Saved from death (snake bite)

This week at our Lent course we debated, without fully understanding, Nicholas Sagovsky's statement that:

"There is, perhaps, in Jesus's comparison of himself with the ‘brazen serpent' the suggestion of his identification with poisonous evil - precisely for the purpose of healing. Like the brazen serpent, he assumes the form of evil, as a way of embracing the evil itself and bringing healing."

Here is my reflection on the meaning of his words:

Fatal snake bite inflicted in a garden;
serum spreading through the human
body, poison inflaming man
to be a wolf to man - vampiric
predator normalizing evil, unthinkable
terror routinely inflicted by militant
ignorance, the disease of legion.

Brazen serpent on a pole, innocent victim,
scapegoat, a second Adam lifted up. Venom
taken into God initiates immune system response;
antibodies - taken intravenously - bind and
neutralize. The form and flowers of evil
assumed, embraced, transformed
as antivenom, for the purposes of healing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ricky Ross - This Is The Life.

This is our story: Journeys of faith

We all have stories to tell: stories about who we are, where we come from and where we hope to go in life. We also tell stories about our ‘journeys of faith'.

Our story and stories form the theme of our Lent Course which has been written by Revd Nicholas Sagovsky, an Anglican priest, who is Whitelands Professorial Fellow at Roehampton University. Until last year, he was Canon Theologian at Westminster Abbey.

Nick writes, ‘I wrote this course because I have learnt so much from the members of a little Bible Study Group I started for people who have sought asylum. They have made - and are making - fantastic journeys of faith.

I believe our churches are full of people with great stories to tell, and that studying Scripture together can help each one of us see our life as a journey of faith. We can learn so much as we hear about other people's journeys of faith - the good bits and the hard bits - and we can see more clearly how we follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before us - right back to Jesus and to the Israelites who endured such hardships in the wilderness to come to their promised land.'

Christians have always told stories: we tell and retell the stories of Jesus and of the early church. These are stories which help us shape our lives, to see ourselves as ‘disciples'. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we talk about all the things that have happened to us. We share stories about our ‘journeys of faith' and we need the help of Scripture to make sense of them. This Lent will also be a time when we think about the story of the Israelites escaping from slavery in Egypt, miraculously crossing the Red Sea, struggling through the wilderness for forty years, and, at last, entering the promised land.

This Lent we are saying ‘This is our story': the story of the Israelites, the story of Jesus, the story we can tell about our own ‘journey of faith'. We each have a story to tell and every story is different.

The Lent Course materials for study will link, for those who would like to listen, with Sunday Worship on BBC Radio 4 (0810-0850) and special items based on the themes of the course will be broadcast on Sunday mornings on BBC local radio. The course can be studied at:

St Peter's Aldborough Hatch (Vicarage – Oaks Lane)

Wednesday mornings from 11.00am  

20 Feb, 27 Feb, 06 Mar, 13 Mar, 20 Mar, 27 Mar

St John's Seven Kings

Wednesday evenings from 8.00pm

20 Feb, 27 Feb, 06 Mar, 13 Mar, 20 Mar, 27 Mar 

Goodmayes Methodist Church

Thursday afternoons from 2.00pm

21 Feb, 28 Feb, 7 Mar, 14 Mar, 21 Mar, 28 Mar

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Cockburn - Wanna Go Walking.

Radical Compassion

This autumn the Educational Programme series at St Martin-in-the-Fields looks particularly interesting both because of the topic and speakers chosen.

Radical Compassion: The Gospel and Social Justice seeks to examine the radical implications of Christ’s life and transforming compassion in relation to issues of social justice. What is Christ saying to the poor, marginalised, and the struggles of our time? Can we rediscover a theology of liberation for today?

The lectures will take place in St Martin-in-the-Fields Church from 7.00pm – 8.30pm. They are free and no booking is required. There will be a retiring collection to cover some of the costs of the programme.

Monday 19 September: The Revd Professor Nicholas Sagovsky: Compassion and Justice - Professor Nicholas Sagovsky’s experiences in advocacy and justice for refugees and asylum seekers as a member of both the Independent Asylum Commission and the Churches Refugee Network provide the basis for his discussion of the Gospel in relation to issues of social justice.

Monday 3 October: Revd Clare Herbert: Compassion and Protest - As an ‘out’ lesbian priest and active campaigner on behalf of gay and lesbian Christians, Revd Clare Herbert has plenty of experience in fighting for what she believes in.  This lecture will explore the ways she has come to terms with needing to express both protest and compassion.

Monday 17 October: Neil MacGregor: Compassion and Art - In this lecture the Director of the British Museum uses images to help us enter more profoundly into our understanding of the radical compassion of Christ captured in some of our greatest art treasures, whilst asking the question: Can these works of art speak to our present and deepen our own compassion and humanity?

Monday 31 October: Nicola Slee: Compassion and Empowerment - As a poet and theologian who has looked extensively into the relationship between women and spirituality, Nicola’s lecture will address how the radical compassion shown throughout the gospel can lead to female empowerment.
  
Wednesday 16 November: Terry Eagleton: Compassion and Power - Widely regarded as Britain’s most influential literary theorist, Terry Eagleton will consider the contemporary relevance of the Gospel’s critique of power and the use of violence, drawing on themes discussed in his 2010 Richard Price Memorial Lecture ‘The New Atheism and the War on Terror’.

Monday 20 February: Dr Robert Beckford: Compassion and Freedom - Dr Robert Beckford is one of the most prolific black documentary presenters in Britain and will use his knowledge of racial tension to discuss Christ’s radical compassion in relation to freedom.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marvin Gaye - Save The Children.