Where to find the signs of God in our world?

Here's the reflection I shared in tonight's Bread for the World service at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Where to find the signs of God in our world? The Chaiya Art Awards winners exhibition features 50 visual artists all exploring the theme of God Is… and encouraging us to look beyond, to discern what cannot be seen and grasp what cannot be described.

The God is... exhibition is an invitation to enter a liminal space where life’s pain and pleasure dissolve, where questions and answers fade into shadow, where the indefinable lies, a treasure waiting to be found. Ann Clifford, who wrote the book accompanying the exhibition says, ‘The artists featured invite us to muse with them about their journey, laying before us a heartland of fullness. They reduce, simplify, purify and attempt to align themselves with that which is beyond complete expression.’

‘It is a part of the human condition to question our existence; to wonder, to imagine and to try to make sense of the world we inhabit, how we came to be here and what will happen to us when we die.’ ‘The sound of diverse voices filled with questions rumbles over the land like the gathering of an exquisite murmuration of starlings. The threads of God woven into ordinary everyday lives are seen in so many ways – kindness, respect for others, our visceral responses to nature and, oh, so much more. However many find answers, the questioning sound will never die.’

Lesley Sutton, the exhibition’s curator, reminds us that: ‘Art enables us to think and question not just with our minds, but also through our bodies, our senses. As viewers, our eyes meet the emotions of the artists, their colour palettes revealing personal narratives. Some speak of pain and suffering, questioning where God is when days are dark and He seems to have abandoned us. Others have used brightly coloured canvases of cerulean blue, gilded squares or intricately carved sculptures to invite us to delight in the beauty of the world we call home. Yet others have chosen to remind us of our responsibility as caretakers of the earth and sea and all its inhabitants.’

In the silence and stillness of contemplating art we unlock ourselves to fresh experiences, for which, perhaps, we have no language. Pondering God and the concept of His being is heady and surprising. Yet, if God is real, we should expect Him to reveal Himself. There are many places in which signs of God are revealed. For some it is found in the silence. For others, the natural world. For Moses, in the biblical story, it was a non-burning burning bush that caught his attention. What will capture our attention?

For the artist in this exhibition 'God is …’ a mystery explored through canvas and paper, photographs and video, others cloth and stitch; 3D metalwork and pottery; bronze and stone sculpture; glass and pipework; and a movement sensitive robot alongside an interactive sign with sonic sensors.

Here are three images that particularly spoke to me. Anne Smith fashioned from recycled fabrics, string, and threads a celebration of Brendan, a homeless man she knew. Although the homeless people she met weekly occupied little space in the world, she noticed the importance to them of their makeshift outfits. Her patchwork brings scraps and fragments of cloth together, and her sewn black line, depicting Brendan’s gentle face and pure eyes, is suffused and stitched with love. This recycled quilt reveals the face of God as surely as Veronica’s veil or the dream of St Martin. Anne says, Artists are alert to glimpses of unvarnished reality which can become moments of revelation …. In [Brendan’s] politeness, trust, his gentle face and pure eyes, I saw the face of God.’

Fiona Morley’s wire-sculptured face You are everything – the overall winning work - also links and unites in order to fashion a figure. Animals, insects, amphibians, and birds form an iconic ancestral face: an interconnected and evolving creation, culminating in an image of God. Fiona Morley has said: ’I belong to no particular religion, yet believe we are all part of something which could be named God. God is not separate from life. Through portraying the diversity of the animal kingdom in the face, I represent the consciousness and perception of our own lives, and interconnectedness with all other life – the closest explanation/experience of what God is.’

Jake Flood’s photograph Reflection is of Vesqua, a sculpture by William Pye which was among 70 contemporary sculptures installed in Gloucester Cathedral for Crucible 2 in 2014. Vesqua remained there until Easter 2015 when it was used as a font to baptise several people.

Water is the predominant feature of Vesqua, its surface reflecting and extending the surrounding architecture. Surface tension maintains a flat disc of apparently still water at a level that is perceptibly higher than the rim of its bronze container. A significant flow of water enters the vessel and as this rises turbulence disappears to give an effect of stillness, despite the fact that some 135 litres of water per minute are slipping down the throat of a square internal weir that draws water down to a reservoir below. In this way, two contrasting aspects of water are woven seamlessly together: stillness expressed in the reflecting surface, and the flow and movement though the square edged weir.

