Come and see

Here's my sermon from last Sunday for the Chinese congregations at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Seeing is believing, they say. When Thomas was told that Jesus had risen from the dead, he famously said unless I see … I will not believe.

In today’s Gospel reading (John 1.29-42) we hear Jesus saying to those who would become his first disciples, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw … and … remained with him that day. Then they said what they saw, telling Simon Peter, Andrew’s brother, ‘We have found the Messiah.’

The two disciples initially speak to Jesus because John the Baptist has told them to look at Jesus. John does so because of what he has seen: ‘John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.’’

At the beginning of his story, the writer of John’s Gospel is telling us to come and see Jesus for ourselves. That is his purpose in writing. What is it that we see when we come and see?

James Allan Francis gives us one understanding when he writes in ‘One Solitary Life’: ‘Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying—and that was his coat. When he was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the centrepiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life.

Allan Francis is saying that when we look at Jesus we see an amazing story of incredible influence deriving from one obscure life; a story so amazing that it must be of God, a life so amazing that it must be of God.

But if the story and its influence are amazing, the person that we see is equally so. St Paul describes the character of Jesus in Philippians 2: ‘Christ Jesus … / though he was in the form of God, / did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, / but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, / being born in human likeness. / And being found in human form, / he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — / even death on a cross.’

In Christ’s actions and character we see the most exceptional love expressed in self-sacrifice. Jesus was, as Lord Hailsham once said, ‘irresistibly attractive.’ That is why Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote: ‘I believe there is no one lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic and more perfect than Jesus. I say to myself, with jealous love, that not only is there no one else like him but there never could be anyone like him.’ It is why Bernard Levin poses the question: ‘Is not the nature of Christ, in the words of the New Testament, enough to pierce to the soul anyone with a soul to be pierced? … he still looms over the world, his message still clear, his pity still infinite, his consolation still effective, his words still full of glory, wisdom and love.’ Jesus was ‘Love all lovely, Love Divine,’ as Christina Rossetti noted.

If we say what we see when we come and see Jesus, then we are likely to say with the writer of John’s Gospel: ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth … From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace … No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.’

When we come and see Jesus, we also see God himself. As the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says: ‘God has spoken to us by a Son … He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.’

The next day one of the disciples to whom Jesus said, ‘Come and see,’ repeated those same words to a friend. We read in John 1. 43 – 52 that: ‘Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”’

Philip was giving testimony by saying what he had seen and by encouraging Nathanael to come and see for himself. That is what we are called to do ourselves, once we have seen Jesus ourselves. We don’t need to have theological training. We don’t need to be able to answer every question that others have about the meaning of life or the existence of God. We simply say, ‘Come and see Jesus,’ trusting that when people genuinely see Jesus for who he is, like us, they will fall in love with him and wish to follow him too.

By inviting others to ‘Come and see Jesus,’ we are giving our testimony that he is the most important person in our life and in the lives of all people. We are saying, ‘I could invite you to see all sorts of things and all sorts of people, but I want you to see Jesus because he is the one that is most important to me.

Testimony is what is given by a witness in a trial. A witness makes his or her statement as part of a trial in which the truth is at stake and where the question, ‘What is the truth?’ is what is being argued. The missiologist Lesslie Newbigin argued that this is what is ‘at the heart of the biblical vision of the human situation that the believer is a witness who gives his testimony in a trial.’

Where is the trial? It is all around us, it is life itself? In all situations we encounter, there is challenge to our faith and there is a need for us to testify in words and actions to our belief in Christ. Whenever people act as though human beings are entirely self-reliant, there is a challenge to our faith. Whenever people argue that suffering and disasters mean that there cannot be a good God, we are on the witness stand. Whenever people claim that scientific advances or psychological insights can explain away belief in God, we are in the courtroom. Whenever a response of love is called for, our witness is at stake.

