We shall not cease from exploration

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Catherine's Wickford this morning:

The Magi searched for a sign, then searched for the one to whom the sign pointed, and then gave gifts when they found the one for whom they were looking for (Matthew 2.1-12). We think of them as being wise for doing all this. When we think about their story in these terms, it can give us a framework or a pattern for thinking about our own lives; perhaps then we will also find or know wisdom!

The Magi searched the stars looking for signs of divine communication; messages from the gods that could guide individuals and nations in the present. In other words, they were seeking answers, by the best means they knew how, to the big questions in life:

• Who are we or, in other words, what is the nature, task and significance of human beings?
• Where are we or, in other words, what is the origin and nature of the reality in which human beings find themselves?
• What's wrong or, in other words, how can we account for all that seems wrong or broken in the world?
• What's the remedy or, in other words, how can we alleviate this brokenness, if at all?

These are questions that each of us, consciously or unconsciously, find answers to by the way that we live our lives but it is only when we consciously ask them and actively search for answers that we begin to leave behind our natural inclination to live life for our pleasure and convenience.

The sign which the Magi found through their searching was the star in the east which they thought was a sign that the king of the Jews had been born as a baby. This sign uprooted them from where they were. If they were to see and to worship the baby King then they had to leave where they were and travel not knowing for sure where their journey would take them. Their journey was probably inconvenient and uncomfortable for them but was the only way for them to find what they were seeking. It is similar for us as we consciously ask ourselves the big questions in life and seek answers; asking questions and seeking answers is uncomfortable and often means making changes to the way that we are currently living which are inconvenient and disruptive, yet necessary, if we are to find any sort of answers at all.

T. S. Eliot writes, in his poem called ‘Little Gidding’, “We shall not cease from exploration,” and that is right because if we stop searching, if we stop questioning, then we get stuck and stagnate. We only have to look at nature to see the way in which all growth involves change; the caterpillar and butterfly being one of the most dramatic examples. Our own bodies are constantly changing throughout our lives with many of our cells being replaced as we progress through life. Growth involves constant change and if we apply this same principle to our thought life, our emotional life and our spiritual life then, as Eliot wrote, we must not cease from exploration.

The Magi’s journey found its immediate conclusion when they knelt before the Christ-child and worshipped him. They had no independent verification that this child was the King that they were seeking; they simply had to trust that this was so because they had arrived at the place to which the star had led them. Once again, T. S. Eliot’s ‘Little Gidding’ describes this well:

“If you came this way,
Taking any route, starting from anywhere,
At any time or at any season,
It would always be the same: you would have to put off
Sense and notion. You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel …”

The answer to our questions is a person, not a fact, and the person who is the answer to our questions turns out to be God himself. Because God is infinite, he cannot be fully known or understood by human beings. With God, there is always more for us to know and understand. Knowing God is like diving into the ocean and always being able to dive down deeper therefore are ultimately only three responses we can make to the wonder and majesty of God. The first is, as we have been saying, to keep exploring and the second is this, to express our sense of awe and wonder by kneeling in worship.

The third is to give gifts. The Magi gave gold, frankincense and myrrh; each being costly gifts expressing aspects of Christ’s nature and purpose. Christina Rossetti expressed the significance of the Magi’s gift-giving beautifully in her carol, ‘In the bleak midwinter’:

“What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.”

She understood that the costliest gift we can give is our life and that our life is given to Jesus when we express through our lives and actions something of who Jesus is.

Kneeling in worship was the end of the journey that the Magi took when following the star but it was also the beginning of the new journey that they were now to make; the journey home. Eliot used the phase, ‘In my end is my beginning,’ at the end of his poem called ‘East Coker’ and, in ‘Little Gidding,’ he writes:

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

The Magi journeyed home, but their home was no longer what it once was because they had been changed by their journey. Eliot’s poem ‘The Journey of the Magi’ ends with these lines:

“were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.”

The Magi are no longer at ease with their old way of life because they have been changed through their searching and journeying. Now they see life differently because of what they have seen and heard; the answers they give to life’s big questions are no longer the same as before – their worldview has changed.

Are we asking the big questions? Are we constantly questioning and exploring yet also kneeling in awe and wonder to worship? And are both our answers to life’s big questions and to the way we live our lives changing as a result? If we wish to be wise like the Magi then our answer to all those questions will be, “Yes.”

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Brightest and Best.

Community care and creation care

Here's the sermon I shared at our joint service held at St Mary's Runwell this morning:

King Charles spoke of faith, fellowship and compassion in his second Christmas message. In his message he spoke about care for others, linking this to the provision of the stable in Bethlehem and Jesus's own acts of service, care for creation as the angel appeared to those who were close to nature, and universal values including the golden rule and creation care.

He said that Christmas is a time to “think … of those whose work of caring for others continues, even on this special day” and thanked the “selfless army of people” in this country who are volunteers, serving “their communities in so many ways and with such distinction”.

The “care and compassion we show to others”, he said, “is one of the themes of the Christmas story, especially when Mary and Joseph were offered shelter in their hour of need by strangers, as they waited for Jesus to be born”.

The stable in Bethlehem is where the shepherds find the baby Jesus (Luke 2.15-21). As we know, the holy family found their way to the stable after experiencing rejection on their arrival in Bethlehem. Yet, all it took, whether in the midst of apathy or overcrowding, was for one person to respond, even reluctantly, for the miracle of Jesus’ birth to occur in the way that is told to us in the Gospels. All it took was for one person to respond. We are fortunate in this country, as King Charles noted, to have many volunteers in many communities. Let us continue to offer our time in our community in support of those in need.

Next, the King spoke about the shepherds to whom the angels brought the message of hope that first Christmas night. He suggested that they were people who lived simply amongst others of God's creatures and that it was those close to nature who were privileged that night.

Around the mid-point of his life, my father switched careers from community work to retrain as a landscape gardener. We moved from the city of Oxford to a village in Somerset and, although the change was to some extent forced on him and caused financial difficulties for us as a family, he came to greatly appreciate the enhanced sense of being in nature and of living closer to the natural rhythms of the seasons and the circle of life. The well-known verse from Dorothy Frances Gurney’s poem ‘God’s Garden’ – “The kiss of the sun for pardon, / The song of the birds for mirth,– / One is nearer God’s heart in a garden / Than anywhere else on earth” - though somewhat sentimental, nevertheless touches on a truth.

My former colleague at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Revd Sally Hitchiner, was particularly struck by this aspect of the King's Christmas speech. She posted that, in all her years of preaching on them and hearing others preach about them, they have always spoken about either as simple working folk or those who were excluded from hoity-toity religious circles, not as those who were close to nature. She wrote therefore of being struck by the positive framework of the King and his natural theology.

King Charles spoke about how, because out of God's providence we are blessed with much, it is incumbent on us to use this wisely by caring for the Earth we have been given. He said that, "During my lifetime I have been so pleased to see a growing awareness of how we must protect the Earth and our natural world as the one home which we all share” and do so for the sake of our children's children. He finds great inspiration now from the way so many people recognise this and, as we reflect on the Shepherd’s being the first to hear the good news, can also be inspired to care more deeply for our environment knowing that, like them, we will encounter God there.

