Give me an undivided heart to revere your name

Here's the reflection that I shared during tonight's Healing Eucharist at St Andrew's Wickford:

‘Psalm 86 is by someone who identified himself as poor and needy. The Psalm could be for an individual who is suffering, a king who feels especially vulnerable to domestic enemies, or the nation of Israel, which was the victim of foreign empires before, during, and after the exile.’ (https://jamesbradfordpate.blogspot.com/2012/07/psalm-86.html)

The Psalmist speaks of God saying: ‘you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.’ What we see in God is abundance, an abundance of mercy, graciousness, steadfastness, love and faithfulness. In God, there is an abundance of all we need when we are poor and needy.

As a result, we should come to him to ask for help. As the Psalmist prays: ‘Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication. In the day of my trouble I call on you, for you will answer me.’ We can call out, cry out to God because we will be heard. We can express our pain, even anger, knowing that he will give ear, will hear and will respond.

What he wants for us is the healing of our internal divisions. St Paul described these well when he says in Romans 7:15-20: ‘I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.’

The Psalmist knows this reality and so prays: ‘Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name.’ He then says, ‘I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart.’ It is that reality that God wishes us to find - love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind – as this is true healing. When we are genuinely able to do that, then we know real integration and harmony and healing within our currently divided body, mind and spirit. Therefore, it is for this that we need to pray.

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Gungor - Beautiful Things.

Memorial Service for The Revd Sally Muggeridge

Here's the sermon that I preached today in the Memorial Service for Sally Muggeridge held at St Stephen Walbrook:

The opportunity to minister at St Stephen Walbrook together with Sally was one that I greatly enjoyed and appreciated. I greatly valued having her as a colleague. She was a special colleague with great insight and ideas coupled with real humility and a servant heart. We were very fortunate to have enjoyed Sally’s assistance and ministry at St Stephen Walbrook during her curacy and were particularly grateful for the links she established with the City and with businesses locally.

Her time with us also broke down barriers as she was the first woman to preside at the Eucharist in St Stephen Walbrook. It was a privilege to be at the ‘At Home’ for WATCH during which she celebrated her first Eucharist and became the first woman to celebrate the Eucharist in that church. I also remember with real pleasure our conversations about her uncle Malcolm Muggeridge and his impact as well as all she did to work on his legacy. I will always remember her time with us and all she brought to ministry with deep gratitude.

As we have just heard, Sally had her calling as a priest confirmed to her as she cared for and sat through the night with a lady in Calcutta who was dying while in the care of Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity. This remarkable experience culminated with a moment of communication between the two just before the woman died and coincided, in a God-incidence, with the death of Sally’s own mother, who received a call from Desmond Tutu just before she died.

Reflecting on these experiences would have confirmed a priestly call for Sally because they are experiences of being with, something that is at the heart of what priestly ministry involves. Being with is based on the belief that to find the meaning of life we need each other. We need to spend time being present and attentive to others who may be different to us and to ourselves and the world around us. As we do this, we can discover a way to be attentive to God and discover that God is present to us.

This discovery occurs because God has always been with, although never more so than in his incarnation as Jesus. The kingdom of God comes near to us when Jesus comes near because Jesus is God with us. That is what the incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection are all about. The Gospel of Matthew begins with the angel's promise that the Messiah will be called Emmanuel - God with us. The Gospel ends with Jesus's promise to his disciples, "Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." In between we get Jesus's promise to the church, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there with them." … And, perhaps most significantly of all, the Gospel of John says "The Word was made flesh and dwelt with us." Jesus's ministry is about being with us, in pain and glory, in sorrow and in joy, in quiet and in conflict, in death and in life. God is with us when Jesus comes near, which is, in reality, all the time. That is our witness as Christians and it is also our ministry. If the heart of the Gospel is that God is with us in every circumstance and into eternity, then our task is to be with others in order that they experience God with them.

This was Sally’s experience and was at the heart of her priestly ministry being the key aspect of her ministry about which she spoke when she was profiled by the Financial Times: “My role is now one of pastoral care of stressed City workers. So many seek chats, prayers, a quick discussion [about] a worry about family life and work. A prayer needed, a smile, a service — I can help with examples and encouragement.”'

She was able to do this so well because of the time she had spent in the business world and the experience gained. Being with those who work in the City involves making connections between faith and working life and Sally was able to do that supremely well because of the prior experience that she brought to ministry. Again, this featured in the FT profile where it was noted that: "Throughout her career, Revd Muggeridge has been a vocal advocate of increasing the role of women in business and the church.”

As such, Sally organised a 'Women in the City of London - More than just a place of work' event which highlighted the civic, cultural, charitable and social opportunities in the City of London, including networks as a route to fuller participation. She also contributed to a series of events we ran to explore the place of faith in the world of business. We titled this series as ‘plus+ presentations’ flagging that we were seeking to add value to the experience of being in the City. Sally spoke from personal experience about campaigns to increase the numbers of women on Boards. She also chaired a Volunteers from the City event which explored the benefits of volunteering, preparation, training and support for volunteers, and the part that Corporate Social Responsibility plays in volunteering. These are just a few examples of the links she established for St Stephen Walbrook with the City and with businesses locally. They, and other gatherings, were opportunities to meet and be with the City workers to whom she ministered pastorally.

She also contributed regularly to Start:Stop, our popular ten-minute Tuesday morning reflections, one of several initiatives that created ‘a new pattern of missional engagement at Walbrook.’ These included the uplifting ‘Discover and Explore’ series of services on Mondays, which featured different themes accompanied by the music of the Choral Scholars. This service involved speaking on an eclectic but interesting variety of topics depending on the theme. Among the topics on which Sally spoke were the following: Lanning Roper, Love, the Temple of Mithras, Christopher Wren, George Croly, Hope, Sir John Vanburgh, Chad Varah, John the Baptist, Guidance, Faith, St Paul in Rome, and St Columba. Always, however, with a deep perception of where God was to be found with us in relation to the topic.

