The heart of the Gospel - Being with

Here's the sermon I preached at St Andrew’s Wickford this morning for a joint service of the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry: 

I wonder how you would respond to a friend who has just been bereaved. Your friend has lost a close family member in sudden, tragic and complicated circumstances. There is nothing you can do to fix this situation. You can't bring back the one who has died. There is nothing significant you can do for your friend and there are no words that can explain what has happened or that can take away the pain.

You can simply be there - be with - your friend in the middle of their grief pain and loss; alongside, sharing, being with. And that is what your friend needs from you. It is also the one thing you can give. Being with is also how God is with us. Being with is creation, the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection. It is the Christian story and the Christian hope in one simple word, with.

Sam Wells, the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, explains it like this:

‘The Gospel of Matthew begins with the angel's promise that the Messiah will be called Emmanuel - God with us. The Gospel ends with Jesus's promise to his disciples, "Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." In between we get Jesus's promise to the church, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there with them." … And, perhaps most significantly of all, the Gospel of John says "The Word was made flesh and dwelt with us."

… Jesus's ministry, above all else, is about being with us, in pain and glory, in sorrow and in joy, in quiet and in conflict, in death and in life.

And that same "with" is even more evident when we turn to the relationship within the Godhead itself, the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is three, which means God is a perfect symmetry of with, three beings wholly present to one another, without envy, without misunderstanding, without irritation, without selfishness, without two ganging up against the third, without anger, without anxiety, without mistrust. So present to one another, so rapt in love, and cherishing, and mutuality, and devotion … that it seems they are in one another. And, to the extent that they are in one another, we call God not three, but one …

Given this perfection of being, this intersection of being with and being in, the astonishing mystery is why the Trinity's life is not simply self-contained, but becomes open to creation, to fragile existence, to life, to human beings - to you and me.’ Yet God’s longing to be with us in Jesus was such that that became the reason God created the world. God’s life is shaped never to be except to be with us in Christ, so God’s life as Trinity is shaped around being in relation with us from the very beginning of time.

We see this most profoundly on the cross where Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That question shows us that Jesus has given everything that he is for the cause of being with us, … because for the sake of our being with the Father he has, for that moment, lost his own being with the Father. And the Father has longed so much to be with us that he has, for that moment, lost his being with the Son, which is the essence of his being. The cross shows us the astounding truth that God thinks our lives are worth the Trinity setting aside the essence of its identity in order that we might be with God and incorporated into God's life forever. When we see the cross, we see that God is with us, however, whatever, wherever ... for ever. That is our faith.

All of that is encapsulated in today’s Gospel reading (John 14:23-29). Jesus teaches his disciples while he is still with them preparing them for the moment when he will no longer be with them. He is going to leave them but, although he will be gone, he will leave his peace with them through his Spirit who will remind them of everything he said and did. In that way, through the Spirit, the Father and the Son will come to the disciples and make their home with them. It is the same for us.

That is the revelation at the heart of the whole Bible. God is with us. That was what Moses discovered at the burning bush. That was what Isaiah discovered in the Servant Songs. That was what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego discovered in the fiery furnace. That was what Mary of Nazareth discovered at the Annunciation. That was what Mary Magdalene discovered in the garden. That was what the disciples discovered on the day of Pentecost. The revelation is that through the Holy Spirit in Jesus, we are never alone; God is always with us.

In Isaiah 43 God promised that when you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. We could add to that list the pandemic and recognise that it is because God is with us in all these circumstances that we are not overwhelmed or burned or consumed and that, ultimately, we pass through them. God is with us, that is our witness as Christians and it is also our ministry.

If the heart of the Gospel is that God is with us in every circumstance and into eternity, then our task is to be with others in order that they experience God with them. That is ultimately why your friend needs you to be with them in their grief and pain and loss. Not just because there are no words you can say that will fix things and make it all alright for them, but, primarily, because it is as you come alongside them and are with them in their grief, that God is with them too. Because, through the Spirit, the Father and the Son have made their home with you, God will, in you, be with your friend as you are with your friend. Being with is the revelation of the Bible, the heart of the gospel, and the mission and ministry of the Church. It is how God is with us and how we can be with others. 