But we are not alone in being witnesses. We are one with millions of others who have testified to the reality and presence of Jesus Christ in their lives. No courtroom on earth could cope with the number of witnesses to Christ who could be called by the defence. That is why the writer of Hebrews says, “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”

This is what Andrew began by saying to Peter, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ Later, when Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ Peter gave the answer, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ He had come to see Jesus at the invitation of his brother. By coming to see for himself, he had realised that Jesus was the Son of God and could therefore tell others to come and see and then say what they saw.

We are part of the witness that has been built on that same rock. So let us be encouraged today by the incredible numbers of others testifying to Christ and let us be challenged to add our own testimony in words and actions to those of our brothers and sisters in Christ because every day in every situation we face, we and our faith are ‘on trial.’

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Tell Out My Soul The Greatness Of The Lord.

Chinese Art Talk: Picturing the Buddha

The Chinese and English speaking congregations of St Martin-in-the-Fields jointly organise an occasional series of art talks focusing on aspects of Chinese Art.

The fifth lecture in this series focusing discuss depictions of the Buddha in the British Library, where an exhibition ‘Buddhism’ is running from 25 October 2019 until 23 February 2020. The lecture will be given by Beth McKillop on Thursday 16 January 2020, 6.30pm in St Martin’s Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields. This will be an illustrated talk (in English).

Beth McKillop is a senior research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She has specialised in Chinese and Korean collections, and has published on the history of publishing in East Asia. Beth teaches book history at the Rare Book School, University of Virginia, and at SOAS, University of London.

The talk will be held in St Martin's Hall, within the Crypt of St Martin's, and will begin at 6.30pm for one hour. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception in the Bishop Ho Ming Wah Association and Community Centre.

All are very welcome – for further information contact Jonathan Evens – t: 020 7766 1127, e: jonathan.evens@smitf.org. There will be a retiring collection for St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Tickets for the event are free by registering at the Eventbrite page for this talk: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/picturing-the-buddha-tickets-80587219543.

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The Search Party - All But This.

Pots and thrones: ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties

Last night at St Martin-in-the-Fields we heard Yi Chen speak on 'Pots and thrones: ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.' This was the fourth in an occasional series of talks on different aspects of Chinese Art organised as joint events with our Chinese Congregations.

Yi Chen is Curator: Early Chinese Collections at the British Museum. Since it first opened in 1992, the China and South Asia gallery (Room 33) at the British Museum (of which the Early Chinese Collections are part) has helped millions of visitors experience its rich history through a plethora of objects, paintings, and sculptures. The gallery underwent a significant redesign and re-opened in November of 2017 with the content within the gallery being condensed and brought up to the present day. In addition to her work at the British Museum, Yi has spoken and written on aspects of Chinese Art from Late Neolithic to Bronze Age southern China through Buddhist Images on the theme of Pure Land to Fang Zhaoling, one of the foremost women artists of 20th-century China.

Tonight she focused on pots and thrones, ritual bronze vessels from the time of the earliest archaeologically recorded dynasty in Chinese history and opened up aspects of the growth and maturity of a civilization that would be sustained in its essential aspects for another 2,000 years. The rituals for which these vessels were used carried such an important social function, that it is possible to read into the forms and decorations of these objects some of the central concerns of the societies that produced them.

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Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where The Time Goes.

Pots and thrones: ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties

St Martin-in-the-Fields, together with the Chinese Speaking Congregations of St Martin's, is organising an occasional series of art talks focusing on aspects of Chinese Art.

The fourth lecture in this series will be on ‘Pots and thrones: ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties’ and will be given by Yi Chen on Thursday 6 June 2019, 6.30pm in St Martin’s Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields. This will be an illustrated talk (in English). Yi Chen is Curator: Early Chinese Collections at the British Museum.

The talk will be held in St Martin's Hall, within the Crypt of St Martin's, and will begin at 6.30pm for one hour. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception in the Bishop Ho Ming Wah Association and Community Centre.