In speaking once about architecture, she noted that this impulse: “the planning and specification of buildings, is perhaps as old as man’s wish to build. But we also know we cannot look to any building, however majestic, for permanence. Buildings are by nature, like us, transitory, here today and gone tomorrow. In the search for true permanence and stability, in wishing to build Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land, we must look to God.”

That thought brings us back to the permanent nature of God’s being with us in the reality of life experiences that are changing and transient. As we heard in the reading from Romans, “nothing can separate us from his love.” That remains true in all that we experience as we go through life.

As Sam Wells has said: “God doesn’t spare us from the fire. God doesn’t rescue us from the fire … God is with us in the fire. ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me.’ ‘When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.’ That’s the gospel …

Jesus isn’t spared the cross. Jesus isn’t rescued from the cross. Jesus is with God on the cross. The bonds of the Trinity are stretched to the limit; but not ultimately, broken. When we see the cross we see that God is with us, however, whatever, wherever … forever. This is our faith.”

As Henri Nouwen says: “God’s protection is not a promise that nothing will happen to us, but that nothing—absolutely nothing—will separate us from His love.”

As a result, we can say with the Psalmist: “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side … then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters.” May we know that truth in whatever difficulty we face currently.

Finally, though, God’s being with in the incarnation and in the vicissitudes of life is so that we can be with him forever in the coming kingdom of God where there will be nothing for us to fix and where there will simply be being with God, with each other and with creation. That is now Sally’s experience having come through all that she experienced in this life with the knowledge that Christ was with her in all things.

And, as will be of great importance for someone who was always learning, growing, developing and doing something beautiful for God, that experience of being with will not be static, formulaic and dull but instead will be exploratory as there is always something more to know of love, joy and peace in the never-ending depths of God. Although at rest, Sally remains on her journey of faith, exploring her calling, discovering more of the beauty in God, in others, in herself, and in creation. May the same also be true for us. Amen.

My review of 'Jesus, The Man Who Lives by Malcolm Muggeridge, with an Afterword by Sally Muggeridge, can be read here.

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Heart and Voice recital with The Choral Scholars of St Stephen Walbrook.

Quiet Day: Poetry and Prayer

We had a wonderful day at St Mary's Runwell for our latest Quiet Day which explored poetry and prayer. It was great to share the day with Fr Spencer Reece, people from our parish, and friends from the South Essex Nazareth Community. 

We looked at poems about prayer and poems written as prayers. We reflected on poetry by John Berryman, John Donne, Carol Ann Duffy, George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elizabeth Jennings, Tasos Leivaditis, Ann Lewin, John O'Donohue, and Mary Oliver.

Among the thoughts I shared in my introduction to the day, I said the following:

'David Yezzi, writing in the New Criterion, states that: “Prayers and poems share an uncanny family resemblance. In fact, they look so much alike at times they could be thought of as identical twins separated in childhood.” “The common origins of poetry and prayer date back at least to the second millennium B.C., when the two functioned seamlessly as one expression.” (https://newcriterion.com/issues/2012/4/power-of-some-sort-or-other-on-poems-and-prayers)

Similarly, Derek Rotty writes that the “idea of making poetry into prayer has ancient roots, as far back as the choral chants of Greek theater. Yet, it was in the Hebraic tradition that poetry became prayer in a specific way. The Psalms, ancient Hebrew poems mostly attributed to King David, became the prayer book for the worship of the Jewish people. These Psalms contain the gamut of human emotions: from love to despair; from joy to sorry; from cries for protection to cries for mercy after grave sin.” (https://catholicexchange.com/poetry-as-prayer/)

Roughly 33% of the Bible is poetry, including songs, reflective poetry, and the passionate, politically resistant poetry of the prophets ... (https://overviewbible.com/poetry/)

Poet Gideon Heugh notes that “The Bible brims with the poetic. Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, Job and most of the Old Testament prophets are written either entirely or in part as poetry ... (https://www.tearfund.org/stories/2021/03/how-poetry-can-help-us-pray)'

With Ellen McGrath Smith we noted that many poets: “invoke the spiritual writing of Simone Weil, including her assertion that ‘absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.’ This … broadens the possibility for poetry as prayer, regardless of content, since writing poetry is an act of acute mindfulness.” (https://talkingwriting.com/poetry-prayer)

Spencer Reece spoke about the influence of George Herbert on his life and facilitated reflection on Herbert's Love III.

My poem about St Mary's entitled 'Runwell' takes the reader on a visit to St Mary's Runwell, while also reflecting on the spirituality of the space plus its history and legends. Click here to read the poem.

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U2 - Easter Parade.

A never ending flow of love from God

Here's the sermon:  (11.00am, 08/03/26, St Catherine’s Wickford)

In baptism we use the symbols of oil, light and water. Here’s a reflection on the significance of these three things.

Oil …
bleeding
from the pressurised
crushed
and wounded
to
free us up
lubricate
our rusting
static lives
and
facilitate
our ever moving
onward
forward
Godward

Light …
revealing our past
lighting our future
shining like a lighthouse
in our storms
burning like a warning beacon
in our wars
warming like the sun
on our journeying
glowing like a fire
through gaps and cracks
in shattered, splintered lives

Water …
cleansing our grubbiness
reviving our tiredness
refreshing our thirstiness
nurturing our liveliness
babbling communication
rippling out our influences

May we -
baptised in water,
anointed by oil,
lit by the Spirit -
live and move freely
like a babbling brook
speaking life
to parched ground
leaping boulders and barriers
sparkling in the ever present
light of the Sun.

The poet Malcolm Guite describes the font as ‘A wide womb floating on the breath of God’ because through baptism God is ‘calling us to the life for which we long, yearning to bring us to our birth again.’ Just as at creation when God’s Spirit or breath moved on the waters, when we are baptised the breath of God is again on the waters. 

Malcolm Guite writes:

Come, dip a scallop shell into the font
For birth and blessings as a child of God.
The living water rises from that fount
Whence all things come, that you may bathe and wade
And find the flow, and learn at last to follow
The course of Love upstream towards your home.
The day is done and all the fields lie fallow
One thing is needful, one voice calls your name.

