True love of our neighbour means that we receive as well as give

Here's the sermon that I have shared at St Mary's Runwell and St Peter's Nevendon today:

We all know the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10. 25 - 37), don’t we? And we all know what the story is about? It’s very clear, isn’t it? It’s a call to kindness, a call to care, a call to help others, unlike those who passed by on the other side. We know all that, don’t we? So, there’s really no point in my reiterating what we already know and therefore I can just leave you to reflect on the calls to kindness that you experience in your daily life. How do you meet those? How do you respond?

There isn’t really anymore to say, so I’ll just leave it at that for today. Or, is that actually the case? Is there perhaps something more to this parable that isn’t generally spoken about? Might there actually be an aspect to this parable that is generally overlooked?

Let’s think for a moment about the hero of the parable – a Samaritan. Samaritans were contemptible people, as far as the Jews of Jesus’ day were concerned, considered as social outcasts, untouchables, racially inferior, practicing a false religion. While Samaritans claimed that they were the true Israel who were descendants of the "lost" tribes taken into Assyrian captivity. The Samaritan’s had their own temple on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. They also claimed that their version of the Pentateuch was the original and that the Jews had a falsified text produced by Ezra during the Babylonian exile.

Samaritans were of mixed Jewish and Gentile ancestry, claimed descent from Jacob and worshipped the God of Israel. So, Samaritans were close to the Jews in their birth and beliefs but they were also different in significant ways, a volatile combination in any era. As a result, Samaritans and Jews engaged in bitter rivalries, which in Jesus’ day could lead to political hostilities that, sometimes, required intervention from the Romans.

Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders seem to have taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter each other's territories or even to speak to one another. Jews avoided any association with Samaritans, travelling long distances out of their way to avoid passing through a Samaritan area. Any close physical contact, drinking water from a common bucket, eating a meal with a Samaritan, would make a Jew ceremonially unclean - unable to participate in temple worship for a period of time – this may be part of the reason why the priest and Levite don’t stop to help.

The artist Dinah Roe Kendall painted a version of the parable of the Good Samaritan which set the story in South Africa at the time of apartheid. Doing so, seems to me, to be an accurate parallel with the kinds of emotions and cultural practices that were at play in the relationship between Jews and Samaritans and it shows up clearly the twist in the tail of Jesus’ story.

Jesus, as a Jew, didn’t illustrate his point - that people of every race, colour, class, creed, faith, sexuality, and level of ability are our neighbours – by telling a story in which a Jew was kind to someone else. Instead, he told a story in which a Jew receives help from a person who was perceived to be his enemy. The equivalent in Kendall’s painting is of the black man helping the white man, who represents the people that have oppressed him and his people.

So, Kendall’s version of the story brings out part of the twist in the tail that Jesus gives this story; the sense of receiving help from the person who is your enemy. What her version doesn’t deal with, however, is the idea that the enemy who helps is someone of another faith. The Jews were God’s chosen people and a light to the other nations and faith, so what would have been expected from this story would have been for the Jew in the story to bring the light of faith to the Samaritan. But that is not how Jesus’ story unfolds. Instead, the person who is one of God’s chosen people receives help from the person of another faith.

For Jesus to tell a story in which a Samaritan was the neighbour to a Jew was, for the reasons we have been considering, deeply shocking. We can sense this in the story as recorded for us by Luke, as the lawyer in the story is unable to bring himself to utter the word ‘Samaritan’ in answering Jesus’ question. The story is doubly shocking because the Jews in the story, the Priest and Levite, do not act as neighbours to the man. And trebly shocking, because it was probably their expression of devotion to God that prevented them from being neighbours. Priests were supposed to avoid impurity from a corpse and Pharisees thought that one would contract impurity if even one’s shadow touched the corpse. It was safer, therefore, not to check than to risk impurity.

Perhaps we can get a sense of how shocking this was by asking ourselves who, in our own day, are we least likely to think of as neighbours? Who do we think of as those least like us? Who do we think of as enemies? Who do we think of as contemptible? The point of the story is that Jesus says our neighbour is not our own people but those we think of as enemies or as contemptible because of their birth or beliefs. The least likely people, the people least like us, these are the people that Jesus calls our neighbours.

To find a contemporary equivalent for this aspect of the story, we have, perhaps, to think about relationships in this country between Christians and those of other faiths, and within those relationships, recognise that relationships between Christians and Muslims are often those which are currently most conflicted, with some Christians believing that Islam represents a threat to the Church and Western civilization. Within this context, the parable of the Good Samaritan challenges Christians as to what we can receive from those of other faiths and, particularly, those who we might view as enemies. Jesus says to us, through this parable, that loving our neighbours is not simply about what we can give to others but also about what we receive from others.

Our neighbours, understood in this way, are those to whom we should give – “go and do likewise”, Jesus said to the lawyer - and they are those that we should love as we love ourselves. They are also those from whom we should receive because it was the Samaritan in the story who provided help, not any of the Jewish characters. So, we need to ask ourselves how we can receive, grow, learn from and be blessed by those we think of as enemies or as beneath contempt because of their birth or beliefs.

You see, if our focus is just on what we can give, then we are in a paternalistic relationship with our neighbours or enemies. If our focus is just on what we can give, then what we are saying is that we hold all the aces and we will generously share some of them with you. In other words, we remain in a position of power and influence. Immediately we acknowledge that we can receive from our neighbours or enemies, then the balance of power shifts and we make ourselves vulnerable. In this parable, Jesus says that that is where true love is to be found and it is something that he went on to demonstrate by making himself vulnerable through death on the cross.

We often protect ourselves from the need to engage with, learn from or show love to those who are different from us by using aspects of the Bible to justify our lack of contact or compassion. But Jesus rules this approach out for his followers by giving us the examples of the priest and Levite. George Caird has written that “It is essential to the point of the story that the traveller was left half-dead. The priest and the Levite could not tell without touching him whether he was dead or alive; and it weighed more with them that he might be dead or defiling to the touch of those whose business was with holy things than that he might be alive and in need of care.”

This is religious rule-making justifying a lack of compassion. Caird says that, “Jesus deliberately shocks the lawyer by forcing him to consider the possibility that a semi-pagan foreigner might know more about the love of God than a devout Jew blinded by preoccupation with pettifogging rules.” Who do we, as the Church, stay away from because we are afraid of contamination or defilement? What aspects of scripture do we use to justify our lack of contact?

Jesus told this story in order that we reach out across the divides and barriers that people and groups and communities and nations construct between each other. He told this story so that Christians would be in the forefront of those who look to tear down the barriers and cross the divides. To the extent, that we fail to do this we are more like the priest and Levite in this story that the Samaritan who was a neighbour to the person in need.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the sting is in the tail, the deepest point is that one of God’s chosen people receives help from his enemy who is of another faith. Jesus is taking us deep into the heart of love and saying that we will not truly love our neighbour until we understand and accept that we have much to receive from those that we perceive to be our enemies. In other words, true love of our neighbour means that we receive as well as give.

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The connection between heaven and earth

Here's the sermon I shared this morning at St Mary's Runwell where we had an adult baptism:

John’s Gospel is very different from the other three Gospels in the Bible. One of the reasons why, is that there are no parables or stories told in John’s Gospel and, instead of Jesus’ teaching being done through stories, in John’s Gospel his teaching is done through conversations. In this way, John’s Gospel suggests that God wants to enter into conversation with us. God wants to talk with us, to be in dialogue with us, in part because that dialogue can be one which transforms us; just as happened for the Samaritan woman in this story.

