with us, as we are re-membered, or reformed, as a community together. Holding in our midst with love those who no longer have their memory, must be a special task for the church, because we know in a very special way what it means to know who we are because someone remembered us; Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

Jesus remembered his mother while on the cross. On Mothering Sunday, we remember those who, for good or ill, are foundational to our lives, experiences and memories. We were reminded that the simplest things we see and do can often be the most profound and those that touch us in the deepest places.

Jesus' remembering of his mother occurred while he was undergoing the most extreme agony personally. For some of us, to remember our mothers might involve complex and conflicted memories which bring back to mind some of our more painful moments in life. Jesus ministered in and through and out of his pain; remembering particular people (his mother and John, his disciple), forgiving those who tortured and mocked him, and dying for the salvation of all.

In him we see:

 
Love in the midst of torture
Care in the midst of pain
Life in the midst of death
Wounded reconciler
Wounded healer
Wounded carer

It is from reflection on those experiences and actions of Jesus, that the idea of the wounded healer has come. This is the idea that our own pain and difficulties - our wounds - do not necessarily preclude us from ministry but may provide a resource or source from which our ministry can flow.

Henri Nouwen in his book The Wounded Healer reminds us: "We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for." Yet, to remember and reach out to support, sustain and strengthen others whilst remaining wounded ourselves may be, as was the case for Jesus, among the deepest and most profound of our ministries to others. Nouwen also writes that: “a shared pain is no longer paralyzing but mobilizing, when understood as a way to liberation. When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope.”

The forgiveness and love that we receive from Jesus comes out of his experience of the agony and torture of death. It comes out of the wound of crucifixion and this is why it is of significance that his resurrected body continues to bear the marks of those wounds. We do not need to become perfect in order to be accepted and loved by God nor do we need to recover from weakness, hurt and difficulty in order to minister to others. Sometimes it is the willingness and openness to share our own experience of pain and suffering, not in order to burden another, but as an act of empathy with another that is just the support and healing that that other person needs.

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The Alarm - Walk Forever By My Side.

You obey the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand

Here's the Mothering Sunday reflection that I shared at St Mary's Langdon Hills, St Andrew's Wickford and St Gabriel's Pitsea this morning:

Mothering Sunday was traditionally a day in the middle of Lent when people who worked were able to have time off to visit their mothers and their ‘mother’ church, where they might have been baptised.

One of the readings regularly used on this day is John 19: 25- 27, in which Jesus creates a new community of support for his grieving mother when he connects her with the disciple John, who takes her into his home as his mother. Just as John became a support for Mary and vice versa, in life it’s not necessarily just our mothers who give us ‘motherly’ or parental care. There are so many people, especially in church families, who form a community around us to help support us and give us strength.

Just as Jesus remembered his mother while on the cross, today we remember those who, for good or ill, are foundational to our lives, experiences and memories. We are reminded that the simplest things we see and do can often be the most profound and those that touch us in the deepest places.

By way of example, I want to tell you about a mother, not from the Bible, but one who lives in Guyana today. Her name is Lena and she needed help to look after her family but is now a Parenting Group Facilitator with The Mothers’ Union. She says:

The Mothers' Union parenting programme is a special ministry and has touched over 200 lives through the six groups I have facilitated. One woman who was recently been deported back to Guyana heard about the programme and joined my group. Before in the other country she stole, shoplifted, prostituted and used drugs. She even went to jail and her first daughter was born in prison. She felt so low that she wanted to commit suicide and kill her daughter when she was deported back to Guyana once she was released from prison.

When she joined the parenting group she felt so supported by all the other parents and carers there. She started to sell snacks, her local priest assisted her with a house and this led her to start assisting others in greater need. In this parenting group all the members provide emotional and practical support and also financial if it is needed. This support has enabled her to develop her little business and it is now very successful. She also works with the local youth to clean up their local environment. Her daughter is now in high school and doing well. This is just one story of many where the programme has provided a supportive and nurturing environment where people are encouraged to reach their full potential.

Sometimes mothers need people to help them as well as them helping us. Mothers’ Union helps many mothers to care for their family by sharing with them useful ways of being a good parent and encouraging the parents to support and help each other.

To help celebrate and give thanks for mothers and other caring figures in our lives, we can pray using an item that is always with us. Touch a button that is on your clothing as you listen to this reflection.

Buttons hold things together:

Who do you look to to help you when things are busy and stressful? Who can help you to figure out what to do when you are confused about how to keep going? Who helps when it feels as if your world is falling apart? Think of them and say thank you to God for them.

Buttons are strong:

Think about the times when you have felt sad, upset or afraid. Who has helped you to be strong. Who is the strongest person you know? Thank God for those people.

Buttons come in different shapes and sizes:

Those who care for us and keep us safe might be mothers, but they also might be other people in our lives. Try and count in your head how many different people have helped you during the past week. Thank God for each one of them.

When buttons are missing, we notice and things don’t hold together as well as they did before.

Some of the caring figures in our lives may have died and we miss the fact that they are no longer here. Take a moment to remember them and the love they shared with you. Thank God for them.

As we close, let’s remember a verse reminding us of what God says about helping people: “You obey the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand.” Galatians 6:2 (Contemporary English Version)

We come here today to thank God for mothers and carers around the world who obey the law of Christ by offering others a helping hand. It takes a very special love to care for a family. Today we celebrate that love and thank God for his own perfect love for us all.

We’re not all mothers ourselves but we all have a mother, whether or not they are still with us, and we are all children of God. He is our loving Father but is also the one who remembers and comforts us as a mother comforts her child, and draws us close as a hen protects her chicks.

Let us pray: Thank you, Jesus, for a mother’s unfailing love, for her unstinting devotion and steadfastness, for her wisdom and support, and for always ‘being there’ in times of happiness and stress. Thank you for love and forbearance, for laughter enjoyed and sorrow shared. Thank you, Jesus, for the comfort of a close friend; for the sharing of life and our deepest selves along the Way. Thank you for peace given to each other sincerely, and received beautifully; for open arms in which the love of God shone. Help us remember your gifts and be glad to give you praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Sing We Of the Blessed Mother.