Take the true compass now, be compassed round
By clouds of witness, chords of love unbound.
Turn to the Son, begin your pilgrimage,
Take time with Him to find your true direction.
He travels with you through this darkened age
And wakes you every day to resurrection.

In this poem Malcolm Guite identifies the living water of which Jesus spoke (John 4. 13 & 14) when he said: ‘Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life’ (John 4. 14) with the love of God seen in Jesus. The water of life of which Jesus spoke is his love filling us and welling up with us in order to overflow to others. Jesus said, ‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back’ (Luke 6. 38).

This is how God’s love comes into our lives. We drink in a never ending flow of love from God. It is like a tap which is never turned off and always running. As there is no end to God’s love it can fill us and overflow from us to others. As we give love to others, so we can be filled all over again with God’s love. Giving and receiving in God’s economy are intended to be simultaneous events; as we give out, so we receive more. This is why Paul writes in Ephesians that we should go on being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5. 18) by drinking in huge draughts of the Spirit of God.

Sometimes, though, we cut ourselves off from the flow of God’s love. We can do this in at least two ways. Firstly, by our attitudes if we become selfish rather than generous; this is why the Bible gives us so many lists of contrasting behaviour. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, so the reverse is hate, complaint, violence, frustration, meanness, evil, inconstancy, harshness and uncontrolled. Any or all of these will cut off the flow of God’s Spirit in our lives and church. Secondly, we can also cut off the flow of the Spirit by separating ourselves from some of the channels through which God’s love can regularly reach us – such as social action, church fellowship, Bible reading and prayer.

All this means we need to ask ourselves, what if our job as a follower of Jesus is not to try harder or run faster or get up earlier or rev up your emotions? What if God really is at work in every moment; in every place? What our job is to learn simply not do those things that close us off from the Spirit? Instead of needing to do something else, what if it’s actually about how we keep ourselves aware and submitted so that rivers of living water are flowing through our being? Paul puts it like this and, in some way, the spiritual life is that simple. Just don’t quench the Spirit. The Spirit is already at work. He is bigger than you. He is stronger than you. He is more patient than your failures. He is committed to helping you 24/7, so just don’t get in His way. Don’t quench the Spirit. Don’t grieve the Spirit. We are always either opening ourselves up — walking in the Spirit — or quenching the Spirit. (John Ortberg – ‘A river runs through it’, http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/uploads/files/lyfev2/extra_resources/a_river_runs_through_it.pdf)

If we open ourselves up to God, we can have the raw material of Jesus himself – which is love – flowing out of us. His human body and mind and spirit, alive with the Spirit of God, in us and flowing from us (Stephen Verney, ‘Water into Wine’, Fount, 1985). It might sound a bizarre image; to have a river of life flowing out of you, but it is a big deal to God. The image of a river is used about 150 times in scripture, most often as a picture of spiritual life. And there is good reason. Israel is a desert country where rivers mean one thing: life. To desert people, the river is life.

We sometimes sing the opening words of Psalm 42, “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” Next time you sing it, remember that Israel is desert country. The waters are dried up. This deer is going to die if it doesn’t find water — and that’s you and me. That’s every human being.

To be cut off from the Spirit of God means a life of perpetual unsatisfied desires, spiritual dryness, emotional death. Jesus is saying that receiving from God in this way and giving to others in this way is vital to our life and survival because where the river flows, life will flourish but where a river dries up, life does as well. The river is gift, the river is grace, the river is life, the river is love. It is what we need and all we need, so are you getting and giving all you can? Are you open to God or quenching the flow of his Spirit?

Remember, ‘One thing is needful, one voice calls your name.

Take the true compass now, be compassed round
By clouds of witness, chords of love unbound.
Turn to the Son, begin your pilgrimage,
Take time with Him to find your true direction.
He travels with you through this darkened age
And wakes you every day to resurrection.’

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As The Deer.

Church Times - Art review: Millet: Life on the Land (National Gallery)

My latest exhibition review for Church Times is on Millet: Life on the Land at the National Gallery and includes reflection on the artist’s attitude to the poor:

'Simon Kelly notes in the catalogue that “Millet’s interest in religion has been marginalised in modernist readings of his avant-garde practice.” Though Millet was not a churchgoer in later life, Kelly writes that, when asked if he still read the Bible and the Psalms, Millet responded: “They are my breviary. . . It is there I find all that I paint.” The bias to the poor, which is found in the counter-testimony of the Old Testament, is the beating heart of Millet’s work.'

See also my Artlyst review on this same exhibition by clicking 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, those for Seen & Unseen are here, and those for Art+Christianity are here.

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Natalie Bergman - Keep Those Teardrops From Falling.

The Psalms - the bedrock for all music-making in the Church

Here's the talk I shared as part of today's Music Concert organised by Spring of Hope Church:

Rev Matt Simpkins is a former curate of this Parish and an amazing musician, who performs as Rev Simpkins. I interviewed him about his music a year or two ago and he had many insightful things to say about music:

“Music is just such a brilliant expression of our humanity and my faith is that all these things have something to do with grace. Christianity is music: the Psalms are the bedrock of Christian faith and worship. All is melded into one. I’m obsessed with the Psalms and the violent mood swings they contain. Their emotional honesty intertwines music and human life with grace. The richness of creation and human experience – for good and ill – mean that I’m not willing to believe that parts of that are somehow untouched by grace and redemption – even our own suffering and sorrow.”

“I came back to music because I got ill. After ordination I thought that music was something that formed me but was not part of my ministry. When I first got ill, I found it hard to pray, so I read those ancient songs - the Psalms - as I always have. I became especially interested in the bits people often leave out. We need to see the difficulties that underly the songs but also see the joy like the Psalmist. This is the darkness of grace. Shit happens but grace remains.