Flood has said that: ‘The reflections edging the font mirror the ancient stories expressed in the surrounding stained glass. The centre is empty, offering a space to reflect and connect with God. I don’t believe in any deity, but working with survivors of slavery, moments of reflection, silence and stillness have expanded to enable community, cooperation and the beginnings of new stories – maybe that is God.’

Flood’s image sets the square edged weir at the centre creating a space that is empty and dark. The apophatic tradition in Christianity maintains that the place of emptiness – both personally and through the renunciation of images – is the place of encounter with God. As several Psalms suggest darkness can be a covering for God and also our closest friend. Fringing the central space as reflections of the Cathedral’s stained glass which lie beyond the sculpture but which the water’s stillness enables us to glimpse. Although the centre of the image is empty and monochrome, Flood’s image shares with us the surrounding diversity of colour. We cannot fully see the stained glass or read its story but can see sufficient to appreciate its richness.

Stillness and turbulence are core to Pye’s sculpture and feature, too, in Flood’s reflection. Turbulence, in working with survivors of slavery. Stillness, in moments of reflection during art therapy that enables connection. Flood has created an image that is both apophatic and cataphatic and which reveals that God is absence and presence, stillness and disturbance, central and beyond. In these ways Flood’s image encourages us to look beyond, to discern what cannot be seen and grasp what cannot be described.

God is the politeness, trust, gentleness and purity found in Brendan. God is the diversity of the animal kingdom and the interconnections between humanity and creation in You are everything. God is affirmation and negative, the darkness at the centre and the colour that surrounds in Reflection. Tonight’s Word on the Edge (1 John 1.5, 3.18-20, 4.7-16) added that God is love and light and greater than our hearts.

John Donne, the poet-priest, said: ‘My God, my God … You are a figurative, a metaphorical God … a God in whose words there is such a height of figures, such voyages … to fetch remote and precious metaphors, such extensions, such spreadings, such curtains of allegories … and such things in your words … you are the Dove that flies.’ When God contains such extensions, such spreadings, such curtains of allegories, we certainly do not understand all that God is or is not, yet, as with this exhibition, God asks us to set aside time, shut out all distractions, revive our senses, and explore, perhaps with these artworks selected as a map to our journey. If you are seeking hidden treasure, the promise is to seek and you will find.

Earlier we heard Anne Smith say that artists are alert to glimpses of unvarnished reality which become moments of revelation. As we reflect on this exhibition I want to challenge you to become artists by becoming alert to God in the people you meet, alert to the interconnections between ourselves and creation, and alert to images and places that open us up to the beyond. I wonder what are the ‘God is… images that you might create as you notice and attend to those signs of God around us? Whether you are able to join our listening groups after this service or not, I want to encourage you to take that idea away with you and make your own ‘God is…’ images in the weeks to come based on what you see around you. In the moments or people you notice, the realities to which you pay attention, we will come to see the face of God.

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Love Is His Word, Love Is His Way.

What can I do for you?

Here is the reflection I shared in the Choral Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields today:

HeartEdge is the international, ecumenical movement for renewal of the Church initiated by St Martin in the Fields. We began HeartEdge with a membership fee but found that that led to church committees joining thinking what do we get out of this and is it value for money instead of a mindset of wanting to support the renewal of the Church by thinking what they can contribute. We have since changed the way in which churches and others join.

In our Gospel reading (Matthew 20. 17 – 26), James, John and their mother were all thinking of what they could get out of the movement that Jesus began. What they wanted was prestige and power by being elevated over all the other disciples to what they thought of as the position of influence at the right hand of Christ. Jesus turned their thinking about what is important and about prestige and power on its head. In the kingdom of God, service; thinking of and care for others is what counts, not personal advancement, position or power. What can I do for you, not what can I do for me!

Significant moments in our lives - such as involvement in the movement for renewal initiated by Jesus - bring our underlying attitudes and understandings into focus and, if we pay attention, can challenge us to change our way of thinking and acting. The current challenge of the coronavirus epidemic is one such moment. The Bishop of St Albans recently offered 4 Golden Rules to add to what he felt was missing from the official advice coming from the Government.

Golden Rule One. Each one of us can think about how we can protect and support our neighbours. So much of the public rhetoric is sowing fear about the danger of other people. So, taking all the official precautions, offer help and reassurance to others – and don’t demonise anyone or any group.

