Hope: The light of the promised future that is to come

Here's the reflection that I shared during Reflective Evening Prayer this evening at St Mary's Runwell. 
The readings were Lamentations 3:19-33 and 'Hope' is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson.

Disasters are frequent occurrences, “some natural, many more due to man’s ham-fisted neglect of the planet or our inability to get by without recourse to violence.” “The result is always the need for a new start, and how we respond and rebuild colours an uncertain future more than ever. Yet, for all the carnage and chaos that catastrophes bring, an odd truth is apparent: disasters do give us the chance to shape things differently.”

As a result, as Terry Eagleton writes in Hope without Optimism, “the most authentic hope is whatever can be salvaged, stripped of guarantees from a general dissolution.” It is whatever survives a general ruin. This is where we find the writer of Lamentations; bowed down with the reality of exile, yet trusting that it is in the nature of God to bring a new beginning from this disastrous affliction which is “wormwood and gall” to him. Similarly, Emily Dickinson claims that, hope is heard most sweetly in the Gale, “the chillest land” and “on the strangest Sea”.

Hope, Eagleton writes, “is to be found in the unfinished nature of the actual, discernible as a hollow at its heart.” “Potentiality is what articulates the present with the future, and thus lays down the material infrastructure of hope.” Hope is about a vision for a future that is different from the present; one which therefore requires imagination and vision. For Christians that vision is of the kingdom of God; which has begun to be realised but is still to come in its full reality.

As a result, in Theology of Hope Jürgen Moltmann argues that “Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it. Peace with God means conflict with the world, for the goad of the promised future stabs inexorably into the flesh of every unfulfilled present. If we had before our eyes only what we see, then we should cheerfully or reluctantly reconcile ourselves with things as they happen to be. That we do not reconcile ourselves, that there is no pleasant harmony between us and reality, is due to our unquenchable hope. This hope keeps man unreconciled, until the great day of the fulfilment of all the promises of God.

The Church, then, is intended to be “the source of continual new impulses towards the realization of righteousness, freedom and humanity here in the light of the promised future that is to come.” Our hope should “provide inexhaustible resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love.” It should constantly provoke and produce thinking of an anticipatory kind in love to humanity and the world, “in order to give shape to the newly dawning possibilities in the light of the promised future, in order as far as possible to create here the best that is possible, because what is promised is within the bounds of possibility.” “Thus it will constantly arouse the ‘passion for the possible’, inventiveness and elasticity in self-transformation, in breaking with the old and coming to terms with the new.” The Christian hope should always have “a revolutionary effect in this sense on the intellectual history of the society affected by it.”

“Wherever that happens, Christianity embraces its true nature and becomes a witness of the future of Christ.”

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Van Morrison - These Are The Days.

Discover & explore: Hope

The first in a new series of Discover & explore services was held at St Stephen Walbrook today. These services, which feature the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields, explore their themes through a thoughtful mix of music, prayers, readings and reflections. Themes for the current series are based on Eric Whitacre's anthem 'Hope, Faith, Life, Love' and, as a result, this series of musical discovery explores the themes of hope, faith , life, love, dreams, joy, truth and soul.

Today's theme was Hope. Next week (Monday 8th February, 1.10pm) we will explore the theme of Faith in a service led by Revd Sally Muggeridge.

Here is the liturgy and reflection from today's service:

Opening responses

Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love. (Psalm 33:18)

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. (Psalm 33:22)

For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. (Psalm 62:5)

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. (Psalm 146:5)

Reflection

Five sixths of the medieval part of the city of London, including 13,000 houses and 84 churches, were destroyed by the Great Fire of London that lasted 4 days in total. This was a disaster zone where everything was lost and people were in despair. Where is hope to be found in such a situation?

Of course, we know what happened. King Charles II invited architects, surveyors and engineers to present alternative plans. Although many of his plans were unrealised, Christopher Wren and others then rebuilt the City in a new way using better materials.

This is the starting point for an exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects entitled Creation from Catastrophe: How architecture rebuilds communities, which explores the varying ways that cities and communities have been re-imagined in the aftermath of natural or man-made disasters.

Disasters are frequent occurrences, “some natural, many more due to man’s ham-fisted neglect of the planet or our inability to get by without recourse to violence.” “The result is always the need for a new start, and how we respond and rebuild colours an uncertain future more than ever. Yet, for all the carnage and chaos that catastrophes bring, an odd truth is apparent: disasters do give us the chance to shape things differently.”

