A life lived to introduce others to Jesus Christ

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

Here, in five short verses at the beginning of today's Gospel reading (John 1:29-34), we have the testimony of John the Baptist regarding Jesus. Who does John say that Jesus is?

Firstly, John says that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The image of Jesus as the lamb that takes away sin reminds us of the story of the Exodus and the Passover. Death was coming to the entire land of Egypt and those saved were those who sacrificed lambs and daubed the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their homes. John was saying that when Jesus died his sacrifice would affect the entire world not just the people of Israel and would do so by taking away our sin for which the punishment is death. 

Next, John says that Jesus ranks ahead of him because he was before him. John the Baptist was a great prophet. So much so, that Jesus compares him to Elijah referring to the prophecy in Malachi 4:5 that God would send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. Despite the greatness of John’s role and ministry (and despite the fact that he is the elder of the two), Jesus is the one to whom John bows the knee (the strap of whose sandal he is not worthy to untie) because, as we hear at the beginning of John’s Gospel, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word was Jesus. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.

John then says that Jesus is the one on whom the Spirit remains. The Spirit “came upon” such Old Testament people as Joshua (Numbers 27:18), David (1 Samuel 16:12-13) and even Saul (1 Samuel 10:10). In the book of Judges, we see the Spirit “coming upon” the various judges whom God raised up to deliver Israel from their oppressors. The Holy Spirit came upon these individuals for specific tasks. What happens with Jesus is different, as the Spirit remains with him. In Jesus the fruit of the Spirit -  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – can be fully expressed, therefore the Spirit remains with Jesus in a way which had not been possible until then. All of Jesus' ministry, "must be understood as accomplished in communion with the Spirit of God".

Fourthly, John says that Jesus is the one who baptises others with the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit remains with Jesus, so she also remains with those who are his followers.  The New Testament teaches the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19-20). When we place our faith in Christ for salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. The Apostle Paul calls this permanent indwelling the “guarantee of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Finally, John sums up his testimony by saying that Jesus is the Son of God, a title that implies His deity (John 5:18) because it is one of equality with God. This title has many facets, including showing that He is to be honoured equally with the Father (John 5:22-23), that He is to be worshipped (Matt. 2:2, 11, 14:33, John 9:35-38, Heb. 1:6), called God (John 20:28, Col. 2:9, Heb. 1:8), and prayed to (Acts 7:55-60, 1 Cor. 1:1-2).

John was sent as a man of God expressly to prepare the way for and to testify regarding the Christ, so the people would believe in Him. He plainly said that Jesus was the One for Whom He was preparing the way. He said Jesus would have pre-eminence, that Jesus was the Christ, that He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and that He was the Son of God. John lived his life to introduce others to Jesus Christ and his testimony is a model of Christian witness to Jesus. 

John believed in the Christ and his great faith prepared him for hardships, but it kept him steadfast on his course until the time when he could say as he saw Jesus approach, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). As believers, we can all have this steadfast faith. John is also a model of Christian discipleship in his humility, a key characteristic of discipleship in this Gospel. We see this because, even when he is asked to testify concerning himself, he points to Jesus. Therefore, we can find in John the Baptist a powerful example of humility, single-mindedness and witness. We will do well to follow in his footsteps.

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Mavis Staples - Everybody Needs Love.

Shut the door

Here's the reflection I shared at today's Deanery Mothers' Union Service at St Catherine's Wickford:

From the mid-1920s onwards, Evelyn Underhill became highly-regarded as a retreat conductor and an influential spiritual director. Her first experience of a conducted retreat at the Pleshey retreat house in 1922 transformed her attitude toward church and vocation, and began the process of clarifying her own calling.

Born on 6th December 1875 in Wolverhampton, from an early age she described having mystical insights, and her deep interest in spiritual matters continued throughout her life. Between 1921 and 1924 her spiritual director was Baron Friedrich von Hűgel, who encouraged her to place Jesus Christ more centrally at the heart of her reflections. After his death in 1925 she began taking on a prominent role in the Church of England, leading retreats at Pleshey and elsewhere, and as a spiritual guide to many. Amongst the books she published are ‘Mysticism’ (in 1911) and ‘Worship’ (in 1936). She was one of the first women theologians to give public lectures at English universities, and was the first woman allowed officially to teach Church of England clergy.

Evelyn Underhill is one of the most important Christian mystics of the twentieth century and was one of the first important figures to champion the humility, ordinariness, and indeed “normalcy” of the mystical life. The subtitle of one of her best books, ‘Practical Mysticism’ is “A Little Book for Normal People.” She worked hard to dispel the notion that mysticism only belonged to the super-holy, the super-religious, the super-pious. On the contrary, the contemplative life is the ordinary state for Christian maturity. (http://evelynunderhill.org/three-evelyn-underhill-anthologies/)

In her book on The Fruits of The Spirit, she wrote about today's Gospel passage (Matthew 6.1-6, 16-18) in relation to retreats:

“Christ, who so seldom gave detailed instruction about anything, did give some detailed instruction of that … recollection which is the essential condition of real prayer, real communion with God.