This conversation (John 4. 5 - 42) takes place by Jacob’s well. Jacob had a vision of a ladder between earth and heaven with angels ascending and descending on the ladder. In conversation with Nathanael (John 1. 51), Jesus has already described himself as the ladder, the connection between earth and heaven and that is what we see happening in practice in the conversation Jesus has with this Samaritan woman.

In this conversation Jesus continually connects every aspect of division between him and the woman and within her own life. For this woman, he brings heaven and earth together. What divisions do I mean? Firstly, there was division between Jews and Samaritans. A history of division going back to the split between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and involving the Samaritans building a rival Temple to that in Jerusalem and the Jews tearing down the Samaritan Temple. With that kind of history we can understand why Jews would not use the same cups and bowls as Samaritans.

Then there were divisions of gender. “The rabbis taught that a man should not talk to a woman in the street. Some even refused to acknowledge their wives in public, while certain Pharisees sported bruises from bumping into things when their eyes were shut to avoid looking at a woman!” (R. Burridge, John, BRF 1998).

Finally, there were divisions of purity. The woman has come to the well during the hottest part of the day, which can only be to avoid others, implying that she was immoral. Later we find out that she has had five husbands, when Jews at that time only permitted marriage to three husbands, and the man with whom she is now living is not her husband.

So this conversation is “a real meeting of opposites – of Jew with Samaritan, a man with a woman, a rabbi with a sinner, the one ‘from above’ confronting the lowest of the low. It sums up all the bitterness of human separation by race, creed, class, sex, profession, status yet Jesus, alone, without even his disciples to protect him, asks her for a drink … this is what it means for him to be the ladder at Jacob’s well, bridging not only the gulf between God and the world, but also all the barriers human beings put between themselves. It was for this reason that God sent his Son into the world, and for this reason there is hope for us all, from modern Samaria on the West Bank to our daily petty differences.”

“As the conversation unfolds … Jesus gently leads her through levels of misunderstanding from the earthly and literal to the heavenly and spiritual.” Jesus begins with the actual situation (being beside a well), an everyday action (drawing water), and with what the woman can give to him (a drink of water). From the everyday, the earthly, the ordinary, he makes connections with the heavenly, the spiritual, by offering life-giving water that will never run out. He is not saying that the two are separate, distinct and different. Instead, he is acting as the connection between the two, bringing them together so that what is heavenly can be seen in what is earthly and vice versa.

There is a contrast throughout this conversation between the old and the new. Jesus is saying that if you drink from Jacob’s well, in other words, if you drink of Jacob’s religion, you will be satisfied temporarily but will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water Jesus gives will not thirst for all eternity. Jesus’ words, “they will not thirst” literally means ‘into the new age.’ Jesus brings a new age into the world, in him heaven/eternity are breaking through time and entering into our present moment now. In Jesus heaven and eternity are here now and begin in our lives now as we receive his love, forgiveness, and acceptance into our lives now. “The water which Jesus offers to give is the raw material of himself. It is his human body and mind and spirit; but it is alive with the Spirit of God. What flows out of him for this Samaritan woman, if she has faith, and asks for it, will be water alive with Spirit, and this will activate a similar spring of water and Spirit within herself.” (Verney, Water into Wine, Fount, 1985)

Once she has become captivated by Jesus’ offer, then there is a moment of personal challenge. In speaking about her personal relationships, Jesus “confronts her with herself so that her impurities can be cleaned out and the living waters flow freely.” (Burridge) But we need to understand with love and acceptance with which this challenge comes. Stephen Verney describes it in this way:

“Jesus says to her, “You have answered beautifully ‘I have no husband’. For you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. In this you have spoken truthfully.” Some years ago I was reading these words with a woman whose marriage had broken up, and she said, “Look! Jesus is complimenting the Samaritan woman.” I had never seen it until that moment. Jesus says to her “You have answered beautifully … you have spoken truthfully.” Your sexual life is chaotic and you have one man after another – that is the reality of how you are in the flesh. But because you have brought this out into the light and recognised it, the reality of god can now enter into the reality of you. , the reality of god can now enter into the reality of you. Our flesh can come alive with Spirit. You are just the very person who is able to receive the living water. The self-righteous cannot receive it, because they do not know that they need it.”

The question the woman then asks about the place to worship God may have been a distraction, a sign that this conversation was getting too close to home for the woman, or it may have been a sincere question about where she should go with her sinful life in order to find God. Jesus says that the place is not important. God’s heavenly future is breaking into our earthly realm now and those who know this, worship in his Spirit and in truth. Jesus then reveals himself as God, the one who connects heaven and earth, the living water, when he uses the Old Testament name of God – I AM who I AM – in saying I AM he, who is talking with you.

The woman has changed through talking with God. “She came to the well in the hottest, quietest part of the day to avoid people – but now she goes to find them and tell them what has happened to her. Now the fact that Jesus knows all she has done is not something to be avoided with a theological hot potato –but the hottest news to be shared – ‘can this really be the Christ?’

The fields are white for harvest Jesus then says to his disciples and this is proved by the many in Sychar who came to believe in Jesus. The fields around us are also white for harvest and people will hear and respond if we are able to learn from the way in which Jesus connects faith with everyday life. He sits with ordinary people, listens and talks with them. He starts with ordinary life, with the things that others have to give and then reveals how the spiritual and heavenly can be seen in the everyday. He is not afraid of challenge, but his challenges come couched in encouragement, understanding and acceptance instead of condemnation. The challenge is to move on, to grow beyond the point that we have reached. This challenge is profoundly life affirming.

That challenge is for each of us who have been baptised. The water that is literally poured over us when we are baptised is a symbol of the living water that is heaven in the here and now. Today, Jesus comes to challenge us to grow beyond the point of faith he has currently reached and to experience, ever more deeply, love, forgiveness, acceptance, and heaven in the here and now. If we respond, to that challenge, then we will be like the Samaritan woman and will be able to say that Jesus is truly the Saviour of the world.

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Stand up, stand up for Jesus.

True love of neighbour means we receive, as well as give

Here's my sermon from today's Communion Servive at St Catherine’s Wickford:

We all know the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10. 25 - 37), don’t we? And we all know what the story is about? It’s very clear, isn’t it? It’s a call to kindness, a call to care, a call to help others, unlike those who passed by on the other side. We know all that, don’t we? So, there’s really no point in my reiterating what we already know and therefore I can just leave you to reflect on the calls to kindness that you experience in your daily life. How do you meet those? How do you respond?

There isn’t really anymore to say, so I’ll just leave it at that for today. Or, is that actually the case? Is there perhaps something more to this parable that isn’t generally spoken about? Might there actually be an aspect to this parable that is generally overlooked?

Let’s think for a moment about the hero of the parable – a Samaritan. Samaritans were contemptible people, as far as the Jews of Jesus’ day were concerned, considered as social outcasts, untouchables, racially inferior, practicing a false religion. While Samaritans claimed that they were the true Israel who were descendants of the "lost" tribes taken into Assyrian captivity. The Samaritan’s had their own temple on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. They also claimed that their version of the Pentateuch was the original and that the Jews had a falsified text produced by Ezra during the Babylonian exile.

Samaritans were of mixed Jewish and Gentile ancestry, claimed descent from Jacob and worshipped the God of Israel. So, Samaritans were close to the Jews in their birth and beliefs but they were also different in significant ways, a volatile combination in any era. As a result, Samaritans and Jews engaged in bitter rivalries, which in Jesus’ day could lead to political hostilities that, sometimes, required intervention from the Romans.

Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders seem to have taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter each other's territories or even to speak to one another. Jews avoided any association with Samaritans, travelling long distances out of their way to avoid passing through a Samaritan area. Any close physical contact, drinking water from a common bucket, eating a meal with a Samaritan, would make a Jew ceremonially unclean - unable to participate in temple worship for a period of time – this may be part of the reason why the priest and Levite don’t stop to help.

The artist Dinah Roe Kendall painted a version of the parable of the Good Samaritan which set the story in South Africa at the time of apartheid. Doing so, seems to me, to be an accurate parallel with the kinds of emotions and cultural practices that were at play in the relationship between Jews and Samaritans and it shows up clearly the twist in the tail of Jesus’ story.

Jesus, as a Jew, didn’t illustrate his point - that people of every race, colour, class, creed, faith, sexuality, and level of ability are our neighbours – by telling a story in which a Jew was kind to someone else. Instead, he told a story in which a Jew receives help from a person who was perceived to be his enemy. The equivalent in Kendall’s painting is of the black man helping the white man, who represents the people that have oppressed him and his people.

So, Kendall’s version of the story brings out part of the twist in the tail that Jesus gives this story; the sense of receiving help from the person who is your enemy. What her version doesn’t deal with, however, is the idea that the enemy who helps is someone of another faith. The Jews were God’s chosen people and a light to the other nations and faith, so what would have been expected from this story would have been for the Jew in the story to bring the light of faith to the Samaritan. But that is not how Jesus’ story unfolds. Instead, the person who is one of God’s chosen people receives help from the person of another faith.

For Jesus to tell a story in which a Samaritan was the neighbour to a Jew was, for the reasons we have been considering, deeply shocking. We can sense this in the story as recorded for us by Luke, as the lawyer in the story is unable to bring himself to utter the word ‘Samaritan’ in answering Jesus’ question. The story is doubly shocking because the Jews in the story, the Priest and Levite, do not act as neighbours to the man. And trebly shocking, because it was probably their expression of devotion to God that prevented them from being neighbours. Priests were supposed to avoid impurity from a corpse and Pharisees thought that one would contract impurity if even one’s shadow touched the corpse. It was safer, therefore, not to check than to risk impurity.

Perhaps we can get a sense of how shocking this was by asking ourselves who, in our own day, are we least likely to think of as neighbours? Who do we think of as those least like us? Who do we think of as enemies? Who do we think of as contemptible? The point of the story is that Jesus says our neighbour is not our own people but those we think of as enemies or as contemptible because of their birth or beliefs. The least likely people, the people least like us, these are the people that Jesus calls our neighbours.

To find a contemporary equivalent for this aspect of the story, we have, perhaps, to think about relationships in this country between Christians and those of other faiths, and within those relationships, recognise that relationships between Christians and Muslims are often those which are currently most conflicted, with some Christians believing that Islam represents a threat to the Church and Western civilization. Within this context, the parable of the Good Samaritan challenges Christians as to what we can receive from those of other faiths and, particularly, those who we might view as enemies. Jesus says to us, through this parable, that loving our neighbours is not simply about what we can give to others but also about what we receive from others.

Our neighbours, understood in this way, are those to whom we should give – “go and do likewise”, Jesus said to the lawyer - and they are those that we should love as we love ourselves. They are also those from whom we should receive because it was the Samaritan in the story who provided help, not any of the Jewish characters. So, we need to ask ourselves how we can receive, grow, learn from and be blessed by those we think of as enemies or as beneath contempt because of their birth or beliefs.

You see, if our focus is just on what we can give, then we are in a paternalistic relationship with our neighbours or enemies. If our focus is just on what we can give, then what we are saying is that we hold all the aces and we will generously share some of them with you. In other words, we remain in a position of power and influence. Immediately we acknowledge that we can receive from our neighbours or enemies, then the balance of power shifts and we make ourselves vulnerable. In this parable, Jesus says that that is where true love is to be found and it is something that he went on to demonstrate by making himself vulnerable through death on the cross.

We often protect ourselves from the need to engage with, learn from or show love to those who are different from us by using aspects of the Bible to justify our lack of contact or compassion. But Jesus rules this approach out for his followers by giving us the examples of the priest and Levite. George Caird has written that “It is essential to the point of the story that the traveller was left half-dead. The priest and the Levite could not tell without touching him whether he was dead or alive; and it weighed more with them that he might be dead or defiling to the touch of those whose business was with holy things than that he might be alive and in need of care.”

This is religious rule-making justifying a lack of compassion. Caird says that, “Jesus deliberately shocks the lawyer by forcing him to consider the possibility that a semi-pagan foreigner might know more about the love of God than a devout Jew blinded by preoccupation with pettifogging rules.” Who do we, as the Church, stay away from because we are afraid of contamination or defilement? What aspects of scripture do we use to justify our lack of contact?

Jesus told this story in order that we reach out across the divides and barriers that people and groups and communities and nations construct between each other. He told this story so that Christians would be in the forefront of those who look to tear down the barriers and cross the divides. To the extent, that we fail to do this we are more like the priest and Levite in this story that the Samaritan who was a neighbour to the person in need.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the sting is in the tail, the deepest point is that one of God’s chosen people receives help from his enemy who is of another faith. Jesus is taking us deep into the heart of love and saying that we will not truly love our neighbour until we understand and accept that we have much to receive from those that we perceive to be our enemies. In other words, true love of our neighbour means that we receive as well as give.

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Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Homeless.

Mental Health Matters

A Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch 10th Anniversary Satellite Event In Aid of ABF The Soldiers Charity (registered charity No1146420) 6pm for 6.30pm on Thursday 30 March 2017 St Stephen Walbrook, City of London, EC4N 4BN.

Mental ill health touches every one of us in one way or another. Whether personally, professionally or through friends and family. One in six UK adults experienced episodes related to a common mental disorder in the past week. The damage that can be caused from out-of-control stress, anxiety, eating disorders, OCD, panic attacks, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression - a by no means an exhaustive list - is never too far away from us.

Following the recent launch of the first Institute of Directors Mental Health Strategy, IoD City is proud to bring together leading authorities and the pioneers of workplace mental health programmes to share their experience, insights and wellbeing guidance with our members and guests. St Stephen Walbrook, our host venue for the evening, is also the birthplace of Samaritans, the charity set up by Chad Varah over sixty years ago to provide listening and emotional support for people in distress.

Our Speakers:

Felicity Varah Harding is an ambassador for Samaritans and the daughter of their founder, Prebendary Dr Chad Varah CH, CBE. She has a long and varied career in social and therapeutic work and has performed various roles within the voluntary and charitable sectors - including with Voluntary Service Overseas in Anguilla, a non-executive role for National Victim Support and trustee and later Chair of Vision Aid Overseas. Felicity is a member of the Court of Assistants of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers and will become Master of the Company in 2017/18.

The Reverend Sally Muggeridge is curate of St Stephen Walbrook. A former Chief Executive of the Industry and Parliament Trust, she has skills and professional recognition in both marketing and human resource development. Sally has worked at Board level in several major international plcs
including British Telecom, Cable and Wireless, Pearson and Total. She served as Master of the Worshipful Company of Marketors in 2013/14 and is Chaplain to the Lady Masters Association.

John Binns is a Non-Executive Director with the City Mental Health Alliance and Vice Chair and Trustee of Mind. A former Partner with Deloitte, he is now nationally and internationally recognised as an independent advisor to high perfromance organisations and individuals on mental health, wellbeing, and personal resilience. John is a qualified CBT coach.