The King ended by speaking of his two themes – care for others and care for the world - as universal values. He said that to honour the whole of creation as a manifestation of the divine is a belief shared by all religions and "To care for this creation is a responsibility owned by people of all faiths and of none”. He also quoted the words of Jesus - 'Do to others as you would have them do to you' – saying that, at a time of increasingly tragic conflict around the World, these seem more than ever relevant. "Such values,” he noted, are also universal, “drawing together our Abrahamic family of religions, and other belief systems, across the Commonwealth and wider world”. They are, after all, what is known as the Golden Rule, a teaching found in all religions.

He could have referenced this from the Nativity story, too, as Jesus’ birth was also marked by a visit from wise astrologers of other faiths; Zoroastrian priests (the magi), and foreign kings. In our reading today, we can note the naming of Jesus, whose name, given by God through angels, derives from Hebrew roots meaning “the Lord is salvation.” In his incarnation, Jesus unites the divine and the human making God one of us and ourselves one with God. In this way, he shows that God is with all and for all.

In our Gospel reading, we hear of Mary pondering all the things that happened at the birth of Jesus in her heart and of the shepherds sharing the good news of Jesus’ birth with others. It is clear from his Christmas message, that King Charles has also pondered the events of the nativity long and hard and, in his Christmas message, has shared the good news found there with others too. This Christmas, we would do well to do the same.

Bringing all the themes of his Christmas message together, King Charles concluded: "my heart and my thanks go to all who are serving one another; all who are caring for our common home; and all who see and seek the good of others, not least the friend we do not yet know. In this way, we bring out the best in ourselves. I wish you a Christmas of 'peace on Earth and goodwill to all', today and always." May we know the same in our lives this Christmastide and in the year to come. Amen.

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The Holmes Brothers - Amazing Grace.

Church Times - Glyn Philpot: Flesh and Spirit

My latest piece for Church Times is about 'Glyn Philpot: Flesh and Spirit' at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester:

'... what we see in Balthasar, where Philpot eschews the other Magi to “focus entirely on the African king who brings myrrh to the child Jesus”. “With his head held aloft, he is depicted as empowered, noble and dignified.” He looks not at us, but to the Holy Family, placing us in a privileged position, as if witnessing Balthasar’s arrival among the Holy Family. Philpot paints in this way and with this sensibility because, [Simon] Martin says, “As a queer man, Philpot was a social outsider himself, and so it is tempting to believe that he identified with an outsider of a different sort.”'

My Artlyst piece comparing and contrasting the differences and similarities between Glyn Philpot and Walter Sickert in the light of the overlap in the careers of both artists and the Pallant House Gallery exhibition plus the first major retrospective of Walter Sickert at Tate in over 60 years, is here.

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here. See also Modern religious art: airbrushed from art history?

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Faith, Folk and Anarchy.

Epiphany: Exploration, kneeling and gift-giving

Here's the reflection I shared last night at Bread for the World at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

The Magi searched for a sign, then searched for the one to whom the sign pointed, and then gave gifts when they found the one for whom they were looking for. We think of them as being wise for doing all this. When we think about their story in these terms, it can give us a framework or a pattern for thinking about our own lives; perhaps then we will also find or know wisdom!

The Magi searched the stars looking for signs of divine communication; messages from the gods that could guide individuals and nations in the present. In other words they were seeking answers, by the best means they knew how, to the big questions in life:

• Who are we or, in other words, what is the nature, task and significance of human beings?
• Where are we or, in other words, what is the origin and nature of the reality in which human beings find themselves?
• What's wrong or, in other words, how can we account for all that seems wrong or broken in the world?
• What's the remedy or, in other words, how can we alleviate this brokenness, if at all?

These are questions that each of us, consciously or unconsciously, find answers to by the way that we live our lives but it is only when we consciously ask them and actively search for answers that we begin to leave behind our natural inclination to live life for our pleasure and convenience.

The sign which the Magi found through their searching was the star in the east which they thought was a sign that the king of the Jews had been born as a baby. This sign uprooted them from where they were. If they were to see and to worship the baby King then they had to leave where they were and travel not knowing for sure where their journey would take them. Their journey was probably inconvenient and uncomfortable for them but was the only way for them to find what they were seeking. It is similar for us as we consciously ask ourselves the big questions in life and seek answers; asking questions and seeking answers is uncomfortable and often means making changes to the way that we are currently living which are inconvenient and disruptive, yet necessary, if we are to find any sort of answers at all.

T. S. Eliot writes, in his poem called ‘Little Gidding,’ “We shall not cease from exploration,” and that is right because if we stop searching, if we stop questioning, then we get stuck and stagnate. We only have to look at nature to see the way in which all growth involves change; the caterpillar and butterfly being one of the most dramatic examples. Our own bodies are constantly changing throughout our lives with many of our cells being replaced as we progress through life. Growth involves constant change and if we apply this same principle to our thought life, our emotional life and our spiritual life then, as Eliot wrote, we must not cease from exploration.

The Magi’s journey found its immediate conclusion when they knelt before the Christ-child and worshipped him. They had no independent verification that this child was the King that they were seeking; they simply had to trust that this was so because they had arrived at the place to which the star had led them. Once again, T. S. Eliot’s ‘Little Gidding’ describes this well:

“If you came this way,
Taking any route, starting from anywhere,
At any time or at any season,
It would always be the same: you would have to put off
Sense and notion. You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel …”

The answer to our questions is a person, not a fact, and the person who is the answer to our questions turns out to be God himself. Because God is infinite, he cannot be fully known or understood by human beings. With God, there is always more for us to know and understand. Knowing God is like diving into the ocean and always being able to dive down deeper therefore are ultimately only three responses we can make to the wonder and majesty of God. The first is, as we have been saying, to keep exploring and the second is this, to express our sense of awe and wonder by kneeling in worship.

The third is to give gifts. The Magi gave gold, frankincense and myrrh; each being costly gifts expressing aspects of Christ’s nature and purpose. Christina Rossetti expressed the significance of the Magi’s gift-giving beautifully in her carol, ‘In the bleak midwinter’:

“What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.”

She understood that the costliest gift we can give is our life and that our life is given to Jesus when we express through our lives and actions something of who Jesus is.

Kneeling in worship was the end of the journey that the Magi took when following the star but it was also the beginning of the new journey that they were now to make; the journey home. Eliot used the phase, ‘In my end is my beginning,’ at the end of his poem called ‘East Coker’ and, in ‘Little Gidding,’ he writes:

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

The Magi journeyed home, but their home was no longer what it once was because they had been changed by their journey. Eliot’s poem ‘The Journey of the Magi’ ends with these lines:

“were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.”

The Magi are no longer at ease with their old way of life because they have been changed through their searching and journeying. Now they see life differently because of what they have seen and heard; the answers they give to life’s big questions are no longer the same as before – their worldview has changed.