All are very welcome – for further information contact Jonathan Evens – t: 020 7766 1127, e: jonathan.evens@smitf.org. There will be a retiring collection for St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Tickets for the event are free by registering at the Eventbrite page for this talk: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pots-and-thrones-ritual-bronze-vessels-of-the-shang-and-zhou-dynasties-tickets-60604042322.

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Kitaro - Mercury.

The meaning of decoration on Chinese ceramics

St Martin-in-the-Fields, together with the Chinese Speaking Congregations of St Martin's, is organising an occasional series of art talks focusing on aspects of Chinese Art. The third lecture in this series will be on 'The meaning of decoration on Chinese Ceramics' and will be given by Rosemary Scott on Thursday 17 January 2019, 6.30pm in St Martin’s Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields. This will be an illustrated talk (in English).

Rosemary Scott took an honours degree in Chinese Art & Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where she went on to do postgraduate research. On leaving university she joined the Burrell Collection in Glasgow as Assistant Keeper for Oriental art. She became Deputy Keeper of the whole collection a year later. Her next appointment was as Curator of the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, SOAS, combining the running of the museum with undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research. In 1995 she became the first Head of the new Museums Department at SOAS, responsible for both the David Foundation and the new Brunei Gallery.

In 1997 she joined Christie's and is currently Senior International Academic Consultant to the Asian Art departments, undertaking research, publication, lecturing and training. She has curated a wide range of exhibitions, and has researched and written numerous books and articles on the Chinese decorative arts. She has travelled widely in East Asia, America and Europe lecturing and undertaking research. She is a former President of the Oriental Ceramic Society, London.

The talk will be held in St Martin's Hall, within the Crypt of St Martin's, and will begin at 6.30pm for one hour. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception in the Bishop Ho Ming Wah Association and Community Centre.

All are very welcome – for further information contact Jonathan Evens – t: 020 7766 1127, e: jonathan.evens@smitf.org.

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Qu Xiao-Song - Drums of Xi.

Chinese Art for Western Interiors

On Thursday Colin Sheaf spoke at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 'Chinese Art for Western Interiors'. This was the second lecture in our occasional series of art talks focusing on aspects of Chinese Art; a series which is a joint initiative with our Chinese Congregations.

Linking Asian craftsmanship with evolving Western tastes in interior decoration and passion for Chinoiserie, the ‘China Trade’ facilitated the arrival in London of principally Chinese artefacts and traditions like tea-drinking, which greatly enriched English polite society between about 1600-1850. Colin's lecture explored this exotic yet fundamentally commercial maritime relationship, illustrating some of the fine lacquers, ‘Export-taste’ ceramics, silks and wallpapers which the ‘Honourable East India Company’ regularly imported.

Colin Sheaf has been Head of Asian Art at Bonhams since 2001. He has had a distinguished 37-year career in the auction industry after reading Modern History at Worcester College Oxford. A world authority on Asian ceramics and Chinese Art he directs Asian Art specialist teams on four continents, holding sales in London, Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. He is also Chairman of the Sir Percival David Foundation, the world's finest private collection of Imperial Chinese porcelain.

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Ding Yi Music Company - Moonlit River In Spring.

Chinese Art for Western Interiors

Chinese Art for Western Interiors
Joint event with the Chinese Congregations at St Martin-in-the-Fields
Thursday 7 June, 6.30pm
St Martin's Hall - talk (in English) followed by drinks reception

Colin Sheaf will speak on Chinese Art for Western Interiors. Free tickets available here or phone Jonathan Evens on 020-7766-1127 and leave your name and phone number.




This is the second lecture in our occasional series of art talks focusing on aspects of Chinese Art. Colin Sheaf has been Head of Asian Art at Bonhams since 2001. He has had a distinguished 37-year career in the auction industry after reading Modern History at Worcester College Oxford. A world authority on Asian ceramics and Chinese Art he directs Asian Art specialist teams on four continents, holding sales in London, Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. He is also Chairman of the Sir Percival David Foundation, the world's finest private collection of Imperial Chinese porcelain.

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Zhao Jiping - Pipa Concerto No. 2.