Colonel (Retd) Simon Diggins OBE served for over 36 years in the British Army from 1978 to 2014 after which he was a Director of Strategy and Campaign Consulting before joining the NHS in 2016. He is currently a Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services Manager at South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. Simon will be speaking on the work of the London Veterans Service. This
is a free NHS Mental Service for all ex-service members of the British Armed Forces living in or
registered with a GP in London. The Service also supports veterans who have served in the Reserved Forces.

Net proceeds from the event will be donated to The Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch 2017 in aid of ABF The Soldiers Charity. Ticket price per person is £30 (inclusive of VAT of £5.00) for members and £36 (inclusive of VAT of £6.00) for non-members. Dress code is business wear. Bookings may be made via the IoD website www.iod.com/city.

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Pēteris Vasks - Klātbūtne ('Presence').

Sing for Samaritans Christmas Concert

We enjoyed a wonderful Sing for Samaritans Christmas Concert at St Stephen Walbrook tonight, singing, celebrating and raising money for a fantastic charity. The programme mixed traditional carols for all of us to sing along with and exquisite festive works sung by the London Chorus. In addition, Olivier award-winning actor Henry Goodman got us in the Christmas spirit with a reading from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

In welcoming people to the event, I shared a little of the story of Chad Varah founding Samaritans at St Stepen Walbrook:

It is a particular pleasure to be able to welcome you here, to St Stephen Walbrook, this evening because, as I’m sure you are all aware, this church was the birthplace of Samaritans. For over 50 years Dr Chad Varah was rector of St Stephen Walbrook and, among his many legacies, was the founding of Samaritans, the charity that we are all here to support this evening.

His inspiration came particularly from a girl aged 14, whom he had buried - in unconsecrated ground. She had started her periods, but having no one to talk to believed that she had a sexually transmitted disease and took her own life. Chad said later, "I might have dedicated myself to suicide prevention then and there, providing a network of people you could 'ask' about anything, however embarrassing, but I didn't come to that until later".

When he was offered charge of the parish of St Stephen Walbrook, in the summer of 1953 he knew that the time was right for him to launch what he called a "999 for the suicidal". At the time, suicide was still illegal in the UK and so many people who were in difficult situations and who felt suicidal were unable to talk to anyone about it without worrying about the consequences. A confidential emergency service for people "in distress who need spiritual aid" was what Chad felt was needed to address the problems he saw around him. He was, in his own words, "a man willing to listen, with a base and an emergency telephone".

15 years after the emergency 999 number was set up, the number MAN 9000 was chosen for this new helpline - to signify a human emergency number. Luckily the number of the church was MANsion house 9000. It was the first, and is still probably the best known telephone helpline in the UK. The first phone used remains on display here, as a reminder to everyone who comes that his is where Samaritans began. So, don’t leave tonight without seeing it for yourself.

The very first call to the new service was made on 2nd November 1953 and that is the date that is now recognised as Samaritans' official birthday. Now, every six seconds someone reaches out to Samaritans for emotional support. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place to talk for anyone who is struggling to cope, whoever you are and whatever life has done to you. That’s only possible with the help of generous donations from people such as yourselves, so it is tremendous that this event can be here, where the vital service that Samaritans provides, actually began and that you are all here to enjoy the evening and contribute to supporting the ongoing work of Samaritans.

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Sing for Samaritans Christmas Concert

Christmas is coming! On Friday 4th December the birthplace of Samaritans, St Stephen Walbrook, will play host to the inaugural Sing for Samaritans Christmas Concert. Featuring the talented London Chorus choir, the event promises to be a wonderful evening of singing, celebrating and raising money for a fantastic charity.

The London Chorus is London’s most versatile choir, practising and performing a challenging and varied repertoire and continually developing its tradition of excellence. The choir will be leading some rousing well known sing-a-long classics as well as delivering some beautiful traditional carols.

The evening will also feature readings from A Christmas Carol, read by Olivier Award winning actor, Henry Goodman.

All tickets are for unreserved seating at St Stephen's and include a complimentary drink. All are welcome - pay on the door on the night.

Who is Central London Samaritans? Central London Samaritans is the only support service in London open round the clock, every day of the year. Every year they receive over 100,000 calls for help. Their volunteers provide a safe space for people to talk to us about whatever's troubling them. Their callers are often distressed and experiencing despair and suicidal feelings. People call to be heard, to work through their problems and find to positive outcomes that work for them.

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The London Chorus.

Carols for the Animals and Sing for Samaritans Christmas Concert

There will be two ticketed Carol concerts at St Stephen Walbrook in December. Here are the details:

Please join International Animal Rescue in a celebration for all the animals this Christmas on Thursday 3rd December at St Stephen Walbrook Church. Traditional carols, the St Stephen's Walbrook Choir, mulled wine and minced pies plus readings by special guests including Peter Egan (Downton Abbey) will all make for a wonderful Christmas evening.


Please visit the link to book your tickets http://carols4theanimals.eventbrite.co.uk

Set in one of Sir Christopher Wren's most stunning churches the evening is a chance to celebrate Christmas and the animal kingdom. Hear festive readings and special performances whilst raising money for the work of International Animal Rescue which rescues animals from cruelty and suffering around the world.

All proceeds to support the animal rescue projects of International Animal Rescue. There will be a special presentation from Alan Knight OBE, Chief Executive of International Animal Rescue on the orangutans in Borneo and the current forest fires emergency.

Please note due to the historic nature of the church it is not easily accessible for wheelchair users.

Sing for Samaritans Christmas Concert

Christmas is coming! On Friday 4th December the birthplace of Samaritans, St Stephen's, Walbrook, will play host to our inaugural Sing for Samaritans Christmas Concert. Featuring the talented London Chorus choir, the event promises to be a wonderful evening of singing, celebrating and raising money for a fantastic charity.

The London Chorus is London’s most versatile choir, practising and performing a challenging and varied repertoire and continually developing its tradition of excellence. The choir will be leading some rousing well known sing-a-long classics as well as delivering some beautiful traditional carols.

The evening will also feature readings from A Christmas Carol, read by Olivier Award winning actor, Henry Goodman.

All tickets are for unreserved seating at St Stephen's and include a complimentary drink.

Who is Central London Samaritans?

Central London Samaritans is the only support service in London open round the clock, every day of the year. Every year we receive over 100,000 calls for help. Our volunteers provide a safe space for people to talk to us about whatever's troubling them. Our callers are often distressed and experiencing despair and suicidal feelings. People call us to be heard, to work through their problems and find to positive outcomes that work for them.

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Thomas Hardy - The Oxen.

Volunteers from the City

The Volunteers from the City event at St Stephen Walbrook (www.ststephenwalbrook.net) will be held on Tuesday 10th November from 6.00pm. The event is part of a wider programme events centred around the service we are holding in which the Lord Mayor of London will give thanks to God for his year in office.

In an age of austerity and growing inequality, the time is ripe to encourage more philanthropy, particularly in the City of London and to communicate widely the extent and breadth of giving in the Square Mile and Canary Wharf. The City has a proud tradition of philanthropy dating back to the Middle Ages, led by Livery Companies and the Mayorality, as is brilliantly illustrated in the exhibition Philanthropy - The City Story, which can be viewed at St Stephen Walbrook from 9th - 20th November. We have organized this programme of events, exhibitions and services aims to share some of that story and also publicise opportunities for philanthropic contributions today. All are welcome at these events.

