A crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Margaret Bowers Gifford and St Chad's Vange:

St Paul told the Christians in Corinth that they had the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in their hearts, but that this treasure was in clay jars, so that it might be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and did not come from them (2 Corinthians 4. 6 - 12).

If the clay jar, the container of the light, were to be perfectly formed, then the light inside would not be seen from the outside. The light of Christ would effectively be hidden as people would look at our perfect life and not Christ, because they would only see us.

Instead, St Paul says, because we are not perfect and have difficulties and flaws, we are like cracked clay jars, meaning that it is then clear that where we act or speak with love and compassion, this is because of Christ in us, rather than being something which is innate to us or simply our decision alone. He used this image of light in containers seen through cracks, or thin translucent clay, to assure the Corinthian Christians that they had the light of God in their lives, despite the fallibility and frailty of those lives.

The artist Anna Sikorska helped the congregation at St Martin-in-the-Fields reflect on these themes through ‘Light the Well’, a community art project which she is undertook together with the congregation, wider community and artists and craftspeoples group. Her installation was set in the Light Well of St Martin’s during November and December 2017 (see images above). It was the culmination of a community art project in which individuals from across St Martin’s – church congregation, Chinese community, clergy, staff and members of the International Group – gathered together over time and tables of clay to carefully form the porcelain lanterns which filled the Light Well. Each porcelain lantern was filled with light from a simple string of lamps.

Conversations around the tables when making the lanterns touched on ‘cracked pots’, the continental tradition of ‘St Martin’s day’ paper lanterns, networks of sea buoys, St Paul describing light inside clay vessels, the fragility of our lives and bodies, ‘broken but not crushed’ and Leonard Cohen’s lines: ‘Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.’

The project involved a large number of porcelain lanterns (glazed ceramic globes) made by laying strips of porcelain onto a round support. The size, surface decoration and character of each lantern differed, although the base material - and overall look - was consistent white ceramic, roughly made.

Porcelain clay glows with a transparency individual to itself but those who made lanterns realised that, in order to be as translucent as possible, the strips of porcelain needed to be as thin as possible. Once made, they were fired and the lanterns were then suitable for being outside. They developed cracks in the firing, through which the light inside was seen. In the Light Well at St Martin’s, these lanterns were joined together with cord covering the stone floor in a random constellation. The cord also connected a light bulb within each lantern, so each one shone from within.

These cracked translucent lanterns lit from within were a visible realisation of St Paul’s image of light in clay jars. By linking the lanterns together, this installation also highlighted another aspect of this passage.

St Paul writes that ‘We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.’ He writes of us in the plural. We are afflicted, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. It is as we come together to engage with affliction, perplexity, forsakenness, and being struck down that we carry in our body the death of Jesus and show the life of Jesus. It is as we come together, linked, like the lanterns, by the light of Christ that we become the Body of Christ.

So, in this passage, St Paul suggests that there are fractures and flaws running through each of our lives and that these imperfections actually enable the light within to be seen more clearly. As a result, he suggests that our vulnerabilities are the most precious aspect of our lives; of more significance than a confident pride in ourselves that will not acknowledge weakness.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that to ‘be a Christian does not mean to be religious in a particular way, to make something of oneself ... on the basis of some method or other, but to be ... the [person] that Christ creates in us. It is not the religious act that makes the Christian, but participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life …

following Christ results in the liberation of the self to exist for and with others .. "The Christian ... must drink the earthly cup to the dregs, and only in his doing so is the crucified and risen Lord with him, and he crucified and risen with Christ." Bonhoeffer could thus say that Christ takes hold of Christians at the centre of their lives, while at the same time recognizing that it also Christ who launches Christians into a world of suffering and difference. Hurled into the midst of this world, Christians are not to assume a sense of privilege but are to relinquish privilege for the sake of others …

To be claimed by others is … to participate in the vulnerable God's existence for us. In contrast to a "religion" that can only offer smug reassurance, bourgeois comfort, and pious quietism, the "new life" to which Jesus calls his followers is fraught with risk.

Bonhoeffer … claimed that God is revealed in the world precisely in those places that the world is most prone to ignore: in suffering, rejection, and scorn. The God of Jesus Christ takes these anathemas, makes them God's own, and invites all disciples to participate in them.’

(https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Religionless+Christianity+and+vulnerable+discipleship%3A+The+interfaith...-a098313403)

Bonhoeffer was saying and seeing what St Paul says and sees in today’s Epistle; each of us are like cracked or translucent clay jars because of our flaws and vulnerabilities. It is through these lines of stress – the suffering, rejection and scorn with which we engage - that the light of Christ is seen. It is as we join together in living for the sake of others – linked together as the lanterns were linked in the Light the Well installation – that we become the Body of Christ and reveal him most fully in the world. In this way, the Light the Well community art project and installation showed what it means to be the Body of Christ – the Church – in the world today. May we also see that for ourselves today. Amen.

Lord Jesus, in your face we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Your light in our lives is like a flame inside a cracked clay jar, with your light seen through the lines of stress and tension that characterise our lives. As flawed people in a fragile world, we recognise that there is a crack in everything. We recognise, too, that it is through the cracks in our existence that your light gets in and shines out. We share in the vulnerability and suffering that was your experience of death in order that your life is also seen as being our strength in weakness. May we not be crushed, driven to despair, forsaken or destroyed, but in the stresses and tensions of our lives know your power loving and sustaining us. May we no longer strive after perfect offerings and pray instead that every heart to love with come, but as a refugee. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord Jesus, in this wilderness before the promised land, we pray for all who are dispossessed and homeless. In their wilderness wanderings may they seek rest not only in a material land of promise but also in the one who left all he had to serve humanity, die and be raised to glory. In the tension of the now and the not yet, we pray for all who have asked for healing or release and to whom it has not been granted. In the depths of their loss may they encounter one whose preaching released long dead imprisoned souls. In these times between times, may we fully utilise the gifts of your Spirit - gifts of community and relationship, gifts of forgiveness and life-giving – to imagine new possibilities in the midst of the old problems of our world. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord Jesus, who in suffering and then death was made nothing, we bring to you those who are experiencing loss through suffering and bereavement. We ask that nothing and no-one will trivialise their loss and that in the heart of their loss they will experience rebirth and resurrection. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord Jesus, you are the light of the world and the light in our darkness. May your light be a flame to build warmth in our hearts towards family, neighbours and all those we meet. We place in your care all those we come to remember today. Give us, we pray, comfort in our anxiety and fear, courage and strength in our suffering, patience and compassion in our caring, consolation in our grieving. But above all, give us hope now and always. Lord, in your strength and vulnerability, hear our prayer.

Lord Jesus, through your rising from the grave, you broke the power of the grave, you broke the power of death and condemned death itself to die. As we celebrate this great triumph may we also make it a model for our living. Help us to identify in our lives all that should rightly die - redundant relationships, tired habits, fruitless longings. Resurrect in our lives faith, hope and love as surely as you raised Jesus Christ from the grave. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord, may your light enlighten us in our decisions and be a fire to purify us from all pride and selfishness. Set our hearts on fire with love for you, so that we may love you with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength, and our neighbours as ourselves. So that by keeping your commandments we may glorify you, the giver of all good gifts. Lord, in your strength and vulnerability, hear our prayer.