We know that Jesus prayed the Psalms and believe that he takes all human experience up on himself on the cross. So, if I’m having a scary experience like an MRI scan why not think what I might do creatively with that shuddering racket in a song? I take up my experiences in the faith that they have some connection to grace. Human experience and shared experience can result in emotionally dynamic and authentic songs.”

The music that he has made as a result, however, has been joyful: “I’m trying to give an authentic sense of joy in my music. I find that joy in making music with people I love. We just get together and make music. They know it’s authentic. It’s fun, really fun, and has been incredibly therapeutic. Music is bound up with identity and community and reconnecting with music has been good for my faith. Light and gathering together are part of the Holy Spirit’s personality.

This combination of joy and lament is what we find in Gospel music. It’s plenitude and plurality is composed of worship, lament, joy, word, breath, community, and improvisation. It celebrates using praise, breath, and community while exploring the innermost emotions that are shared through religion, aiding the prospect of surrender and ecstatic freedom and cultivating spaces where art thrives and expresses a unifying language for all. That’s because the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is democratic, filling all and enabling all to prophesy, speak in tongues and create.

As Matt says, the Psalms are the bedrock for all music-making in the Church. The Psalms are the worship songs of the people of Israel as recorded in the Old Testament and are the first occasion in ancient literature where the voice of victims is heard and valued.

The Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann in his book Spirituality of the Psalms provides an insightful and structured overview of the Psalms using three categories: orientation, disorientation, and new orientation. Orientation is the establishment of structure and order. Disorientation is a place of imbalance and nonsense, which is potentially unjust. New orientation is moving forward away from what was and toward new possibilities. As a result, the Psalms provide us with expressions of suffering and hope in the seasons of everyday life. In his book, Brueggemann explains how Psalms of negativity, cries for vengeance, and profound penitence are foundational to a life of faith, and establishes that the reality of deep loss and amazing gifts are held together in a powerful tension.

That is what Matt has experienced personally and has expressed through his music. I want to end by reminding us of a musical family who have expressed and exemplified this understanding of what music is and can be in Church.

Gospel great, Mavis Staples, began singing with The Staples Singers in 1950, aged 11. From 1963, the group began supporting the civil rights movement with Pops Staples saying of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr, ‘If he can preach it – we can sing it.’ From 1968, through Stax Records, they became soul stars known for their ‘message songs’; songs that were both politically and religiously charged. Since the last Staple Singers album in 1984, Mavis’ solo career has soared by mining the seam of R&B/Gospel developed by her father Pops and taken forward by Mavis through collaborations with the likes of Ry Cooder, Ben Harper and Jeff Tweedy. Through it all the deep resonance of Mavis’ voice drenched in the stylings of Pentecostal churches has been constant; a voice that as Renée Graham noted, ‘doesn’t so much sing a song as baptize it in truth’.

Mavis has spoken of bringing joy, happiness and positive vibrations. This is the transformation that she, and Gospel music generally, achieve; the transformation of struggle into salvation. ‘It’s more than just a feeling–it’s a philosophy’; a philosophy that Mavis Staples lives in concert with every fibre of her being.

The musical journey undertaken by The Staple Singers was an emotional tale and trip combining elation in the gospel with defiance of discrimination, as the group crossed boundaries — first, by combining blues, country, and gospel to create their unique sound, and then by merging spirituality and social comment at civil-rights marches and the Newport Folk Festival, before re-sacralising soul as Stax stars in the Black Power period characterised by the Wattstax Festival of 1972, a benefit after the Watts Riots in 1965.

The story of the Staples Singers is one of the strength that faith and family provide for the long walk to freedom. While the tale and its telling involve anger and loss, it is ultimately, as Mavis states emphatically at the beginning of her concerts, about joy, happiness, inspiration, and positive vibrations; and the tears that it inevitably evokes are tears of joy.

As we enjoy and create music for Church, may we, like Rev Simpkins and The Staple Singers, draw on The Psalms as the worship book for the Church and echo its mix of joy and lament in all we do. Amen.

For more on music and faith see my co-authored book 'The Secret Chord'.

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Ayo Ayo - High Praise dance

The Secret Chord

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

In Psalm 33. 1-4, 18-end, the Psalmist encourages us to:

Praise the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
Sing to him a new song;
play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

When Peter Banks and I wrote our book ‘The Secret Chord’ we took the title phrase from the song “Hallelujah” which is now one of the most-performed rock songs in history. Leonard Cohen's song ‘Hallelujah’ makes the claim that the Biblical King David had found a secret chord which, when played, pleased even God himself.

The opening words to Cohen's song are extrapolated from the account in 1 Samuel 16: 14-23 of how King Saul asked for a skillful musician to be found so they could come and play to soothe Saul's troubled soul. It is clear that David was both a competent musician and also a prolific composer. According to the Scriptures, he would go on to curate and compose many of the 150 Psalms found in the Bible which survive in multiple translations as part of religious worship today. What Cohen surmises is that whatever David played, or, most likely, improvised, would have also pleased the Lord and the children of Israel's God, as well as calming down King Saul.

Cohen's romantic hypothesis is that David had actually stumbled across and therefore deliberately employed a particular chord that has this mysterious power. A chord is a group of (typically three or more) notes sounded together, as a basis of harmony. Arthur Sullivan in a song called ‘The Lost Chord’ wrote: ‘It seemed the harmonious echo / From our discordant life. / It linked all perplexèd meanings / Into one perfect peace.’

Music is a performance in which harmonies echoing from our discordant lives link all perplexèd meanings into one perfect peace. Music, in performance, is an unrepeatable moment in in which all things come together enabling us to feel God's pleasure. In this sense the Secret Chord, about which Cohen writes, is indeed pleasing to the Lord.

Peter Banks remembers this occurring for him on 15th September 2001 when American conductor Leonard Slatkin led the BBC Orchestra in a dramatic rendition of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings at the BBC Proms. This was a change added to the usual program of jingoistic ditties that is regularly played at the Last Night of The Proms. Proximity to the tragedy of 9/11 helped to make it spine tingling for those present in the Royal Albert Hall at the time, as well as those viewing on TV. This was not an aggressive response to 9/11, but a truly spiritual one, with everyone experiencing something of God through the pain and suffering. There was a coming together of music and context which created a performance that took on greater significance after the actual event as time passed and as its cache built through word of mouth.