"When you pray, go into a room by yourself - and shut the door." I think we can almost see the smile with which He said those three words, and those three words define what we have to try to do. Anyone can retire into a quiet place and have a thoroughly unquiet time in it - but that is not … the shutting of the door …

Shut the door. It is an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. Nearly everyone pulls it to and leaves it slightly ajar so that a whistling draught comes in from the outer world, with reminders of all the worries, interests, conflicts, joys and sorrows of daily life.

But Christ said shut and He meant shut. A complete barrier deliberately set up, with you on one side alone with God and everything else without exception on the other side. The voice of God is very gentle; we cannot hear it if we let other voices compete. It is no use at all to enter that room, that inner sanctuary, clutching the daily paper, the reports of all the societies you support, your engagement book and a large bundle of personal correspondence. All these must be left outside.

The object … is not intercession or self-exploration, but such communion with Him as shall afterwards make you more powerful in intercession; such self loss in Him as shall heal your wounds by new contact with His life and love.”

Evelyn Underhill was writing specifically for retreatants but Jesus’ words were not originally addressed to those on retreat. Instead, they were addressed to ordinary people going about their everyday lives, so his call to shut the door when praying was not once a year when we are on retreat but each time we pray. Likewise, seeking the opportunity of being alone with God and attending to God in order that we may do His will better in our everyday lives is not intended by Jesus as a once a year opportunity, rather as a regular experience.

The reward that God provides for our private prayers is the multiplication of all that we give, as St Paul says in our reading from 2 Corinthians 9: ‘He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.’

That was the experience of Mary Sumner who, in 1876, wrote her own personal prayer which she then prayed every day for the rest of her life: ‘All this day, O Lord, let me touch as many lives as possible for thee; and every life I touch do thou by thy spirit quicken, whether through the word I speak, the prayer I breathe or the life I live. Amen.’

Later, Mary decided that a new organisation was needed in her parish and the first branch of Mothers' Union was begun. She was spurred into action when her eldest daughter gave birth to her first baby. Mary remembered her feelings of inadequacy as a young mother charged with the terrible responsibility for a new life. She believed that women from every class needed to understand that motherhood was a profession and be equipped to perform it. Motherhood involved more than providing for the physical needs of children. The primary responsibility of mothers was to raise their children in the love of God. Mothers could only do this, she believed, if their lives were firmly rooted in prayer.

Her plan for a new form of mothers’ meeting, bringing together mothers of all classes, did not start auspiciously. Having gathered the women of the parish in the Rectory, Mary could not present her ideas due to nerves. She had to call them together again a week later to explain the objects of the new society and to give out simple cards containing practical suggestions.

In 1885, Bishop Ernest Wilberforce of Newcastle called on Mary to speak to a women's meeting made up of 1000 poor and anxious women at the Portsmouth Church Congress. Despite her initial resistance, as at that time respectable women did not address public meetings, she agreed. Painting a picture of the low moral standards in the country, she asked what could be done to improve the national character. Her answer was that the power for change lay in the hands of mothers. If women united in prayer and committed themselves to a Christian life the nation could be transformed.

The meeting responded to her passion and conviction with a rousing ovation. It was on this wave of public enthusiasm that the Bishop of Winchester decided to make Mothers' Union a diocesan organisation. This decision was destined to change the lives of many far beyond the boundaries of the diocese of Winchester.

The global movement that is the Mothers’ Union began with personal prayer in a room with a shut door and grew as a result of the prayer that underpinned its growth. May our generation commit ourselves to prayer by following the examples of Jesus, Evelyn Underhill and Mary Sumner. Amen.

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Celebrating Evelyn Underhill at the Retreat House with Canon John Howden.

You will know them by their fruits

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

The imagery of tree and fruit was regularly used by Jesus in his teaching. His followers were chosen and appointed to bear fruit. Fruitfulness is the overall aim and lack of fruitfulness is to be challenged and is ultimately destructive. So, Jesus speaks of the difference between trees which bear good fruit and those which bear bad fruit:

"every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits." (Matthew 7.17-20)

The question, then, is how do we recognise fruitfulness and how do we become fruitful?

Fruitfulness is a consequence of being ‘in’ Christ, as Jesus makes clear in John 15.5, where he says: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Branches can only bud and grow because they are part of the vine as a whole receiving the sustenance that flows up into the vine from the roots. A vine roots in the soil but has most of its leaves in the brighter, exposed area, getting the best of both worlds. So, being rooted in Jesus is the way in which Christians can open to the light and bear fruit.

Rootedness could mean commitment to Christ or being embedded in Christ’s life and ministry or both. Psalm 1 uses the image of good fruit growing on a tree in order to say that good fruit grows in our lives when we delight in the law of the Lord and meditate of that law, day and night. Regular meditation on scripture feeds our ability to better integrate our words and actions.