Blessing

Enlightenment in our decisions, purification from pride and selfishness, strength in weakness, God’s power loving and sustaining us. May those blessings of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Leonard Cohen - Anthem.

Receiving blessing to be a blessing

Here's the reflection I shared during Evensong at St Catherine's Wickford today:

Instead of starting at the very beginning, a very good place to start this sermon is with the ending of our service. The prayer of blessing at the end of this service aims to ‘crystallize all that has gone before’ in this service and ‘focus it into a commissioning for all we shall set our hand to once we depart.’ It sends us out to be a blessing to others by making ‘the whole world a Eucharist.’ Being a blessing is what I’d like to explore briefly with you this evening.

We come to be blessed in order that we become a blessing to others. That is the pattern in today’s Old Testament reading (Genesis 12.1-4a) where we read of God saying to Abraham, ‘I will bless you … so that you will be a blessing … and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

We might wonder how one person can become a blessing to all the families of the earth? The answer is, in the same way as Jesus did through the Last Supper. Abraham set out on a journey to the Promised Land which formed the people of God, who were called into being to be a blessing to other nations. In so doing, he gave all who follow after him a path to follow, a story to inhabit, a people to which to belong and a mission to which they are called. The people of Israel followed that path and inhabited that story when they left slavery in Egypt to journey through the wilderness to enter the Promised Land and established themselves there so that, when Solomon was on the throne, other nations came to learn the wisdom of God. Jesus followed that path and inhabited that story when he walked through the valley of the shadow of death to set a banqueting table for all peoples in the mansions of heaven. We become a blessing to others when we take that same story and experience of belonging out with us from church into our daily lives by seeking to make the whole world a Eucharist.

Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields has said that: ‘The mission statement of the church is to make the world a Eucharist. So faithful service means practices that look like worship—those that gather people and form them as one body, that reconcile and open lives to repentance and forgiveness, that proclaim truth and reveal God’s story, that embrace need and unleash gifts, that express thanks and are open to the Holy Spirit, that share food and wash feet.’ ‘It means extending God’s invitation to all, bringing all to repentance and joining in creation’s praise. It means proclaiming the truth of God through the history of the world and the dynamics of the universe and sharing discernment within the silence of God. It means articulating human need and enabling reconciliation. It means restoring a good relationship between humanity and its ecological home, stirring the heart, setting about work in a spirit of thanksgiving, discovering power under the authority of the Spirit, confronting evil with confidence in the sovereignty of God and sharing in the generous economy of God so that nothing is wasted. Thus all the practices of worship become the habits of discipleship.’

Tom Wright says that, ‘Blessing is not primarily about what God promises to do to someone. It is primarily about what God is going to do through someone ... Blessed are the meek, [Jesus says,] for they will inherit the earth: in other words, when God wants to sort out the world, to put it to rights once and for all, he doesn’t send in the tanks, as people often think he should. He sends in the meek; and by the time the high and mighty realise what’s happening, the meek, because they are thinking about people other than themselves, have built hospitals, founded leper colonies, looked after the orphans and widows, and, not least, founded schools, colleges and universities, to supply the world with wise leaders.

What is God going to do through you? How might you be a blessing to others? It’s not a done deal! The people of Israel had to be exiled from the Promised Land before they returned to their vocation to bless others. God came into the world as a human being because humanity was oppressing, rather than blessing, others. Around our world too many nations are building walls and creating hostile environments instead of blessing others. So, we desperately need churches that will be the catalysts preparing us to be a blessing to others; and worship is the crucible in which such change begins. As St Augustine wrote: 'You are the Body of Christ. In you and through you the work of the incarnation must go forward. You are to be taken. You are to be blessed, broken and distributed, that you may be the means of grace and vehicles of eternal love'; that you may be a blessing.

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Carmel - God Put Your Hand On Me.

Fire and Fruit

‘Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.’ (1 Corinthians 3: 12-15)

‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.’ (Galatians 5: 22-23)

Fire and fruit are images that run throughout the pages of scripture because they are images drawn from everyday experience and also because they are images that open up reflection on spiritual experience.

John the Baptist speaks in a period when the people of Israel felt confused (Luke 3:7-18). They believed they were the people of God having a special covenant relationship with God and yet they were also an oppressed people under the rule of the Romans and their appointed Kings. They were unable to make sense of both realities together and, as a result, had splintered with some fomenting rebellion against the Romans, some collaborating with the Romans and the majority seeking to live life the best way they could in the circumstances. All these were reflected in the crowd that came to listen to John, as we hear him speak specifically to the people, the tax collectors, and the Roman soldiers.

John talks primarily about the need for fruit in the lives of those that are God’s people, but he is also clear that there is ultimately no entitlement within God’s kingdom, and he talks about that through the image of fire.

As those having a special covenant relationship with God the people of Israel felt entitled. That was a key element to the confusion they felt. Why had God abandoned his God’s chosen people by allowing them to be invaded by an oppressing Empire? They thought the covenant made with God ensured protection for them from invasion and oppression.

John turns that sense of entitlement on its head by saying that the covenant depends on God’s people bearing fruit. What he says here is predicated on the understanding that God chooses to be in a special relationship with a particular group of people, not so much for their own sake, but in order that they become a blessing to all nations, drawing all people everywhere into relationship with God. Therefore, whenever, God’s people become entitled, thinking God is primarily theirs and theirs alone, God acts to break down that sense of entitlement in order that his blessings – the fruit of his people – can once again be available to all people.

John uses the language of horticulture to talk about the way in which God does this. In John 15 we also hear of Jesus talking in very similar terms. The gardeners among us today will be very familiar with pruning in which those parts of a plant, tree, or vine that are not necessary to growth or production or are injurious to the health or development of the plant, are removed or reduced. Pruning is essential to the flourishing of plants and the production of fruit. This is, in essence, what John says is going on in his own time. The current experience of God’s people is one of pruning for future growth and the way for them to approach the challenges of that situation constructively and effectively is to prioritise growth.

Before speaking about fruit, however, John throws out a challenge to his hearers because their sense of entitlement ultimately holds the seeds of disaster. Those who persist in thinking that God is just for them and who, as a result, do not bear from fruit by being a blessing to others will ultimately risk being disinherited by being cut out of the tree or seeing the tree cut down.

However, even here the language John uses – that of fire – holds within it the possibility of refining in order to restore. Experiences of tribulation and trial, including those of being pruned, even cut off and burned, may still be refining experiences that return those enduring them to right relationship with God and to becoming a blessing to others.