As a result of this linking of the echoes from our discordant lives, Cohen’s Hallelujah includes both the sacred and the sinful – the holy and the broken Hallelujah. It doesn’t matter which you heard, he suggests, because a blaze of light is found in every word and he will be able to stand before God – the Lord of Song – presumably at the Last Judgement and simply sing Hallelujah itself because both the holy and the broken are encapsulated in the one word and one chord.

This is to say that distinctions between sacred and secular are false divides as all of life and all music is holy. Cohen once said, 'This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled, but there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by "Hallelujah".'

That’s also why Arthur Sullivan could write:

‘I struck one chord of music,
Like the sound of a great Amen.

It flooded the crimson twilight,
Like the close of an angel's psalm,
And it lay on my fevered spirit
With a touch of infinite calm.

It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life.

It linked all perplexèd meanings
Into one perfect peace,
And trembled away into silence
As if it were loth to cease.’

Ultimately, music is a symbol of the means by which God created, and the musician is a partner with God in the creative process. Therefore, we can pray, with the singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, to be a little of God’s creative breath as it moves over the waters of chaos to bring all things into being. In other words, to see and hear life as God sees and hears it and to articulate something of that unitive vision. Amen.

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Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah.

Praise for deliverance from trouble

Here's the reflection that was shared during a Service of the Word at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

Psalm 34 is a psalm of praise for deliverance from trouble. It relates to a story about David before he became King of Israel. David has won many battles for King Saul, including defeating Goliath, but, as a result, Saul had become jealous of David and felt threatened by David’s popularity. As a result, David felt forced to flee from Saul.

In 1 Samuel 21.10-15 we read about David fleeing to King Achish of Gath hoping to find safety there. However, he finds that his reputation has preceded him. The servants of Achish recognise him and say, ‘Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands”?’ As a result, David was afraid that King Achish would also feel threatened by his presence in Gath or let Saul know where David was.

So, he changed his behaviour before them; he pretended to be mad when in their presence. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. Achish said to his servants, ‘Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?’ Achish then drives him out of Gath, and he is able to go away safely.

In Psalm 34, the Psalmist attributes David’s safety to God’s care. Looking back, the Psalmist says:

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
Look to him, and be radiant;
so your faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord,
and was saved from every trouble.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.”

As a result, the Psalmist encourages us to:

“taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
 O fear the Lord, you his holy ones,
for those who fear him have no want.”

If we taste and see the goodness of the Lord know and learn the fear (or awe) of the Lord, then, when we are in trouble as David was, we will also seek the Lord and see him answer us delivering us from all our fears. As with David when he feigned madness, this may involve using our natural creativity to find an unusual way out of the difficulties in which we find ourselves.

So, let us do what the Psalmist commends and learn the fear of the Lord so that we will “bless the Lord at all times”, having his praise continually in our mouths. 

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After the Fire - The Stranger.

The Beautiful World of Holiness: Explorations of Creation and Nature Through New Sacred Music

 

Choral Evensong followed by: 'The Beautiful World of Holiness: Explorations of Creation and Nature Through New Sacred Music'

Wednesday, 12 February 2025, 6:15 pm
Holy Sepulchre Church, London

This unique interactive event uses live musical performances as a springboard for discussion about Creation and our varying responses to what composer June Boyce-Tilman calls “the beautiful world of holiness.”

Featuring solo psalm settings by June Boyce-Tilman MBE, Alexandra T. Bryant, and Delvyn Case. Performed by Robert Rice, baritone, and Delvyn Case, piano.

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June Boyce-Tillman - We Shall Go Out.

Peace on earth

Here's the sermon that I shared during Midnight Mass at St Catherine’s Wickford:

One of my favourite rock bands is U2 whose lead singer and lyricist, Bono, is a big fan of the Psalms. He has written that a lot of the psalms feel to him like the blues. Man shouting at God - "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me?" – and some of the songs he has written do the same.

In ‘Peace on Earth’ he writes:

“Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I'm sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain
I'm sick of hearing again and again
That there's gonna be peace on Earth …

Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So, what's it worth?
This peace on Earth”

It was over 2,000 years ago that that glorious song of old was first sung by angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold: "Peace on the earth, good will to men, from heaven's all-gracious King." So where is it? Why hasn’t it come? These are good questions to ask. Good questions to shout at God, just as occurs in the Psalms and in the blues.

While the Psalms and the blues pose questions, our carols may provide some answers. The carol I’ve just quoted, ‘It came upon a midnight clear’, acknowledges the lack of peace that we find in the world:

“Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;”

But the problem is then put firmly back in our own court:

“And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.”

The wars we wage throughout our lives drown out the song of the angels and mean that we pay no attention to the peace that the Christ-child came to bring. That is also what our reading from John’s Gospel said:

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God …”

We have to recognize and receive him in order to access the peace that he brings, as another carol, ‘Joy to the World’, says clearly:

“Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,”

So tonight, on this silent, holy night, the questions turn back to us. Are we hushing the noise of our strife sufficiently to hear the song of peace which the angels sing? Are we preparing room in our hearts for Christ to be born or are we like the innkeepers who said, “No room.” Are we recognizing and receiving him into our lives in order to become children of God?

You’ll probably have heard the slogan of the Dog’s Trust, ‘a dog is for life, not just for Christmas.’ Perhaps we need to adapt that slogan to say, ‘Christ is for life, not just for Christmas’ because it is only when we live as Christ lived that the peace he brings comes in our own lives and also between those we know. It is when we live as Christ lived that we give time and care to those who are housebound or elderly; that we feed those who are hungry, that we provide shelter for those who are homeless, that we open our homes to those who are refugees and asylum seekers. All the kinds of actions that the churches in Wickford and Runwell try to take as we seek to follow in the footsteps of Christ and to live, however imperfectly, as he lived.