The Volunteers from the City event will share opportunities for volunteering with Samaritans, Home for Good and as a Church Credit Champion. Contributors include: Jin Chin (Chair, Samaritans London Central), David Barclay (Church Credit Champions Network), Revd Bertrand Oliver (All Hallows bythe Tower) and Mark Choonara (The Passage). The evening will be chaired by Revd Sally Muggeridge (http://www.sallymuggeridge.com/), curate at St Stephen Walbrook, and will explore the benefits of volunteering, preparation, training and support for volunteers, and the part that Corporate Social Responsibility now plays in volunteering.

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Elbow - One Day Like This.

Philanthropy in the City

In an age of austerity and growing inequality, the time is ripe to encourage more philanthropy, particularly in the City of London and to communicate widely the extent and breadth of giving in the Square Mile and Canary Wharf. The City has a proud tradition of philanthropy dating back to the Middle Ages, led by Livery Companies and the Mayorality, as is brilliantly illustrated in the exhibition Philanthropy - The City Story. 

At St Stephen Walbrook we have organized a programme of events, exhibitions and services aims to share some of that story and also publicise opportunities for philanthropic contributions today. All are welcome at these events. 

Exhibition: Philanthropy – The City Story (Monday 9th – Friday 20th November, Weekdays 10.00am – 4.00pm) 

Philanthropy is one of London's hidden stories. The roles of business and government as channels for entrepreneurial effort are well known. But this exhibition explores philanthropy as an alternative catalyst of growth and change. It documents how philanthropy has developed over 800 years and how it has contributed to the Square Mile and society. The City, including almshouses, hospitals, open spaces, orphanages, the first public flushing loos, the Royal Exchange and even London Bridge, owes much to the great philanthropists of the Square Mile. 

Exhibition: Society of Catholic Artists (Monday 9th – Friday 27th November, Weekdays, 10.00am – 4.00pm. Private View – Friday 13th November) 

The Society of Catholic Artists is for those engaged as professional or amateurs in the various disciplines of the visual arts, and for all those who recognise the value of the artist as an evangelist assisting in the pastoral work of the Church. The society was formed in 1929 as the Guild of Catholic Artists and Craftsmen and after WW2 was instrumental in the building of new and restoration of churches using skilled architects, sculptors, painters, silversmiths, stained glass artists, etc. Today, they are becoming international due to their uniqueness in the world. They aim still to provide not only the highest of skills for commissions but also serve to unite Catholic artists in the artist’s reflection of God’s own creativity. In this year of Pope Francis’ encyclical, ‘Care of Creation’ and respecting the spirituality of the venue, for this exhibition they are using the Pope’s message as a theme. They hope you find inspiration from something in the exhibition (http://www.catholicartists.co.uk/). 

Event: Volunteers from the City (Tuesday 10th November, 6.30pm) 

Jin Chin (Chair, Samaritans London Central), David Barclay (Church Credit Champions Network) and Revd Bertrand Oliver (All Hallows by the Tower) will share opportunities for volunteering with Samaritans, Home for Good and as a Church Credit Champion. 

Service: Thanksgiving for the Lord Mayor of London’s year in office (Wednesday 11th November, 6.00pm) 

A service to review and give thanks to God for the year in office of Alderman Alan Yarrow, Lord Mayor of London including the Lord Mayor’s Appeal (Scope and Mencap) and overseas business visits. The service will reflect the theme of the Lord Mayor’s year in office: Creating Wealth, Giving Time, Supporting People. 

Services: Discover & explore – Faith, Hope & Charity (1.10 – 1.50pm) Charity – Monday 9th November; Hope – Monday 16th November; Faith – Monday 23rd November 

A series of services exploring themes of Faith, Hope & Charity through liturgy, music, readings and reflections with the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Event: Launch of the Sophia Hubs network (Tuesday 17th November, 6.30pm) 

Sophia Hubs help local and faith based communities use their resources – webs of relationship, location, buildings – to assist people in their localities develop new start-up businesses and social enterprises through creating an enterprise hub. This puts potential entrepreneurs in touch with the different kinds of support they need e.g. business mentoring, incubation space, becoming part of a business community, start-up capital. Sophia Hubs help faith and community groups become catalysts to make the communities they serve become more truly sustainable. They work creatively with Timebanks, which build relationships and offer a way to exchange value without using money, and work holistically and innovatively to create ways of keeping value and money circulating in the local community, identify key products and services which make a real difference in particular contexts, and encourage more entrepreneurial thinking and acting. Sophia Hubs - sustaining communities through social enterprise (http://sophiahubs.com/).

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The Killers - Human.

Business Harvest Festival: What is your work for?

At St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London we have a tradition that companies in the parish designate someone to bring an object to represent their work and to place it on the altar as a symbol at the beginning of our Business Harvest Festival service. Businesses and organisations representing the work found in the Parish of St Stephen this year included: Arthur J Gallagher, The City of London Police, The Don Restaurant and ‘Sign of the Don’, Rynda Property Investors, Vestra Wealth LLP, The Friends of the City Churches, U3A, London Internet Church, City of London Corporation, Sir Robert McAlpine, Christian Aid, commission4mission, Walbrook Music Trust, Threadneedle Asset Management, Central London Samaritans, British Arab Commercial Bank and Coq d’Argent, among others.

Among the items placed on the Henry Moore designed altar this year were a PCSO's black bowler, bolts, bronze and glass from local construction sites, paintings and drawing, a variety of reports and brochures, bread, wine and fruit, a hi-vis jacket, and a telephone representing the work of Samaritans. Following the service, we heard from the City of London Police about #WeStandTogether, a National community led initiative to #celebrate our difference: promote #respect & tolerance; building a safer, stronger #UnitedKingdom.
Here is the sermon I preached at the service:

What is your work for? This is a question that I frequently use as an ice-breaker in sessions exploring the connections between faith and work. It is an interesting question to ask because you are likely to get a different answer depending on the person you ask. To your CEO, the answer may be about the overall profitability of the organisation. To your line manager, it may be about the achievement of targets, while for those you live with it may be about the salary you bring home and the way it enables you to live. Your customers will give a different answer again. For them, your work is likely to be about customer service; the service or product that you deliver to them.

What is your work for? The different answers we give can help us in identifying the harvest which results from our work. For most of us here the harvest resulting from our work won’t be the traditional harvest of food; something that we try to recognise here with our display of symbols of our work rather than the more traditional display of harvest food. The traditional timing of harvest represented a key moment in the agricultural cycle but the key moments in our work schedule are unlikely to fall at the same time of year, so, once you’ve answered the question, it might be more helpful for you to think of your harvest as falling at a key point in your working year – accountants at the end of the tax year, students and teachers when exam results are published, shop assistants during sales, and so on.

What is your work for and how might God answer that question? In thinking that through, we might consider what Jesus said in answer to the question about which is the greatest commandment. He spoke there about love for God, ourselves, and our neighbour. By including love of our neighbour in his answer he would almost certainly want us to focus our thinking on the ways in which our work benefits others, whether individually (as customers) or more broadly (as a society) and prioritise those things in the way that we work. We often describe this aspect of business purpose, impact or harvest in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility, whether that means volunteering, philanthropy, sustainability or other issues and impacts. Here, at St Stephen Walbrook, we will be exploring some aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility during November with a programme of exhibitions, events and services about Philanthropy in the City.

Research indicates that tackling Corporate Social Responsibility issues improves profitability. Will Hutton noted in a newspaper article, ‘recent work by a group of researchers at Harvard and the London Business School compared 90 American companies that took sustainability seriously with 90 who did not. Over 18 years the 90 committed to sustainability delivered annual financial returns 4.8% higher than the other 90. Today’s Guardian features the Open for Business report which claims that when companies address diversity issues, ‘you attract better people, it lowers costs … [and] makes [staff] more productive and more entrepreneurial and so the company has better output.’ That sounds like a Harvest for all!