John has specific instructions for all those who respond to his message by asking, “What then should we do?” To the crowd he says, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” To the tax collectors, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” To the soldiers, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

John does not expect the same fruit to be produced by everyone. The fruit that can be grown by those in everyday life differs from the fruit that can be grown by tax collectors, as again from that which can be grown by soldiers. We know from Jesus’ teaching in the Parable of the Sower that seeds grow differently in different kinds of soil. So, also here. What it is possible or appropriate for a tax collector or a soldier to do in their circumstances to be a blessing to others might be very different from what an ordinary citizen can do. Yet, we know from the Gospels what an impact was made when tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus or soldiers, including two centurions, responded to Jesus and acted in ways that accord with John’s teaching here.

The kind of fruit that God is seeking in those who become a blessing to others is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is what God yearns to see in his people at all times and in all places. While there are times when we may experience considerable trial and tribulation, whatever our circumstances – in good times or in bad – God is seeking to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in our lives in order that we bring his blessing to those who have yet to experience or receive it.

So, what can we learn from John’s teaching including his challenge made to Jews and Gentiles alike? To act as God’s people in God’s world, we need to be those who grow the fruit of the Spirit and who become a blessing to others by sharing that fruit as widely as possible. Each of us needs to look at our contexts and roles in order to work out with God how best to do that where we are. The business of growing fruit is not a franchise where one model is simply applied everywhere. There is a diversity of soils and a diversity of fruits. Fundamentally, however, becoming fruitful by being a blessing is the intent of all that John is saying. His talk of fruit is teaching for all times and all circumstances.

His talk of fire, by contrast, is teaching for situations of extremis, where God’s people resist fruitfulness principally by thinking and acting as though God is for them alone. In such circumstances, experiences of tribulation and trial become arenas for pruning and refining; opportunities for change, for reflection, for repentance, for turning and learning. God’s intent though, as St Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians, is always that all should be saved, even if through fire.

Our task, like those responding to John the Baptist, is to continually ask, “What then should we do?” and to take the opportunities which are constantly in front of us to share what we have with those who have nothing, collect no more for ourselves than the amount prescribed, not to extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with what we have. In these and in many other ways, we can be a blessing to others and reveal the love of God through the body of his people. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Salisbury Cathedral Choir - On Jordan's Bank, The Baptist's Cry.  

Being a blessing

Here's my sermon for Schools Sunday at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Instead of starting at the very beginning, a very good place to start this sermon is with the ending of our service. The prayer of blessing at the end of this service aims to ‘crystallize all that has gone before’ in this service and ‘focus it into a commissioning for all we shall set our hand to once we depart.’ It sends us out to be a blessing to others by making ‘the whole world a Eucharist.’ Being a blessing, that’s what I’d like to explore with you today; first in worship, second in one person who expresses it well today and finally in what it might mean for ourselves, including those of those at school.

In this service God takes us and our offerings – the food, drink and others gifts we bring - and places them in a far larger story than we ever could have imagined by giving them a sacred story and making them sacred actions. As we retell and re-enact what Jesus did at the Last Supper, we also recall what God did to Israel in ‘taking one special people, blessing them, then breaking them in the Exile before giving them as a light to the nations to bring the Gentiles to God.’ ‘In the telling of those stories and the performance of those actions we are transformed into God’s holy people.’ ‘That’s what the regular celebration of the Eucharist is about: God taking an ordinary people and through this story and these actions turning us into the body of Christ.’ When the Eucharist is served, each of us offers all that we uniquely are at the altar and we receive from God everything we need to follow him by being a blessing to others in our daily lives.

St Augustine said: 'You are the Body of Christ. In you and through you the work of the incarnation must go forward. You are to be taken. You are to be blessed, broken and distributed, that you may be the means of grace and vehicles of eternal love.' Based on these thoughts, Sam Wells has explained that: ‘The elements of bread and wine are taken, blessed, broken and shared just as Jesus was taken, blessed, broken and shared. In a similar way the congregation as a whole is taken out of its ordinary pursuits; blessed with the grace and truth of forgiveness and scripture; broken in the disciplines of intercession, peacemaking and food-sharing; and shared with the world in love and service. As the bread and wine are offered, transformed and received, the congregation, and through it the whole creation, is offered, transformed and received.’

We come to be blessed in order that we become a blessing to others. That is the pattern also in today’s Old Testament reading (Genesis 12.1-4a) where we read of God saying to Abraham, ‘I will bless you … so that you will be a blessing … and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

We might wonder how one person can become a blessing to all the families of the earth? The answer is, in the same way as Jesus did through the Last Supper. Abraham set out on a journey to the Promised Land which formed the people of God, who were called into being to be a blessing to other nations. In so doing, he gave all who follow after him a path to follow, a story to inhabit, a people to which to belong and a mission to which they are called. The people of Israel followed that path and inhabited that story when they left slavery in Egypt to journey through the wilderness to enter the Promised Land and established themselves there so that, when Solomon was on the throne, other nations came to learn the wisdom of God. Jesus followed that path and inhabited that story when he walked through the valley of the shadow of death to set a banqueting table for all peoples in the mansions of heaven. We become a blessing to others when we take that same story and experience of belonging out with us from church into our daily lives by seeking to make the whole world a Eucharist.

Sam has said that: ‘The mission statement of the church is to make the world a Eucharist. So faithful service means practices that look like worship—those that gather people and form them as one body, that reconcile and open lives to repentance and forgiveness, that proclaim truth and reveal God’s story, that embrace need and unleash gifts, that express thanks and are open to the Holy Spirit, that share food and wash feet.’ ‘It means extending God’s invitation to all, bringing all to repentance and joining in creation’s praise. It means proclaiming the truth of God through the history of the world and the dynamics of the universe and sharing discernment within the silence of God. It means articulating human need and enabling reconciliation. It means restoring a good relationship between humanity and its ecological home, stirring the heart, setting about work in a spirit of thanksgiving, discovering power under the authority of the Spirit, confronting evil with confidence in the sovereignty of God and sharing in the generous economy of God so that nothing is wasted. Thus all the practices of worship become the habits of discipleship.’

That’s the theory and that was the experience of Abraham, Israel and Jesus. Let’s come up-to-date and think for a moment about a similar experience for someone who is proving inspirational to many today. Greta Thunberg was the subject of a giant portrait unveiled on the playing field of a school in West Yorkshire to mark International Women's Day. The 60m long artwork took four days to create and was titled ‘A girl inspiring the world.’ Pupils Hebden Royd Primary School chose the 17-year-old as the woman who had most inspired them saying, ‘We've chosen Greta because she stands up for what she believes.’ She has ‘pioneered a global movement which is so relevant to the area.’

Tabitha Whiting has recounted how Greta Thunberg first learnt about global warming at the age of 8, when her class was shown documentaries about climate change at school. She remembers being more affected than the other students and puts this down to having aspergers and selective mutism. After learning about global warming she couldn’t simply go back to normal, continue with her studies, and think about something else. It profoundly affected her. It affected her so much, that three years later, at the age of 11, she experienced a period of depression. Climate change wasn’t the sole reason for this, but it definitely played a part. She was so deep in her depression that she stopped attending school. Naturally, her parents were incredibly concerned. When they spoke to her about the depression, Greta opened up to them about her climate crisis worries. She gained a sense of release from talking about it. Greta realised that by talking about her worries, she could influence others make a difference. This marked the beginnings of the movement that she has created. Out of her struggle with depression came the spark of activism.