Are we asking the big questions? Are we constantly questioning and exploring yet also kneeling in awe and wonder to worship? And are both our answers to life’s big questions and to the way we live our lives changing as a result? If we wish to be wise like the Magi then our answer to all those questions will be, “Yes.”

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T. S. Eliot - Little Gidding.

Have the lights come on?

Here's the sermon I preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields this morning:

Light-bulb moments are those occasions when the penny drops, everything clicks into place and understanding comes. It might be in relation to something which is puzzling us; a piece of work about which we were unsure, a puzzle or conundrum to be resolved. In relationships it could be when one person appreciates something about another for the first time or when a disagreement is resolved.

These light-bulb moments have a name. They are called epiphanies and they tend to creep up on us unexpectedly. We may have been puzzling over something for hours, then the answer hits us. We may wake up in the middle of the night because something in a dream has clicked or else something someone says triggers a chain of thoughts in our mind that results in a moment of revelation. It all makes sense. We can’t choose the moment this happens, but we can perhaps create the right environment to encourage it to happen.

Epiphanies are less likely to happen when we’re stressed, when we’re tormented by trying to find the answer to something, when we can’t focus on anything else. Sometimes that means we need to find peace and quiet, maybe by going for a walk or reading a book. Some people find there’s nothing better than having a shower or a relaxing bath. At other times it’s better to fill our minds with something totally different from the issue, maybe doing a Sudoku puzzle or watching a favourite TV programme. Then, out of nowhere, revelation comes.

One of those approaches I’ve described might work for you, too, but there may be others. It might simply be a case of going on to the next question in a test and going back later to what’s been puzzling you. It could be that music works its magic or merely closing your eyes and blanking your mind in meditation for a minute or two.

The 6 January is celebrated in the Christian church as the feast of Epiphany. As the word ‘epiphany’ means a light-bulb moment, the feast of the Epiphany is an opportunity for revelation about who Jesus was and is. Having appreciated the Christmas story of God sending Jesus to be born as a human being, the feast of the Epiphany is the day to see the implications of all that God has done in that act. Using the story of the Magi – the wise men who came to see Jesus – we remind ourselves of the symbolism attached to who they were and the gifts they brought, gold, frankincense and myrrh.

These visitors from the East came looking for Jesus in a palace but found him in a manger. The Magi looked for him at the heart of privileges won through personal power but actually found him in a place of poverty and dispossession. They went to a palace, to the seat of wealth and power but he was not to be found there. Instead, he was found in obscurity, in the home of working people, in a place from which no good was known to come. The visitors from the East looked for a King according to their understanding of kingship but only found Jesus when they left that understanding of political power and rule behind to encounter a King whose every breath is service of his subjects. The Empire then struck back as, in a bid to protect his power-base, Herod sent his death squads to massacre all male children under two in Bethlehem forcing Mary, Joseph and Jesus to become refugees, settling in Egypt until Herod himself was dead.

Jesus was vulnerable in this way because he was on the edge, at the margins of society. The poet-priest Malcolm Guite put it like this:

‘Christmas sets the centre on the edge;
The edge of town, the outhouse of the inn,
The fringe of empire, far from privilege
And power, on the edge and outer spin
Of turning worlds, a margin of small stars
That edge, a galaxy itself, light years
From some unguessed at cosmic origin.’

The edge is the place where those who have been excluded or rejected or ignored by society or the Church are to be found. That Jesus is found there – is born there - speaks of the conviction that God’s heart is on the edge of human society. Not only so, but, also, that God is most evidently encountered among those in the margins and on the edge. Those on the edge are Christ to us; Jesus is seen in those who have been excluded or rejected or ignored by society or the Church. The edge is where we can receive all the gifts God is giving us, especially the ones that Church and society have for so long despised or patronised. Those who have been rejected are the energy and the life-force that will transform us all. The life of those with power within church and society is, as Sam Wells has said, ‘about constantly recognising the sin of how much we have rejected, and celebrating the grace that God gives us back what we once rejected to become the cornerstone of our lives.’

The Magi have often represented as rulers of each of the major parts of the world known at the time, Europe, Asia and Africa, emphasising the global reach of the Christian religion. The Magi’s visit is often called the Gentile Christmas; the overriding message being that learned, wise foreigners - the ultimate ‘outsiders’ for Matthew’s Jewish-Christian audience - came to pay homage to a new-born ruler, Jesus the Christ, whose spiritual power and wisdom surpassed their own. Isaiah tells of nations coming to the light of the one that we know as the Christ-child, and through his imagery we can picture all people of all nations drawn to a Christ who knew oppression on all levels. As we have reflected, Christ was born under the oppression of Roman rule, escaped genocide by becoming a refugee and lived, as a migrant, in another country.

Both the incarnation and the ‘Gentile Christmas’ reveal that God’s heart is on the edge of human society, with those who have been excluded or rejected or ignored; that God is most evidently encountered among those in the margins and on the edge. Those who have been rejected are seen to be the energy and the life-force that will transform us all. The life of the church is therefore, as we have noted, to be one of constantly recognising the sin of how much we have rejected, and celebrating the grace that God gives us back what we once rejected to become the cornerstone of our lives.

In Jesus all things are re-aligned. Through his birth, life, death, and resurrection all that we once thought marginal to human life – all that we have rejected - has been shown to be essential: the way of compassion rather than the way of domination; the way of self-sacrifice rather than the way of self; the way of powerlessness rather than the way of power; the way of serving rather than the way of grasping. That’s the big picture revelation of the Epiphany. Considering the gifts that the Magi brought then gives us a close-up revelation about the nature of the Christ-child.

Gold, the most precious metal, was a present for an important person, so gold signifies that Jesus comes as a person of power, a king, a ruler. But we can also think that Jesus comes to give something precious to others – himself, his own life. So, gold was a gift that said: ‘Jesus is a King who will bring love!’

Frankincense and myrrh were both very expensive perfumes made from the resin of trees. People burned frankincense in religious ceremonies. They believed the fragrance carried their prayers to heaven. By its use in worship frankincense shows that Jesus comes as a holy person, someone who is totally pure, who has no wrong side to him. So, frankincense was a gift that said: ‘Jesus will draw us close to God and bring joy.’

Myrrh was used in ointments to heal sore skin and wounds. It was even used in this way to reduce wrinkles on dead bodies. Jesus would later be offered wine mingled with myrrh as a pain killer at the crucifixion. Myrrh indicates that Jesus will one day die a significant death and that he heals. So, myrrh was a gift that said: ‘Jesus will heal divisions through his death and bring peace.’

Historically, the Magi may have been envoys from the Nabatean King Aretas IV to King Herod, sent after the wise men of Aretas’ court announced that they had discerned from the stars that a new King of the Jews was to be born and bringing with them gifts that were not only rich and regal, but also representative of the wealth and power of Aretas’ Nabatean kingdom. If that were so, what they found when they arrived in Jerusalem was a surprise and an epiphany to them. The new king was not Herod’s son and was not in Jerusalem. As they travelled on to Bethlehem, a place on the edge of power, wealth, prestige and significance, their gifts, which had been designed to confirm those very things, took on new significance and became symbolic of a king who would renounce power, wealth, prestige and embrace poverty, obscurity, and death.