As a result, as Terry Eagleton writes in Hope without Optimism, “the most authentic hope is whatever can be salvaged, stripped of guarantees from a general dissolution.” It is whatever survives a general ruin. This is where we find the writer of Lamentations; bowed down with the reality of exile, yet trusting that it is in the nature of God to bring a new beginning from this disastrous affliction which is “wormwood and gall” to him. Similarly, Emily Dickinson claims that, hope is heard most sweetly in the Gale, “the chillest land” and “on the strangest Sea”.

The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti, reflecting on the Arab Spring, recently wrote: “Today, many see “hope” and “optimism” as obscene words.” Nevertheless he still finds “reasons to feel encouraged” despite the fact that, “the physical causes of the revolution on 25 January 2011 – corruption, tyranny and poverty – still exist, and have an uglier face.” In fact, the situation is so dire, he says, “that it is not sustainable; the revolution is still possible because nothing else is.”

Eagleton finds hope in the same place. Hope, he writes, “is to be found in the unfinished nature of the actual, discernible as a hollow at its heart.” “Potentiality is what articulates the present with the future, and thus lays down the material infrastructure of hope.” Hope is about a vision for a future that is different from the present; one which therefore requires imagination and vision. For Christians that vision is of the kingdom of God; which has begun to be realised but is still to come in its full reality.

As a result, in Theology of Hope Jurgen Moltmann argues that “Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it. Peace with God means conflict with the world, for the goad of the promised future stabs inexorably into the flesh of every unfulfilled present. If we had before our eyes only what we see, then we should cheerfully or reluctantly reconcile ourselves with things as they happen to be. That we do not reconcile ourselves, that there is no pleasant harmony between us and reality, is due to our unquenchable hope. This hope keeps man unreconciled, until the great day of the fulfillment of all the promises of God.

The Church, then, is intended to be “the source of continual new impulses towards the realization of righteousness, freedom and humanity here in the light of the promised future that is to come.” Our hope should “provide inexhaustible resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love.” It should constantly provoke and produce thinking of an anticipatory kind in love to humanity and the world, “in order to give shape to the newly dawning possibilities in the light of the promised future, in order as far as possible to create here the best that is possible, because what is promised is within the bounds of possibility.” “Thus it will constantly arouse the ‘passion for the possible’, inventiveness and elasticity in self-transformation, in breaking with the old and coming to terms with the new.” The Christian hope should always have “a revolutionary effect in this sense on the intellectual history of the society affected by it.”

“Wherever that happens, Christianity embraces its true nature and becomes a witness of the future of Christ.”

Intercessions

We pray for all those currently experiencing natural or man-made disasters and for whom life is wormwood and gall. By living all the way through these experiences of vulnerability may they find their way to a place of new beginning in which power can be plucked from weakness and life made fruitful once again. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

May we find in the unfinished nature of the present, a vision of a better future; a vision of the kingdom of God. Give us the imagination and vision we need to shape things differently and rebuild colours in an uncertain future. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

May your Church be a source of continual new impulses towards the realization of righteousness, freedom and humanity here in the light of the promised future that is to come. May we see the inexhaustible resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love that hope in you provides. Constantly arouse in us a ‘passion for the possible’, inventiveness and elasticity in self-transformation, by breaking with the old and coming to terms with the new. May this hope continue to have a revolutionary effect on the intellectual history of our society. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Blessing

Places of new beginning, power plucked from weakness, life made fruitful once again, the realization of righteousness, freedom and humanity, resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love, visions of a better future, visions of the kingdom of God; and may those blessings of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Bob Chilcott - Even Such Is Time.

Expressing what was possible but not yet realized

William Nicholson's latest novel 'The Lovers of Amherst' tells the story of an affair between Emily Dickinson’s brother Austin and the wife of a colleague, seen alongside a contemporary story, also involving a love affair. Nicholson says, 'Austin Dickinson’s passion for Mabel Todd is fascinating because it was so defiant of all convention – so much so that in order to justify what he was doing he concluded that his love must come from God. Tracking his affair, and Emily’s part in it, led me to reflect on Emily’s own attitude to sex and passion; and from there to my own attitudes. The result is a many-layered meditation on passionate love, with all its self-generated delusions as well as its glories.'

Speaking about Emily Dickinson in The Observer, Nicholson says: 'I’ve always loved her poems. I’ve always been interested in religious subjects and relationships, and here was a woman struggling with issues of loneliness, meaninglessness, value and beauty, excitement and wonder, all in such a tiny compass. A lot of people in this country don’t know her and I felt quite missionary about it.'