On August 20th 2018 Greta conducted her first school strike. She did not go to school that day, and instead sat down outside the Swedish Parliament. She stayed there for the full length of the school day, posting photos on Twitter and Instagram, and she started to gain traction with a couple of journalists and newspapers coming to see her. The next day, she was back in the same place, striking again. But this time she wasn’t alone. People started joining her on her strike, which took place until the Swedish National Elections on 9 September 2018. She was then asked to make a speech at a People’s Climate March rally, in front of thousands of people. She was determined to speak out about the climate crisis, and that her selective mutism wouldn’t prevent that. She delivered the speech brilliantly, in fluent English. Now, she speaks regularly in front of crowds, politicians, and journalists.

Her school strikes started to go global, with children across the world joining in to make their stand against climate change. On Friday 15 March 2019 a global school strike was called. 1.6 million people took part in the strike globally, from 2,233 cities in 128 countries. It was the biggest single day of climate action that has been seen in history. What started with a single girl sitting outside of the Swedish parliament with a hand-made wooden sign, had become an international movement.

In Greta Thunberg we see one young person following a call that has transformed her life and who is blessing others by addressing a critical social issue and forming an international community. As with Abraham and Jesus, Greta has become a blessing to others by undertaking a journey, creating a story, and forming a community. Our impact may not be as great and may not happen within such a short space of time, yet we too are called to be blessed, broken and distributed, that we may also be the means of grace and vehicles of eternal love.

Although school strikes have been the catalyst for the movement Greta Thunberg has begun, school was the catalyst for her awareness of the climate emergency and schools can be communities that are catalysts for blessing. A Guardian article from the past week explored ways to equip young people to face the challenges of the 21st century saying ‘that the key skills they need to survive and thrive in the 21st century will be emotional intelligence … and the ability to deal with change’. It argued that these ‘are best fostered by an education system that prioritises not traditional academic learning but rather “the four Cs”: critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.’ What is needed the article suggested is ‘a commitment to putting mental and physical wellbeing at the very heart of education’, prioritising mental and physical health, and promoting resilience. That means ‘teaching children to understand their minds and bodies, encouraging them to have contact with nature, helping them to negotiate relationships with others, fostering excellent communication skills, and nurturing creativity.’ Schools, like churches, can be catalysts for communion and creativity. In these ways, they bless that others may be blessed.

Tom Wright says that, ‘Blessing is not primarily about what God promises to do to someone. It is primarily about what God is going to do through someone ... Blessed are the meek, [Jesus says,] for they will inherit the earth: in other words, when God wants to sort out the world, to put it to rights once and for all, he doesn’t send in the tanks, as people often think he should. He sends in the meek; and by the time the high and mighty realise what’s happening, the meek, because they are thinking about people other than themselves, have built hospitals, founded leper colonies, looked after the orphans and widows, and, not least, founded schools, colleges and universities, to supply the world with wise leaders.

What is God going to do through you? How might you be a blessing to others? It’s not a done deal! The people of Israel had to be exiled from the Promised Land before they returned to their vocation to bless others. God came into the world as a human being because humanity was oppressing, rather than blessing, others. Around our world too many nations are building walls and creating hostile environments instead of blessing others. We desperately need churches and schools that will be the catalysts preparing us to be a blessing to others; and worship is the crucible in which such change begins. As St Augustine wrote: 'You are the Body of Christ. In you and through you the work of the incarnation must go forward. You are to be taken. You are to be blessed, broken and distributed, that you may be the means of grace and vehicles of eternal love'; that you may be a blessing.

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Arvo Pärt - The Beatitudes.

The constantly flowing stream of God's love

Here is my reflection from yesterday's lunchtime Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Our Gospel Reading today (Luke 6. 36 - 38) speaks of how we are to receive from God; a particularly appropriate theme for Lent where we seek to deepen our relationship with God through prayer and meditation over the 40 days of Lent.

The image we are given at the end of this short passage, is that of a constantly flowing stream of water which is being poured into a container (a jug, a cup, a glass). ‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’ Because the water is constantly flowing, the container quickly fills and then the water spills over the sides and constantly runs over from the container.

The constantly flowing stream of water is the love and blessing of God which is always being poured out over us. Our lives are the container (the jug, the glass) and to receive from God we need to position ourselves under the ever-flowing stream of his love and blessing and open our lives to that love and blessing.

We could decide that we don’t wish to receive from God either by moving away from the source of blessing or by closing our lives to the flow of God’s love. But the image we are given here is of someone who is completely open to the love of God and who has positioned their life in order to receive as fully as possible from God.

Is that where we are in our relationship with God this Lent? Are there aspects of our lives and experiences that keep us closed off to God or to receiving his love fully? Are there ways in which we are sidestepping coming fully into the steam of God’s love, perhaps because there are unconfessed or unforgiven experiences in our lives? As we confess those things that are blocks to receiving or as we reposition ourselves so we are no longer avoiding God’s love, then we are able to receive from God as fully as possible. Let us aim to do so throughout this Lent and beyond.

When we are fully open to God and positioned to receive fully from him, then the other aspect of this image to note is that the image is not about simply being filled ourselves. Instead, the image is of being so full ourselves that God’s love constantly spills over from us to others. God’s love is not something we can contain or retain simply for ourselves. God’s love is always being poured out for all people everywhere. It is profligate; without limit and without end. We cannot bottle it up, put a lid on it and keep it just for ourselves, because to do so closes us off from receiving in future.

The only way in which we can be filled and blessed by God’s love is if we constantly give it away - 'give, and it will be given to you; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’ We can only go on being filled if we give away what we have received to others.

We often think about Lent in terms of giving up. We give something up in order to focus more on God during Lent. This image suggests, however, that as well as giving up those things that prevent us receiving from God, we should also take something up, as that is about giving away what we have received from God to others as part of the profligate way in which God pours out his love to us. Some Lent programmes or initiatives essentially encourage what are now called random acts of kindness; a different act or action for each day of Lent that blesses someone else and thereby shares the love of God with others.

How will you be a source of blessing and love to others this Lent? Considering that question is primarily about how God’s profligate love is shard abundantly with others, but secondarily, is also a question about our capacity to receive more of God’s profligate love ourselves; as our capacity to receive is actually wholly dependent on our willingness to give.

‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’ Amen.

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Julie Miller - River Where Mercy Flows.

Start:Stop - Advent waiting

Bible reading

Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning-- lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch." (Mark 13:33-37)

Meditation

Advent is a time of watching and waiting. Waiting to celebrate the first coming of Christ and reflecting on our wait for his second coming. Waiting is a common experience; one that used to characterise the British as we were known for our ability to wait patiently in queues. Now that would seem to have changed, as adverts claim that impatience is a virtue.