What is fruitfulness? What is it that Jesus is aiming to see in his followers? One way of answering that question for Christians, because Christianity has been a missionary faith, has been to see fruit as souls saved but when Paul writes in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit he is writing about the character and actions of Christians as fruit, rather than the outcome of our actions: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The originator of these behaviours in us is the Holy Spirit. The fruit are of the Spirit whenever and however they show up in our lives and actions. The Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and the fruit which is grown in Christian’s lives is Christlikeness. Being rooted in Jesus enables the Spirit of Jesus to flow in and through a Christian enabling them to begin to become Christlike.

This kind of fruit is about behaviours leading to actions. Actions speak louder than words. That proverb can be traced at least as far back as a speech made by J. Pym in Parliament in 1628 in which he said: ‘A word spoken in season is like an Apple of Gold set in Pictures of Silver,’ and actions are more precious than words.’

The proverb is, however, ultimately based on Biblical ideas and phrases such as 1 John 3. 18 where we read: ‘let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.’ This teaching probably then derives from Jesus’ words in Matthew 7. 15 – 21, where he argues that we are known by our fruits, meaning our actions, and that simply saying ‘Lord, Lord’ without then acting on that confession is not enough to guarantee our salvation.

In the Parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25.31-46) Jesus emphasises that it is actions, not words, that will count in the final judgement, when he says: ‘‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ St Francis of Assisi summed up this aspect of Jesus’ teaching well, when he said: ‘Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.’ So, what kind of fruit is evident is our lives?

Finally, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that such actions as faith, hope and love remain. The word he used for remain hints that such actions continue beyond the grave into eternity i.e. that we can take something with us when we die, that the fruit or acts of faith, hope and love grown in this life continue into, and continue to bear fruit in, the next.

Jesus said we will know disciples and false prophets by their fruits. He said to his disciples, "I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last" (John 15.16).

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Dave Gahan, Soulsavers - Shine.

The secret of the world’s power of meaning

Here's the sermon I shared in the Candlemas Eucharist at St Mary Magdalene Great Burstead this morning:

“Why are we waiting? We are suffocating. Why, oh, why are we waiting?” Did you ever sing that as a child? Maybe you sang some variant lyrics, but we won’t go into that here!

The majority of Americans say they would not wait in line longer than 15 minutes. 50% of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn't load in 10 seconds. 3 out of 5 won't return to that site. 1 in 4 people abandon a web page that takes more than 4 seconds to load. T-shirt slogans say, “I want instant gratification and I want it now” and “Instant gratification takes too long.”

The advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring. At the time it was first used, that slogan would have seemed perfectly acceptable. Now, it seems to sum up all that has gone wrong with a culture built on credit.

Simeon (Luke 2. 22 - 40) had been waiting throughout his life to see Lord’s promised Messiah, as the Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before the promised event occurred. His wait had been and it must have felt to him like a long time. He was tired from waiting and so ready for death that, as soon as he had seen Jesus, he prayed, “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.”

Why are we waiting? We don’t like it and we can’t see the point? And yet the Bible is full of waiting. Abraham is promised that he will be the father of a great nation and that promise is fulfilled but only many years after Abraham himself has died. The children of Israel spend 40 years waiting and wandering in the wilderness before they enter the Promised Land. Later they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon waiting to return to Jerusalem. There were approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, with the birth of Jesus. Why so much waiting?

Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for God, are we looking and listening for all that God wants us to see and hear while we wait?

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

Waiting can also grow the virtue of patience in us as to wait is a test of our patience and an opportunity to build patience. We would like God to solve all our problems right now, but our patience and perseverance is often tested before we find answers to our prayers. How would we actually practice patience if there were not times when we were called to wait upon the Lord?

Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and involves the ability to accept delay or disappointment graciously, to remain steadfast under strain continuing to press on and the showing of tolerance and fortitude toward others, even accepting difficult situations from them, and God, without making demands or conditions. Patience allows us to endure a less than desirable situation to make us better and more useful and even optimistic and prudent. Hence, its other name is longsuffering. It allows us to put up with others who get on our nerves, without losing other characteristics of grace.

We all know the saying that good things come to those who wait. Waiting can sharpen our sense of anticipation and also our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting. We can sense something of this in Simeon’s prayer:

“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise,
and you may let your servant go in peace.
With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:
A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles
and bring glory to your people Israel.”

When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God. Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

We see this in today’s Gospel reading in Simeon’s emphasis on the work of God in and through the life and ministry of Jesus: “This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He will be a sign from God …” Ultimately, all that Jesus is and does is the work of God.

I imagine all these to be thoughts and insights which became part of Simeon’s experience, as they can also be for us. I also imagine him finally saying something like this:

I have passed my days in expectation,
anticipation of a time which has not come.
Not yet come. Through long years of watching,
waiting, I have questioned my vocation,
understanding, calling, yet patience has formed
itself in me a virtue and I have been sustained.
And now in wintertime when the seed of life itself
seemed buried, my feet standing in my grave,
at the last moment, when hope had faded,
then you come; a new born life as mine is failing -
now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.
Hope, when hope was dashed. Wonder, where
cynicism reigned. Spring buds in winter snow.
Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.

