Essential wisdom

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

At age 21 Roger Cecil walked away from a scholarship at the Royal College of Art after just one week to ensure he focused on his artwork without being influenced by other students. Was he wise or was he foolish? His decision attracted the attention of the BBC who interviewed members of his family, community, and college for the 1964 film ‘A Quiet Rebel’. Most of those interviewed, for differing reasons, expressed confusion and disapprobation at Cecil’s decision.

At age 30 Jesus began his public ministry knowing it would lead him to Jerusalem and to crucifixion. He repeatedly told his disciples what would happen to him and resisted any attempt to dissuade him. Was he wise or was he foolish? His teaching on his task was either not understood by his disciples or actively resisted, so much so that at the point of his death his disciples either betrayed or denied him or ran away.

The young King Solomon may have been around 20 when he became King and asked for wisdom instead of long life, riches, or the death of his enemies (1 Kings 2.10-12, 3.3-14). He is understood to have been wise. God was pleased with Solomon's request and personally answered his prayer. This has often been understood as being because Solomon did not ask for self-serving rewards. However, there is something deeper happening here, something which connects the destinies of the three people with which I have begun. I hope that by reflecting on their stories we can come to understand what gaining wisdom might look like for us.

We can firstly understand Solomon to be wise already, as he recognised his own limitations as a young man and an even younger King so asked for God's help and wisdom in ruling well. He recognised that he was facing a huge task – ruling a people who were so many that they could not be counted – and that he didn’t have the life experience or knowledge to carry out the task – “I am very young and don't know how to rule.” Wisdom starts with a realistic assessment of the situation we find ourselves in. It is only once we have a realistic understanding of where our starting point is that we can begin to find ways forward. So, Solomon showed wisdom before he asked for and was given wisdom.

Secondly, we can also understand Solomon’s request in terms of something essential to good governance. When the people of Israel first asked for a King, God told them, through Samuel, who was both prophet and Judge, that their Kings would be self-serving by centralising land and wealth in the hands of a few. Later in scripture, after Solomon’s reign, we see that this came to pass, as the majority of those that followed Solomon as King did not possess his wisdom. Instead, they used their position and power to exploit others for their own personal gain. They oppressed and exploited their people in ways that were unjust and when they were then criticised by the prophets God sent to denounce them it was lack of justice that the prophets highlighted. Solomon rejected that temptation by asking for wisdom instead of self-serving rewards and, by doing so, identified that the essence of good governance is that the one with power and resources acts justly for the good of all the people, not simply the few.

Identifying the essence of the role we are to play or the vocation we have in life is key to this story and to the finding of wisdom. Solomon writes in the Book of Proverbs that wisdom was a co-worker with God in creation. When the world and its creatures were being shaped, formed, and defined, wisdom was beside God, making sure everything fitted, delighting in the world of things and creatures, happily celebrating the human family. (Proverbs 8. 30). We see this aspect of wisdom fleshed out in another of the creation stories of the people of Israel, a story about the wisdom of identifying essence. The Book of Genesis gives us the story of Adam, in partnership with God, naming the animals. Names in ancient cultures had power because they described the essence of what it was that had been named. So, in this story, Adam identified the essence of each creature that came before him in order to see and work with that creature’s place in the circle of life. In a similar way, Solomon had to identify the essence of being a monarch in order to understand the role he was to play for the people of Israel. That role was one of identifying justice, equity, and fairness for all. Solomon realised that wisdom involves working with God to identify essence and then working with the grain of that understanding.

Jesus came to a similar place as he explored the scriptures for himself as a child growing up in Nazareth. He identified scriptures about the role of the people of Israel as applying to himself, so that when he later read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, he could say that that scripture had been fulfilled in their presence that day. He understood that, through his people, God wished to demonstrate that he is with all people through death into life. Jesus saw that the essence of incarnation was to live that reality, so knew his path through life - crucifixion, resurrection, ascension - and would not be distracted from it.

While on holiday I saw a retrospective exhibition of Roger Cecil’s work, the final exhibition for the foreseeable future in a series organised by the artist’s estate following his death in 2015. Entitled ‘A Secret Artist’ the exhibition provided answers to the central secret held by Cecil and his art. At its heart was a secret love to which he was devoted; a love that combined home, Wales, and the landscape of Abertillery.