Alan Stewart, a clergy friend, has written a meditation which helps us reflect on our common experiences of waiting. He begins:

Waiting for news / News you long for / News you fear / Waiting for answers
Waiting to rejoice / With tears of laughter / Tears of regret / Waiting to grieve
Waiting to remember / Waiting to forget
Waiting to greet / or to say goodbye / Waiting to embrace / or to push away

He ends: Waiting for God / And in the waiting / God waits / With us.

So, God is with us in our waiting. That is the first thing for us to realise and sense. It is something that we see both in the Christmas story and in the wider story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as I have highlighted in another meditation:

Waiting. / Elizabeth waiting years for the conception of a child.
Waiting. / Mary waiting nine months for the birth of God’s son.
Waiting. / Simeon waiting to see the salvation of Israel.
Waiting. / Eastern visitors following a star, waiting to worship the baby born King of the Jews.
Waiting. / Joseph and Mary living in Egypt waiting for the death of Herod.

So, I conclude: Love waits. / Birth waits. / New life waits. / Revelation waits. / God waits.

Why are we waiting? Why does God wait? The answer that the Bible seems to give is that he is waiting for us to respond to him. W. H. Vanstone wrote: “So it is with the love of God. For the completion of its work, and therefore its own triumph, it must wait upon the understanding of those who receive it. The love of God must wait for the recognition of those who have power to recognise … Recognition of the love of God involves, as it were, the forging of an offering: the offering is the coming-to-be of understanding: only where this understanding has come to be has love conveyed its richest blessing and completed its work in triumph.”

God waits for us; waits for our recognition, understanding and response to his love. So, let us make it our aim and prayer this Advent to see him more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly day by day.

Prayers

Watchful at all times, let us pray for strength to stand with confidence before our Maker and Redeemer. Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

Lord, you wait for us to come and see you. You wait to shine light where there is darkness, to show love where there is hate, to share peace where there is conflict, to give hope where there is despair. Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

Lord, you wait for us to come and see you. Let us gather round the manger to shine your light, to show your love, to share your peace, to give your hope. Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

Let us come, and remember what has been fulfilled. Let us prepare for what must yet be done. Let us come to the One who waits to show us love. Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

(Christine Sine)

Almighty God, as your blessed Son Jesus Christ first came to seek and to save the lost; so may he come again to find in us the completion of his redeeming work. Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

Blessing

Christ the Sun of Righteousness shine upon you, scatter the darkness from before your path, and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Steve Bell & Malcolm Guite - Epiphany on the Jordan.

Start:Stop - Small Action Big Difference

Bible reading

‘He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”’ (Matthew 13: 31 & 32)

Meditation

This year’s BBC Radio 4 Christmas Appeal for St Martin-in-the-Fields uses the slogan ‘Small Action Big Difference’. This reminded me of the statement made by Brother Lawrence that ‘We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.'

The Parable of the Mustard Seed is an illustration of this truth. In this brief parable a small action, the sowing of a small seed, leads to the growth of a large plant. Jesus says that, in a similar way, the kingdom of God has small beginnings but grows to become something much larger. As a result, we should, like Brother Lawrence says, in no wise despise small actions.

We see this illustrated in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. Long centuries have come and gone but all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings and queens that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of human beings upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the ultimate expression of a small action with a big impact.

We could respond to this by thinking what small thing can I do today that will have a big effect but the reality is that we are rarely able to accurately predict future effects. Instead, we can learn, like Brother Lawrence, to value small, mundane actions in the knowledge that, if well done for the love of God, these actions can have significantly larger impacts.

Prayer

Lord God, enable us not to be weary of doing little things for love of You, recognising that you regard not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. Please take and use the little that we offer and multiply it to your praise and glory.

As we do small things for love of you multiply the impact of our actions.

Enable us to sow small seeds of Your love through our actions in those we know and in our communities and workplaces. Bring those seeds to fruition and make their growth be greater than the seed which was sown.

As we do small things for love of you multiply the impact of our actions.

Teach us to value the doing of small, mundane actions recognising that You are equally present in the small things of life as in the great. Give us the eyes of faith to discern You as You come to us at each moment of our daily routine - truly present, truly living, truly attentive to the needs of each person.

As we do small things for love of you multiply the impact of our actions.

Blessing

Giving us eyes of faith, being present in the small things of life, bring seeds sown to fruition, multiplying the impact of our actions. May those blessings of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon us and remain with us always. Amen.

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Tears for Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love.

Discover & explore: St Erkenwald & St Ethelburga

The final Discover & explore service in the current series at St Stephen Walbrook with the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields was on St Erkenwald and St Ethelburga and featured music which included: Lord, I want to be a Christian – arr. Moses Hogan; Heaven-Haven – Samuel Barber; Give us the wings of faith – Whitbourn; and The peace of God – Rutter.

In my reflection I said:

As we reflected last week, the official withdrawal of Roman administration in 410 AD did not end Christian belief in England but it was to be almost two hundred years before the next significant phase of expansion. It was in this phase of expansion that St Paul’s Cathedral was founded and the two names most associated with the establishment of the first St Paul’s are Saint Mellitus (our focus last week) and Saint Erkenwald (our focus this week). Erkenwald was the Abbot of Chertsey whose consecration as Bishop of London in 675 AD, following the city’s brief return to paganism, confirmed the return of the Roman Church to London (https://www.stpauls.co.uk/history-collections/history/cathedral-history-timeline).

Believed to be an early convert of the mission led by St. Mellitus, Erkenwald founded two religious houses on either side of the Thames. The abbey Erkenwald built at Chertsey he presided over, as Abbot, but the other, at Barking, he gave to his sister St. Ethelburga, recalling St. Hildelid from France to train her in the religious life and to guide her in the governance of this double monastery of monks and nuns. His sister remained very close to him and later, when he was Bishop of London, used to accompany him on his journeys.

On the death of St. Cedd, in the plague of 664, Erkenwald, who was descended from the house of Uffa, the royal family of the East Angles, was recommended by King Sebbi, to Archbishop Theodore, as the new Bishop of London. His ministry for the next eleven years was to be one of reconciliation. His diocese still contained some Britons who had remained, when the land was overrun by the Saxons, but the invaders were the predominant population. They had received the Christian Faith first of all through the Roman clergy sent by St. Gregory, but the faith had been established by the monks from Lindisfarne under St. Cedd, who were of the Celtic Church, so the see had a mixed tradition. Moreover, there was a certain amount of resistance to the reforms being introduced by St. Theodore to the English Dioceses, and Erkenwald had a share in healing these divisions in the English Church as a whole, for the quarrel between St Wilfrid and Theodore was finally settled in Erkenwald's house just before Theodore's death (http://celticsaints.org/2012/0430b.html).