This is how epiphanies always come. By its nature, revelation is always outside our current frame of reference, being something that we don’t already know. So, epiphanies are always unexpected and surprising. However, there are ways in which we can prepare our hearts and minds to receive them. We see that in the story too, because, if the Magi had not set out on their journey and been prepared to travel beyond Jerusalem to the place on the edge, their epiphany would not have come.

It is because they were willing to travel that, for us, the Feast of the Epiphany reveals Jesus as the hope of the world by his ‘epiphany’ or ‘showing forth’ to the Magi from distant lands. The Magi travelled to find a king. The king they found was born into poverty rather than riches, was not a powermonger but a dependent child, would not accumulate power, wealth, or position for himself but instead be the servant of all, and would not save his life rather would die to save others.

In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christ child in the manger ‘pushes back the high and mighty; he overturns the thrones of the powerful; he humbles the haughty; his arm exercises power over all the high and mighty; he lifts what is lowly, and makes it great and glorious in his mercy.’ Because God is in the manger, ‘God is near to lowliness’ and ‘loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.’ That is the unrecognized mystery of this world: Jesus Christ as God with us. It is a redemptive mystery ‘because God became poor, low, lowly, and weak out of love for humankind, because God became a human being like us, so that we would become divine, and because he came to us so that we would come to him’.

At Epiphany, we have the opportunity to re-experience that original epiphany, to try to understand again all that Jesus is and all he does for us. We are offered the opportunity to make sure the penny has dropped, the light has come on, that faith has clicked into place, and relationship with Jesus begun. Epiphany is a time to connect or re-connect with Jesus on the basis of that original revelation. So, I ask, have the lights come on for you?

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Brightest And Best Of The Sons Of The Morning.

Artlyst: The black Magus and black Jesus

My latest piece for Artlyst explores themes from the National Gallery's 'Sensing the Unseen' experience and Heart and Soul's 'Black Jesus' programme:

'Before Christmas, on the BBC World Service in a programme entitled ‘Black Jesus’, Beckford explored the impact Black Theology has had in raising awareness of these rejections, the implications for the church and whether seeing Jesus as black is having a revival due to the influence of black lives matter. In the programme, this realisation came home most forcefully when Chine McDonald says, ‘When I pray I see a white man – that’s problematic’. It’s problematic because, as Beckford notes, ‘Jesus is a man of colour from the ancient near east’; an olive-skinned Palestinian, not a blonde European.

If Jesus was a darker-skinned Palestinian rather than a blonde European, we need to ask, as Beckford does, if ‘Jesus is a man of colour from the ancient near east’, how then ‘did we make him an Aryan and use that image to oppress other people?’ ‘Faith doesn’t stand outside politics,’ Beckford notes, ‘In fact, it is a political move to separate the two.’ The problematic nature of this can be seen in the reality that, even today, a black woman like Chine McDonald still pictures a white man when she prays, even though this is a reverse of the image of God found in Jesus.'

See also my sermons, 'A journey to the edge' and '90th Anniversary Celebration Service - Cathedral of St Mary the Virgin Johannesburg'.

My other Artlyst pieces are:

Interviews:

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

Articles:

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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Blessid Union of Souls - I Still Believe In Love.

A journey to the edge

Here's the sermon I preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields this morning:  

‘There was a star in the east.
Magi in their turbans brought their luxury toys
in homage to a child born to capsize their values,
wreck their equipoise.
A smell of hay like peace in the dark stable,
not peace however but a sword
to cut the gordian knot of self-interest,
the fool-proof golden cord,
for Christ walked in where philosophers tread
but armed with more than folly
making the smooth place rough
and knocking the heads of church and state together.’

Poets and musicians often understand the ironies of Christmas - the incomprehensible comprehended, poetry made hard fact, the helpless Babe who cracks the world asunder - better than the Church. This extract from Louis MacNeice’s ‘Autumn Journal’ continues:

‘In honour we have taken over the pagan feast of saturnalia
for our annual treat,
letting the belly have its say,
ignoring the spirit whilst we eat.’

MacNeice identifies the journey of the Magi as the point in the nativity story when many of these ironies become particularly apparent. Visitors from the East came looking for Jesus in a palace but found him in a manger. The Magi looked for him at the heart of privileges won through personal power but actually found him in a place of poverty and dispossession. They went to a palace, to the seat of wealth and power but he was not to be found there. Instead he was found in obscurity, in the home of working people, in a place from which no good was known to come. The visitors from the East looked for a King according to their understanding of kingship but only found Jesus when they left that understanding of political power and rule behind to encounter a King whose every breath is service of his subjects. The Empire then struck back as, in a bid to protect their power-base, the men of power with their death squads spread their curse of appalling cruelty and wickedness across the world. Herod, threatened by the thought of a rival, sent his death squads to massacre all male children under two in Bethlehem forcing Mary, Joseph and Jesus to become refugees, settling in Egypt until Herod himself was dead.

Jesus was vulnerable in this way because he was on the edge, at the margins of society. The poet-priest Malcolm Guite put it like this:

‘Christmas sets the centre on the edge;
The edge of town, the outhouse of the inn,
The fringe of empire, far from privilege
And power, on the edge and outer spin
Of turning worlds, a margin of small stars
That edge, a galaxy itself, light years
From some unguessed at cosmic origin.’

The edge is the place where those who have been excluded or rejected or ignored by society or the Church are to be found. That Jesus is found there – is born there - speaks of the conviction that God’s heart is on the edge of human society. Not only so, but, also, that God is most evidently encountered among those in the margins and on the edge. Those on the edge are Christ to us; Jesus is seen in those who have been excluded or rejected or ignored by society or the Church. The edge is where we can receive all the gifts God is giving us, especially the ones that Church and society have for so long despised or patronised. Those who have been rejected are the energy and the life-force that will transform us all. The life of those with power within church and society is, as Sam Wells has said, ‘about constantly recognising the sin of how much we have rejected, and celebrating the grace that God gives us back what we once rejected to become the cornerstone of our lives.’

Our depictions of the arrival of the Magi are one example, among many, of the way in which rejection of others is built into our telling of the Christmas story. This week the National Gallery hopes to open its re-arranged immersive digital experience inspired by Jan Gossaert's 16th-century masterpiece ‘The Adoration of the Kings’. This experience begins with the African king Balthasar’s voice setting the scene for the journey into this painting. Balthasar is one of the three Kings who travelled to Bethlehem to visit the new-born Jesus bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. He is Black, reflecting the resurgence by around 1500 of a tradition - dating back to the early days of Christianity - of including an African king. The Three Kings were often represented as rulers of each of the major parts of the world known at the time, Europe, Asia and Africa, emphasising the global reach of the Christian religion. We don’t know the exact reason for the resurgence of this tradition, but it is likely that a significant factor was the growing presence of Black people in Europe at that time, most of whom were enslaved.