It is when we live as Christ lived that he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love. It is when we live as Christ lived that the new heaven and earth shall own the Prince of Peace, their King, and the whole world send back the song which now the angels sing.

If we, like Bono, are sick of all of the hanging around - sick of sorrow, sick of the pain, sick of hearing again and again that there's gonna be peace on Earth – then we need to prepare room for Christ to be born in our hearts so that we will live as Christ lived and bring peace on earth – to our lives, our friends and family, our community and world. May it be so for us this Christmas. Amen.

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U2 - Peace On Earth.

Come to the feast of life

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

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear. (Isaiah 25:6)

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long. (Psalm 23.5&6)

Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, [Jesus] took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. (Matthew 15.35-37)

In Old Testament prophecies, the Psalms of David, and the miracles and parables of Jesus, we see that God is inviting us to share in a banquet laid on the new heaven and new earth that he will create. In Jesus’ parables, invitations to the party are sent to all and sundry, including those who never get invited out, those from the wrong side of the tracks, the homeless and poor; all are invited and those who don’t come are those who choose to exclude themselves by making excuses because the one condition is that you drop everything to come there and then.

The great Elizabethan priest and poet George Herbert included some of the excuses we commonly make in his third poem about love. We draw back, he suggests, because of our sense of guilt, our sense that we are unworthy, unkind and ungrateful, that we have made mistakes with the gifts we have been given, and only deserve to serve not to be served:

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked anything.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.

I identify strongly with this poem because it expresses how I felt as a teenager having come to faith but then being very aware of my faults and failings and so feeling like a hypocrite who did not deserve God’s love. I had to come to a point of realizing that God loved me regardless of whether I was good enough or not and whether I felt good enough or not. The moment of realization came for me when a youth leader took the time to listen to me and then showed me Romans 5. 6 – 8 which says this: "For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked at the time that God chose. It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may even be that someone might dare to die for a good person. But God has shown us how much he loves us — it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!" As the old hymn says, "I love Him because He first loved me." He didn’t wait for me to become deserving of his love, instead he showed his love for me while I was still far away from him. So, there is nothing I have to do to earn or deserve his love.

So, Jesus simply says, "come" and all I have to do to enter into his love is simply come. That is what George Herbert’s wonderful poem is all about. Whoever comes simply, like a child, accepting God’s invitation as it is, are those who sit and eat, who become saints and priests, who become Christ. For "little Christ" is all that ‘Christian’ means. The meal, the feast, the banquet, the party to which we are invited is communion; sharing in the body and blood of Christ as a precursor to the coming in full of the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven.

This table, the table of Jesus is our place of gathering: here you are welcomed, wanted, loved, here there is a place set for you; come, come to the feast of life. This is the table, not of the Church, but of the Lord. It is made ready for those who love him and who want to love him more.

So come, you who have much faith and you who have a little, you who have been here often and you who have not been for a long time, you who have tried to follow and you who have failed. Come, not because I invite you: it is our Lord, it is his will that those who want him should meet him here.

Come. Come to the feast of life that the Lord Almighty prepares for all peoples. A feast of rich food, the best of meats, the finest of aged wines, and water from the spring of life itself. A banquet at which tears are wiped away, disgrace removed, where death, grief, crying and pain are no more as God himself sits down to eat with his people.

Come, all you who thirst;
come, all you who are weary;
come, all you who are poor;
come, all you who are bitter;
come, all you who grieve;
come, all you who are sinners;
come, all you who are oppressed;
come, all you who are traitors;
come, all you who are sick;
come, all you who are lost.

Come to be saints;
come to be priests;
come to be Christians;
to be "little Christs."
Come to sit and eat
at the feast of life.

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Steve Bell - O come, O come Emmanuel.

True and proper worship

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

Jesus taught that the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:36-40).

Our readings today show us some of the ways in which we can do that.

In Revelation 4 we read that “whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,

‘You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honour and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.’

This picture of worship in heaven shows us everything that exists kneeling before God. “The Hebrews regarded the knees as a symbol of strength, to bend the knee is, therefore, to bend our strength before the living God, an acknowledgment of the fact that all that we are we receive from Him. In important passages of the Old Testament, this gesture appears as an expression of worship.” 

The word worship comes from an Old English word, worthship, and it literally means “to give something worth—to demonstratively attribute value, especially to a deity or god." (Zach Neese, How to Worship a King). Worship is putting the value you hold for something on display. Just like a groom saves up money to buy his future bride an engagement ring, worship says "you are worth this sacrifice." When we worship God, we demonstrate how important He is to us and bending our knees before the living God in acknowledgment that all that we are we receive from Him is one of the ways in which we can do so. 

As believers, however, there are so many ways to worship God. We can worship God through song, as we see happening in Revelation 4 and as Psalm 150 encourages us to do. Psalm 150 ends by saying, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” and demonstrates that by encouraging us to use a great array of instruments – as many as we can – in worshipping him:

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.

“But we can't stop there. Worship is much more than a song; it's a lifestyle. Giving our time is worship, whether it's serving in church or out in the community. Being generous with our finances is worship. Obeying the Holy Spirit’s prompting is worship. Choosing Jesus even when we don't feel like it is worship. It’s all worship.”

Our Gospel reading (Luke 19.11-27) encourages us to use our gifts and talents in God’s service as an act of worship. In the story of the Ten Pounds, what is criticised by Jesus is sitting on our gift and doing nothing with it. In the story the person who fails wraps the pound in a cloth and does nothing with it in order to give it back to the master safe and sound. Doing nothing with our gifts, even if our intent is that we don’t damage or harm our gifts is not good enough, is not worship. Instead, they are to be used, even if we make mistakes in doing so. In the story ten slaves are given ten pounds. Then, we hear what has been done with their gifts by three of the slaves. Two have made more money from their pound and one has kept theirs. What happened with the other seven? We don’t know. It may be that they lost money through their activity but at least they tried, unlike the slave who did nothing. The outcome of our activity is not as important as the attempt. In trying to make use of our gifts we are honouring the one who gives them to us, while by choosing not to use them, we are not.

