Persist in prayer

Here's the sermon I shared this morning at St Gabriel's Pitsea:

In his teaching Jesus sometimes uses the formula; if someone who is bad can do X then how much more should you or how much more will God do X. He uses it, for example, when he talks about God giving the Holy Spirit: if father’s who are bad know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

When he is at the home of a Pharisee, he uses the example of a person who takes the place of honour at a feast but is moved to the lowest place when someone more important comes to challenge us to be the one of takes the lowest place first. In the Parable of the Dishonest Steward, he challenges us about the importance of relationships by telling the story of a dishonest manager who learns the benefits of relationships through self-interest after losing his job. In today’s Gospel reading he challenges us to go further towards self-sacrifice by saying in the Parable of the Persistent Widow that, if hard-hearted people, like the Judge in that story, can do kind things for selfish reasons, should we not go further and do what is kind anyway, regardless of return.

The widow in the story provides us with an important example of persistence in prayer, while the parable also assures us that God is responsive in a way that the unjust Judge is not initially.

You may have heard stories of those who persisted in prayer or may have had that experience yourself. I like the story of Monica, the mother of St Augustine, who had to persist with her prayer that Augustine would come to faith. Augustine writes in his ‘Confessions’ that God did not grant what she desired at the moment that she first prayed, but, true to his higher purpose, God met the deeper wish of her heart. Monica had to learn to persevere in prayer in the face of what seemed to be a lack of response from God to her prayer. When Jesus told parables about prayer, the stories he told were of those who did what Monica did and kept on praying no matter what. When Monica’s prayer was finally answered it was the deepest wish of her heart that was realised as her son becomes one of the most influential figures in the history of Christianity.

This story gives us one answer to a question that we might well have about the importance of persisting in prayer. We might well ask why, if God is responsive to our prayers, we need to persist with our prayer. One answer is that flagged by Augustine in relation to his mother i.e. that the time is not right yet for our prayer to be answered and therefore we need to wait while continuing to pray. The time may not be right in terms of circumstances. That was the case in Augustine’s life. But it could be that change is needed in our life in order to be the answer to our prayer.

In 'Letters to a Young Poet' the poet Rainer Maria Rilke calls for the unknown to be embraced, and not necessarily puzzled out. Rilke writes: “…have patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing, live your way into the answer….” Rilke suggests that we may need to change in order live our way to become the answer to our prayer.

Another reason why we might not recognise God’s response to our prayer is that he may give us what we need, rather than what we want.

There is an old joke about a man caught in floods who believed that the Lord would rescue him. He turns away a neighbour in a dinghy, a lifeboat and a helicopter before the waters rise over his home, all because he believed that the Lord would rescue him. He arrived in heaven in a state of shock. “Lord,” he complained, “why didn’t you protect and rescue me?” “I sent you two boats and a helicopter, “ said the Lord wearily, “what more did you want.”

Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, has written about this phenomenon in terms of the cornerstone, the stone that the builders rejected. He notes that: “The stone that the builders rejected didn’t find a place in the wall somewhere by being thoughtfully included like a last-minute addition to a family photo. The rejected stone became the cornerstone, the keystone – the stone that held up all the others, the crucial link, the vital connection. The rejected stone was Jesus, as our Gospel reading makes clear. In his crucifixion he was rejected by the builders – yet in his resurrection he became the cornerstone of forgiveness and eternal life.”

He goes on to argue that that’s “what ministry and mission are all about – not condescendingly making welcome alienated strangers, but seeking out the rejected precisely because they are the energy and the life-force that will transform us all. Every minister, every missionary, every evangelist, every disciple should have these words over their desk, their windscreen, on their screensaver, in the photo section of their wallet, wherever they see it all the time – the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

This is important, he says, because, if we’re “looking for where the future church is coming from, we need to look at who or what the church and society has so blithely rejected. The life of the church is about constantly recognising the sin of how much we have rejected, and celebrating the grace that God gives us back what we once rejected to become the cornerstone of our lives. That’s what prophetic ministry means.”

As a result, like the drowning man in the joke, we may not recognise the people who can be the answer to our prayers, and may even reject those people, because they are not the people we expected to come along to help. As church and society, there are many people that we reject and exclude, so, as Sam says, we need to look at who or what the church and society has so blithely rejected, to constantly recognise the sin of how much we have rejected, and celebrate the grace that God gives us back what we once rejected to become the cornerstone of our lives.

I saw this happen in practice one year at St Martin-in-the-Fields when Jesus and the disciples in our Palm Sunday Passion Drama were members of the weekly 45-strong asylum-seekers group that meets at St Martin’s every Sunday afternoon, many of them experiencing homelessness and destitution in London – including a Kurdish Iranian, a Ugandan, a Dominican Republican, a Bangladeshi, a Kenyan, a Zimbabwean and a South African. One, a Ghanaian, spent two years travelling to the UK, crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa in a boat and waiting for many weeks in the Calais Jungle. In our Passion Play, at the last supper they gathered around Jesus – played by Sam, a young Afghani refugee - waiting on his every word, knowing from their own lives what it means to hope and pray for salvation.

Sam Wells described what happened to those of us watching this Passion Drama:

“The British public sees asylum-seekers as a threat or at best an administrative burden. The churches tend to see them as objects of pity and mercy. On Palm Sunday they were none of these things. They were prophets, preachers, provocative witnesses to the gospel, challenging us at St Martin’s, used to thinking of ourselves as edgy and politically engaged, with the question of where we each stood in the passion story. This was the first time our International Group has led us into worship. In the past, members of the group have joined our fellowship by acting as wicket-keeper or demon opening bowler in our cricket team, or as waiter for our hospitality events. But on Palm Sunday they were swept up into the passion narrative itself. And they changed the whole way we thought about the story we thought we knew.