It is my prayer that together in our three churches – in our Team Ministry - we will experience God with us more deeply and fully than ever before and become more able and willing to be with others as God has come to be with us.

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I Cannot Tell Why He Whom Angels Worship.

Discover & explore: Bereavement (All Souls)

St Stephen Walbrook held a special Discover & explore service for All Souls today. This service explored aspects of bereavement with readings, music, prayers and reflection. The Choir of St Stephen Walbrook and the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields joined together to sing pieces from Fauré's Requiem and the service ended with an opportunity to light candles in memory of loved ones. Here is the reflection that I shared during this service:

Psalm 23 is a picture of life. Our lives contain both times of refreshment and joy – those times by the still waters and in the green pastures – and times of trial and loss – as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. These times of joy and times of trial are our common experience of life. But this Psalm says more. It says that God is with us in all of these experiences. He leads us beside the still waters and walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death. He can do this because in Jesus he has experienced human life for himself. God understands and will be alongside us in our grief.

How can that be, particularly when grief involves a whole mix of different emotions at different times – anger, sadness, love, guilt and numbness – which mean that it is a very individual experience? All we can really do, as a result, is to share our experiences of how it has been for us. That is what Alfred Lord Tennyson did in his poem ‘In Memoriam’, a sequence of lyric poems written over a 17 year period which comprise a requiem for the poet's beloved Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage in Vienna in 1833. Tennyson then wrote memorably again on the subject of death in ‘Crossing the Bar’ after he had survived a serious illness. Shortly before he died, Tennyson told his son whom he had tellingly named Hallam to "put 'Crossing the Bar' at the end of all editions of my poems". Just as Tennyson memorably shared his experience of God with him in his grief, I would like to do the same.

My younger brother, Nick Evens, died on 11th November 1999 in a plane crash in Kosovo. He was on a UN commissioned plane taking relief workers into Kosovo to work on reconstructing the country following the conflict there. Nick was part of Tearfund’s Disaster Response Team. He had been in Kosovo working with Kosovan villagers to rebuild homes, had returned home for a short break, and was returning to continue work on the rebuilding programme.

The plane went off course as it neared Pristina Airport and crashed in nearby mountains. I remember taking a phone call from my parents who had been notified that contact had been lost with the plane and feeling absolutely unable to accept or comprehend the news. This was something that simply could not be happening.

My father and I were flown to Rome by Tearfund to wait for news together with the families of the other 23 people who died in the crash. After a few days we were flown to Kosovo to see the crash site for ourselves. On arrival at Pristina Airport we were loaded into helicopters and flown the short distance into the mountains and over the site of the wreckage. This was the worst moment for each one of us. As we saw the small pieces of the plane strewn over the mountainside we knew exactly what had happened to our loved ones and were faced full-on with the reality of their death.

When we returned to Pristina Airport, some refreshments had been organised for us in a tent and members of Tearfund who had worked with Nick had travelled to the Airport to be with us. We sat and listened as they told us about the effect that Nick had had on the Kosovan people with whom he had worked and also on other members of the team as they had valued his friendship, support and advice. As they talked, the tears flowed; theirs and ours and, I believe, God’s as he was with us at the time enabling us to express our grief. But, as they talked, I also had a growing sense that Nick had gone into God’s presence and had been welcomed with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” In that moment I glimpsed something of the glory into which Nick had entered and that glimpse continues to sustain and strengthen me in my loss.

Over subsequent days, I heard many more stories of the way in which Nick’s life had influenced others and over the years since I had seen the way in which the inspiration he provided has led others to continue the work that he began. Young people whose lives were turned around through the youth project that Nick worked for have continued his youth work and his charitable work in Uganda while Nick’s involvement with Tearfund inspired another member of our family to join their Disaster Response Team. In these ways, the stories about Nick that begun to be told at Pristina Airport have continued to be told and in the telling my sense that God is alongside me in my grief and that Nick has been welcomed into glory has grown.

My experience of grief suggests that it is as we cry out in our grief that God meets with us. He is alongside us through his Spirit and will speak for us in groans that words cannot express. We should not be afraid of tears, of memories or of stories, as they are an expression of the love we feel. As we share our grief together we may catch a glimpse of the glory that waits to be revealed to us and into which our loved ones have entered and that glimpse can sustain us as we re-enter our everyday lives. In these and other ways God offers to lead us through the times of trial until we come to live with him forever.