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Colin Burns - I Wait For You.

Launch of Fruits of the Spirit - Art from the Heart,

The launch of the virtual exhibition Fruits of the Spirit - Art from the Heart, curated by the Rev Dr Ayla Lepine (2021–22 Ahmanson Fellow in Art and Religion, The National Gallery) and Dr Susanna Avery-Quash, Senior Research Curator (History of Collecting) at the National Gallery was held tonight at The Foundling Museum.

The 'fruits of the Spirit' are a list of nine qualities found in Saint Paul's Letter to the Galatians in the New Testament. They include peace, joy, love, and patience. Fruits of the Spirit – Art from the Heart focuses on these terms in relation to paintings in the National Gallery's collection, from Titian and Rembrandt to Monet and Van Gogh, featured alongside works from UK regional collections. This exciting new digital project opens new doors regarding accessible online arts content and focuses on the nine qualities themselves as ways of amplifying wellbeing for all people, of all faiths or none.

Fruits of the Spirit: Art from the Heart, is an online exhibition and trail, pairing nine paintings from the National Gallery with nine works in public collections across the UK. Visit the online exhibition.

Each pair represents one of the nine ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – positive attributes outlined in a letter from Saint Paul in the New Testament.

The virtual exhibition is combined with a free digital catalogue of essays. Over twenty authors, including curators, artists and community groups, as well as a new poetry commission by Dr Aviva Dautch, explore the importance of the exhibition’s themes, from love and family life to self-control in relation to climate change. Including words from a Nurse-in-Residence, a care-experienced young person and social justice charities, these essays aim to bring voices not normally heard in gallery catalogues to the fore. Creating links between paintings within and beyond the National Gallery and fostering interactions through different perspectives in communities and cultures encourages new ways of seeing and more open ways of engaging with one another. As a digital exhibition, 'Fruits of the Spirit' is freely accessible to both new and regular visitors from the UK and beyond.

The Foundling Museum’s ‘Fruit’ is Faithfulness and focussing on maternal faith the National Gallery’s The Finding of Moses by Orazio Gentileschi, dating from the early 1630s, has been paired with their Isabella, Duchess of Manchester, 1738, by Andrea Soldi.

In the story of Moses, his birth mother places him in a basket in the river to avoid certain death, demonstrating immense faith that her child will survive. Her faith is rewarded, and the Gentileschi painting depicts the moment of rescue and hope. This maternal faith is also reflected in our portrait of Isabella, Duchess of Manchester, who was instrumental in the formation of the Foundling Hospital. As with Moses, the birth mothers of children given up to the care of the hospital faced heart-breaking decisions that demanded enormous faith and trust.

As part of the collaboration visitors to the Foundling Museum are able to see in person The Finding of Moses painting, attributed to Venetian artist Francesco Zugno, which is on display next to Soldi’s Isabella, Duchess of Manchester on the first floor.

Lizzie Jones, whose painting 'Couple' at Southampton City Art Gallery is paired with 'The Painter;s Daughter with a Cat' by Thomas Gainsborough, was among those present. With a commitment to direct action in different forms involving making connections with people in order to influence and inform change around issues of military violence and harm, she takes painting commissions for public spaces, for charitable organisations and community groups and for special events / private spaces. She has created and is maintaining the Dye Garden at Southampton's Arches studio complex, while utilising those plants and their colour in print and paint. Puppet Back Up sees giant puppets getting involved in live concerns and beginning to turn up - in time - brought to life with the participation of many.

Canterbury Cathedral’s altarpiece, 'Scenes from the Life of Saint Martin of Tours', 1928–33, by Winifred Knights, also features in the exhibition. It is a powerful example of religious art by a British woman of the last century. This painting represents ‘peace’. A young woman who arrived in Kent as a refugee reflected on the painting in relation to this theme and identified a strong connection between the altarpiece and her story of family, uncertainty, and courage. Knights’s painting is paired with Claude Monet’s 'Water-Lilies' from the National Gallery’s collection. Monet described this work, painted during the First World War, as a ‘monument to peace’. In her catalogue essay, Revd Dr Ayla Lepine argues that contemplating sacred and secular art and relating it to people’s lives today can inspire us all to work for peace when it is most urgently needed around the world.

This free virtual exhibition also includes paintings by Jan Van Eyck, Vincent van Gogh, Frank Auerbach, Turner, Titian, Ernst Neuschul, Eugène Delacroix, Ron Stenberg, Orazio Gentileschi, Andrea Soldi and Thomas Gainsborough.

Other participating organisations:
The Bowes Museum
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Canterbury Cathedral
The McManus
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
Ben Uri Gallery & Museum
The Box
Southampton City Art Gallery

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Carleen Anderson - True Spirit.