St Paul wrote that we are to be “a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” as that is our “true and proper worship” (Romans 12.1-3). We can do so as we sing, as we kneel, as we acknowledge God as the giver of all we have, and as we use the gifts he has given in his service. In these ways, we are loving the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Martin Smith - Joy (What The World Calls Foolish).

You'll never walk alone

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

I wonder if you knew that You’ll Never Walk Alone, along with other songs from musicals, has been included as a hymn in the BBC’s hymn book. Ian Barclay commenting on this in The Guardian wrote that the Songs of Praise programme producers have come to realise that secular songs from shows have taken on some on the status of folk hymns, addressing the spiritual and pastoral needs of many people. Taken out of its context in Carousel, where it is sung by a dead father who has returned to life for one day to the daughter he never knew, it can be sung as a statement of belief that, as Psalm 23 states, God will be with us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death or through the storms of life.

When you walk through the storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark

Walk on, through the wind
Walk on, through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Our Gospel reading (Matthew 8: 23 – end) speaks about two storms and two different ways in which God is with people in those storms. The disciples in the boat on Lake Galilee experienced a literal storm but they were also caught up in an event of set of external circumstances that were beyond their control. And that is probably the most common way in which we experience storms within our own lives.

Circumstances conspire to bring illness or redundancy or debt or breakdown in relationships. We may have made choices that have contributed to the situation – just as the disciples made the choice to go out in the boat – but we end up by finding ourselves in circumstances that are beyond our control and which threaten to overwhelm us.

The storm in the story of the two men in Gadara is different because for them the storm is not external but internal. Many of us experience periods of mental ill health when we feel overwhelmed by feelings and emotions, fears and anxieties which rage inside and threaten to overwhelm us. For some of us, the storm of those emotions becomes a more permanent feature of our lives and begins to affect the way in which we relate to others and the extent to which we are able to participate in society. For some, too, the things we use initially to bring some relief from those emotions – drink, drugs, sex, violence – also end up controlling our reactions and responses and ultimately change who we are as people. The two men in this story seem to have been experiencing that kind of internal storm.

We tend to think of storms as something to avoid, something to hide or shelter from but in both of these stories God is there in the storm. Although the storm is stilled on the lake and the internal storm released from the men in Gadara, the encounter with God takes place in the storm. To encounter God, we often need to be in the storms of life. And the God that we encounter in the storms of life goes with us through those storms until we find ourselves on the other side. That is the promise of You’ll never walk alone and of Psalm 23; even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for God is with us; his rod and your staff, they comfort us.

The God that we encounter in the storm can release the internal storm from with us. In times of crisis and distress we often keep our emotions bottled up inside us until eventually they explode in anger and violence. The God that we meet in the storm can be an escape valve, the person that we can always turn to, the one who is always there to listen and with whom we can pour out all those pent-up emotions releasing the storm within.

The God that we encounter in the storm is also able to still the storm of external circumstances. He holds that power and that is what we often long when we are caught up in the storms of life. I experienced that power after my younger brother Nick died in the crash of a UN plane in Kosovo. With the families of others who had died I was flown to the crash site and saw the scattered and shattered pieces of the plane on the mountainside. That terrible moment brought home the physical reality of what had happened to my brother. It was the height of the storm for me. On landing again at Pristina Airport I was met by some of the people from Tear Fund with whom Nick had been working in Kosovo to rebuild homes destroyed in the fighting there. They told me stories of the impact that Nick had had on their lives and the lives of the Kosovan people with whom they had worked. As we talked and cried together, God brought an assurance into my heart that he had welcomed Nick into his presence with the words, “Well done, my good and faithful son” and in this way I knew the stilling of the storm.

The God that we encounter in the storm is also able to still the storm of external circumstances. And yet, Jesus was disappointed with the reaction of disciples in the storm on Lake Galilee. “How little faith you have,” is what he said to them. What would have happened if they had had more faith? It is likely that they would have rode out the storm in trust that God would see them through. It is likely that Jesus was asleep in the boat not because he didn’t care about their dilemma but because he trusted that God would go with them through the storm and wanted them to have that same trust too.

We may be in the middle of some storm ourselves today as we sit and listen. We may need the internal storm in our lives to be released in peace. We may have come through storms in our lives but still be bearing the scars or wondering where God was at that time. We may need to take this message to our hearts because there are storms on the horizon. If that is so, we need to know in our hearts that we do not walk alone. That if we look for him we will see God going with us through the storm. That if we trust him we will come to that place of peace where the storm clouds have blown over and we see the golden sky and hear the sweet, silver song of the lark.

Let us pray that we will recognise God with us in the storms of our lives asking for the faith to come through the storm, for release of our internal storms, and for the stilling of our external storms. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Katherine Jenkins - You'll Never Walk Alone.

Seen and Unseen: Dark, sweet and subtle: recovered music orientates us

My latest article for Seen & Unseen is entitled 'Dark, sweet and subtle: recovered music orientates us'. In the article I highlight alt-folk music seeking inspiration from forgotten hymns:

'The musical reimaging involved in Over the Rhine’s reinterpretations of hymns takes them into the space that Brueggemann defines as new orientation, while the sounds and, in some cases, content of the hymns chosen by Steffan and Ghostwriter are more in the realm of his disorientation category. The music making of Lleuwen Steffan, Ghostwriter and Over the Rhine takes us to places not commonly accessed by the music used in many church services.'

My first article for Seen and Unseen was 'Life is more important than art' which reviews the themes of recent art exhibitions that tackle life’s big questions and the roles creators take.

My second article 'Corinne Bailey Rae’s energised and anguished creative journey' explores inspirations in Detroit, Leeds and Ethiopia for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, Black Rainbows, which is an atlas of capacious faith.