Balthasar, this black Magus figure in the Nativity scene, was part of theologian Robert Beckford’s upbringing: ‘As a child,’ he has said, ‘the nativity scene always excited me. Not just because its appearance meant the closeness of Christmas presents, but because of the return of the black Magus.’ Yet he has come to realise that Balthasar has been inserted into the story because the story itself has been given an entirely white European perspective. That perspective reverses and rejects its original significance, but has become the default understanding. So, in Gossaert's painting and most images of this story from the medieval period onwards, we have a white European Christ-child and his mother being visited a black man rather than the reverse which is actually more historically accurate.

Before Christmas, on the BBC World Service in a programme entitled ‘Black Jesus’, Beckford explored the impact Black Theology has had in raising awareness of these rejections, the implications for the church and whether seeing Jesus as black is having a revival due to the influence of black lives matter. In the programme this realisation came home most forcefully when Chine McDonald said, ‘When I pray I see a white man – that’s problematic’. It’s problematic because, as Beckford noted in the programme, ‘Jesus is a man of colour from the ancient near east’; an olive skinned Palestinian, not a blonde European.

If Jesus was a darker skinned Palestinian rather than a blonde European, we need to ask, as Beckford does, if ‘Jesus is a man of colour from the ancient near east’, how then ‘did we make him an Aryan and use that image to oppress other people?’ ‘Faith doesn’t stand outside politics,’ Beckford notes, ‘In fact it is a political move to separate the two.’ The problematic nature of this can be seen in the reality that, even today, a black woman like Chine McDonald still pictures a white man when she prays, even though this is a reverse of the image of God found in Jesus. We need those like Beckford and McDonald in order to return to a more historically accurate and theologically important picture and understanding of the Magi’s visitation.

The Magi’s visit is often called the Gentile Christmas; the overriding message being that learned, wise foreigners -- the ultimate "outsiders" for Matthew’s Jewish-Christian audience -- came to pay homage to a new-born ruler, Jesus the Christ, whose spiritual power and wisdom surpassed their own. This is an appropriate interpretation of the story and Matthew’s intent, but, as we have seen, is one which we have come to picture in a way that is opposite to that which Matthew intended. As a result of the power of Medieval and Renaissance images and interpretations we see a white Christ-child visited by a black King. 

When Isaiah tells of nations coming to the light of the one that we know as the Christ-child, we can picture all people of all nations drawn to a Christ who knew oppression on all levels. Christ was born under the oppression of Roman rule, escaped genocide by becoming a refugee and lived, as a migrant, in another country. All this is obscured if we then picture Christ as being one with the white European oppressors; but a Christ who, through his black identity, is seen to be one with the oppressed enables Christianity to be seen for what it originally and genuinely was, a religion of liberation - a religion of those on the edge.

The incarnation and this ‘Gentile Christmas’ reveal that God’s heart is on the edge of human society, with those who have been excluded or rejected or ignored; that God is most evidently encountered among those in the margins and on the edge. Those who have been rejected are seen to be the energy and the life-force that will transform us all. The life of the church is therefore, as we have noted, to be one of constantly recognising the sin of how much we have rejected, and celebrating the grace that God gives us back what we once rejected to become the cornerstone of our lives.

Gossaert's ‘Adoration of the Kings’ doesn’t return us to the heart of what was rejected. The National Gallery’s 'Sensing the Unseen: Step into Gossaert’s ‘Adoration’’ experience helps us identify the problem but doesn’t quite return us there either. It is only with Beckford’s ‘Black Jesus’ that we are returned to an inclusive group of Magi visiting a black Christ and the full revelation that God is most evidently encountered among those on the edge.

Malcolm Guite writes:

Christmas sets the centre at the edge.
And from this day our world is re-aligned
A tiny seed unfolding in the womb
Becomes the source from which we all unfold
And flower into being. We are healed, 

The end begins, the tomb becomes a womb,
For now in him all things are re-aligned.

In him all things are re-aligned. Through Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection all that we once thought marginal to human life – all that we have rejected - has been shown to be essential: the way of compassion rather than the way of domination; the way of self-sacrifice rather than the way of self; the way of powerlessness rather than the way of power; the way of serving rather than the way of grasping.

Together with Robert Beckford and Chine McDonald, we would do well to rediscover all that is on the edge and which has been rejected. If we do so, we will be joining with the Magi - the wise ones - in their experience of adoring the black Jesus. Let’s wait a while there; after all, it’s been quite a journey for us to arrive at that place.

For another sermon exploring our need for images of black Christ's click here.

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Galliano - Prince Of Peace.

Epiphany Carols: The end of all our exploring

1

Journeys feature heavily in the Christmas story. There are the physical, geographical journeys of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem to register in the census, the rather shorter journey of the Shepherds from the hills surrounding Bethlehem to the manger itself, the lengthy journey of the Magi following the star via Herod’s palace to the home of Jesus, and the journey of Mary, Joseph and Jesus to Egypt following the Magi’s visit.

Then there are the emotional and life journeys that the characters in the story make. For Mary the journey of pregnancy and birth following her submission to God’s will at the Annunciation; the journey of carrying God himself in her womb for nine months while enduring the disapproval of her community. For Joseph, there is the journey from what was considered right in the community of his day – a quiet divorce – to the realisation that to do God’s will meant standing by Mary despite the local disgrace and scandal.

Tonight our focus is on the journey made by the Magi (Matthew 2. 1-12). What can we learn from their journeys that will help us in our own life journeys? The Magi searched for a sign, then searched for the one to whom the sign pointed, and then gave gifts when they found the one for whom they were looking for. They were seeking answers, by the best means they knew how, to the big questions in life: Who are we? Where are we? What's wrong? What's the remedy? We think of them as being wise for doing this. When we think about their story in these terms, it can give us a framework or a pattern for thinking about our own lives; perhaps then we will also find or know wisdom!

The sign which the Magi found through their searching was the star in the east which they understood to be a sign that the king of the Jews had been born. This sign uprooted them from where they were. If they were to see and to worship the baby King then they had to leave where they were and travel not knowing for sure where their journey would take them. They, no doubt, had a lengthy and uncomfortable journey not knowing exactly where they were going and nearly being seduced by Herod into contributing to the death of the child they sought. Their journey was probably inconvenient and uncomfortable for them but was the only way for them to find what they were seeking.

It is similar for us as we consciously ask ourselves the big questions in life and seek answers; doing so is uncomfortable and often means making changes to the way that we are currently living which are inconvenient and disruptive, yet necessary, if we are to find any sort of answers at all. T.S. Eliot wrote, in his poem called ‘Little Gidding,’ “We shall not cease from exploration,” and that is right because if we stop searching and questioning, then we get stuck and stagnate. Growth involves constant change and if we apply this principle to our thought life, our emotional life and our spiritual life then, as Eliot wrote, we must not cease from exploration. This is also true because, with God, there is always more for us to know and understand. Knowing God is like diving into the ocean and always being able to dive down deeper. If we are to know God better, deeper, more fully, we must not cease from exploration.