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Gabriel Fauré - Libera Me.

All Saints and All Souls

In our 10.00am Parish Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields this Sunday we celebrate and give thanks for the saints who have witnessed to the Christian faith through the centuries. The preacher will be Revd Katherine Hedderly.

The Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields sing Rutter’s Requiem at our evening All Souls Choral Eucharist, in our remembrance of all those we have loved and see no more and whose memories we treasure. I will preside and the preacher will be Revd Richard Carter.

At St Stephen Walbrook we will hold a special Discover & explore service for All Souls at 1.10pm on Monday 2nd November. This service with explore aspects of bereavement with readings, music, prayers and reflection. The Choir of St Stephen Walbrook and the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields will join together to sing pieces from Fauré's Requiem. The service will end with an opportunity to light candles in memory of loved ones.

The Choir of St Stephen Walbrook and the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields will join together again later in November for a shared service between St Martin-in-the-Fields and St Stephen Walbrook. This service will be a Choral Evensong on Sunday 15th November, 5.00pm, at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

The Discover & explore service series at St Stephen Walbrook will continue with the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields for services exploring Faith, Hope and Charity on:

• Monday 9th November, 1.10 - 1.50pm – Charity.
• Monday 16th November, 1.10 - 1.50pm – Hope.
• Monday 23rd November, 1.10 - 1.50pm – Faith.

This series of services is part of our Philanthropy in the City programme.

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Gabriel Fauré - Requiem.

Discover & explore: New service series

Discover & explore was a service series at St Stephen Walbrook in June and July 2015 of musical discovery exploring themes of beauty, faith, home, imagination, leisure, love and work with the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Feedback for this series was overwhelmingly positive and included the following:

• Perfect service of peace in our busy lives.
• Spiritual food in the middle of the day.
• Each part elided into the next, giving a warm whole.
• The music was wonderful. The service was also thoughtful.
• It was like a little jewel with a number of facets drawing us in and lighting our path.
• Beautifully and intelligently done.

The series also included a well-attended and very interesting guided tour of the Victorian Collection at the Guildhall Art Gallery. Our thanks to Sonia Solicari, Principal Curator, for giving us such a wonderful tour and facilitating the partnership with St Stephen Walbrook for this service series.

The next services in the Discover & explore series will be:

• Monday 2nd November, 1.10 - 1.50pm – Bereavement (All Souls).
• Monday 9th November, 1.10 - 1.50pm – Charity.
• Monday 16th November, 1.10 - 1.50pm – Hope.
• Monday 23rd November, 1.10 - 1.50pm – Faith.

The Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields have an essential musical role at this great church. Every year twelve scholars are appointed to sing regular services while also gaining concert experience, benefiting from an extensive training in all aspects of sacred and secular choral music. They are led by the Director of Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Andrew Earis.

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St Martin-in-the-Fields - Choral Evensong.

The mystery of the resurrection body

still
be still
be still and know
God
born
still God
still man
still born
still born among us
God
in flesh appearing
defenceless
helpless
needing us
all-knowing
un-knowing
all present
confined in space
a child
God child
incarnate
incarnate still
be still
be still and know

still

be still
be still and know
God
dead
still God
still man
still buried
still buried in the ground
God
in flesh appearing
defenceless
helpless
killed by us
falling
buried
germinating
growing
a seed
God man
incarnate
incarnate still
be still
be still and know             

John 12:23-25
"Jesus answered them, “The hour has now come for the Son of Man to receive great glory. I am telling you the truth: a grain of wheat remains no more than a single grain unless it is dropped into the ground and dies. If it does die, then it produces many grains. Those who love their own life will lose it; those who hate their own life in this world will keep it for life eternal."

1 Corinthians 15. 35 - 44
"Some skeptic is sure to ask, “Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this ‘resurrection body’ look like?” If you look at this question closely, you realize how absurd it is. There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a “dead” seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don’t look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.

You will notice that the variety of bodies is stunning. Just as there are different kinds of seeds, there are different kinds of bodies—humans, animals, birds, fish—each unprecedented in its form. You get a hint at the diversity of resurrection glory by looking at the diversity of bodies not only on earth but in the skies—sun, moon, stars—all these varieties of beauty and brightness. And we’re only looking at pre-resurrection “seeds”—who can imagine what the resurrection “plants” will be like!