Golden Rule Two: Think about who may be suffering more than me. For those of us who are healthy there is much less to worry about but the elderly, the housebound and those with chronic health conditions may be very anxious.

Golden Rule Three. Don’t give into panic and start hoarding food. There is plenty to go around, so practise the Christian discipline of sharing. Ask your neighbours what they need and do you best to help them get it.

Golden Rule Four. Live today to the full. None of us ever know what the future holds. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6. 25 – 34), Jesus challenged his followers to live each day fully and not be afraid. Every time we are tempted to give in to fear we need to make a conscious choice to respond in trust and openness.

Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, in his statement on the coronavirus outbreak reminds us that: ‘Jesus came among us in the first place, to show us … how to live not simply as collections of individual self-interest, but how to live as the human family of God. That’s why he said love the Lord your God, love your neighbor as yourself. Because in that is hope for all of us to be the human family of God.’ He then quotes several official statements, including the head of the World Health Organization saying, ‘This epidemic can be pushed back, but only with collective, coordinated, and comprehensive approach by us all,’ in order to make the point that ‘In each of those calls, and in the calls of many of our leaders, we have heard again and again, that we are in this together, we can walk through this together, and we will find our way in our life together.’

‘So look out for your neighbors, look out for each other. Look out for yourselves. Listen to those who have knowledge that can help to guide us medically and help to guide us socially. Do everything that we can to do this together, to respond to each other’s needs and to respond to our own needs.’

So, our Gospel passage challenges us as to where we are in relation to these issues? Are we, like James and John, thinking of our reward or prestige and seeking to be privileged over others? Have we, like James and John, brought the values of the world into the kingdom of God and are we trying to follow Jesus for some form of personal gain?

The season of Lent and the coronavirus outbreak are both opportunities for self-reflection on these issues and provide us with the possibility of aligning our thinking, values and deeds with those of Jesus as we become the servants of others; in order that we serve instead of being served and give our lives for the sake of others.

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The Revolutionary Army of The Infant Jesus - Bright Field.

The Springfield Project

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit the excellent Springfield Project based at St. Christopher's Church which provides services to children and their families in the local community of Springfield in south east Birmingham.

On Saturday 15th November 2008, The Springfield Centre was opened by the Archbishop of Canterbury who said: "The Springfield Centre is a further example of the Church of England's Presence & Engagement programme, which emphasises the positive contribution of parish churches in multi religious neighbourhoods."

The new £2m Centre was primarily financed and built by Birmingham City Council as the home of the Springfield Children's Centre, a 'one stop shop' provision for families with children under the age of five.

The Archbishop referred to his visit to the Project in his New Year message saying: "One of the most damning things you could say about any society is that it's failing its children. That's why I was really encouraged recently to be invited to open a project in Springfield in Birmingham – a church-based initiative supporting children and their parents from across the whole community. Here the church community took the brave decision to open up their church building for work with local families and to seek funding for further buildings and resources from the local authority. What's more, they've worked throughout in close collaboration with the local mosque and have a joint programme with them for young people. There's a community with its eye unmistakeably on its real treasure."

The Springfield Project are also fortunate to have excellent Interfaith parters who contribute to the interfaith work carried out in Springfield and beyond. Their current partners are:

• Youth Encounter (see Youth Encounter website) which is run by Andrew Smith, a member of St. Christopher's Church. It is a Scripture Union project which exists to help Christian young people in Britain live out their faith amongst Muslims. This is done in two distinct ways: running Faith and Young People Events that bring together Christian and Muslim young people for dialogue; and providing training and resources to help churches equip Christian young people to live out their faith confidently and humbly amongst their Muslim friends. Youth Encounter also provides training for churches and Christian organisations working with Muslim young people.
• Faith to Faith - Richard Sudworth is a CMS mission partner with responsibility for helping churches and especially young adults in their engagement with other faiths. See Richard's website which is named 'Distinctly Welcoming' after his book of the same title.
• Toby Howarth - Interfaith Advisor to the Bishop of Birmingham: Revd. Dr. Toby Howarth is Priest in Charge at St. Christopher's Church (the home of The Springfield Project) and is also the Interfaith Advisor to the Bishop of Birmingham (Anglican Dicoese). Toby is involved in many interfaith initiatives in Birmingham and these can sometimes involve The Springfield Project.

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Duke Special - Freewheel.