2

The Magi searched the stars looking for signs of divine communication; messages from the gods that could guide individuals and nations in the present. The first sign they might have seen was in the year 7 BC. Three times that year the planets Jupiter and Saturn passed close to each other in the constellation of Pisces. To ancient star-gazers this was significant. Jupiter was the king of the planets, Saturn stood for the Messiah, and Pisces was the constellation of the Jews. The Magi could have seen this as a sign that the Messiah, the King of the Jews, was coming. Two years later, in 5 BC, Chinese records tell of a bright comet that was visible in the sky for seventy days. That may have been the Christmas star that led the Magi to set out on their quest.

The comet may have prompted the beginning their search but their destination would initially have seemed obvious to them; Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jews. They arrived in Jerusalem asking ‘Where is the baby who was born to be the king of the Jews?’ The answer they were given came from scripture, Micah 5.2: ‘But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, are one of the smallest towns in Judah. But from you will come one who will rule Israel for me. He comes from very old times, from days long ago.’ The Magi then set out on the last few miles to Bethlehem. We are then told that the star ‘stopped over the place where the child was.’ In ancient writings, words like ‘stood over’ usually refer to comets, so this may have meant that by the time they got to Bethlehem the comet’s tail was vertical in the night sky. This could have been the final confirmation that they had found the right place and a few simple enquiries in the village would have led them to Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.

Their journey brought them to the birth of Jesus; the birth of the new thing that God was doing in the life of our world and the new thing that he was doing in their lives too. Epiphany means a revealing of the presence of God and that is what the Magi experienced when they found their way to the place where Jesus was. It was because they were looking for signs of God’s presence in their world that they followed those signs until they found the new thing that God was doing in the world through Jesus’ birth. Similarly, God is continually doing new things in our world and we are called, as Christians, to look out for these epiphanies; these revealings of the presence of God.

The Magi’s journey found its immediate conclusion when they knelt before the Christ-child and worshiped him. They had no independent verification that this child was the King that they were seeking; they simply had to trust that this was so because they had arrived at the place to which the star had led them. Once again, ‘Little Gidding’ describes this well: “If you came this way, / Taking any route, starting from anywhere, / At any time or at any season, / It would always be the same: you would have to put off /Sense and notion. You are not here to verify, / Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity / Or carry report. You are here to kneel …”

The answer to our questions is a person, not a fact or a proposition. Facts and propositions are either one thing or another and can be known as such, but a person always has hidden depths which can only be known through relationship. Then the person who is the answer to our questions turns out to be God himself and, because God is infinite, God cannot be fully known or understood by human beings. There are always greater depths into which we dive.

So, there are ultimately only three responses we can make to the wonder and majesty of God. The first is to keep exploring, the second is to express our sense of awe and wonder by kneeling in worship, and the third is to give gifts. The Magi gave gold, frankincense and myrrh; each being costly gifts expressing aspects of Christ’s nature and purpose. Christina Rossetti expressed the significance of the Magi’s gift-giving beautifully in her carol, ‘In the bleak midwinter’: “Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.” She understood that the costliest gift we can give is our life and that our life is given to Jesus when we express through our lives something of who Jesus is.

3

Kneeling in worship was the end of the journey that the Magi took when following the star but it was also the beginning of the new journey that they were then to make; the journey home. Eliot used the phase, ‘In my end is my beginning,’ at the end of his poem called ‘East Coker’ and, in ‘Little Gidding,’ he wrote: “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.”

The Magi journeyed home but their home was no longer what it once was because they had been changed by their journey. Eliot’s poem ‘The Journey of the Magi’ ends with these lines: “We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, / But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, / With an alien people clutching their gods. / I should be glad of another death.” The Magi were no longer at ease with their old way of life because they had been changed through their searching and journeying. Now they saw life differently because of what they had seen and heard; the answers they gave to life’s big questions were no longer the same as before – their worldview had changed and so their home was no longer an end in itself. For the Magi to see the new thing that God was doing they had had to leave where they were and travel not knowing where their journey would take them. Beginning their journey was important but it didn’t tell them how to find their way and when they did finally arrive, their arrival actually meant the beginning of a new journey.

All of which suggests that how we travel may be as important as why or where we travel. In Matthew 6.34 we read of Jesus saying: ‘Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.’ When we are preoccupied with what might happen in the future or what has happened in the past, we are not living fully in the present and may well misunderstand or misinterpret what is actually happening in the here and now. Jesus encourages us to live fully in the present because, that is where we encounter God and find epiphanies.

The poet and sociologist Minnie Louise Haskins echoed this in her poem called ‘God Knows’: The stretch of years / Which wind ahead, so dim / To our imperfect vision, / Are clear to God. Our fears / Are premature; In Him, / All time hath full provision.’ The poem begins: ‘And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: / “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” / And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. / That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

The answer to our questions is a person, not a fact or a proposition, and the person who is the answer to our questions is God himself. God becomes past, present and future to us. God becomes all in all and is in us and with us in all our exploration and journeying. God is with us through the Spirit which is in us and in our world. God is also with us in understanding our explorations and experiences because, by being born as a baby in Bethlehem, in Jesus, God experiences and understands our life journeys. It is for these reasons that the one who stands at the gate of the year says we can go out into the darkness, living fully in the present and tread safely into the unknown by putting our hand into the hand of God.

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Herbert Howells - Here Is The Little Door.

Epiphany Carols

Tonight's Epiphany Carols at St Martin-in-the-Fields included the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields singing Here is the little door Herbert Howells, The Three Kings Jonathan Dove, Nativity Carol John Rutter, and The Deer's Cry Arvo Part. The theme of the Service was 'The Road Less Travelled' as explored in poetry (The Journey Of The Magi T.S. Eliot, The Road Not Taken Robert Frost, and Extract from 'Little Gidding' T.S. Eliot) and some wonderful reflections by Alastair McKay on the journeys made by the Magi to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and home.

This poem, from my Alternative Nine Lessons sequence, was also read:

Star following Magi look for the Prince of Peace
in the heart of power and opulence
only to find him in obscurity and humility.
Gifts given prefigure his divinity and sacrifice, the servant King
who, in birth and death, gives his life for others

Here are the Bidding Prayer and Intercessions that I used (the intercessions are based on Alastair's reflections):

Bidding Prayer

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. God, who is both light and love, we would be a people walking in darkness still if you had not gifted us with your presence through the birth of your Son at Bethlehem. Forgive us for the countless times when we have failed to recognize you, forgotten the wonders of your love, or neglected to serve you with our whole hearts.

Just as the Magi long ago sought your presence in the world, let us do the same. As you reveal yourself in and among us, show us all the places where we get in the way of your transforming love. You have brought us through to another year and given us the choice of roads to follow from here. All that we need for the deepest of joy, you freely offer us. Hear our gratitude now and, accept our gifts, not gold, frankincense or myrrh, but hearts and voices raised in praise of Jesus Christ, our light and our salvation. May our gratitude lead us to your light and love.

So, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate this great festival of Epiphany, let us prepare our hearts so that we may be shown its true meaning. Let us pray for the world that God so loves; for peace and unity all over the earth; for the poor, the hungry, the cold, the helpless, and the oppressed; the sick and those who mourn; the aged and the little children; and all who rejoice with us but on another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which none can number, whose hope was in the Word Made Flesh, and with whom, in our Lord Jesus Christ, we forever more are one.

Intercessions

We find God in our journeys to Jerusalem, in the midst of our mistaken hopes and misplaced expectations, as we listen for the revelation that God has for us. So, we pray for all who are in a place where they thought their deepest needs would be met only for the reality to prove a disappointment, and find they were mistaken. God of the brightest noonday and the darkest night, no pain is too great for you to bear and no loss can remove your love from us. Pain and brokenness touch us all, holding some more firmly than others. Remove the obstacles of fear and ignorance that we may bring the light of your love to those who for whom physical illnesses are a struggle, those who live with mental distress, those who grapple with addiction, and those who seem lost. Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer.

We find God in our journeys to Bethlehem, in those special places of meeting with God, that we’d not expected, but God had always planned for us. So we pray that, just as the Magi long ago sought your presence in the world, we may do the same. As you reveal yourself in and among us, let us linger at the manger long enough to see you in the world, in friends and strangers, and in ourselves. Remove our fear and our arrogance so that the light we share is your light and the ministry we engage in is truly in service to you. Be with those who lead us, those who challenge us, and those who have not yet come through our doors. Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer.

We find God as we travel back to the place where we started, to the people and places we call family and home, learning to know them for the first time. Almighty and ever-living God, your Son shared the life of his home and family at Nazareth. Protect in your love our neighbours, our families and this community of which we are a part; allow all of us to find in our homes a shelter of peace and health. Make our homes a haven for us all, and a place of warmth and caring for all who come to visit us. Enlighten us with the brilliance of your Epiphany star, so that, as we go into the world, we might clearly see our way to You and discover You in our work and play. Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer.

We find God as we discover what George found and what the sage expressed, that all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. Wise and transforming God, how long you have waited for all your people to live in peace. We see difference where you see your children. We resort to violence and war where you would have equity and justice. Many claim you on their side, when in reality you are always on the side of mercy, compassion, and justice. Your wisdom still calls out in the world, waiting for an answer that is more than human foolishness. May all the leaders of the world hear her cry. Show us the way of peace and grant us the strength to pursue it with unflagging passion. We pray for an end to the divisions and inequalities that scar your creation; that all who have been formed in your image might have equality in pursuit of the blessings of creation. Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer.

We find God because the Christ child has come, and we are overwhelmed with joy. Loving God, as we enter into this New Year, grant that we may walk with the one born in Bethlehem and that our worship and our praise may bring to him, to you and to the Holy Spirit, the glory and honour due your most Holy Name. By his coming, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armour of light, that our feet may be strengthened for your service, and our path may be brightened for the work of justice and reconciliation in our broken world. Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer.

Almighty and most merciful God, you took on human flesh not in the palace of a king but in the throes of poverty and need: Grant that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart; that, following in the steps of your blessed Son, we may give of ourselves in the service of others until poverty and hunger cease in all the world, and all things are reconciled in the reign of Christ. Amen.

These prayers make use of materials from here, here and here.

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Jonathan Dove - The Three Kings.

Sermon: Light-bulb moments

Here is my sermon from today's Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

Light-bulb moments are those occasions when the penny drops, everything clicks into place and understanding comes. It might be in relation to something which is puzzling us; a piece of work about which we were unsure, a puzzle or conundrum to be resolved. In relationships it could be when one person appreciates something about another for the first time or when a disagreement is resolved.

These light-bulb moments have a name. They are called epiphanies and they tend to creep up on us unexpectedly. We may have been puzzling over something for hours, then the answer hits us. We may wake up in the middle of the night because something in a dream has clicked or else something someone says triggers a chain of thoughts in our mind that results in a moment of revelation. It all makes sense. We can’t choose the moment this happens, but we can perhaps create the right environment to encourage it to happen.

Epiphanies are less likely to happen when we’re stressed, when we’re tormented by trying to find the answer to something, when we can’t focus on anything else. Sometimes that means we need to find peace and quiet, maybe by going for a walk or reading a book. Some people find there’s nothing better than having a shower or a relaxing bath. At other times it’s better to fill our minds with something totally different from the issue, maybe doing a Sudoku puzzle or watching a favourite TV programme. Then, out of nowhere, revelation comes.

One of those approaches I’ve described might work for you, too, but there may be others. It might simply be a case of going on to the next question in a test and going back later to what’s been puzzling you. It could be that music works its magic or merely closing your eyes and blanking your mind in meditation for a minute or two.

The 6 January is celebrated in the Christian church as the feast of Epiphany. The word ‘epiphany’ actually means a light-bulb moment and has a particular focus on revelation. The feast of the Epiphany is an opportunity for revelation about who Jesus was and is.

Having enjoyed the Christmas story of God sending Jesus to be born as a human being, a person like you and me, Epiphany is the day to be aware of all the implications of what God has done in that act. Using the story of the Magi – the wise men who came to see Jesus – we remind ourselves of the symbolism attached to the gifts the Magi brought: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Gold, the most precious metal, was a present for an important person, so gold signifies that Jesus comes as a person of power, a king, a ruler. But we can also think that Jesus comes to give something precious to others – himself, his own life. So, gold was a gift that said: ‘Jesus is a King who will bring love!’

Frankincense and myrrh were both very expensive perfumes made from the resin of trees. People burned frankincense in religious ceremonies. They believed the fragrance carried their prayers to heaven. By its use in worship frankincense shows that Jesus comes as a holy man, someone who is totally pure, who has no wrong side to him. Frankincense was also a gift that said: ‘Jesus will draw us close to God and bring joy.’

Myrrh was used in ointments to heal sore skin and wounds. It was even used in this way to reduce wrinkles on dead bodies. So, myrrh indicates that Jesus will one day die a significant death and that he heals. Myrrh was a gift that said: ‘Jesus will heal divisions through his death and bring peace.’

In these ways, at Epiphany, we try to understand again all that Jesus is and all he does for us. We make sure the penny has dropped, that everything about our faith has clicked into place, that we understand personally Jesus’ relationship with us. Our faith may start out with beliefs and ideas, but the epiphany comes when we realize that Jesus has something to do with us personally. So Epiphany is a time to connect Jesus with ourselves, in the here and now.

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Brightest and best of the son's of the morning.

Epiphany sermon: We shall not cease from exploration

The Magi searched for a sign, then searched for the one to whom the sign pointed, and then gave gifts when they found the one for whom they were looking for. We think of them as being wise for doing all this. When we think about their story in these terms, it can give us a framework or a pattern for thinking about our own lives; perhaps then we will also find or know wisdom!

The Magi searched the stars looking for signs of divine communication; messages from the gods that could guide individuals and nations in the present. In other words they were seeking answers, by the best means they knew how, to the big questions in life:

• Who are we or, in other words, what is the nature, task and significance of human beings?
• Where are we or, in other words, what is the origin and nature of the reality in which human beings find themselves?
• What's wrong or, in other words, how can we account for all that seems wrong or broken in the world?
• What's the remedy or, in other words, how can we alleviate this brokenness, if at all?