Sam from Afghanistan sums up St Martin’s because he is the asylum-seeker who played Jesus in the drama and was water boarded for our salvation. He sums up St Martin’s because we aren’t about condescendingly making welcome alienated strangers, but instead about seeking out the rejected precisely because they are the energy and the life-force that will transform us all. Sam sums up our community not because he gratefully received our pity but because he boldly showed us the heart of God.”

In this way, these people who experience rejection in our society became the answer to our prayer.

Is there a prayer that you have prayed for many years and to which you think God has not provided the answer? I want to encourage you to persist in your prayer but also to look out for unexpected people who might be the answer to your prayer and to consider the times and circumstances of your life which may also bring the answer that you need. For others of us, there may be a prayer that we need to begin praying knowing it will not be an easy prayer to see answered but knowing, too, that it is when we begin to pray that God can act in our lives and the lives of others too. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Aretha Franklin - Are You Sure?

Retaining a sense of wonder

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

All new babies bring new possibilities into the world. That is because each of us is unique and will therefore have the possibility of doing things that no-one else will or can do. Some babies grow up to be great – to be Winston Churchill or Nelson Mandela - but at the point of birth we don’t know what a new baby will be like or what he or she will do. Anything is possible, the future is completely open.

But in our Candlemas reading (Luke 2. 22 - 40) Simeon and Anna both knew that the six-week-old baby in Mary’s arms was God’s Messiah, the one who would bring salvation to all peoples. At that time all six-week-old babies had to be brought to the Temple in Jerusalem. How did Simeon and Anna know that baby Jesus was different from all the other babies that they had seen brought into the Temple?

It was the Holy Spirit that led Simeon into the Temple on that day so that he could encounter Jesus and it was the Holy Spirit that had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s promised Messiah. Simeon was waiting – looking out, praying for, expecting – Israel to be saved and so the Holy Spirit was with him and revealed the Messiah to him in a six-week-old baby boy. Often God’s work in the world and in other people is not easy to spot. God works in and through the ordinary and every day, through the people and things around us and we need to be looking out for signs of his activity and presence. We need to be listening for his Holy Spirit to prompt us to look at some ordinary thing or ordinary person in order to see God at work.

In the film ‘American Beauty’, Ricky shows Jane a blurry video of a plastic bag blowing in the wind among autumn leaves. As they watch he explains that "this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it … And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid. Ever."

"Sometimes,” he says, “there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.” To encounter God as that incredibly benevolent force that wants us to know that there is no reason to ever feel afraid, we need to pay attention to the beauty of the ordinary, overlooked things in life, like a plastic bag being blown by the wind. As Saint Augustine said, “How many common things are trodden underfoot which, if examined carefully, awaken our astonishment.”

We assume because Simeon expects to die once he has seen the Messiah that he was an old man and we know that Anna was 84 years old when she saw Jesus. Many of us, after living a while and seeing a lot, become a bit bored, even jaded and, when that happens, we stop expecting much, resigning ourselves to life pretty much as it is. Simeon and Anna didn’t do that though. They retained a sense of expectation, a sense of wonder, a sense of the marvel of life and so they looked for the new thing that they were confident God would do.

The singer-songwriter Victoria Williams wrote a great song called ‘Century Plant’ in which she tells the stories of older people who do something new in their old age – paint, travel, study, join the Peace Corp or ride the Grand Rapids. The Century Tree is a cactus plant which blooms once in a hundred years and you never know when it will bloom. Her point is that it is never too late to ask God to give us a sense of wonder and expectancy about the world.

Many people at that time could not see what Simeon and Anna saw. John’s Gospel tells us that the world and his own people did not receive or recognise him but that to those who did receive him and believed in him, he gave the right to become God’s children. Simeon and Anna, although they were old and close to death, and Jesus was only a six-week-old baby, became children - God’s children - because they believed that Jesus was God’s Messiah.

The same possibility is there for each one of us. We may have become jaded and cynical because of what we have experienced in life, we may have become closed off to wonder, we may have rejected the possibility of God and the possibility of good. Jesus came as a new-born baby to reawaken all those possibilities in us and in our world, for us to truly be born again. That is what Simeon and Anna experienced and it is what we can experience to as we respond to this child that is God’s salvation for all peoples. It is never too late to recover a new sense of wonder, it is never too late to ask God for it because you never know when it will bloom.

Let us pray: Lord, keep us from an ‘I’ve been this way before’ or ‘I know this already’ attitude. Revive in us a new awareness that you are alive and awake in the world and therefore every day can be filled with good things, even surprises. Amen.

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Victoria Williams - Century Plant.

Augustine: Four foundational approaches to faith

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

Today is the Feast Day of St Augustine. Augustine was born in North Africa in 354. His career as an orator and rhetorician led him from Carthage to Rome, and from there to Milan where the Imperial court at that time resided. By temperament, he was passionate and sensual, and as a young man he rejected Christianity. Gradually, however, under the influence first of Monica, his mother, and then of Ambrose, bishop of Milan, Augustine began to look afresh at the Scriptures. He was baptised by Ambrose at the Easter Vigil in 387. Not long after returning to North Africa he was ordained priest, and then became Bishop of Hippo. It is difficult to overestimate the influence of Augustine on the subsequent development of European thought. A huge body of his sermons and writings has been preserved, through all of which runs the theme of the sovereignty of the grace of God. He died in the year 430.

In his Confessions Augustine tells of his travels which take him from Carthage to Rome, and then to Milan, until his conversion. He meets the Manichean leader, Faustus, but finds no answers. He also encounters the doubt of the Academics and comes close to total scepticism in his own philosophy. In Milan he listens to Bishop Ambrose, whose homilies, little by little, answer many questions about Scripture which have been nagging at him for a long time. Looking back on this time, in Confessions, Augustine shares several understandings that prepared him for his conversion. These are the place of science in belief, the value of questions, the necessity of faithful prayer, and non-literal interpretations of scripture.