This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body—but only if you keep in mind that when we’re raised, we’re raised for good, alive forever! The corpse that’s planted is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural—same seed, same body, but what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality to when it is raised up in spiritual immortality!"

Researchers at the University of Warwick have devised a novel way to recycle discarded mobile telephones - bury them and watch them transform into the flower of your choice.

They have designed a mobile phone case made of biodegradable polymer which breaks down on the compost heap into a pile of soil nutrients. And then, because the engineers have included a tiny transparent window in the case in which they embed a seed, the final touch is that the case flowers.

The seed lies dormant in its plastic window until the phone cover gets dug into the ground. The phone cover then breaks down allowing the seed to germinate and, as the flower grows‚ to get additional nutrients from the biodegrading phone cover.

This story reminded me of Jesus’ words from our Gospel reading: “a grain of wheat remains no more than a single grain unless it is dropped into the ground and dies. If it does die, then it produces many grains.”

Just like the mobile phone case which is hard but biodegradable and which contains a seed, “a grain of wheat has a hard, glossy husk within which its life is contained. But if it falls into the ground, then its husk softens and rots and breaks open, and from inside the seed the power of its life begins to push outwards, and the pattern of its life begins to unfold. Roots go down into the soil, and a shoot comes up into the light where it grows stronger and taller and produces an ear of corn.”

Jesus equates that picture of the hard outer husk which has to rot to release the life inside to our choice in life to be either people who love our own lives or people who hate, lose or give away our lives. Those of us who love our own lives reinforce our hard, outer husk. We put up barriers between ourselves and others in order to protect and enjoy what we have for ourselves.

Jesus says that when we live life selfishly, protecting ourselves and what we have, then we have actually lost the essence of life itself. We are dead to the world, its peoples and its wonders because we engage with what is other not for its own sake but only for our sake. When we cannot appreciate other people and God’s creation except in terms of what we can get for ourselves then we are dead to the world and all that is in it. Not only are we dead to the world and all that is in it but we are sterile as well. If we live just for ourselves; if we give nothing away to others but keep all for ourselves; then everything we have dies with us and what we have had is lost forever.

But says Jesus, if we are like the grain of wheat that dies, then we will know what it is like to really come alive and really live. If we allow our protective shell to rot and be removed; if we are focused not on ourselves but on others; if we disregard our own life in this world and follow Jesus in serving others; then we gain, then we come alive, then we see a single grain of wheat multiply and produce many grains.

And the same point is made by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 in relation to death itself. Death comes to all of us and to all things. It is part of the natural cycle of life that we need to accept and understand. Try as we might we cannot ultimately hold onto this life and so, ultimately, we must be ready to let go of this life in trust that death itself is the ground in which the seed of our life, and those we remember today, will grow into new life.

When my Dad slipped into a comatose state for several weeks at the end of his life, I found myself praying for his release from this life. I was reminded on DylanThomas’s poem - “Do not go gentle into that good night, / Old age should burn and rave at close of day; / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” – and found myself praying for the exact opposite:

Go Gently

The lifeforce runs deep within our veins.
After conscious actions become involuntary,
after eyes become unfocused,
after hands become still and lifeless,
the heart still beats and lungs inhale,
breaths are snatched as something precious
and coughs battle secretions
to obtain air.
I pray, let go,
lose life to love life.
I pray, surrender,
from striving, for serving.
I pray, release,
returning, reviving, resting.
I pray, knowing that,
from fisticuffs at Grammar School,
you have been a fighter.
I pray, knowing that
throughout trials and tribulations,
your spirit has stayed strong.
I pray, knowing that
the lifeforce runs deep
in your veins.
I pray that,
you go gentle into that bright light. 

As Christians, we believe that we will grow into new life through death because of Jesus. Jesus was a seed sown into our world which died and was buried only to live again. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15, “the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised.” The tomb therefore becomes a womb, a place of new birth, not just for Jesus but, through Jesus, for each one of us as well.

So, let us in faith, conclude with St Paul that,  “This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body—but only if you keep in mind that when we’re raised, we’re raised for good, alive forever! The corpse that’s planted is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural—same seed, same body, but what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality to when it is raised up in spiritual immortality!”