Artlyst - Christmas: The Art Of Faith December 2022 Diary

My December diary for Artlyst includes mention of Fruits of the Spirit, Theaster Gates, Anselm Keifer, Forrest Bess, and Tom Phillips:

'There was a time when Nativity exhibitions routinely featured among the Christmas offerings from London Galleries. Those days are no more but as galleries and curators now acknowledge the extent to which many artists engage with questions of faith and spirituality, it is not hard to find exhibitions exploring such questions at this time of year ...

[The Forrest Bess] exhibition marks the first time his works have been presented together in this way and continues the long and respected history of the Camden Art Centre in platforming exhibitions of significant 20th century artists who have been overlooked in the UK, while also engaging with themes of spirituality. This approach is motivated by an awareness that such artists offer a particular, timely and relevant source of inspiration to contemporary artists and their practices, as well as speaking to urgent issues and ideas of our time.'

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

• Winslow Homer: American Passage An Interview With Biographer Bill Cross
• Grayson Perry Tapestries On Show At Salisbury Cathedral
• Sidney Nolan’s Africa: Interview With Andrew Turley
• Ilona Bossanyi: Tate’s Ervin Bossanyi Stained Glass Window Mothballed After 2011 Redevelopment
• Louis Carreon: Sampling Art History
• Modus Operandi - What Makes Successful Public Art: Vivien Lovell InterviewedGenesis Tramaine: A Queer Devotional Painter
• Lakwena Maciver: Review-Interview Hastings Contemporary
• Nicola Ravenscroft - Sculpture With A Peaceful Stillness
• Artist Hannah Rose Thomas – Tears of Gold – Interview
• Marcus Lyon: Human Atlas Explorations
• Elizabeth Kwant Interview
• Helaine Blumenfeld: Undulating Structures
• National Gallery Explores ‘Sin’ In New Exhibition – Interview Dr Joost Joustra Curator
• Betty Spackman: Posthumanism Debates
• Christopher Clack: Connecting The Material And Immaterial
• Peter Howson Artlyst Interview
• Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker On The Legacy Of ArtWay
• Alastair Gordon A Testament To His Faith
• Katrina Moss Chaiya Art Awards Interview: Where is God in our 21st century world?
• Apocalypse Now: Michael Takeo Magruder Interviewed
• Jonathan Anderson: Religious Inspirations Behind Modernism
• Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
• Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
• Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields
• Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar

Monthly diary articles -

• Soulages And Strange Clay November 2022 Art Diary
• Alexander de Cadenet And Michael Forbes October 2022 Diary
• Spiritual Joseph Beuys Plus More: September Diary
• Holiday Snaps – End Of Summer Art Diary
• Art Search: August 2022 Diary
• Re-imagining Essex July 2022 Diary
• Art Illuminating spirituality June 2022 Diary
• Venice To London May 2022 Diary
• Jacob Epstein, Louis Carreon, Titus Kaphar, Betty Spackman – April 2022 Diary
• Audrey Flack Carlo Crivelli And Robert Indiana – March Diary
• My Art Diary And Other Thoughts February 2022
• And On An Art Note: End Of Year Diary 2021
• International Autumn Art Exhibition Reviews