In Confessions, Augustine compares the teachings of the Philosophers and the Manichees concluding that the teachings of the Manichees were rambling and confused when it came to phenomena such as solstices, equinoxes or eclipses. By contrast, the observations of the Philosophers about creation could be verified by mathematics, by the progress of the seasons, and by the visible evidence of the stars. 
Augustine was essentially saying that religious beliefs should not be in conflict with the findings of science and where they are, as in the case of the Manichees, that has to undermine the whole system of belief. How should we view this position in an age when scientists like Richard Dawkins believe there is no common ground between science and religion?

Sir John Polkinghorne, who is both a world-class physicist and an Anglican priest, is one who seeks to present an account of the friendship between science and theology, which he believes to be the truest assessment. Religion, he says, is our encounter with divine reality, just as science is our encounter with physical reality. He notes that a general scientific theory is broadly persuasive because it provides the best available explanation of a great swathe of physical experience. The cumulative fruitfulness of science encourages Polkinghorne to believe that this is an effective intellectual strategy to pursue. He then also engages in a similar strategy with regard to the unseen reality of God. God’s existence makes sense of many aspects of our knowledge and experience: the order and fruitfulness of the physical world; the multilayered character of reality; the almost universal human experiences of worship and hope; the phenomenon of Jesus Christ (including his Resurrection). So, he suggests that very similar thought processes are involved in both cases and that, in their search for truth, science and religion are intellectual cousins under the skin. This, it seems to me, is a position which equates to the approach advocated by Augustine.

Next, Augustine complains that in the crowd that came to hear the Manichee teacher, Faustus, he was not allowed to voice his anxious questions, and place them before him in the relaxed give-and-take of discussion. The asking of questions is fundamental to Augustine’s approach in writing Confessions. In the first Chapter he asks 6 questions, in the second he asks 12, in Chapter 3 he asks 8, and so it continues throughout the book. Augustine clearly believes that the asking of questions is fundamental to gaining true knowledge of God.

In Letters to a Young Poet the poet Rainer Maria Rilke calls for the unknown to be embraced, and not necessarily puzzled out. His call is one which I think equates with Augustine’s use of questions in Confessions. Rilke writes: “…have patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing, live your way into the answer….”

That was essentially what Monica, Augustine’s mother, had to do as she prayed that Augustine would come to faith. Augustine writes in Confessions that God did not grant what she desired at the moment that she first prayed, but, true to his higher purpose, he met the deeper wish of her heart. Monica had to learn to persevere in prayer in the face of what seemed to be a lack of response from God to her prayer. When Jesus told parables about prayer, the stories he told were of those who did what Monica did and kept on praying no matter what. When Monica’s prayer was finally answered it was the deepest wish of her heart that was realised as her son becomes one of the most influential figures in the history of Christianity.

Finally, Augustine explains that the change in his understanding of Christianity comes as he changes the way in which he interprets scripture. He is impacted by hearing Bishop Ambrose in Milan because Ambrose explains the spiritual meaning of Old Testament passages by figurative interpretations. Previously, Augustine says, taking these passages literally had been the death of me.

Literal understandings of the Bible claim that the meaning originally expressed by the writer is clear and they deny the legitimacy of any approach to Scripture that attributes to it meaning which the literal sense does not support. The problem with this is that the Gospel writers and St Paul do not interpret scripture in that way. The Gospel writers constantly apply Old Testament passages to Jesus in ways that do not reflect the meanings that the writers originally expressed while St Paul, like Ambrose, regularly uses allegorical or figurative interpretations of Old Testament passages. As a result, if we are, like Augustine, to understand the spiritual meanings of scripture we cannot simply apply one interpretative method to our reading of scripture but have to embrace the diversity of ways in which scripture is interpreted and understood and used within the pages of scripture itself.

So, in Confessions, Augustine gives us these four foundational approaches to faith: the taking seriously of science, living our questions, perseverance in prayer; and a diversity of approaches to the interpretation of scripture. These four approaches return Augustine to the place where he becomes once again an inquirer in the Catholic Church. He would therefore, I believe, commend them to us as well in our ongoing inquiries and investigations into the truth of Christianity.

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U2 - Surrender.

Menu options for Lent

Here is my reflection from the 8.30am Ash Wednesday Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

I grew up in non-conformist churches where Lent was never a feature of their annual programmes. As a result, I have always felt that I have looked at Lent a little bit like an outsider. From that ‘outsider’s’ perspective it seems to me that there are three main ways of using Lent; all of which are ultimately to do with deepening our relationship with God.

The first is to give up something for Lent. This way of approaching Lent clearly derives from Biblical teachings on fasting such as those that we heard read in our readings. Fasting could either be a response to a particular circumstance, as in the reading from Joel, or part of a regular pattern of abstinence, as in our reading from Matthew’s Gospel.

In the first instance, we have a strong and particular sense of our unworthiness and need for forgiveness and our fasting is a part of our repentance; a way of saying to ourselves and to God that we are sorry for what we have done and intend to turn away from it. When fasting is part of a regular pattern of abstinence then it is usually more to do with freeing up time in which to spend in prayer and study of the scriptures than it is about a specific need for forgiveness.

What often happens in Lent as we give up chocolates or alcohol or whatever it is for the 40 days of Lent is usually more like the second example than the first. That doesn’t mean that Lent can’t be about responses to specific sin. It certainly can be an opportunity for that kind of self examination and repentance and this is something that our Lenten liturgy encourages as the opening responses ‘Good Lord, deliver us’ are intended as a rigorous self examination.

However, for most of us it is more likely that our abstinence during Lent will not be prompted by awareness of particular sins than by it being our usual practice. In this instance, it is worth pointing out that giving something up is in fact only half of the biblical package. The reason people in scripture abstained from food for certain periods was in order to use the time gained in prayer and study of the scriptures. So, if we do the former but not the latter then we are missing out on the real benefit and purpose of Lent which is to deepen our relationship with God by spending more time with him in prayer than is usually the case. A further aspect to giving something up is the opportunity to reflect and act on the needs of those who have so much less than ourselves and the Diocesan Lent Appeal which we are supporting will give us means by which we can take action in that regard, with a focus on ending Modern Day Slavery.