St. Erkenwald's sanctity and peacemaking earned him an enduring place in the hearts of Londoners, and there are also many stories of miracles. One curious tale has been preserved, in part in a poem in the Cheshire dialect, of how, during the rebuilding of St Paul's, a coffin was discovered containing the body of a man wearing a crown and with a sceptre in his hand (http://londinoupolis.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/saint-erkenwald-bishop-of-london-abbot.html). Adorned with gargoyles and made of grey marble, the tomb was inscribed with a series of golden characters; however, no scholar was able to decipher them. Once granted permission by the sextons, the mayor took control of the sanctuary and tomb for further investigation. As they opened the lid of the tomb, they found a preserved body and the garments of a king. Puzzled by the identity of the corpse and concerned about a royal, yet forgotten past, St. Erkenwald was summoned to the tomb. After Erkenwald prayed, hoping to learn the identity of the body, a "goste-lyfe" animated the corpse and revived it. Such a "goste-lyfe" most probably refers to the Christian Holy Spirit. As Erkenwald questioned the corpse, it is revealed that he is a pre-Christian Briton and once a just judge that lived during the Britain times—under the rule of King Belinus. His explanation for his royal attire is his impartial rulings throughout his time as a judge. Although he claims he was a fair and just judge, he was forced into a "lewid date". Such a term most likely refers to a state of limbo due to his existence before the salvation of Christ.

This reveals an underlying thread of theological questioning that pervades throughout the poem entitled St. Erkenwald: Did all before Christ go to hell? Erkenwald shed a single tear that baptized and consequently saved the corpse from his "lewid date." With this, the corpse immediately dissolved into dust, as the soul of the man finally entered eternal peace (https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=St.%20Erkenwald%20(poem)).

This poem therefore addresses the question of whether salvation is possible to persons who lived morally admirable lives without having had the opportunity to receive Christian baptism. The story of St. Erkenwald glorifies God’s grace through the sacrament of baptism. The poet regards the baptism scene as the key issue of his work, as the whole poem points towards this climax. The poet shows that God creates the circumstances for a pagan judge to be saved. God triumphs through the baptism of the judge, making it clear that he is in control of salvation. This teaching is to some extent in accord with that of Hebrews 11 which states that the Hebrew Patriarchs and prophets, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from the followers of Christ, be made perfect. The writer of Hebrews states that Jesus' death wasn't limited to redeeming future people, it also redeemed people in the past. Both the poem and the letter to the Hebrews suggest that the salvation won by Christ affects those who preceded Christ as well as those who lived after his life, death and resurrection.

Latterly, Erkenwald was incapacitated by gout and had to be helped into a wheeled litter, the fore-runner of the Bath-chair, and the remains of this was preserved in Old St Paul's and shown as a relic. Erkenwald died at his sister's abbey at Barking, and there was contention between the priests of St Paul's and the monks of Barking as to where he was to be buried. A great storm broke out, and there was flooding of the river, but then the sun broke through the clouds, seeming to point a golden path to the Cathedral. His body was interred in the crypt, but when the church was rebuilt in 1148 it was translated to a shrine behind the High Altar. It was a favourite place of pilgrimage until the sixteenth century and his feast day was kept on April 30th, the day of his death, with great splendour.

As the first leader of a monastic order for women in England, Ethelburga proved herself a sister worthy of such a brother and Barking became celebrated, not only for the fervour of its nuns, but for the zeal they displayed for the study of the Holy Scriptures, the fathers of the Church and even the classic tongues. Having refused an arranged marriage to a pagan prince, she was banished to a nunnery by Erkenwald. The Venerable Bede wrote of her: “Her life is known to have been such that no person who knew her ought to question but that the heavenly kingdom was opened to her, when she departed this world.” In the Anglican calendar her feast day is October 11th. She epitomises a strong woman who exemplifies the virtues of leadership and commitment to social action even to the point of self-sacrifice (https://stethelburgas.org/who-we-are/our-story/).

Ethelburga’s sanctity was shown when her community at Barking was hit by the plague. First the brothers there were struck. The sisters discovered that the life of prayer involved caring for those who are dying. Which most of the brothers then did. In her wisdom, Ethelburga realised it wouldn’t be long before the sisters too were struck down with the plague. So she took the initiative to prepare the community of sisters to face death themselves, by reflecting on where they’d like to be buried. The answer came as a result of a miraculous incident involving a powerful spiritual light. Then one of Ethelburga’s community had a day-time vision of a human body, bright as the sun, and wrapped up in a sheet, being lifted up into heaven drawn by cords brighter than gold. The nuns took this to a premonition that one of their number would soon die, and be lifted up into heaven, closer to the light. Shortly afterwards Ethelburga herself was struck down with the plague and died. The community took this as a fulfilment of the vision. Ethelburga was then succeeded by her tutor Hildelith as leader of the decimated community. Ethelburga’s life reminds us that true praying isn’t about saying the right words; but rather about living a compassionate life, caring for the sick and dying (Revd Alastair McKay).

Prayers

Almighty God, the light of the faithful and shepherd of souls, who set your servant Erkenwald to be a bishop in the Church, to feed your sheep by the word of Christ and to guide them by good example: give us grace to keep the faith of the Church and to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Heavenly Father, by the power of your Holy Spirit you give your faithful people new life in the water of baptism. Guide and strengthen us by the same Spirit, that we who are born again may serve you in faith and love, and grow into the full stature of your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Almighty God, by whose grace Ethelburga, kindled with the fire of your love, became a burning and a shining light in the Church: inflame us with the same spirit of discipline and love, that we may ever walk before you as children of light. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Almighty God, you call us, like St Ethelburga, to be physicians of the soul: by the grace of the Spirit and through the wholesome medicine of the gospel, give your Church the same love and power to care and heal. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Blessing

God is the glory and joy of all His saints, whose memory we celebrate today. May His blessing be with you always. God's holy Church rejoices that Her saints have reached their heavenly goal, and are in lasting peace. May you come to share all the joys of our Father's house. May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Samuel Barber: Heaven-Haven (A Nun Takes the Veil).

Discover & explore: St Mellitus

Discover & explore: St Mellitus at St Stephen Walbrook with the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields featured music sung by ‪the Choral Scholars of St Martin in the Fields including: Come, holy Ghost - Attwood; Christus est stella - Will Todd; Listen, sweet dove - Grayston Ives; and Ev'ry time I feel the Spirit - Spiritual arr. Moses Hogan.

‪Next Monday "Discover & Explore" at 1.10pm will explore St Erkenwald and St Ethelberga in the final service of our #Londinium series - https://ssw.churchsuite.co.uk/events/oyczm38g‬.

In my reflection I said:

Christianity reached Roman Britain in the second-century AD. The official withdrawal of Roman administration in 410 AD did not end Christian belief in England but it was to be almost two hundred years before the next significant phase of expansion. It was in this phase of expansion that St Paul’s Cathedral was founded and the two names most associated with the establishment of the first St Paul’s are Saint Mellitus (our focus this week) and Saint Erkenwald (our focus next week). St Mellitus was a monk who arrived in Britain with Saint Augustine on a mission from Rome instigated by Pope Gregory the Great (https://www.stpauls.co.uk/history-collections/history/cathedral-history-timeline). 