My third article was an interview with musician and priest Rev Simpkins in which we discussed how music is an expression of humanity and his faith.

My fourth article was a guide to the Christmas season’s art, past and present. Traditionally at this time of year “great art comes tumbling through your letterbox” so, in this article, I explore the historic and contemporary art of Christmas.

My fifth article was 'Finding the human amid the wreckage of migration'. In this article I interviewed Shezad Dawood about his multimedia Leviathan exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral where personal objects recovered from ocean depths tell a story of modern and ancient migrations.

My sixth article was 'The visionary artists finding heaven down here' in which I explored a tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds.

My seventh article was 'How the incomer’s eye sees identity' in which I explain how curating an exhibition for Ben Uri Online gave me the chance to highlight synergies between ancient texts and current issues.

My eighth article was 'Infernal rebellion and the questions it asks' in which I interview the author Nicholas Papadopulos about his book The Infernal Word: Notes from a Rebel Angel.

My ninth article was 'A day, night and dawn with Nick Cave’s lyrics' in which I review Adam Steiner’s Darker With The Dawn — Nick Cave’s Songs Of Love And Death and explore whether Steiner's rappel into Cave’s art helps us understand its purpose.

My 10th article was 'Theresa Lola's poetical hope' about the death-haunted yet lyrical, joyful and moving poet for a new generation.

My 11th article was 'How to look at our world: Aaron Rosen interview', exploring themes from Rosen's book 'What Would Jesus See: Ways of Looking at a Disorienting World'.

My 12th article was 'Blake, imagination and the insight of God', exploring a new exhibition - 'William Blake's Universe at the Fitzwilliam Museum - which focuses on seekers of spiritual regeneration and national revival.

My 13th article 'Matthew Krishanu: painting childhood' was an interview with Matthew Krishanu on his exhibition 'The Bough Breaks' at Camden Art Centre.

My 14th article was entitled 'Art makes life worth living' and explored why society, and churches, need the Arts.

My 15th article was entitled 'The collective effervescence of sport's congregation' and explored some of the ways in which sport and religion have been intimately entwined throughout history

My 16th article was entitled 'Paradise cottage: Milton reimagin’d' and reviewed the ways in which artist Richard Kenton Webb is conversing with the blind poet in his former home (Milton's Cottage, Chalfont St Giles).

My 17th article was entitled 'Controversial art: how can the critic love their neighbour?'. It makes suggestions of what to do when confronted with contentious culture.

My 18th article was an interview entitled 'Art, AI and apocalypse: Michael Takeo Magruder addresses our fears and questions'. In the interview the digital artist talks about the possibilities and challenges of artificial intelligence.

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Lleuwen Steffan - Tafod Arian — Live at Celtic Connections.

Milk and Solid Food

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

In our New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, we read of St Paul writing to the Corinthians to say that when he was with them, he fed them with milk, not solid food, for they were not ready for solid food. What does he mean by milk and solid food when he writes about teaching the church in Corinth?

It is worth looking into the Old Testament at this point, and Psalm 131, which is another place in scripture using the language of a nursing baby and a weaned child. In Psalm 131, Israel is pictured as a weaned child resting in the arms of God, its mother. This Psalm opens up for us a particular avenue to rest, reflection and silence. In this Psalm the baby feeds on God so fully that it is satiated and satisfied and in that experience rests in silence. How often do we feed on the milk of God – her presence, her words, her actions – to the extent that we can, in that moment, take no more and lie still, trusting, satisfied, in the everlasting arms that always hold us whatever the great and marvellous things that surround us.

But this is just the beginning of our relationship with God, as it also is for a baby with its mother. Nancy Hicks has written compellingly about the change from a nursing baby to a weaned child, also based on Psalm 131:

“Nursing was one of the most intimate acts I have ever been allowed to participate in, and what joy to be utterly depended upon! But a nursing baby is a demanding baby, “Pick me up NOW! Feed me NOW!” And when she fell asleep in my arms I felt needed, but not really appreciated for anything other than my capacity to satisfy hunger.

Then she was weaned. Now, when she crawled into my lap it was for relationship and comfort and intimacy. I understood God’s delight at the psalmist’s words, “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me.”

In Psalm 131, the Psalmist pictures himself having the kind of intimacy with God that a weaned child has as it cuddles up on its mother’s lap. That intimacy comes after the child has been fed and has moved on from milk to solid food.

So, the picture that we gain from these descriptions is of God’s love as the love of a mother for her child is that of God wanting to bring us into a place where we feel safe alongside her, where we know the comfort of being fed and therefore grow from the basics of the faith (the milk) to the depths of the faith (the solid food).

What is the solid food? Well, Paul begins by telling us what it is not. He says to the Corinthians, even now you are still not ready for there is jealousy and quarrelling among you when one says, ‘I belong to Paul’, and another, ‘I belong to Apollos’. Paul says that we behave like infants in Christ whenever we quarrel and argue and that means that we are not ready for the solid food which, therefore, has to be about unity and love. So, he continues by writing about the common purpose that unites the one who plants and the one who waters saying that we are all God’s servants, God’s field, God’s building; when we work together.

This means that our natural inclinations as human beings to argue and compete, to demand and to grasp for ourselves are, in the words of Paul, infant behaviour. It also means that Jesus’ teaching about love for God, neighbour, enemy and ourselves is the solid food because that is what we need to practice in order to experience unity, common purpose and togetherness.

Let us ask whether we, as individuals and as a church, are experiencing the love of God in these ways? God wants to take us into a deeper relationship with him and at the heart of that relationship is his infinite heart of love beating with the kind of love which mother’s commonly show towards their children. May we open up our lives and hearts to receive that love and enter in to that depth of relationship today! Through the safety and security, the acceptance and affirmation that we find in that relationship, God wants us to grow into people and a church where we love God, our neighbours, our enemies and ourselves in ways that lead us to unity, commonality of purpose and real togetherness. Are experiencing the love of God in these ways? Let us pray that we might. Amen.

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Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - As The Waters Cover The Sea.