The second approach is to take something up for Lent. Traditionally, in Churches, this has meant attending a Lent study group or reading a Lent book; both of which are intended to take us deeper into an aspect of our faith and relationship with God.

The book we are studying here, The Confessions of St Augustine, is one of the greatest spiritual autobiographies written, and has had a significant impact on the church. It is “a canticle to God, full of psychological insights, which tells the story of a soul, and also the story of God, and how he is constantly at work seeking us.” We will be guided through the text, with a fresh translation by Benignus O’Rourke OSA, which sheds new light on Augustine’s spiritual journey. Each evening will follow the pattern of a community Eucharist at 6.30pm, where the different chapters of Confessions are introduced, followed by a simple shared supper and then listening groups. The book and our study guide are available from the Verger’s office today.

Often taking up a Lent study or book does also involve us in giving something up as well. I’m thinking of our time which may not usually be spent in that kind of regular study or reading or where we may be committing ourselves to extra study or reading.

In more recent years however taking something up for Lent has developed beyond study and reading to encompass actions and, in particular, acts of kindness. You could, for example, try the ‘Love Life Live Lent’ initiative which was first developed in the Diocese of Birmingham where a different act of kindness is suggested for each day of Lent. A similar approach is Christian Aid’s Count Your Blessings leaflet which suggests an action a week during Lent.

The final approach to Lent is to view it as being a time of preparation for Easter by reflecting on all that Jesus went through for our sake and all he achieved for us through his Passion and Resurrection. Some traditional ways in which people have done so have included regularly praying the Stations of the Cross or meditating on the Seven Last Words that Jesus spoke from the Cross.

The art exhibition we have in the Foyer during Lent and Eastertide may assist in doing so. Its theme of ‘Leaves for Healing’ is taken from Ezekiel 47:1-12, a vision of a transformed desert landscape. In a barren landscape the passage finishes with a wonderful vision of the fruit from the trees that grow being food and the leaves used for healing. We have here a vision of life being released into the dry desert of Ezekiel’s time and encouragement for us to imagine this life flowing into our 21st century context. The exhibition utilises this imagery to explore themes of flourishing, growth, healing and worship, with the two halves of the exhibition – one in Lent, one in Eastertide - reflecting the transition from wilderness to fertile land.

So these are some of the menu options before us as we begin this Lent. Which will we choose? They are not, of course, mutually exclusive and some might choose a gourmet Lent by taking up all the available options while others may pick ‘n’ mix by sampling a little of this and some of that. Whatever you decide the challenge is to make active use of the next forty days in order to deepen your relationship with God.

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Lord Jesus, Think On Me.

Lent Course: The Confessions of St Augustine

I was obliged to study and it did me good’ (Augustine Confessions 1/12)

Although Augustine in his childhood was not so keen on studying, at St Martin-in-the-Fields we’re excited to be reading his Confessions for our Lent Course. The course runs for six weeks on Wednesday evenings, from 13 March - 17 April, starting with a service in church at 6:30pm.

For further information, see the flyer here: https://goo.gl/nPwjSM

The Confessions of St Augustine is one of the greatest spiritual autobiographies written, and has had a significant impact on the church. It is “a canticle to God, full of psychological insights, which tells the story of a soul, and also the story of God, and how he is constantly at work seeking us.” 

For the 2019 Lent Course, we will be guided through the text, with a fresh translation by Benignus O’Rourke OSA, which sheds new light on Augustine’s spiritual journey. Each evening will follow the pattern below, with a community Eucharist at 6.30pm, where the different chapters of Confessions are introduced, followed by a simple shared supper and then listening groups. The cost of the whole Lent Programme is £15 which includes a copy of the book and study guide. The study guide will include selected quotations from the Confessions, points to wonder over, and a prayer. The book and guide will be available from Ash Wednesday on 6th March from the Verger’s office, and at the service at 6:30pm in the church. 

Services on Ash Wednesday are: an 8.30am Eucharist, a Choral Eucharist at 1.00pm and Bread for the World at 6.30pm. All these services will include the Imposition of Ashes.

The Lent Programme: 

• 6.30pm: we begin in Church with Bread for the World- an informal Eucharist, during which the theme for the week will be introduced and reflected upon. 
• 7.30pm: we share a simple Lenten Supper of bread and soup (during this time the church will remain open for silent reflection). 
• 8.00-8.45 pm: we join Listening Groups to reflect upon the theme for the week. 
• The Church will be open until 9.00pm for Silent Prayer. 

Week One 13 March Book I and II 

Week Two 20 March Book III 

Week Three 27 March Book IV 

Week Four 3 April Book V 

Week Five 10 April Book VI and VII 

Week Six 17 April Book VIII and IX

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Jon Foreman - White As Snow.

Never too late to recover a sense of wonder

Here is my Candlemas sermon for today's Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

All new babies bring new possibilities into the world. That is because each of us is unique and will therefore have the possibility of doing things that no-one else will or can do. Some babies grow up to be great – to be Winston Churchill or Nelson Mandela - but at the point of birth we don’t know what a new baby will be like or what he or she will do. Anything is possible, the future is completely open.

But in our Candlemas reading (Luke 2. 22 - 40) Simeon and Anna both knew that the six week old baby in Mary’s arms was God’s Messiah, the one who would bring salvation to all peoples. At that time all six week old babies had to be brought to the Temple in Jerusalem. How did Simeon and Anna know that baby Jesus was different from all the other babies that they had seen brought into the Temple?

It was the Holy Spirit that led Simeon into the Temple on that day so that he could encounter Jesus and it was the Holy Spirit that had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s promised Messiah. Simeon was waiting – looking out, praying for, expecting – Israel to be saved and so the Holy Spirit was with him and revealed the Messiah to him in a six week old baby boy. Often God’s work in the world and in other people is not easy to spot. God works in and through the ordinary and everyday, through the people and things around us and we need to be looking out for signs of his activity and presence. We need to be listening for his Holy Spirit to prompt us to look at some ordinary thing or ordinary person in order to see God at work.