The anniversary of his death in 624 is remembered on 24 April and, by the time of his death, Mellitus had become the first Bishop of London in the Anglo-Saxon period and the third Archbishop of Canterbury. Augustine arrived in 597, sent by Pope Gregory the Great to convert the Saxons, and was followed in 601 by a group of monks that included Mellitus. http://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/the-founding-of-st-pauls-cathedral/

Mellitus seems to have been the most senior of the party, since he is the addressee of the famous papal letter in which Gregory told the missionaries not to destroy the Anglo-Saxons' pagan temples, customs and sacrifices, but to replace them. In writing in this way Gregory would seem to have been applying St Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian Christians to act for the welfare of the church. Their object was to save souls. Anything that would promote that object was proper; anything which would hinder it, though in itself it might not be strictly unlawful, was improper. This is a simple rule, and might be easily applied by all. If we have our heart on the conversion of people and the salvation of the world, it will go far to regulate our conduct in reference to many things concerning which there may be no exact and positive law. It will do much to regulate our style of living and modes of contact with the world. We may not be able to fix our finger on any positive law, and to say that this or that manner of life is contrary to any explicit law of Yahweh; but we may see that it will interfere with his great and main purpose, "to do good on the widest scale possible;" and therefore to us it will be inexpedient and improper. Such a grand leading purpose is a much better guide to direct our lives than would be exact positive statutes to regulate everything, even if such minute statutes were possible. (http://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_corinthians/10-23.htm)

We can see something of this lived out by St Mellitus and, thanks to Bede, we have a detailed account of his activities once he arrived in Kent, and of the many trials and tribulations of the new church. We begin in Book II of the Historia Ecclesiastica (quotations are taken from A History of the English Church and People, trans. Leo Sherley-Price (Penguin, 1974), ch.3-7): In the year of our Lord 604, Augustine, Archbishop of Britain, consecrated two bishops, Mellitus and Justus. Mellitus was appointed to preach in the province of the East Saxons, which is separated from Kent by the river Thames, and bounded on the east by the sea. Its capital is the city of London, which stands on the banks of the Thames, and is a trading centre for many nations who visit it by land and sea. At this time Sabert, Ethelbert's nephew through his sister Ricula, ruled the province under the suzerainty of Ethelbert, who, as already stated, governed all the English peoples as far north as the Humber. When this province too had received the faith through the preaching of Mellitus, King Ethelbert built a church dedicated to the holy Apostle Paul in the city of London, which he appointed as the episcopal see of Mellitus and his successors.

Augustine also consecrated Justus as bishop of a Kentish city which the English call Hrofescaestir after an early chieftain named Hrof. This lies nearly twenty-four miles west of Canterbury, and a church in honour of St. Andrew the Apostle was built here by King Ethelbert, who made many gifts to the bishops of both these churches as well as to Canterbury; he later added lands and property for the maintenance of the bishop's household.”

So far, so good for the new church, with Augustine established in Canterbury, Mellitus in London and Justus in Rochester. The church founded for Mellitus has since been rebuilt many times over, of course, but it still bears the name by which its first bishop knew it: St Paul's.

Augustine died in 604 (the year that St Pauls was founded) and was buried at what is now St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury: “He was succeeded by Laurence, a member of the original Augustinian mission, who not only sought to consolidate the new faith's position in England but also tried to extend it to Scotland, writing to the bishops of the British church to urge them to 'maintain the unity of the universal church' by following Roman practice.”

But the new church in England was not secure, and was dangerously dependent on the personal support of King Ethelbert - which became a problem when Ethelbert died in 616 as the accession of his son Eadbald proved to be a severe setback to the growth of the young church. Eadbald refused to accept the faith of Christ. The death of the Christian King Sabert of the East Saxons aggravated the upheaval; for when he departed for the heavenly kingdom he left three sons, all pagans, to inherit his earthly kingdom. These were quick to profess idolatry, which they had pretended to abandon during the lifetime of their father, and encouraged the people to return to the old gods. It is told that when they saw Bishop Mellitus offering solemn Mass in church, they said with barbarous presumption: "Why do you not offer us the white bread which you used to give to our father Saba (for so they used to call him), while you continue to give it to the people in church?" The bishop answered, "If you will be washed in the waters of salvation as your father was, you may share in the consecrated bread, as he did; but so long as you reject the water of life, you are quite unfit to receive the Bread of Life." They retorted, "We refuse to enter that font and see no need for it; but we want to be strengthened with this bread." The bishop then carefully and repeatedly explained that this was forbidden, and that no one was admitted to receive the most holy communion without the most holy cleansing of baptism. At last they grew very angry, and said, "If you will not oblige us by granting such an easy request, you shall no longer remain in our kingdom." And they drove him into exile, and ordered all his followers to leave their borders.

After his expulsion, Mellitus came to Kent to consult with his fellow-bishops Laurence and Justus on the best course of action; and they decided it would be better for all of them to return to their own country and serve God in freedom, rather than to remain impotently among heathens who had rejected the faith. Mellitus and Justus left first and settled in Gaul to await the outcome of events. But the kings who had driven out the herald of truth and their army fell in battle against the West Saxons. Nevertheless, the fate of the instigators did not cause their people to abandon their evil practices, or to return to the simple faith and love to be found in Christ alone.

This was a tipping-point for the new church, and could have been the end of Augustine's mission - but for a miraculous dream: On the very night before Laurence too was to follow Mellitus and Justus from Britain, he ordered his bed to be placed in the church of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, of which we have spoken several times. Here after long and fervent prayers for the sadly afflicted church he lay down and fell asleep. At dead of night, blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, appeared to him, and set about him for a long time with a heavy scourge, demanding with apostolic sternness why he was abandoning the flock entrusted to his care, and to which of the shepherds he would commit Christ's sheep left among the wolves when he fled. "Have you forgotten my example?" asked Peter. "For the sake of the little ones whom Christ entrusted to me as proof of his love, I suffered chains, blows, imprisonment, and pain. Finally I endured death, the death of crucifixion, at the hands of unbelievers and enemies of Christ, so that at last I might be crowned with him." Deeply moved by the words and scourging of blessed Peter, Christ's servant Laurence sought audience with the king [Eadbald] early next morning, and removing his garment, showed him the marks of the lash. The king was astounded, and enquired who had dared to scourge so eminent a man; and when he learned that it was for his own salvation that the archbishop had suffered so severely at the hands of Christ's own Apostle, he was greatly alarmed. He renounced idolatry, gave up his unlawful wife, accepted the Christian faith, and was baptised, henceforward promoting the welfare of the church with every means at his disposal.

The king also sent to Gaul and recalled Mellitus and Justus, giving them free permission to return and set their churches in order; so, the year after they left, they returned. Justus came back to his own city of Rochester, but the people of London preferred their own idolatrous priests, and refused to accept Mellitus as bishop. And since the king's authority in the realm was not so effective as that of his father, he was powerless to restore the bishop to his see against the refusal and resistance of the pagans.