Let us pray ...

Lord, we would grow with you
New shoots reaching out
Hands stretched upward
Like leaves newly formed
Soaking up your light and warmth
Lord, we would grow with you

Lord, we would grow with you
In sunshine and rain
In darkness and light
In cold days and summer days
From Springtime to Winter
Lord, we would grow with you

Lord, we would grow with you
And bring forth fruit
That is pleasing to you
Fed by your living water
Giving sustenance to others
Lord, we would grow with you

(John Birch)

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Sam Phillips - I Need Love.               

Translating what we hear and read into lives that speak

Today at St John's Seven Kings we hosted a thanksgiving service for the life of John Toll. During the service I said the following:

"The Book of Common Prayer has been and continues to be loved" (as was the case with John) "for its wonderful language, dignified and memorable but always speaking to our human condition. Phrases from it have come into everyday use and have been quoted in literature. 'Till death us do part', 'read, mark, learn and inwardly digest', 'peace in our time'." With the Authorised Version of the Bible, "it has shaped the language of worship both in public services and private prayers." More than that, as Melvyn Bragg has said, "There is no doubt in my mind that the King James Bible not Shakespeare set this language on its path to become a universal language on a scale unprecedented before or since." 
 

John might have disagreed with that because he also loved Shakespeare’s ability "to summarize the range of human emotions in simple yet profoundly eloquent verse which is perhaps the greatest reason for his enduring popularity. If you cannot find words to express how you feel about love or music or growing older, Shakespeare can speak for you. No author in the Western world has penned more beloved passages. Many of the common expressions now thought to be clichés were Shakespeare's creations. Chances are you use Shakespeare's expressions all the time even though you may not know it is the Bard you are quoting."
 

As Bernard Levin said, “... if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare ...”

The language of Shakespeare, the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer live on when we use their words and phrases in everyday discourse but these words really come alive, as John knew for himself, when we act them out. Shakespeare lives in performance and the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer become contemporary when we "translate what we hear and read into lives that speak God’s truth afresh in our generation."

That was what John sought to do in every aspect of his full and varied life: in his conscientious work for Plesseys; in his enjoyment of sport and his encouragement of the boys in his football team; in his many friendships and his love of his godchildren; in his care of his mother; in his dedication to the support of live theatre; in the care and commitment shown in his volunteering; and in his enabling of worship through his many years as a server here at St John’s. The words that he loved shaped the man that he became and the man that he became translated what he heard and read into a life that spoke God’s truth in and through all aspects of the full life he lived - in the Arts, the Church, relationships, sport, and work (paid and unpaid).

In bearing God's image John brought light to our lives; for we saw in his friendship reflections of God's compassion, in his integrity demonstrations of God's goodness, in his faithfulness glimpses of God's eternal love. As we pray, may God grant to each of us, beloved and bereft, the grace to follow John's good example so that we, with him, may come to God's everlasting kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.        

O eternal Word of God, limitless and free, yet handed down to us through careful human speech, telling salvation's story in the homely and glorious words of our own mother tongue: translate what we hear and read into lives that speak your truth afresh in this generation, that many may come to love you our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Tomaso Albinoni - Violin Concerto in G Minor.

Life and grief journeys

In the English language we have many words and phrases that use the metaphor of a journey for aspects of our life. When babies are born we say that they have arrived. When we have a big decision in front of us, we say we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. When we are unsure what to do next in our lives we say we are at a crossroads and don’t know which way to go or we might say that our life has no direction and we don’t know where we are heading.

The words and phrases we use suggest that we think of life is being like a journey filled with lessons, hardships, heartaches, joys, celebrations and special moments that will ultimately lead us to our destination in life. The road will not always be smooth and throughout our travels we will be confronted with many situations, some joyful and others filled with heartache. How we react often determines what the rest of our journey through life will be like.

It is the same with grief. We all have stories of grief. We each have our own experiences of life and death, with different memories and different feelings of love, grief and respect. No two grief journeys are exactly the same. Though there are commonalities in losing someone, there are many types of loss. As we said at the beginning of our service we bring before God today those mixed emotions which constitute human grief: numb disbelief and sad bewilderment; the bitterness of anger and the guilt of regret; the deep sense of loss; our helpless and vulnerable feelings when confronted with the fact of our human mortality; and our sense of thanksgiving for the life and work of those we have lost. We are all on a journey through grief.

