A covenant of fruitfulness

Here's my last Sunday sermon for St Martin-in-the-Fields in my current role, for this morning's Mothering Sunday Eucharist: 

'Anna Tymchenko was scared. She had been in labour for hours, but her hometown was being bombed and her apartment was shaking. She and her husband were trapped with no electricity, running water or doctor. The small town of Bucha, 18 miles from Kyiv, had come under relentless bombardment since the start of the war. Twenty-one-year-old Anna, along with her husband and brother, had previously taken refuge in the basement of their block of flats. But when the electricity was cut off and the heating stopped working, the basement was plunged into darkness, and it was bitterly cold. Anna's husband Volodymyr was torn between remaining in Bucha or trying to flee. When they did finally try to escape by car, they had to turn back when they heard that a column of Russian military vehicles was heading their way.

They then decided to stay in the apartment and when Anna went into labour late on 7 March, she called her neighbours for help. Anna's neighbours had to deliver the baby themselves. Only one of them – Irina - had had any medical expertise. "When the baby's head came out, we got scared," Viktoria, one of the neighbours, said. "She was blue and we didn't know what to do. Then Irina gently turned the baby's head and she came out. She didn't cry at first … but then she cried and we all cheered." Volodymyr cried tears of relief for baby Alisa, who was born on 8 March - International Women's Day.'

The natural cycle of birth, with its inherent generativity and creativity, continues, even in the extreme circumstances of war, through the resilience of all involved in this story. Today is a day for celebrating both the vital role of mothers and the wider village needed through which we nurture and bring up children, the fruit of our fertility and creativity as humans.

The experience of childbearing and of childbirth is one that is used through the Bible as a metaphor for the creativity and generativity of God, who is also endlessly creative and fertile even in the most difficult of circumstances. In Isaiah 42:14 God is pictured as a woman in labour crying out, gasping and panting, as new things spring forth in our world. In Deuteronomy 32:18 we read of Israel as the people that God brought to birth, while in Isaiah 49:15 God is compared to a nursing mother and then in Psalm 131:2 to a mother who has weaned her child.

I have been at St Martin’s for seven years and today is the last sermon I will preach here on a Sunday, at least in my current role. In that time St Martin’s has seen God bring many new things to birth in and through us and so, on this day when we celebrate the ongoing generativity of God, Mother Church, human beings, and, especially, mothers themselves, I want to reflect on three things that have come to birth over that seven year period; one in me, one in this church, and one in the wider church.

So, beginning with myself, one of many blessings for me personally in being at St Martin’s over this period of time has been the involvement that I have had with the disability work that happens here through the Disability Advisory Group led by Fiona MacMillan. That includes the annual conference on Disability and Church organised through a partnership between St Martin’s and Inclusive Church and hosted, in more recent years, by HeartEdge. Although I had previous experience of being with disabled people in addressing access issues through my time as civil servant, I nevertheless found I had a huge amount to learn through being at St Martin’s. What has come to birth in me in this time is a greater understanding - not simply of access as joining in not just getting in - but of disability at the heart of God and as a key to understanding the nature of God and the incarnation.

God experiences brokenness on the cross, a brokenness that leaves physical scars on his body, but then, in the words of Donald Eadie, a disabled Methodist minister, his “world cracked open and life broke through.” It wasn’t just Jesus’ world that cracked open in that moment but ours as well, because as we follow him into that experience of brokenness leading to new life we also share in that same experience. Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen encourages us to forget our ‘perfect offerings’ because there is ‘a crack in everything’ and ‘that's how the light gets in’. Jesus, the Disabled God, reveals the necessity of brokenness in order that life and light can be received and experienced.

Then, in regard to this church, another new thing to have come to birth in this time has been our artists’ and craftspeople’s group. This group is what its prosaic name describes: a group for any artists or craftspeople in the St Martin’s community. There are many such in our community but there wasn’t originally a forum in which the gifts of those people could be engaged and, more than that, the important programme of art commissions from artists outside the community had created a perception that the gifts of those within the community weren’t valued.

The artists’ and craftspeople’s group organizes a range of participatory activities and opportunities to make and create. These are open to participants of all abilities. There have been periodic opportunities for participants to show their work, including a monthly drawing group, art workshops in Advent and Lent, a monthly rota for displaying work, and an annual group exhibition. Significant creative energy has been released within our community as a result. Those with established creative gifts have been affirmed and those beginning to explore their gifts have been encouraged. Many have been blessed by the displays, exhibitions and installations that have resulted. God is the ultimate creator and this new creative energy that has been set free within St Martin’s is an expression of the image of God in our community.