One benefit that all businesses provide in society is the alleviation of poverty by the creation of jobs. Whatever other impacts your business may have on society, this will be an impact or harvest that is common to all our organisations, whether insurance, banking, hospitality, retail, tourism, law, emergency services, construction, property development, the City civic and other sectors and businesses. We can join together in thanking God for the harvest of jobs that businesses, shops, and other organisations here in the City deliver.

What is your work for? There are different answers depending on who we ask. None of them are wrong. They are all in the mix and we need to address them all as we go about our business. What is your work for? The different answers we give can help us in identifying the harvest which results from our work. What is your work for? God wants us to focus our thinking on the ways in which our work benefits others, whether individually (as customers) or more broadly (as a society) in order that we prioritise those things in the way that we work. That is a Harvest for all for which we can all be working all the time. Amen.

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St George's Windsor - Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.

The Good Samaritan: Giving and Receiving

The artist Dinah Roe Kendall painted a version of the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10. 25 - 37) which set the story in South Africa at the time of apartheid. Doing so seems to me to be an accurate parallel with the kinds of emotions and cultural practices that were at play in the relationship between Jews and Samaritans and it shows up clearly the sting in the tail of Jesus’ story.

The Jews at the time considered Samaritans as social outcasts, untouchables, racially inferior, practicing a false religion. While Samaritans claimed that they were the true Israel who were descendants of the "lost" tribes taken into Assyrian captivity. The Samaritan’s had their own temple on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. They also claimed that their version of the Pentateuch was the original and that the Jews had a falsified text produced by Ezra during the Babylonian exile. Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders seem to have taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter each other's territories or even to speak to one another. Jews avoided any association with Samaritans, travelling long distances out of their way to avoid passing through a Samaritan area. Any close physical contact, drinking water from a common bucket, eating a meal with a Samaritan, would make a Jew ceremonially unclean - unable to participate in temple worship for a period of time – this may be why the priest and Levite don’t stop to help.

Jesus, as a Jew, didn’t illustrate his point - that people of every race, colour, class, creed, faith, sexuality, and level of ability are our neighbours – by telling a story in which a Jew was kind to someone else. Instead, he told a story in which a Jew receives help from a person who was perceived to be his enemy. The equivalent in Kendall’s painting is of the black man helping the white man who represents the people that have oppressed him and his people.

So Kendall’s version of the story brings out part of the sting in the tail that Jesus gives this story; the sense of receiving help from the person who is your enemy. What her version doesn’t deal with, however, is the idea that the enemy who helps is someone of another faith. The Jews were God’s chosen people and a light to the other nations and faith, so what would have been expected from this story would have been for the Jew in the story to bring the light of faith to the Samaritan. But that is not how Jesus’ story unfolds. Instead, the person who is one of God’s chosen people receives from the person of another faith.

To find a contemporary equivalent for this aspect of the story, we have, perhaps, to think about relationships in this country between Christians and those of other faiths, and within these relationships, recognise that relationships between Christians and Muslims are often those which are currently most conflicted, with some Christians believing that Islam represents a threat to the Church and Western civilization. Within this context, the parable of the Good Samaritan challenges Christians as to what we can receive from those of other faiths and, particularly, those who we might view as enemies. Jesus says to us through this parable that loving our neighbours is not simply about what we can give to others but also about what we receive from others.

If our focus is just on what we can give then we are in a paternalistic relationship with our neighbours or enemies. If our focus is just on what we can give then what we are saying is that we hold all the aces and we will generously share some of them with you. In other words, we remain in a position of power and influence. Immediately we acknowledge that we can receive from our neighbours or enemies, then the balance of power shifts and we make ourselves vulnerable. In this parable, Jesus says that that is where true love is to be found and it is something that he went on to demonstrate by making himself vulnerable through death on the cross.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the sting is in the tail, the deepest point is that one of God’s chosen people receives help from his enemy who is of another faith. Jesus is taking us deep into the heart of love and saying that we will not truly love our neighbour until we understand and accept that we have much to receive from those that we perceive to be our enemies. In other words, true love of our neighbour means that we receive as well as give.

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Victoria Williams - Love.

Being with, rather than for

Imagine the scene, it is one of the bigger, must go to events of the year at the Mansion House; maybe the annual speech by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. All the invitations have been sent but all the usual invitees make excuses and will not come. Instead, the Lord Mayor of London instructs his staff to bring to the banquet all those who are rough sleepers in London.

This scenario would seem to be a fairly close equivalent to the story of the Great Dinner which Jesus told, set as it was in his own day and culture (Luke 14. 15 -24). Imagine what the event would be like were that scenario to happen? Would, for example, the Chancellor have felt able to deliver his message of austerity if his audience had been made up of those at the sharp end of those policies and decisions?

Jesus' story, as with many of his parables and messages, reverses what we normally expect in real life. Essentially the great and the good exclude themselves from the Kingdom of God, while those we least expect to find there are welcomed with open arms; the last become first while the poor are blessed. 

This is actually the logical implication of Jesus' incarnation. In Jesus, God comes to be with human beings in the challenges and stresses of our human existence. Those who view themselves as fundamentally AOK - usually, the great and the good - don't see the need for someone alongside them in this way and therefore can reject Jesus, his invitation and welcome, just as occurred in Jesus' own day and time.

Those who do acknowledge their need to have God alongside them, however, find another strange reversal occurring. Rather than coming alongside to help, Jesus comes alongside to share and to learn. The incarnation is an affirmation of those in distress and difficulty. God, in Jesus, essentially says to us that we are valued and valuable. 

All too often we exercise our power and position by seeking to help others out of their predicament, as opposed to truly being with them in it and learning from their experience and perceptions. This is what Jesus wants us to realise and experience as a result of his stories and sayings.

Sam Wells, Vicar at St Martin-in-the-Fields, puts it like this, through Christ’s birth ‘God said unambiguously, “I am with. Behold, my dwelling is with you. My name is Emmanuel, God is with us.” … God … in becoming flesh in Jesus, has said there will never again be a for that’s not based on a fundamental, unalterable, everlasting, and utterly unswerving with.’ We celebrate this good news by: ‘being with people in poverty and distress even when there’s nothing we can do for them. By being with people in grief and sadness and loss even when there’s nothing to say. By being with and listening to and walking with those we find most difficult rather than trying to fob them off with a gift or a face-saving gesture. By being still with God in silent prayer rather than rushing in our anxiety to do yet more things for God. By taking an appraisal of all our relationships and asking ourselves, “Does my doing for arise out of a fundamental commitment to be with, or is my doing driven by my profound desire to avoid the discomfort, the challenge, the patience, the loss of control involved in being with?”’ (A Nazareth Manifesto: Being With God)

If rough sleepers were to be invited to the Mansion House and the Chancellor were to genuinely spend time with them seeking to learn from them and their experiences, then very different Government policies would result. What those would be I could not predict, but that is the path onto which we are called both by Jesus' incarnation and this parable, where the King comes to be with those in distress.