It might help to think of our journey through life and through grief as a Pilgrimage. Pilgrimages are traditionally journeys to a holy place – places where saints have walked, places where God has met people and blessed them. People through the ages have journeyed with God on pilgrimage – to perform a penance, to ask for healing, to pray for places where there is war or national disaster, to pray for friends. For those who go on Pilgrimage, it is an opportunity to travel lightly, to walk free of daily routines, to meet people, to make friends, to enjoy and celebrate God’s creation. Pilgrimages also provide an opportunity too in the travelling, the conversations and the silences to reflect on the journey of our lives and on our journey homewards to God.

That journey – our journey homewards to God – is one that we undertake in Christ. Jesus is the Way to the Father, as he said to his disciples at the Last Supper. He is the Way - the style - in which we travel as we seek to live out his Way of Love. He is the Way - the direction - of our travel, the one who points us towards abundant eternal life and he is the Way - the road - on which we travel, just like the Prodigal Son we can return home to God the Father because Jesus laid down his life to make that homecoming possible.

Because Jesus has walked the Way before us, so we can now follow in his footsteps. Whatever the terrain of our life-journey, we can walk it in the company of Jesus, so that he becomes our route. Why not resolve to allow him to take over the navigation from this moment on. If you do, from now on, you will be travelling on him, in him and with him.

And the end of our journeying has been memorably described by Archbishop Desmond Tutu when he said:

‘In the end what matters is not how good we are but how good God is. Not how much we love Him but how much He loves us. And God loves us whoever we are, whatever we’ve done or failed to do, whatever we believe or can’t.’

That expression of faith spoken by a man whose whole life has been one of immense pain and suffering and bewilderment is quite wonderful. I believe it offers hope to us all. Think over the promise Jesus has made to us: ‘Look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’ It may help to repeat this from time to time as we let God show us how it affects us and our lives.

Finally, if we are going to walk the Way of Jesus, the Way of Love, then we can’t be solely focussed on ourselves and on our ultimate destination. Instead, we must be aware of and open to others and their needs. As William Blake writes in his poem ‘On Another’s Sorrow’:

Can I see another’s woe,

And not be in sorrow too?

Can I see another’s grief,

And not seek for kind relief?

  

As Blake makes clear in this poem, we can do this because it is what God has already done for us:

Think not thou canst sigh a sigh

And thy maker is not by;

Think not thou canst weep a tear

And thy maker is not near.

O! he gives to us his joy

That our grief he may destroy;

Till our grief is fled and gone

He doth sit by us and moan.

Our experiences of God coming into our grief and distress to bring comfort and restoration can then enable us to comfort others as in another poem; this time entitled A Glass of Water:

Here is a glass of water from my well.

It tastes of rock and root and earth and rain;

It is the best I have, my only spell

And it is cold, and better than champagne.

Perhaps someone will pass this house one day

To drink, and be restored, and go his way,

Someone in dark confusion as I was

When I drank down cold water in a glass,

Drank a transparent health to keep me sane,

After the bitter mood had gone again.

Sarton M, Benson G, Chernaik J, Herbert C (eds) (1995) Poems on the Underground: Cassell, London

As we end this service we will pray for God’s healing hand to rest upon us and his life-giving power to flow into every cell of our bodies and into the depths of our souls, cleansing, purifying, restoring us to wholeness and strength for service in his Kingdom. Then, as a result, we will also pray: Have peace with one another as children of one mother. Let each defer to others and may your hearts be one. Have peace with all around you, sweet love of earth surround you, and may no harm confound you or break the peace within.

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Gungor - God Is Not A White Man.

Bereavement Service sermon

I used an excellent sermon by Rev Dr Steve Griffiths, Rector of the Linton Team Ministry Cambridge, during our annual Bereavement Service at St John's Seven Kings today. The story of Jacob wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-31) "teaches us that God is with us in our experience of the mystery of grief and that even though we might feel alone, God hears us in our pain and we can know the transformative power of God at work in our lives, even through the darkest hours of our life."

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Lou Reed - Dimestore Mystery.