In the film American Beauty, Ricky shows Jane a blurry video of a plastic bag blowing in the wind among autumn leaves. As they watch he explains that "this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. . . . And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid. Ever." "Sometimes,” he says, “there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.” To encounter God as that incredibly benevolent force that wants us to know that there is no reason to ever feel afraid, we need to pay attention to the beauty of the ordinary, overlooked things in life, like a plastic bag being blown by the wind. As Saint Augustine said, “How many common things are trodden underfoot which, if examined carefully, awaken our astonishment.”

We assume because Simeon expects to die once he has seen the Messiah that he was an old man and we know that Anna was 84 years old when she saw Jesus. Many of us, after living a while and seeing a lot, become a bit bored, even jaded and, when that happens, we stop expecting much, resigning ourselves to life pretty much as it is. Simeon and Anna didn’t do that though. They retained a sense of expectation, a sense of wonder, a sense of the marvel of life and so they looked for the new thing that they were confident God would do.

Victoria Williams wrote a great song called Century Plant in which she tells the stories of older people who do something new in their old age – paint, travel, study, join the Peace Corp or ride the Grand Rapids. The Century Tree is a cactus plant which blooms once in a hundred years and you never know when it will bloom. Her point is that it is never too late to ask God to give us a sense of wonder and expectancy about the world.

Many people at that time could not see what Simeon and Anna saw. John’s Gospel tells us that the world and his own people did not receive or recognise him but that to those who did receive him and believed in him, he gave the right to become God’s children. Simeon and Anna, although they were old and close to death, and Jesus was only a six week old baby became children, God’s children, because they believed that Jesus was God’s Messiah. The same possibility is there for each one of us. We may have become jaded and cynical because of what we have experienced in life, we may have become closed off to wonder, we may have rejected the possibility of God and the possibility of good. Jesus came as a new-born baby to reawaken all those possibilities in us and in our world, for us to truly be born again. That is what Simeon and Anna experienced and it is what we can experience to as we respond to this child that is God’s salvation for all peoples. It is never too late to recover a new sense of wonder, it is never too late to ask God for it because you never know when it will bloom.

Let us pray: Lord, keep us from an ‘I’ve been this way before’ or ‘I know this already’ attitude. Revive in us a new awareness that you are alive and awake in the world and therefore every day can be filled with good things, even surprises. Amen.

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Victoria Williams - Century Plant.

Modern Art in City Churches

Austin Friars, London was an Augustinian friary in the City of London from its foundation, probably in the 1260s, until its dissolution in November 1538. A statue by T. Metcalfe from 1989 provides a visual reminder of the Friars who used to frequent the area. Another reminder of this history is the sculpture of St Augustine by John Skeaping located on the wall of Augustine House.

Located on the site of the 13th-century Augustinian friary, the Dutch church is the oldest foundation of any foreign denomination in England, and the oldest foundation of any protestant denomination, whether English or foreign. It received its charter in 1550 from Edward VI when the nave of the Friary was retained and given for worship to London’s large Dutch Protestant community. 'So long a continuity of worship, and the early missionary work of its pioneering presbyterian community, has caused the church to be regarded as a `mother church' by Dutch Protestants in the Netherlands. The present building replaces the medieval one, bombed on 15-16 October 1940. The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 23 July 1950 by the ten year old Princess Irene of the Netherlands, symbolically commemorating the original foundation by the boy king Edward VI.'

'The Dutch Church is a good example of a London church built for an expatriot congregation, combining Dutch and English craftsmanship and commemorating their history together in the City. Arthur Bailey was a leading exponent of the refined English classical tradition which continued to develop through the 1930s and 1950s, and this is perhaps his finest work. The result of English, Dutch and South African patronage served to create one of the most lavish non-conformist churches to be built in England during the austere post-war years.'

In 1954 John Skeaping, assisted by Rita M. Ling, worked on the carvings on the Dutch Church. 'There are eight bosses. The three over the clerestory windows are approx. 90cm high. Those on the aisle wall and the porch are approx. 110cm high The boss above the foundation stone, on the Western section of the church's N. wall, represents The Dove of Peace arising from the Flames of War. On the E. wall of the N. porch, Richard, Earl of Arundel, who was beheaded and buried in the church, is shown replacing his head on his shoulders. The illustration of this legend was intended to symbolise "the rebuilding of the new church on the site of that which was similarly "beheaded"". Over the clerestory windows on the N.wall are "the seals of those protestant churches in the fatherland with which the Dutch Church in London has felt itself linked through the centuries". Reading from East to West, these are the Dutch protestant community in London itself in the period of its banishment (1553-1559), symbolised by a small sailing-ship with the banner of the Cross and the Christ monogram, then the Reformed Church of the Netherlands, represented by a woman showing the open bible to her child, next, the seal of the Mennonite Church, the Lamb of God standing before the Sun of Righteousness, and last, the seal of the Arminian Church, a Christ monogram with Alpha and Omega, signifying the beginning and the end. On the N. aisle wall, East of the porch, are three carvings emblematic of the Dutch Wars of Independence. From East to West, they are the medal of the "Beggars", with two clasped hands, the symbols of Unity and Loyalty, then in the centre the entwined symbols of faith, hope and love, and, finally, a portrait of the Stadholder William the Silent, with five arrows, representing the five provinces of the Netherlands. Royal Monograms (Esmond Burton) There are four of these, each being approximately 120cm high On the W. wall the monogram of George VI is at the centre, flanked to the left by that of Queen Juliana, and to the right by that of Queen Wilhelmina. Over the entrance to the church is the cypher of Edward VI. Weathercock (John Skeaping) Rather unusually for the City, this takes the classic form of a cock. Doors (John McCarthy) The enrichments consist of three pairs of roundels with remarkably naturalistic flowers, and one pair of fictive door-knockers or handles with the combined symbols of Faith, Hope and Love.' (http://www.pmsa.org.uk/pmsa-database/1234/#sthash.yRzaCoF8.dpuf)

Some of the City’s most ravishing C20 stained glass is to be found here. 'On the main stair is Max Nauta’s (1896-1957) stained glass commemoration of the Glorious Revolution of 1689, when the Catholic James II of England was defeated and succeeded by his Protestant daughter, Mary II, and her Dutch husband and cousin, William III.