Thirdly, the new thing that has come to birth in the wider church with which I have primarily been involved is HeartEdge. HeartEdge is an international, ecumenical movement galvanising churches to be at the heart of their communities whilst being with those on the edge. Its 1,500+ partners can be found on four different continents, but its growth was seeded here, and its development has been supported from here.

What is new about HeartEdge is not primarily its network of partners, but the new language being coined that is transforming discourse within the Church around mission. HeartEdge is expanding the imagination of a church captivated by scarcity and enabling churches to receive the abundance that God is continually sharing and thereby become fully alive. HeartEdge seeks to transform church and society through the 4 Cs of commerce, culture, compassion and congregational life which, through their interdependence, provide a model of what a renewed society might look like. The 4 Cs, as they inter-connect, create a new model of mission that sustains itself, is open to the gifts of strangers, and exhibits the life of faith.

God is the one who says: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert … I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise” (Isaiah 43.18-21). Then, in Jesus, God becomes the new thing that is brought to birth by Mary, the God-bearer and Mother of our Lord. God becomes both creator and created, the nurturer and the nurtured, the sower and the seed, the chicken and the egg.

It should come as no surprise then, that God longs to create communities that are fruitful and generative. Here at St Martin’s, we have a history of seeding new initiatives that are cultural, compassionate or commercial including St Martin’s School of Art, the Social Care Unit that has now become The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, St Martin-in-the-Fields Limited, Liberty, Shelter, Amnesty International, and The Big Issue.

As a result, it should also come as no surprise that in more recent years, in addition to HeartEdge, we have seen the creation of the Frontline Network, the Nazareth Community, the Companions of Nazareth, and the Being With Courses. God has created here a community that is consistently fruitful, creative and generative even in times of difficulty and challenge, as has also been the case during the pandemic. We called the book about our ministry during the pandemic ‘Finding Abundance in Scarcity’ because that was our experience as we looked together for the opportunities to find God’s abundance in the midst of the pandemic’s scarcity.

Our experience in that regard has been similar to that of Anna and Volodymyr in Bucha; that there is no let up in the flow of abundant creativity from God especially in times of trial and difficulty. It has been a privilege and pleasure for me to be a part of this community for the past seven years to learn more of God’s abundant goodness and to be, with you, a midwife in bringing some of these new initiatives to birth. Just as Anna and Volodymyr needed their neighbours to bring Alisa into the world, so HeartEdge, the Disability Advisory Group, the artists’ and craftspeople’s group, the Frontline Network, the Nazareth Community, the Companions of Nazareth, and the Being With Courses need the village that is this community to continue to nurture what has been brought to birth here.

On the day I was licensed here, Sam Wells said we were ‘looking to establish a covenant of fruitfulness with partners and friends all around the country and beyond.’ He said: ‘We could settle for enhancing our resources, developing our programmes, and deepening our common life. Those are all fine and demanding things, and most churches in the country would be overjoyed to have such an aspiration. But we’re being called beyond that. We’re being called to share our message and to influence the wider church and world. And right now the way we’re seeking to do that is by making mutually-enriching partnerships and working with other institutions to help them better realise their vocations. Why? Because we believe that’s God’s way. God in Christ didn’t shout from afar or keep a light hidden on a hill far away. God in Christ made relationships one by one, some close and constant, some occasional and passing, and came alongside people of all kinds, opening up their hearts, setting their souls on fire, and lifting from them the burden of oppression or pain or guilt. That’s what a covenant of fruitfulness looks like.’

That’s what we have seen and heard and experienced over the past seven years. That’s what God has brought to birth and to which we have been midwives. It’s what we can pray for the people of Ukraine and for Anna, Vlodymyr and their neighbours as they bring up Alisa in the midst of war. It’s also what we can celebrate together this Mothering Sunday as we celebrate the ongoing generativity of Mother God, Mother Church, human beings, and, especially, mothers themselves. It’s what we continue to be called to nurture, grow and develop both here at St Martin’s and also for me, shortly, in the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry. I go to become one of the partners and friends that you have around the country and beyond, so this Covenant of Fruitfulness will remain a bond between us, a covenant in which we continue to share even as I leave the role I have had among you here. So, let us commit to pray for fruitfulness and new life, creativity and generativity, to characterise all our contacts, friendships and partnerships as we go from this place today. Amen.

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John Tavener - Mother Of God, Here I Stand.