Bede makes it clear that the new church could do nothing without the support of the king, and that where the king's authority stopped, there was nothing the bishops could do. Laurence died in 619 and was buried near Augustine, and Mellitus, unable to return to London, succeeded him as Archbishop of Canterbury. Bede tells us: Although Mellitus became crippled with the gout, his sound and ardent mind overcame his troublesome infirmity, ever reaching above earthly things to those that are heavenly in love and devotion. Noble by birth, he was even nobler in mind.

Bede concludes: Having ruled the church five years, Mellitus likewise departed to the heavenly kingdom in the reign of King Eadbald, and was laid to rest with his predecessors in the same monastery church of the holy Apostle Peter on the twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord 624.

That is, he was buried at what later became known as St Augustine's Abbey, where his two predecessors and King Ethelbert were also buried. The sites of the archbishops' tombs can still be seen amid the ruins of the abbey: These brick foundations (protected by a modern canopy) are believed to be the only visible remains of Augustine's original church. This was where the tombs of Augustine, Laurence, Mellitus and Justus stood until the end of the eleventh century, when the Norman rebuilding of the monastery meant that their bodies had to be moved. By this time, all were regarded as the abbey's saints (along with St Mildred of Thanet) and the translation of their bodies into the new Norman church in September 1091 was a splendid occasion; it was commemorated by a series of Lives of the early archbishops composed by Goscelin, which were recorded in several beautiful manuscripts. (http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-story-of-st-mellitus.html)

Prayers

Eternal God, you called St Mellitus to proclaim your glory in a life of prayer and pastoral zeal: keep the leaders of your Church faithful and bless your people through their ministry, that the Church may grow into the full stature of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty God, the light of the faithful and shepherd of souls, who set your servant Mellitus to be a bishop in the Church, to feed your sheep by the word of Christ and to guide them by good example: give us grace to keep the faith of the Church and to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.

God, shepherd of your people, whose servant Mellitus revealed the loving service of Christ in his ministry as a pastor of your people: awaken within us the love of Christ and keep us faithful to our Christian calling.

God of grace and wisdom, who called your servant Mellitus to leave his home and proclaim your Word: grant to all diligence for study, fervour for mission, and perseverance for ministry, that they might shine with your love and truth, for the sake of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Blessing

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that the example of your Saints may spur us on to a better life, so that we, who celebrate the memory of blessed Mellitus, may also imitate without ceasing his deeds. And the blessing of God almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you now and always. Amen.

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Sally Muggeridge - St Augustine of Canterbury.

Start:Stop - Light shines through lines of stress

Bible reading

For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4: 6-12)

Meditation

St Paul told the Christians in Corinth that they had the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in their hearts, but that this treasure was in clay jars, so that it might be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and did not come from them (2 Corinthians 4. 6 - 12). If the clay jar, the container of the light, were to be perfectly formed, then the light inside would not be seen from the outside. The light of Christ would effectively be hidden. People would look at our perfect life and not Christ, because they would only see us. Instead, St Paul says, because we are not perfect and have difficulties and flaws we are like cracked clay jars, meaning that it is then clear that where we act or speak with love and compassion, this is because of Christ in us, rather than being something which is innate to us or simply our decision alone. He used this image of light in containers seen through cracks, or thin translucent clay, to assure the Corinthian Christians that they had the light of God in their lives, despite the fallibility and frailty of those lives.

At St Martin-in-the-Fields, the artist Anna Sikorska is currently helping us reflect on these themes through ‘Light the Well’, a community art project which she has undertaken with the whole church community. The project has involved making porcelain lanterns (glazed ceramic globes). The size, surface decoration and character of each lantern differ, although the base material - and overall look - is consistent white ceramic, roughly made. The lanterns were made by laying strips of porcelain onto a round support. Once made, the lanterns were fired and are then suitable for being outside. They develop cracks in the firing, through which the light inside will also be seen. In the Light Well at St Martin’s these lanterns have been joined together with cord covering the stone floor in a random constellation. The cord also connects a light bulb within each lantern, so each one shines from within.

Porcelain, like all clay, is malleable when wet and able to be moulded and shaped but, once formed and fired, is firm but fragile at one and the same time. Porcelain, however, unlike most other clays, is also translucent meaning that light can be seen through it. It glows with a transparency individual to itself. All these aspects of porcelain are factors in these verses which say that ‘God … has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ and that ‘we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.’

These cracked translucent lanterns lit from within are a visible realisation of St Paul’s image of light in clay jars. By linking the lanterns together, this installation also highlights another aspect of this passage. Paul writes that ‘We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.’ Paul writes of us in the plural. We are afflicted, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. It is as we come together to engage with affliction, perplexity, forsakenness, and being struck down that we carry in our body the death of Jesus and show the life of Jesus. It is as we come together, linked, like the lanterns, by the light of Christ that we become the Body of Christ.

These verses picture us as fragile clay or porcelain containers. We all, as individuals, have the light of Christ within which can be seen by others as a result of our fragile nature; either the lines of stress in our lives or the thinness of our skin. Each of us are like cracked or translucent clay jars because of our flaws and vulnerabilities. It is through these lines of stress – the suffering, rejection and scorn with which we engage - that the light of Christ is seen. It is as we join together in living for the sake of others – linked together as the lanterns are linked in the Light the Well installation – that we become the Body of Christ and reveal him most fully in the world. In this way, this installation shows us what it means to be the Body of Christ – the Church – in the world today. When we come together as fragile individuals glowing with the light of Christ in and through our fallibilities, we are the Church as it is intended to be.

Prayers

Lord Jesus, in your face we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Your light in our lives is like a flame inside a cracked clay jar, with your light seen through the lines of stress and tension that characterise our lives. As flawed people in a fragile world, we recognise that there is a crack in everything. We recognise, too, that it is through the cracks in our existence that your light gets in and shines out. We share in the vulnerability and suffering that was your experience of death in order that your life is also seen as being our strength in weakness. May we not be crushed, driven to despair, forsaken or destroyed, but in the stresses and tensions of our lives know your power loving and sustaining us. May we no longer strive after perfect offerings and pray instead that every heart to love will come, but as a refugee. Lord, in your strength and vulnerability, hear our prayer.

Lord Jesus, you are the light of the world and the light in our darkness. May your light be a flame to build warmth in our hearts towards family, neighbours and all those we meet. We place in your care all those we come to remember today. Give us, we pray, comfort in our anxiety and fear, courage and strength in our suffering, patience and compassion in our caring, consolation in our grieving. But above all, give us hope now and always. Lord, in your strength and vulnerability, hear our prayer.

Lord, may your light enlighten us in our decisions and be a fire to purify us from all pride and selfishness. Set our hearts on fire with love for you, so that we may love you with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength, and our neighbours as ourselves. So that by keeping your commandments we may glorify you, the giver of all good gifts. Lord, in your strength and vulnerability, hear our prayer.

Blessing

Enlightenment in our decisions, purification from pride and selfishness, strength in weakness, God’s power loving and sustaining us. May those blessings of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Innocence Mission - Morning Star.