Both are depicted in sparkling stained glass that has a jewel-like, three dimensional quality, owing to Nauta’s use of small pieces of differently coloured glass as a substrate before painting. The huge west window is Nauta’s work also, with vivid royal portraiture, saints and heraldry.

There are handsome, traditional-style brass chandeliers and wall candelabra. On the south wall is a large tapestry depicting the ‘Tree of Life’ by Dutch artist Hans van Norden (b. 1915). It is a remarkable work, recombining traditional Biblical imagery with modernist/ classicising forms in pastel, not pale, colours.

The depiction of the stairway to heaven references the stair to the organ against the wall opposite.' (http://www.chapelssociety.org.uk/com-may-2015/#sthash.bzS6ZJVm.dpuf)

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Buddy Miller - Water When The Well Is Dry.

Martin Creed: What's the point of it?

'St Augustine wrote: "How many common things are trodden underfoot which, if examined carefully, awaken our astonishment?"Augustine clearly did not have Martin Creed's screwed sheet of paper or lump of Blu-Tack stuck to a wall in view when he wrote those words, and Creed would not choose a religious frame of reference for his work; but there is, nevertheless, value in relating Augustine's thought to Creed's work.'

This is the introduction to my review of Martin Creed's Hayward Gallery retrospective 'What's the point of it?' which appears today in the Church Times. The review outlines how Creed's work opens our eyes to see afresh the common things around us.

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Martin Creed - I Like Things.

Art talks at Art Festivals

On Monday I heard a fascinating talk by Peter S. Smith on the history and techniques of engraving. Peter is a painter/printmaker working out of a studio in Clink Street on the Southbank in London who exhibits his paintings and prints in the UK and overseas with work in public and private collections as well as teaching workshops in the visual arts. In September 2006, Piquant Editions published a book about his printmaking called “The way I see it….” with an introductory essay by Calvin Seerveld.

An exhibition of his work, including a newly commissioned print to celebrate the completion of a new church roof, can be seen until 24th July at St John's Leytonstone, where his talk was also given, as part of the Leytonstone Festival and Barking Episcopal Area Arts Festival.
Last night two further talks on the arts were also given at Holy Trinity and St Augustine of Hippo Leytonstone as part of the same festivals. Mark Lewis from commission4mission introduced the Art Trail for the Barking Episcopal Area while Dr Graham Gould gave a engaging presentation looking at the commissioning and content of the concrete lintel designed by sculptor Stephen Sykes for the church. Sykes' principal theme was Scenes from the life of St Augustine, although the central panel of the relief is of the Trinity. As well as providing information about Sykes and this commission, Graham took us through the various scenes from the life of St Augustine which Sykes chose to depict before saying that he was unsure about the significance of the final scene. commission4mission member Valerie Dean was able to provide an answer. Having seen other versions of the same scene in Italy, she explained that it related to a legend about Augustine and Jesus in which Christ said that explaining the nature of the Trinity was like trying to empty the ocean with a shell.

Information about the remaining events in the Barking Episcopal Area Arts Festival can be found by clicking here.

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Joan Baez - I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine.

The Holy Spirit in the world today (2)

Godpod with Graham Tomlin, David Ford, Jane Williams, Miroslav Volf and Mike Lloyd

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Charlie Mackesy

I arrived late for the second day which meant that I unfortunately a Messaien meditation and also the Bible Reading given by Jane Williams who, I was told, gave an alternative and profound take on a difficult passage - the sin against the Holy Spirit.

Fortunately I arrived just in time to hear David Ford speak on 'In the Spirit: Learning Wisdom, Giving Signs', a talk that was variously described after it had been heard as 'magisterial' and 'full of riches.'

Ford began by demonstrating that the Spirit cannot be boxed or labelled as the Spirit of Jesus has been shared with millions of Christians who have expressed that Spirit without simply repeating what Jesus said and did. The Spirit stretches us in our thinking and imagining but as Seraphim of Sarov said, "The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God."

Being in the Spirit involves understanding the Spirit firstly as, in David Kelsey's phrase, God's circumambient Spirit which is both freely present as our ultimate evironment and yet also within us. Secondly, we are in the shared Spirit of God's family. It is the Spirit who enables us to cry 'Abba Father', as does Jesus, and the Spirit who creates koinonia or fellowship. Finally, it is the Spirit who draws into the future that is God's global drama. The Spirit is the first fruits of that future and enables us to create tastes and signs of that future in the present.

As a result, we learn wisdom in the Spirit by: praying to our Father from within a family which is potentially universal; loving God for who He is and no other reason; hearing the cries of our world and discerning responses which are signs of new life. Ford ended with three examples of such signs which included speaking in tongues, dancing and weeping in Rwanda; and the work of the L'Arche Community as initiated by Jean Vanier. He ended by reading 'Flight Line', a poem by Micheal O’Siadhail about jazz improvisation which is, for Ford, a parallel to life in the Spirit.

A live Godpod featuring Graham Tomlin, Ford, Williams, Miroslav Volf and Mike Lloyd which included: Williams saying that, like the Medieval mystics, she prefers to use feminine pronouns of Jesus rather than of the Spirit; Volf stating that the idea of a Christian nation is not biblically sound; Lloyd arguing that Christians should influence by persuasion and not legislative force; Volf commending Nicholas Wolterstorff's 'dialogical pluralism'; Lloyd suggesting that true human flourishing will never conflict with the well-being of creation; and Williams noting that forgiveness is about self-defiition, whether we wish to be defined by what has harmed us or what will free us.