Articles/Reviews -

• Lucian Freud And His Circle Surveyed In Two London Exhibitions
• A Question Of Clay: Strange Clay – Hayward Gallery
• William Kentridge: Merging Politics With Aesthetics – RA
• Winslow Homer: Beyond The Sea – National Gallery
• Hidden Depths: The Woman in the Window – Dulwich Picture Gallery
• Heavenly Visions: Churches As Spaces For Contemporary Art
• In The Black Fantastic London’s Best Summer Exhibition
• Hew Locke And The Christian Roots Of Carnival – Tate BritainLes Lalanne, Schütte And Gursky London Spring Exhibition Highlights
• Sensuous Sickert and Philpot Two Major UK Solo Exhibitions
• Raphael The Human And Divine – National Gallery
• Damien Hirst The Visceral Reality Of Death
• Ali Cherri: Artist in Residence National Gallery
• Surrealism Outside The Usual Story – Tate Modern
• Marcus Lyon Creates Fields of Vision At St Martin-in-the-Fields London
• Van Gogh Self Portraits The Infinite And The Ordinary
• Marvellous Icons: The London Jesuit Centre
• Albrecht Dürer Travels Of A Renaissance Artist – National Gallery London
• Diasporan Identities: Life Between Islands Caribbean British Art – Tate Britain
• Isamu Noguchi: Socially Engaged Art – Barbican Centre
• Pablo Bronstein: A This-World Vision Of Hell
• Bosco Sodi: In The Beginning Of Wisdom
• George Condo Lockdown Works Hauser & Wirth
• Theaster Gates Clay As A Profound Metaphor
• Mark Rothko: Mesmerising And Intimate Works On Paper
• Roger Cecil: A Once In A Generation Welsh Painter
• Tino Sehgal: Location, Nature And Pandemic – Blenheim Palace
• Michael Armitage And The Power Of Art – Royal Academy
• Marie Raymond And Post-War Avant Garde Painting In Paris
• Rachel Kneebone: A Complex Tableau Of Organic And Geometric Forms
• Rodin: Suffering And Conflict – Tate Modern
• Barbara Hepworth: Symbols Of Art & Life – Hepworth Wakefield
• 20th Century Women Artists Challenging Conventions In Britain
• Chaiya Art Awards 2021 Gallery OXO
• Marc Chagall’s Exquisite Stained Glass Window Commissions
• George Gittoes Equal parts artist and warrior
• Keith Haring: Personal Spiritual Imagery
• Sean Scully: Philosophical Poetic Pastoral The 12 / Dark Windows
• Arthur Jafa: The Art Of Cutting And Pasting
• Blackpentecostal Breath: Spirit-Led Movement Jumps From Music To Visual Art
• Made in USA Ed Ruscha An American Perspective
• Robert Smithson: The Archetypal Nature Of Things
• If Jesus Is A Man Of Colour Why Did We Make Him Aryan?
• Cosmic Patches And Quilts Five Exhibitions
• Everyday Heroes: Southbank Exhibition Celebrates Low-paid Key Workers
• Entwining Spiritualism And Art – Three Shows
• Of Church And The Visual Arts
• Has The Word Master Reached Its Sell-By Date?
• The People Behind Community Is Kindness Billboard Campaign
• André Daughtry: Art, Rebellion And Racial Justice
• Salisbury Cathedral 800 Years Of Art And Spirit
• Home Alone Together Twenty Five Artists
• Botanical Mind Online: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree
• Salvador Dalí The Enigma of Faith
• Art And Faith A Time For Seeing
• Andy Warhol: Catholicism His Work, Faith And Legacy
• Kiki Smith: Embodied Art
• Art and Christianity Awards A Positive New Millennium Legacy
• Arnulf Rainer: 90th Birthday Exhibition Celebrated At Albertina Museum
• A Belonging Project And Exiles Loss and Displacement
• Robert Polidori: Fra Angelico Opus Operantis
• Art, Faith, Church Patronage and Modernity
• Contemplating the Spiritual in Contemporary Art
• Mat Collishaw Challenges Faith Perspectives With Ushaw Installation
• Waterloo Festival Launches At St. John’s Waterloo
• John Bellany Alan Davie Spiritual Joy and Magic
• RIFT Unites 17 Art and Science MA Graduates At Central St Martins
• Visionary Cities: Michael Takeo Magruder – British Library
• Van Gogh’s Religious Journey Around London
• William Congdon Holy Sites And The Kettle’s Yard Connection
• Mark Dean Premieres Pastiche Mass At Banqueting Hall Chelsea College of Arts
• John Kirby: The Torment
• Underlying The Civilised Facade
• Curating Spiritual Sensibilities In Changing Times
• Homeless Highlighted: New Beau Exhibition At St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Ken Currie: Protest Defeat And Victory
• Bosco Sodi: A Moment Of Genesis
• Bill Viola And The Art Of Contemplation
• Art In Churches 2018: Spiritual Combinations Explored
• Sister Wendy Beckett – A Reminiscence
• Guido Guidi: Per Strada Flowers Gallery London
• Peter Howson: The play is over – Flowers Gallery
• Camille Henrot: Scientific History And Creation Story Mash Up
• Nicola Green Explores Recent And Contemporary Religious Leaders – St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Art And The Consequences Of War Explored In Two Exhibitions
• Helaine Blumenfeld Translating Her Vision
• Sam Ivin: Physically Scratched Portraits Of Asylum Seekers Exhibited
• Sacred Noise: Explores Religion, Faith And Divinity
• Bill Viola: Quiet Contemplative Video Installation St Cuthbert’s Church Edinburgh
• The ground-breaking work of Sister Corita Kent
• Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited
• Michael Takeo Magruder: De / coding the Apocalypse – Panacea Museum
• Giorgio Griffa: The Golden Ratio And Inexplicable Knowledge
• Arabella Dorman Unveils New Installation At St James Church Piccadilly
• Can Art Transform Society?
• Art Awakening Humanity Conference Report
• Central St Martins in the Fields Design Then And Now
• The Sacramental And Liturgical Nature Of Conceptual Art
• Polish Art In Britain: Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
• Refugee Artists: Learning from The Lives Of Others
• The Religious Impulses Of Robert Rauschenberg
• The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement
• Artists Rebranding The Christmas Tree Tradition
• Art Impacted - A Radical Response To Radicalisation
• The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?

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Bob Dylan - Goodbye Jimmy Reed.

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.  

Tree and Fruit

Our local Scriptural Reasoning group had another fascinating and wide ranging discussion tonight as we used a text bundle on the theme of Tree and Fruit.