At St Stephen Walbrook we have an example of this occurring in our own history through the founding of The Samaritans. Samaritans do not provide their callers with information and advice. Instead, they simply come alongside those callers and provide a listening ear. They describe what they do like this: 

‘When you talk to us, we will give you an opportunity to talk about any thoughts or feelings you have, whatever they may be. Sometimes people need to cry or show how angry they are at life, or go over their thoughts and feelings several times to make sense of them, and that’s fine. We're there for as long as you need us. We won’t make decisions for you, and we'll support the decisions you make. You are the expert on your own life. Our advice or opinions are not important. We won’t talk about ourselves, even if you ask us to. We’re there to give you time, space and support – you don’t need to ask how we are, or give us time in return. We don’t impose any personal attitudes or beliefs on you.

By setting up Samaritans in this way Chad Varah made Jesus' parable reality. The call on our lives as Christians is to do the same.

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Björk - Prayer Of The Heart.

Commemorating the founding of Samaritans

The Lord Mayor of London, Lady Mayoress, members of Chad Varah’s family, representatives of Samaritans and the Grocer’s Company all visited St Stephen Walbrook today for the unveiling of a memorial plaque commemorating the founding of the Samaritans. 

The Lord Mayor unveiled the memorial plaque and the Lady Mayoress cut the ribbon to re-open the Vestry following its restoration. The Grocers Company generously provided funding towards the memorial plaque and the restoration of the Vestry. 

In dedicating the plaque, I said:

Thanks to Chad Varah's vision, Samaritans now have 21,200 volunteers, 201 branches and receive around 5,100,000 calls for help per year. Samaritan volunteers are available round the clock to offer the unique emotional support service that he initiated.

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has given us the Holy Spirit that we might live lives worthy of your great sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. We thank you for your interest in each one of us and your promise “I will never leave you nor forsake you”, remembering especially today all who need and use the services of the Samaritans. We fondly dedicate this special memorial plaque honouring Chad Varah and his work in starting and developing the Samaritans.  As we do so, we give thanks for his ministry at St Stephen Walbrook and for the unique emotional support service that he initiated through the Samaritans. Though he has left our midst, the memory of these ministries endures as a blessing to us and an inspiration to future generations. We pray in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Vasari Singers - Give Us This Day.

Making a family out of strangers (2)

This year's Limborough lecture, the annual lecture organised by the Worshipful Company of Weavers, was held here at St Stephen Walbrook and given by The Ven. Paul Taylor, Archdeacon of Sherborne. It was entitled 'Making a family out of strangers,' this being the strapline for St Michael's Camden Town, a church which has been brought back from the brink of closure through its open door policy. The Archdeacon used the story of St Michael's as a paradigm for the openness to the other - those who are different from ourselves - which he argued is desperately needed locally, nationally and globally today.

He spoke in the light of the way in which the debate about immigration has changed enabling the whole apparatus of the state to be bent towards reducing immigration. The effect can be vividly seen in the suffering of those who come to the Sunday International Group at St Martins-in-the-Fields. These people gather once a week for food, a shower, to wash their clothes, meet others in the same cruel dilemma as themselves and to garner what legal advice is applicable to their situation.

The Archdeacon referred his listeners to the recent pastoral letter from the Bishops of the Church of England which is entitled 'Who is my neighbour?' There the Bishops state that the starting point for the Church of England’s engagement with society, the nation and the world is that: "Followers of Jesus Christ believe that every human being is created in the image of God." As a result, we are not made for isolation but belong together.

We could quite easily have pictured Jesus as being on the negative side of this debate as we listened to our Gospel reading today (Matthew 15. 21 - 28). He was deliberately rude to the Canaanite Woman – a woman from another race and culture – that he encountered in today's Gospel reading. He began by making it clear that she was not one of the chosen people for whom he had come and continued by insulting her and her people in calling them 'dogs'.

Why was he so uncharacteristically rude? His disciples had wanted him to send the woman away; ostensibly because of the fuss she was making but, more probably, because she was not one of 'them'. Therefore, Jesus threw all their prejudices at the woman both as a way of confronting his disciples with the ugliness of their prejudice and as a provocation that revealed the faith within this woman.

In the face of seeming denial and insult, she persisted in her request and in her faith in Jesus' ability and willingness to heal. On the back of this tangible example of faith, Jesus was then able to challenge the prejudices of his disciples (as I think was his intent from the outset) by pointing out the depth of faith which he had uncovered in a woman of another race, culture and faith.

Seeing this incident as a deliberate challenge to the prejudices of his disciples is consistent with the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10. 25 - 37) where Jesus tells a group of God's chosen people a story in which one of their own receives help, not from his own people, but from a man of another race, culture and faith. In that story, Jesus went further than his already radical teaching of love for our enemies by telling a story in which a member of God's chosen people received God's love and help from a person that he considered to be outside the people of God and an enemy of his own people.

However we choose to draw the boundaries of who is and who is not one of God's people, Jesus breaks through those boundaries with his love for all people, his sacrificial giving for all, and his recognition of all that those who are excluded actually have to offer to those who exclude. The strapline of St Michael’s Camden Town - 'Making a family out of strangers’ - is a good summary of this aspect of Jesus’ teaching and ministry. The ministry to those who are homeless which is offered through The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields and the ministry that began here at St Stephen Walbrook, which continues through The Samaritans, to those who are suicidal, are just two practical examples of including those who feel excluded and of making a family out of strangers.

It is a helpful practice, which comes from Ignatian spirituality, to try to place ourselves fully within a story from the Gospels by becoming onlooker-participants and giving full rein to our imagination. If we were part of this story, would we be with the disciples, who wanted Jesus to send the Canaanite woman away because she was not one of 'them', or would we be with Jesus, who challenged the prejudices of his disciples by pointing out the depth of faith which he had uncovered in a woman of another race, culture and faith? Our answer to that question will determine the extent to which we seek to make a family out of strangers.

A podcast of this sermon can be found at the London Internet Church.

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Paul Mealor - Salvator Mundi: Greater Love.

St Martin-in-the-Fields and St Stephen Walbrook

Next week I will begin the latest phase of my ordained ministry as Priest for Partnership Development with St Martin-in-the-Fields and St Stephen Walbrook. Here is some brief background on the significant histories of both churches:

For over a thousand years a place of worship has been at St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London and Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece, the present church, is the fourth to have stood on this site. At the time of its building the great dome was unique in England and it was from this church that Wren developed his plans for St Paul’s Cathedral. 

Here Sir John Vanbrugh is buried and many distinguished men of letters and of the arts have graced the life of this place. John Dunstable the composer and past merchants and Lord Mayors have been a part its life. There is a plaque to the Revd Robert Stuart De Courcey Laffan, who with Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games in 1890. 

Bombed in the Second World War and restored to its present magnificent state in 1981, twentieth century artists and craftsmen have adorned its interior. Henry Moore’s travertine marble altar now stands at the centre under Wren’s dome surrounded by dazzling kneelers by Patrick Heron. 

With an almost perfect acoustic for choral singing and a renowned organ famed for its regular recitals on Fridays at 12.30pm for City workers, St Stephen stands witness next to the Lord Mayor’s residence and at the heart of the City it was built to serve. 

A previous Rector, Dr Chad Varah, founded the Samaritans here. On Thursdays the community gathers for a Sung Eucharist at 12.45pm with mass settings designed to blend with its traditional liturgy and architectural environment. St Stephen is the home of the London Internet Church and its ministry of prayer and praise.

St Martin-in-the-Fields is a landmark. Its fine architecture and prominent location place it at the heart of the nation. Its work has valued historic tradition, but St Martin’s has always been innovative in response to changing needs. From London’s first free lending library to the first religious broadcast, St Martin’s has broken new ground in defining what it means to be a church. 

The example of St Martin was followed by Dick Sheppard, Vicar of St Martin’s during World War I, who gave refuge to soldiers on their way to France. He saw St Martin’s as ‘the church of the ever open door’. The doors have remained open ever since.