Tomlin then rounded off the morning by arguing that pneumatology answers the fundamental questions of identity and vocation. He did so by suggesting that Charlie Mackesy's sculpture The Return of the Prodigal Son (see above) can also be read in terms of God the Father catching up and bringing back to life his dead Son after his offering of himself on the cross. Augustine identified the Spirit as the bond of love between the Father and the Son, so by uniting us with Christ the Spirit draws us into the embrace seen in the sculpture; the embrace of love between the Father and the Son.

The Spirit therefore answers the question of our identity by enabling us to know ourselves as the beloved sons and daughters of the Father because the Spirit has united us with Christ to know the love of the Father for the Son. This then leads into our vocation because the Spirit's ultimate role is to draw creation into that same embrace by healing and perfecting the broken creation. Colin Gunton wrote that, "the Spirit is the agent by whom God enables all things to become that which they were created to be." We, therefore, become caught up in this divine mission, which is cross-shaped because it is the power of love which through suffering brings joy. As Seraphim of Sarov wrote, "the Holy Spirit turns to joy whatever he touches."

The conference ended with Tom Smail reflecting further on the shared life with God and others into which the Spirit draws us and with this togetherness being expressed through worship of God and prayer for each other.

This was a conference of real depth and inspiration where those involved seemed genuinely open to listening and learning from those whose thinking may have stretched or challenged the views and understanding with which people may have come. This sense of stretch was there in the presentation of biblically based arguments for diversity, human rights, political pluralism, universalism understood in terms of the work of the Holy Spirit, set within primarily charismatic worship and an openness to the theological riches of the various Christian traditions.

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Olivier Messiaen: Louange a l'Immortalité de Jésus.

Recovering a sense of wonder

All new babies bring new possibilities into the world because each one is unique and will therefore have the possibility of doing things that no-one else will or can do. Some babies grow up to be great – to be Winston Churchill or Nelson Mandela - but at the point of birth we don’t know what a new baby will be like or what he or she will do. Anything is possible, the future is completely open.

But in the story from today's Gospel reading Simeon and Anna both knew that the six week old baby in Mary’s arms was God’s Messiah, the one who would bring salvation to all peoples. At that time all six week old babies had to be brought to the Temple in Jerusalem. How did Simeon and Anna know that baby Jesus was different from all the other babies that they had seen brought into the Temple?

It was the Holy Spirit that led Simeon into the Temple on that day so that he could encounter Jesus and it was the Holy Spirit that had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s promised Messiah. Simeon was waiting – looking out, praying for, expecting – Israel to be saved and so the Holy Spirit was with him and revealed the Messiah to him in a six week old baby boy.

Often God’s work in the world and in other people is not easy to spot. God works in and through the ordinary and everyday, through the people and things around us and we need to be looking out for signs of his activity and presence. We need to be listening for his Holy Spirit to prompt us to look at some ordinary thing or ordinary person in order to see God at work.

In the film American Beauty, Ricky shows Jane a blurry video of a plastic bag blowing in the wind among autumn leaves. As they watch he explains that "this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. . . . And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid. Ever." "Sometimes,” he says, “there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.” To encounter God as that incredibly benevolent force that wants us to know that there is no reason to ever feel afraid, we need to pay attention to the beauty of the ordinary, overlooked things in life, like a plastic bag being blown by the wind. As Saint Augustine said, “How many common things are trodden underfoot which, if examined carefully, awaken our astonishment.”

We assume because Simeon expects to die once he has seen the Messiah that he was an old man and we know that Anna was 84 years old when she saw Jesus. Many of us, after living a while and seeing a lot, become a bit bored, even jaded and, when that happens, we stop expecting much, resigning ourselves to life pretty much as it is. Simeon and Anna didn’t do that though. They retained a sense of expectation, a sense of wonder, a sense of the marvel of life and so they looked for the new thing that they were confident God would do.

Victoria Williams wrote a great song called Century Plant in which she tells the stories of older people who do something new in their old age – paint, travel, study, join the Peace Corp or ride the Grand Rapids. The Century Tree is a cactus plant which blooms once in a hundred years and you never know when it will bloom. Her point is that it is never too late to ask God to give us a sense of wonder and expectancy about the world.

Simeon and Anna saw with their own eyes the salvation that God had promised for all people. Many had served God faithfully before them but had not seen the salvation that God had promised. Hebrews 11 tells us about Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and many of other heroes of faith from the Old Testament stories but concludes, “these were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.” Simeon and Anna lived at that time when what God had promised began to be fulfilled. Imagine how they must have felt to see what so many heroes of the faith had not been able to see. Like them we have the great privilege of living in the time when God’s Messiah has been revealed. How do we respond to that privilege?

Many people at that time could not see what Simeon and Anna saw. John’s Gospel tells us that the world and his own people did not receive or recognise him but that to those who did receive him and believed in him, he gave the right to become God’s children. Simeon and Anna, although they were old and close to death, and Jesus was only a six week old baby became children, God’s children, because they believed that Jesus was God’s Messiah. The same possibility is there for each one of us. We may have become jaded and cynical because of what we have experienced in life, we may have become closed off to wonder, we may have rejected the possibility of God and the possibility of good.

Jesus came as a new-born baby to reawaken all those possibilities in us and in our world, for us to truly be born again. That is what Simeon and Anna experienced and it is what we can experience too as we respond to this child that is God’s salvation for all peoples. It is never too late to recover a new sense of wonder, it is never too late to ask God for it because you never know when it will bloom.

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Victoria Williams - Century Plant and Crazy Mary.

Arrival, expanse & privilege

Where we live says quite a lot about the sort of people we are and the kind of relationships we have. Do we value the place where we were born or did we want to move away from it? Have we remained close to our wider family or are we independent of them? Have we a transient lifestyle by choice or necessity? Have we been able to choose where we live or have circumstances dictated that to us? Are our homes places of welcome to others or castles where we protect ourselves from the world?