The novel is in some ways: 'my love letter to the poet Emily Dickinson, who I first encountered over forty years ago. Her poems shock and thrill me as much today as they did then. She herself is so unfathomable that I’ve been shy of writing about her, though over the years I’ve accumulated a great deal of knowledge about her, as well as a first edition of her poems, published in 1890. Then when Polly Longhurst published her edited edition of the letters and diaries of Emily’s brother Austin, relating his passionate adulterous affair with the wife of a colleague, I became fascinated by the world of the Dickinsons. The result is my new novel.'

'A poet who took definition as her province, Emily Dickinson challenged the existing definitions of poetry and the poet’s work. Like writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman, she experimented with expression in order to free it from conventional restraints ... To make the abstract tangible, to define meaning without confining it, to inhabit a house that never became a prison, Dickinson created in her writing a distinctively elliptical language for expressing what was possible but not yet realized.'

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Emily Dickinson - I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

Support for artistic flight and future grace

In the absence of an Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA) website that actually works, Stoneworks has helpfully provided more information on this newly formed professional organization that seeks to redress the tendency in much of recent scholarship to ignore or minimize the influence of Christianity on the arts.

A report on ASCHA's inaugural symposium in Paris can be found by clicking here. The art space in which the symposium met is a venue for the arts which seeks to support and encourage the arts and artists regardless of their faith affiliation by providing a space at an enviable address at a reasonable cost to the artists for performance of music and poetry, the mounting of art exhibitions, as well as meetings like the symposium.

Also seeking to support artists in expressing their Christian faith in the face of a lack of understanding of the resulting art is New York based artist Makoto Fujimura, who has recently published a letter to young artists in which he writes of the ability to learn to fly as artists as 'future grace' citing C. S. Lewis to describe an artist's early development - "while the wings are just beginning to grow, when ... the lumps on the shoulders…give ... an awkward appearance”:

"What if Lewis is right, and you are destined to “fly”? What if our awkwardness, and our uniqueness points to the potential of the person we are meant to become? In order to learn to fly, you need to be patient, and ready to experience many failures; we need an environment where we can fail often, but you also need opportunities to peer into the wonders and mysteries of the vista of the world to come. Since many, including those in the institutions of the schools or churches, will not understand, you may have to create “fellowship” yourself. Do not be surprised by their rejections ...

Even if you are not cognizant of a grace reality, you can still create in the possibility of future grace. That takes faith to do, but if you can do that, you will be joining so many artists of the past who wrestled deeply with faith, doubt, poverty, rejection, longing and yet chose to create. Know that the author of creativity longs for you to barge in, break open the gift you have been saving; he will not only receive you, he can bring you purpose behind the battle, and rebuke those who reject you. Mary’s oil was the only thing Jesus wore to the cross. He was stripped of everything else, but art can sometimes endure even torture. A friend of mine said that in the aroma of Christ, Mary’s oil mixed with Christ’s blood and sweat, there are da Vincis and Bachs floating about. He will bring your art, music and dance to the darkness of death, and into the resurrection of the third day ...

Growth comes by understanding how limited you are. Learning to use your wings means learning the discipline as a means to grace. Give yourself boundaries and goals; start with small things, like having a small table dedicated to your poems. Emily Dickinson wrote her poems on a small 18 inch by 18 inch desk in her room in Amherst. Do not put anything other than your poems, though, on that area. Guard against the world invading your boundaries. Learning to paint, play the piano, or dance has much to do with keeping your self-set boundaries, otherwise you will not own your craft. We are each given unique wings with unique particulars of how to use our wings; no one else can fly for you. You have to jump off the edge, and spread your wings."

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Mumford and Sons - Roll Away Your Stone.

Celebration of Christian Poetry (2)

This year at St John's Seven Kings we have another engaging and interesting Patronal Festival programme at the beginning of October, which includes a Sixties Night (Saturday 2nd October, 7.30pm), Choral Evensong (Sunday 3rd October, 6.30pm), a Festival Communion with our guest preacher Revd. Alan Perry, Headteacher, St Edwards School (Sunday 3rd October, 10.00am), and a Celebration of Christian Poetry (Friday 1st October, 7.30pm) - this event is part of the London Borough of Redbridge's 'Word of Mouth' Festival.