St Martin’s fight against homelessness was formalised with the foundation of the Social Service Unit in 1948. The work continues today through The Connection at St Martin’s, which cares for around 7,500 individuals each year.

Changing needs in society were again evident in the 1960s. St Martin’s was concerned for the welfare of new arrivals in the emerging Chinatown and welcomed a Chinese congregation. Today, the Ho Ming Wah Chinese People’s Day Centre provides vital services for the Chinese community in London.

Throughout the 20th century, St Martin’s has also looked beyond its own doors and played an active role in wider social, humanitarian and international issues. Architecturally, spiritually, culturally and socially, St Martin’s has helped to form the world around it:

• James Gibbs’ design has been imitated across North America and throughout the world.
• St Martin’s was involved in the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the founding of many charitable organisations, including Amnesty International, Shelter and The Big Issue.
• The Vicar’s Christmas Appeal on BBC Radio 4 has been broadcast annually since 1924, now raising over £500,000 a year for disadvantaged people across the country.
• The Academy of St Martin in the Fields has become one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles.
• St Martin’s is a place where people of different faiths regularly pray together.

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Vivaldi - 'Winter' from Four Seasons.

The connection between earth and heaven

John’s Gospel is very different from the other three Gospels in the Bible. One of the reasons why, is that there are no parables or stories told in John’s Gospel and, instead of Jesus’ teaching being done through stories, in John’s Gospel his teaching is done through conversations. In this way, John’s Gospel suggests that God wants to enter into conversation with us. God wants to talk with us, to be in dialogue with us, in part because that dialogue can be one which transforms us; just as happened for the Samaritan woman in this story (John 4. 5 - 42).

This conversation takes place by Jacob’s well. Jacob had a vision of a ladder between earth and heaven with angels ascending and descending on the ladder. In conversation with Nathanael (John 1. 51), Jesus has already described himself as the ladder, the connection between earth and heaven and that is what we see happening in practice in the conversation Jesus has with this Samaritan woman.

In this conversation Jesus continually connects every aspect of division between him and the woman and within her own life. For this woman, he brings heaven and earth together. What divisions do I mean? Firstly, there was division between Jews and Samaritans. A history of division going back to the split between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and involving the Samaritans building a rival Temple to that in Jerusalem and the Jews tearing down the Samaritan Temple. With that kind of history we can understand why Jews would not use the same cups and bowls as Samaritans.

Then there were divisions of gender. “The rabbis taught that a man should not talk to a woman in the street. Some even refused to acknowledge their wives in public, while certain Pharisees sported bruises from bumping into things when their eyes were shut to avoid looking at a woman!” (R. Burridge, ‘John’, BRF 1998).

Finally, there were divisions of purity. The woman has come to the well during the hottest part of the day, which can only be to avoid others, implying that she was immoral. Later we find out that she has had five husbands, when Jews at that time only permitted marriage to three husbands, and the man with whom she is now living is not her husband.

So this conversation is “a real meeting of opposites – of Jew with Samaritan, a man with a woman, a rabbi with a sinner, the one ‘from above’ confronting the lowest of the low. It sums up all the bitterness of human separation by race, creed, class, sex, profession, status yet Jesus, alone, without even his disciples to protect him, asks her for a drink … this is what it means for him to be the ladder at Jacob’s well, bridging not only the gulf between God and the world, but also all the barriers human beings put between themselves. It was for this reason that God sent his Son into the world, and for this reason there is hope for us all, from modern Samaria on the West Bank to our daily petty differences.”

“As the conversation unfolds … Jesus gently leads her through levels of misunderstanding from the earthly and literal to the heavenly and spiritual.” Jesus begins with the actual situation (being beside a well), an everyday action (drawing water), and with what the woman can give to him (a drink of water). From the everyday, the earthly, the ordinary, he makes connections with the heavenly, the spiritual, by offering life-giving water that will never run out. He is not saying that the two are separate, distinct and different. Instead, he is acting as the connection between the two, bringing them together so that what is heavenly can be seen in what is earthly and vice versa.

There is a contrast throughout this conversation between the old and the new. Jesus is saying that if you drink from Jacob’s well, in other words, if you drink of Jacob’s religion, you will be satisfied temporarily but will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water Jesus gives will not thirst for all eternity. Jesus’ words, “they will not thirst” literally mean ‘into the new age.’ Jesus brings a new age into the world, in him heaven/eternity are breaking through time and entering into our present moment now. In Jesus heaven and eternity are here now and begin in our lives now as we receive his love, forgiveness, and acceptance into our lives now. “The water which Jesus offers to give is the raw material of himself. It is his human body and mind and spirit; but it is alive with the Spirit of God. What flows out of him for this Samaritan woman, if she has faith, and asks for it, will be water alive with Spirit, and this will activate a similar spring of water and Spirit within herself.” (Verney, ‘Waterinto Wine’, Fount, 1985)

Once she has become captivated by Jesus’ offer, then there is a moment of personal challenge. In speaking about her personal relationships, Jesus “confronts her with herself so that her impurities can be cleaned out and the living waters flow freely.” (Burridge) But we need to understand with love and acceptance with which this challenge comes. Stephen Verney describes it in this way:

“Jesus says to her, “You have answered beautifully ‘I have no husband’. For you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. In this you have spoken truthfully.” Some years ago I was reading these words with a woman whose marriage had broken up, and she said, “Look! Jesus is complimenting the Samaritan woman.” I had never seen it until that moment. Jesus says to her “You have answered beautifully … you have spoken truthfully.” Your sexual life is chaotic and you have one man after another – that is the reality of how you are in the flesh. But because you have brought this out into the light and recognised it, the reality of god can now enter into the reality of you. , the reality of god can now enter into the reality of you. Our flesh can come alive with Spirit. You are just the very person who is able to receive the living water. The self-righteous cannot receive it, because they do not know that they need it.”

The question the woman then asks about the place to worship God may have been a distraction, a sign that this conversation was getting too close to home for the woman, or it may have been a sincere question about where she should go with her sinful life in order to find God. Jesus says that the place is not important. God’s heavenly future is breaking into our earthly realm now and those who know this, worship in his Spirit and in truth. Jesus then reveals himself as God, the one who connects heaven and earth, the living water, when he uses the Old Testament name of God – I AM who I AM – in saying I AM he, who is talking with you.

The woman has changed through talking with God. “She came to the well in the hottest, quietest part of the day to avoid people – but now she goes to find them and tell them what has happened to her. Now the fact that Jesus knows all she has done is not something to be avoided with a theological hot potato –but the hottest news to be shared – ‘can this really be the Christ?’

The fields are white for harvest Jesus then says to his disciples and this is proved by the many in Sychar who came to believe in Jesus. The fields around us are also white for harvest and people will hear and respond if we are able to learn from the way in which Jesus connects faith with everyday life. He sits with ordinary people, listens and talks with them. He starts with ordinary life, with the things that others have to give and then reveals how the spiritual and heavenly can be seen in the everyday. He is not afraid of challenge, but his challenges come couched in encouragement, understanding and acceptance instead of condemnation. The challenge is to move on, to grow beyond the point that we have reached. This challenge is profoundly life affirming.

We plan for mission because, as Jesus said, the fields are white for harvest. Let us be in conversation with Jesus ourselves through prayer and bible reading. Let us learn from Jesus’ conversations and make connections for others between earth and heaven. Let us begin to reap a harvest.

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The Byrds - I Am A Pilgrim.