Jesus told his disciples on the night before he died that he was going away from them to prepare a place for them to live – a dwelling place for them (John 14. 1-14). He gave them the picture of living in God’s house, all of them there together but each with their own specifically prepared room. This was a picture of the way in which, in future, they were going to live in God.

Jesus said that they would not be able to go with him as he left them. That was because he was going to the cross and only he, through his sinless death, could cross the divide between God and humanity and restore the relationship between us. That is why he is able to say that he is the way to the Father. No one else was able to bridge that gap by means of their death, only Jesus.

But when he came back to the disciples after death, through the resurrection, the way back to God from the dark paths of sin was now wide open and the disciples together with each one of us can now go in. The great opportunity that Jesus has opened up for us is that, despite our sin, we can live with God now, dwell in him throughout our lives, and also into eternity.

What is it like to live with God? First, it is a place without worry or fear. It is a place of arrival. Saint Augustine said, our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee. And this is because it is a place where we are valued for who we are. Jesus spoke about going to prepare a specific place specifically for us and this is a way of saying that God knows us and loves us as we are. We can picture it in terms of rooms in our own homes. We put our mark on our rooms filling them with objects and decorations that reflect who we are and what is important to us. In a similar way, God is saying that he welcomes into him, into his presence the unique people that we are, you and I.

And that leads us on to the next characteristic of living with God which is expanse. Jesus says that there are many rooms in his Father’s house, so it is expansive and needs to be because it is open to all – people of every race, language, colour, creed, gender, sexuality, class, nation, whatever. There is room for all. Living with God is about acceptance – we can stop searching and rest because we have been found, we are accepted and loved as the unique person that each of us is and we are part of a wider worldwide family that can encompass us all.

But living with God is not the end of the story. There is more because God also comes to live with us. In verse 11 we hear Jesus says that he is in the Father (he lives or dwells in God as we now can) and that the Father lives in him. And this is what can happen to us too. In the second half of chapter 14 Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit coming to stay with us (v16). Then he says that he himself will be in us (v20) and finally in verse 23 he says that both he and the Father will live with us.

This is the incredible news that is central to Christianity. Not only can we live in God but himself comes and lives in us. We are in him and he is in us. Think about the wonder and privilege of it for a moment. Think of how you would feel if the person you most admire in the world lived with you – whether that’s David Beckham, Julia Roberts, the Queen, Nelson Mandela or whoever. We know that that is unlikely to happen but the reality of our lives and faith is that the God who created the universe and who saved humanity wants to live in your life.

What would you do if that person that you most admire was coming to your home? I bet you would have a massive spring clean and get your house looking just as you would ideally like to have it looking. Shouldn’t we do the same because God is living in our lives? The Bible talks about our bodies being a temple of God’s Holy Spirit – in other words, a place where God lives - and because God lives in us then we should keep our bodies healthy and pure. But not just our bodies, our minds and feelings and actions too. Because we have the huge privilege of having the creator of the universe, the saviour of humanity living in us we need to clean up our act, get on with that spring cleaning and make our lives the sort of place that is fit for a King.

So there is both challenge and the comfort in our Gospel reading today. The way is open for us to live in God and receive his love and acceptance and for God to live with us which means acting to clean up mess that there is in all our lives. Where are you living currently? Have you come to live in God or would you like to take that step? And how does God feel about living in you? Are there things that you need to change about the home that you are providing for God?

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Blessid Union of Souls - Home.

Marrying religious experience & ordinary life

Have been skim reading Stanley Spencer's Letters and Writings (Tate, 2001) which I bought at Tate Modern yesterday. As expected, there are some real gems to be found.

Spencer writes of feeling "that the religious experience & the ordinary life circumstances of my life ... needed to be joined together in a kind of marriage in order that their full meaning could be attained."

We could, he suggests, every day of our lives if we liked have all the joy which Michelangelo's cherubs had of wondering what on earth God was going to create next:

"We could see a man for the first time every time we saw one if we cared to use our imaginative powers which we all possess. I mean with all the freshness & newness of surprise & joy which the cherubs experienced. We could do this by learning to love. Some seem to think that love is a sort of thing that most people go in for; that it makes the 'world go around' or does something equally absurd. But the love I should like to have the pleasure of introducing you to is quite another affair. It is an art, a most difficult & exacting art, & the most sublime of all the arts, because it alone has the power to create, the power to conceive the miraculous, the revealing power ..."

One consequence of this is that "every necessary act performed [such as the washing up at the Beaufort Military Hospital] is like ointment poured forth. Spencer, as he reads St Augustine's confessions, sees that God himself performs such manual acts of service:

"My civilian friend told me to read [St.] Augustine's 'Confession' & in it there is a glorifying God in all his different performances. This struck me very much. 'What art thou, my God ... Most far & yet most near: fairest yet strongest. Fixed yet incomprehensible, unchangeable yet changing all things, never new yet never aged ... Ever busy yet ever at rest. Gathering yet never needing, bearing, filling, guarding, creating, nourishing, perfecting, seeking though thou hast no lack.' And so I thought, 'bearing, filling', coming, going, fetching, carrying, sorting, opening doors, shutting them, carrying tea urns, scrubbing floors, etc. Yes, he was a friend indeed."

Spencer's immediate translation of Augustine's statements about God into his own world of mundane actions reminded me of the following poem that I wrote some time ago:

Slowly becoming aware in the confused, crowded
crush of life of someone serving me. At times
congested by books, people, places to be. At times
hurried, harried and put upon. Times of blind step
by step feeling, times of guilt ridden guilt,
waiting. Times alone, aware. Fun and smiling,
times of failing.

Always someone dusty feet washing, waist-stripped,
kneeling relief. Someone serving me serving, my God!,
my God serving me.