Poetry is an aspect of the Arts where the influence of Christians has been felt particularly strongly. In thinking about why that might be and also why you might want to come to our Celebration of Christian Poetry event, the following thoughts from the US poet Gregory Orr may be of interest:

“The making of poems is the making of meanings. To write a lyric poem is to take the confusion and chaos inside you and translate it into words. Those words get organized onto a page; and if they’re being organised into a poem as opposed to a novel, they’re organized into an intense pattern, a concentrated coherence. When you suffer trauma, you mostly do that passively, as a victim. But when you translate that experience into words and shape it, you become active. You are no longer a passive endurer of experience, but an active shaper of it. You’ve redeemed something from that chaos.”

“We, as readers, most need poems, during our crises. We need poets when we’re deliriously happy, and the delirium threatens our stability, when we’re crazy with love. We need them when we’re crazed with grief and despair – then they’re a momentary stay against our confusion, a momentary clarification. Then they have the power to re-stabilize us. Wordsworth has a beautiful insight when he defines poetry twice in his “Preface to the Lyric Ballads”: first as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” – that would be a poem written in crisis – and than a few pages later as “emotion recollected in tranquillity” … “trauma revisited when it’s safe to remember it.”

For all these reasons “writing a poem can save your life, and reading a poem can show you that you are not alone. Someone else felt this. Someone else went through what you are going through and they survived, even triumphed. The poem is the proof of that survival and triumph.” Orr quotes a wonderful line about lyric poetry from Stanley Kunitz: “It’s the voice of the solitary that makes others less alone.”

If you are being drawn to poetry, as a reader or a writer, then he suggests finding out about your imaginative relatives – your poetic family – including “Great-great-grandfather Wordsworth, or mad Great-great-uncle William Blake, or strange and amazing Aunt Emily Dickinson.” Our Celebration of Christian Poetry event will be that kind of evening - an introduction to a poetic family tree offering the opportunity to “find your spiritual kin” and be “reborn into poetry” – through readings of poems from featured poets, favourite poems introduced and read by local clergy, and choral recitals of well known poems.

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Christina Rossetti - Love Came Down At Christmas.

Dramatic contrasts & stylistic diversity

An evening of dramatic contrasts and stylistic diversity was enjoyed this evening by a select audience at St John's Seven Kings as part of the Redbridge Book and Media Festival.

The evening began and ended with Tim Cunningham (one of the White House poets), whose engaging and amusing anecdotes added to the combination of apposite phrases illuminating everyday encounters that characterised his poetry. The work in his latest volume Kyrie, with poems based on the liturgy, festivals, furnishings of Catholicism, stood out for its sharpness of both form and insight. The title poem is a confession of our lack of insight and faith including:

"For not walking on water when all
It needed was the buoyancy of faith,
Kyrie eleison."

Pater Noster meanwhile explores his relationship with his Grandfather as an analogy for relationship with God before concluding:

"I would jump up on the bar
Of his old Raleigh any day
And listen to his stories

While he pedalled all the way
To an eternal paradise
That I already know by analogy."

In her two slots Naomi Foyle gave acted readings of two ballads and drama was certainly one characteristic of her vibrant celebrations of football, nature, politics and sex. She introduced us to several of her poetic heoines including Anna Akhmatova, Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath. Her work was particularly strong when speaking in character to describe relationships but the poem that left the strongest mark involved the rhythmic repetitions of [and 13 Israelis] /a copyleft poem - pass it on where she instructs:

"Donate an hour of your day
to stand up and demonstrate
peace is a process of learning to listen,
and giving is not 'giving in'."

Ken Champion was an unexpected addition to the night's roster of poets. Born in London’s East End, Ken lectures in sociology and philosophy, and has worked as a decorator, sign writer, mural painter and commercial artist in addition to being a published poet. His dry and nonchalant delivery tended to downplay the wordplay in contrast to that of Cunningham and Foyle but his work was slyly observant and sometimes, as in Interview, surreal.

The evening was made complete, for me at least, in that I was indulged with the opportunity to read three of my poems including Worthship, which can be read by clicking here.

To read examples of Tim Cunningham's work click here, here, here and here. The first of these, Mortuary, was among those read by Tim this evening. For examples of Naomi Foyle's work click here, here, here, and here. The first, Natasha: The Ballad of the Love-Torn Russian Count, was given a dramatic performance by Naomi tonight, complete with drawn-on pencil moustache!

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The Blue Aeroplanes - A Map Below.