These are questions that each of us, consciously or unconsciously, find answers to by the way that we live our lives but it is only when we consciously ask them and actively search for answers that we begin to leave behind our natural inclination to live life for our pleasure and convenience.

The sign which the Magi found through their searching was the star in the east which they thought was a sign that the king of the Jews had been born as a baby. This sign uprooted them from where they were. If they were to see and to worship the baby King then they had to leave where they were and travel not knowing for sure where their journey would take them. Their journey was probably inconvenient and uncomfortable for them but was the only way for them to find what they were seeking. It is similar for us as we consciously ask ourselves the big questions in life and seek answers; asking questions and seeking answers is uncomfortable and often means making changes to the way that we are currently living which are inconvenient and disruptive, yet necessary, if we are to find any sort of answers at all.

T. S. Eliot writes, in his poem called ‘Little Gidding,’ “We shall not cease from exploration,” and that is right because if we stop searching, if we stop questioning, then we get stuck and stagnate. We only have to look at nature to see the way in which all growth involves change; the caterpillar and butterfly being one of the most dramatic examples. Our own bodies are constantly changing throughout our lives with many of our cells being replaced as we progress through life. Growth involves constant change and if we apply this same principle to our thought life, our emotional life and our spiritual life then, as Eliot wrote, we must not cease from exploration.

The Magi’s journey found its immediate conclusion when they knelt before the Christ-child and worshipped him. They had no independent verification that this child was the King that they were seeking; they simply had to trust that this was so because they had arrived at the place to which the star had led them. Once again, T. S. Eliot’s ‘Little Gidding’ describes this well:

“If you came this way,
Taking any route, starting from anywhere,
At any time or at any season,
It would always be the same: you would have to put off
Sense and notion. You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel …”

The answer to our questions is a person, not a fact, and the person who is the answer to our questions turns out to be God himself. Because God is infinite, he cannot be fully known or understood by human beings. With God, there is always more for us to know and understand. Knowing God is like diving into the ocean and always being able to dive down deeper therefore are ultimately only three responses we can make to the wonder and majesty of God. The first is, as we have been saying, to keep exploring and the second is this, to express our sense of awe and wonder by kneeling in worship.

The third is to give gifts. The Magi gave gold, frankincense and myrrh; each being costly gifts expressing aspects of Christ’s nature and purpose. Christina Rossetti expressed the significance of the Magi’s gift-giving beautifully in her carol, ‘In the bleak midwinter’:

“What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.”

She understood that the costliest gift we can give is our life and that our life is given to Jesus when we express through our lives and actions something of who Jesus is.

Kneeling in worship was the end of the journey that the Magi took when following the star but it was also the beginning of the new journey that they were now to make; the journey home. Eliot used the phase, ‘In my end is my beginning,’ at the end of his poem called ‘East Coker’ and, in ‘Little Gidding,’ he writes:

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

The Magi journeyed home but their home was no longer what it once was because they had been changed by their journey. Eliot’s poem ‘The Journey of the Magi’ ends with these lines:

“were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.”

The Magi are no longer at ease with their old way of life because they have been changed through their searching and journeying. Now they see life differently because of what they have seen and heard; the answers they give to life’s big questions are no longer the same as before – their worldview has changed.

Are we asking the big questions? Are we constantly questioning and exploring yet also kneeling in awe and wonder to worship? And are both our answers to life’s big questions and to the way we live our lives changing as a result? If we wish to be wise like the Magi then our answer to all those questions will be, “Yes.”

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Christina Rossetti - In The Bleak Midwinter.

Christ, the ending and beginning of all our journeying

This is my sermon from Midnight Mass at St Stephen Walbrook:

Journeys feature heavily in the Christmas story. There are the physical, geographical journeys of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem to register in the census, the rather shorter journey of the Shepherd from the hills surrounding Bethlehem to the manger itself, the lengthy journey of the Magi following the star via Herod’s palace to the home of Jesus, and the journey of Mary, Joseph and Jesus to Egypt following the Magi’s visit.

Then there are the emotional and life journeys that the characters in the story make. For Mary the journey of pregnancy and birth following her submission to God’s will at the Annunciation; the journey of carrying God himself in her womb for nine months while enduring the disapproval of her community. For Joseph, there is the journey from what was considered right in the community of his day – a quiet divorce – to the realisation that to do God’s will meant standing by Mary despite the local disgrace and scandal.

All these journey’s, and others, bring us to the birth of Jesus; the birth of the new thing that God was doing in the life of our world and the new thing that he was doing in the lives of these people. What can we learn from their journeys that will help us in our own life journeys?

None of their journeys were easy. Even those with shortest journey, such as the Shepherds, risked disapprobation and even the loss of their livelihood, for leaving their sheep to worship Jesus. The Magi, no doubt, had a lengthy and uncomfortable journey not knowing exactly where they were going and nearly being seduced by Herod into contributing to the death of the child they sought. But for Mary and Joseph their journey was most difficult; the worries of carrying a full-term baby in the full glare of public disapprobation, an uncomfortable journey just prior to birth, and the pain of birth in an unsuitable and uncomfortable environment far from home.

God does not promise us that the experience of being part of the new thing that he is doing is ever easy but imagine the joy and wonder of the moment that Jesus is born, when Mary holds this precious, promised child for the first time, when the Shepherds come bursting in with their tales of Angels singing glory to God and the Magi come bearing their gifts, and all who come, come to worship the child that she holds. No wonder the story tells us that she pondered or treasured these things in her heart.

This child, both God and human being, was born to save humanity for our sins. God’s new act to rescue a fallen humanity; God doing a new thing in our world to demonstrate his love for each one of us.

Like the shepherds and wise men, we have journeyed tonight to celebrate this birth. Our physical, geographical journeys may, like those of the Shepherds have been short, but the life journeys that have brought us here tonight may well have been lengthy and hard. Like Mary and Joseph, those journeys may have involved disapprobation or scandal, the worry and pain of birthing and caring for children, like the Shepherds our life journey may have risked our livelihoods or like the Magi have involved a lengthy search for truth that has included looking in and leaving the wrong places.

However we have come tonight, the possibility remains for us to experience the new thing that God has done in our world through the birth of his son, Jesus. The good news about which the Angels sang on that first Christmas night was peace on earth, goodwill among human being; a peace that comes as human beings receive forgiveness from God for all the wrong and torturous journeys we have had, the actions and decisions that have hurt us and hurt others. We know now that we can be forgiven because God has come, as a human being, to be with us, to experience all that human life involves and, ultimately to die to save us from our sins.

This is the new thing that God has done in our world. It is this that came to birth at Bethlehem. It is this to which all our journeys lead. Will we, with Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds and the Magi, this Christmas kneel and worship this child, Jesus, God with us, the Saviour of our world, the ending and beginning of all our journeying?

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Franz Schubert - Mass No.3 in Bb Major, 2. Gloria.