Here is what I said by way of introduction to the Christian text (John 15. 16):

The imagery of tree and fruit was regularly used by Jesus in his teaching. As stated here, his followers are chosen and appointed to bear fruit. Fruitfulness is the overall aim and lack of fruitfulness is to be challenged and is ultimately destructive. So he tells and enacts parables of fig trees which don’t bear fruit being given final opportunities to become fruitful before being destroyed if not (Luke 13):

6 "A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

8 "‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’"

Fruitfulness is a consequence of being ‘in’ Christ (John 15):

5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Branches can only bud and grow because they are part of the vine as a whole receiving the sustenance that flows up into the vine from the roots. A vine roots in the soil but has most of its leaves in the brighter, exposed area, getting the best of both worlds. So, being rooted in Jesus is the way in which Christians can open to the light and bear fruit. Rootedness could mean commitment to Christ or being embedded in Christ’s life and ministry or both.

What is fruitfulness? What is it that Jesus is aiming to see in his followers? One way of answering that question for Christians, because Christianity has been a missionary faith, has been to see fruit as souls saved but when Paul writes in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit he is writing about the character and actions of Christians as fruit, rather than the outcome of our actions:

22 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.

The Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and the fruit which is grown in Christian’s lives is Christlikeness. Being rooted in Jesus enables the Spirit of Jesus to flow in and through a Christian enabling them to begin to become Christlike.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that such actions as faith, hope and love remain. The word he used for remain hints that such actions continue beyond the grave into eternity i.e. that we can take something with us when we die, that the fruit or acts of faith, hope and love grown in this life continue into, and continue to bear fruit in, the next. This brings us back to where we began, with Jesus' statement that "I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last."

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Gravy Train - Think Of Life.

Why are we waiting?

“Why are we waiting? We are suffocating. Why, oh, why are we waiting?” Did you ever sing that as a child? Maybe you sang some variant lyrics, but we won’t go into that here!

The majority of Americans say they would not wait in line longer than 15 minutes. 50% of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn't load in 10 seconds. 3 out of 5 won't return to that site. 1 in 4 people abandon a web page that takes more than 4 seconds to load. T-shirt slogans say, “I want instant gratification and I want it now” and “Instant gratification takes too long.”

The advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring. At the time it was first used, that slogan would have seemed perfectly acceptable. Now, it seems to sum up all that has gone wrong with a culture built on credit.

Simeon (Luke 2. 22 - 40) had been waiting throughout his life to see Lord’s promised Messiah, as the Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before the promised event occurred. His wait had been and it must have felt to him like a long time. He was tired from waiting and so ready for death that, as soon as he had seen Jesus, he prayed, “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.”

Why are we waiting? We don’t like it and we can’t see the point?

And yet the Bible is full of waiting. Abraham is promised that he will be the father of a great nation and that promise is fulfilled but only many years after Abraham himself has died. The children of Israel spend 40 years waiting and wandering in the wilderness before they enter the Promised Land. Later they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon waiting to return to Jerusalem. There were approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, with the birth of Jesus. Why so much waiting?

Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for God, are we looking and listening for all that God wants us to see and hear while we wait?

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

Waiting can also grow the virtue of patience in us as to wait is a test of our patience and an opportunity to build patience. We would like God to solve all our problems right now, but our patience and perseverance is often tested before we find answers to our prayers. How would we actually practice patience if there were not times when we were called to wait upon the Lord?

Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and involves the ability to accept delay or disappointment graciously, to remain steadfast under strain continuing to press on and the showing of tolerance and fortitude toward others, even accepting difficult situations from them, and God, without making demands or conditions. Patience allows us to endure a less than desirable situation to make us better and more useful and even optimistic and prudent. It allows us to put up with others who get on our nerves, without losing other characteristics of grace. 

We all know the saying that good things come to those who wait. Waiting can sharpen our sense of anticipation and also our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting. We can sense something of this in Simeon’s prayer:

“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise,
    and you may let your servant go in peace.
With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,
     which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:
A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles
    and bring glory to your people Israel.”

When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God, as in Isaiah 40. 31: "those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint"

Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

We see this in today’s Gospel reading in Simeon’s emphasis on the work of God in and through the life and ministry of Jesus: “This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He will be a sign from God …” Ultimately, all that Jesus is and does is the work of God.

I imagine all these to be thoughts and insights which became part of Simeon’s experience, as they can also be for us. I also imagine him finally saying something like this:

I have passed my days in expectation,

anticipation of a time which has not come.

Not yet come. Through long years of watching,

waiting, I have questioned my vocation,

understanding, calling, yet patience has formed

itself in me a virtue and I have been sustained.

And now in wintertime when the seed of life itself

seemed buried, my feet standing in my grave, 

at the last moment, when hope had faded,

then you come; a new born life as mine is failing -

now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.

Hope, when hope was dashed. Wonder, where

cynicism reigned. Spring buds in winter snow.

Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.

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Colin Burns - I Wait For You.

The vine and the branches

Stephen Verney begins his commentary on John 15. 1 - 8 with a great evocation of the way in which vines are grown:

“On a stony hillside above his house, where the thyme grows and the prickly pear, and a wild fig tree fights for its existence in a pocket of shallow soil, a farmer decides to plant a vine. In the autumn he clears a terrace, and brings top soil. He sets a post for the vine to climb, and fixes horizontal supports for its branches. Then in the spring he plants it and fences it against the goats; as it grows he trains it, and in the following autumn he prunes it back.

The vine depends for its life on the farmer, but equally the farmer depends on the vine. For the vine can do what the farmer cannot; it can take the rain that falls on the hillside and convert it into grapes, which the farmer can harvest and tread out in his wine-press, and pour the juice into his vat to ferment and bubble. The farmer and the vine are dependent on each other, and the purpose for which they work together is that water should be turned into wine.”

Jesus is the vine, his Father is the farmer. They are dependent one on the other although their roles are different. Their shared purpose is that water is turned into wine; that the vine is fruitful and that its fruit becomes wine shared with others as the sign and symbol of Jesus’ blood. The process for achieving this can itself be painful; involving pruning and crushing. 

We are part of this picture because there is one vine but many branches. Each one of us as we become Christians is grafted into the vine to become part of the vine itself. Verney writes:

“I AM the vine, and you are the branches. Dwell in me, and I in you. Here is teaching both simple and profound, to move the human heart. If the branch dwells in the vine, then the life of the vine dwells in the branch. If the branch grows out of the stem, and out of the roots which are drawing up the goodness of the soil and the rain, then the sap of the vine flows into the branch, and the pattern of the vine’s life unfolds itself through each branch to produce bunches of grapes. So it will be, says Jesus, between you and me. If you do not dwell in me you cannot bear fruit …”

How do we dwell in Jesus? To keep our life dwelling in Christ’s, we must continually renew our decision that “what has been done once for all on the cross by Jesus shall the basis, the starting point, the context of all my thinking and deciding and doing,” writes Lesslie Newbigin. We feed this decision by protecting time for prayer, bible study and worship in our busy lives and schedules.

As we do so, the sap of the vine, the life of Christ, flows into us and we produce fruit. The fruit of the vine is, as Newbigin again writes, “the life of Jesus reproduced in the midst of the life of the world, the pure love and obedience by which people will recognise the disciples of Jesus, the branches of the real vine.”

This fruit, the life of Jesus reproduced in our lives, is the real test of whether or not we are actually dwelling in the vine, in Jesus. In recent years, we have come to know much more about the spiritual life of Mother Teresa, someone whose face shone with the all-encompassing joy of one for whom “to live is Christ.” Everyone who knew her assumed that she was supported in her ministry through a deep and abiding sense of Christ’s presence with her.

Yet the opposite was true. Mother Teresa lived feeling as if she did not believe:

“I have no faith” – “They say people in hell suffer eternal pain because of the loss of God … in my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss – of God not being God – of God not really existing.”

Her sense of feeling that there was no God has been revealed in letters that she wrote to her spiritual confidantes. Yet, as Sister Wendy Beckett has written, “this woman who felt that there was no God and lived in emotional anguish was also profoundly aware, intellectually, that God was her total life and that she lived only to love him.” This was what was apparent in her life and ministry and this fruit showed that whatever she felt about the absence of God in her life, she was still a live branch in the vine.

Ultimately, the fruit of our lives - the life of Jesus reproduced in our lives – is the sign of whether we are healthy branches dwelling in the vine. Prayer, bible study and worship are channels for the life of Christ to flow into our lives rather than the sign than his life is flowing into our own.

As we are grafted into the vine, into Jesus, we receive his life flowing through us and take on his characteristics – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. These characteristics result in acts of love because love must act, as we saw in the life of Mother Teresa. While hate could be indifference or inaction, love is always active and must respond practically to the needs we see around us.

Several years ago, Nadia Kabula’s father died and her family became desperately poor. She lives in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo where family loss and poverty often lead to children being forced to live on the streets, where violence and prostitution can claim their future as well as their youth. This did not happen to Nadia because of help that she received from Humanitié Nouvelle, a Christian Aid partner in Kinshasa. Nadia took a sewing course with Humanitié Nouvelle which has given her back the chance of a full life. Her unique eye for style is already earning her commissions, and she hopes to open her own business.

Nadia is trusting God as she struggles towards this vision. A talented singer, she encourages others with songs of worship. She say, “Music is an important part of life here … When I sing I feel good – it is like food. My favourite song is ‘Lord I Lift Your Name On High’.” Nadia is also displaying extraordinary determination and selflessness as she sacrifices her time to care for her four younger siblings, and helps teach other young women to sew. Her life of love is an example to us all.

This Christian Aid week we can use our spheres of influence to give, act and pray, particularly by helping with the door-to-door collection, and in this way support the loving, sacrificial selflessness of people like Nadia and the Christian Aid partners who support and empower them. We can choose active love over inactive indifference and, together with Nadia, Humanitié Nouvelle, Christian Aid and others like them, create a powerful force for change which derives from the life of Christ flowing into us as we dwell in him and where our active love is the fruit of the vine - the life of Jesus reproduced in our lives.

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Gungor - Brother Moon.