When interviewed in 1964 for the BBC film ‘A Quiet Rebel’, Cecil spoke of his worry that at the Royal College of Art each artist would become 'a bit of everybody', each influencing the other. He left and went home to 'do painting my way ... the way I feel it.' At 21 he knew the essence of his art was the landscape of Wales and that of his home in Abertillery in particular. For him, to have been separate from that source of inspiration would have diluted his art.

45 years on from walking out of the Royal College of Art and after a career in which he made the art he wanted in the way he wanted and still found access to galleries and sales, he said: ‘I am very lucky, because ... ninety-nine per cent of people, they don't know what they do, all their life. You imagine that. Terrible, isn't it! To think they go through life and they don't know what they do. Now, I'm lucky. I'm very fortunate. I knew from when I was about ten. I wanted to do art. And I've done it.'

Wisdom comes from knowing who we are and who or what others are in God. Remembering we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God in our mother's wombs and therefore have unique contributions to life only we can make through the particular combination of gifts and talents and personalities we have been given. Such wisdom is gained by understanding essence and working with it.

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes about the importance of remembering your creator in the days of your youth, “before the days of trouble come … and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12.1&7). I think one understanding of that statement is about finding the wisdom of essence early on in life, as was the case for Solomon, Jesus and Roger Cecil. We are most likely to do so if, like Solomon, we recognise the limitations of youth and use that understanding as motivation to cry out for insight, seeking wisdom like silver, and searching for it as for hidden treasures (Proverbs 2.3&4).

However, Solomon’s statement was not primarily about coming to that understanding early in life but instead more about finding that wisdom before death comes to us, in the time that we have available to us. For many, perhaps most of us, that is the journey of a lifetime.

That has certainly been my own experience. My call to ordination came in my forties and involved the recognition that my interests and experience in church, the Arts, social action, and employment, could all come together and be blended within ordained ministry. Experiencing that blend within my ministry in East London meant that when, in my fifties, I saw the advert for the role I now have here at St Martin’s - which through the 4 Cs brings together congregation, culture, compassion and commerce – I could see that this was a role that fitted perfectly with my experience and interests and through which the essence of who I am in God could be expressed. It took more than half a lifetime to reach that point but that was not wasted time, rather essential preparation for recognising and relishing the role.

Finally, the urgency of Solomon’s statement is because identification of essence is essential wisdom. It is wisdom that leads us to Christ, for the individual identity of any object is the stamp of divine creation on it. That was the great insight of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins; that the world is “news of God” and therefore “its end, its purpose, its purport, its meaning and its life and work is to name and praise” God.

How do God's creatures "give him glory"? Hopkins’ answer was “Merely by being themselves, by doing themselves”, by living out their essence. “Selfhood is not a static possession, but an activity:

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves-goes itself; myself it speaks and spells;
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.”[i]

All things, Hopkins wrote, “are charged with love, are charged with God and if we know how to touch them give off sparks and take fire, yield drops and flow, ring and tell of him.”[ii] By being our essential selves Christ is revealed in us. Hopkins concluded:

I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —
Christ — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.

Hopkins claimed we are most Christ-like when we act as our essential selves because then we are most fully in touch with the person we were created to be. We have briefly considered how Solomon, Jesus and Roger Cecil each discerned their essence. Solomon considering his legacy as David’s son and as a child of God before then looking at the demands of the role he had to play. Jesus in searching the scriptures to understand the call on his life and Cecil realising his love for the landscape of his home before making that the essence of his art. What is it that characterises your life and loves? What is it that only you can do for God as a result? In searching for the answers to those questions, you will act in God’s eye what in God’s eye you are – Christ – and know wisdom, as Christ plays to the Father through the features of your face. Amen.

For more on essence see my Bread for the World reflection on 'Creativity and sacramental sight' by clicking here.

[i] The Creation of the Self in Gerard Manley Hopkins, J. Hillis Miller, ELH, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Dec., 1955), pp. 293-319
[ii] The Sermons and Devotional Writings of Gerard Manley Hopkins

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Leonard Cohen - Steer Your Way.

Wightwick Manor: Pre-Raphaelites and Morris & Co

Built in 1887, Wightwick Manor is a shrine to the Arts and Crafts movement. When Theodore Mander commissioned the building of a new manor on Wightwick Bank in the Old English style in 1887 he started the Mander family's love for Victorian art & design which would unfold over a century of collecting and preservation. However, his untimely death in 1900 left the care and development of the new home (Wightwick Manor) to his son, Geoffrey. His story is one of art and design, industry and politics, told through the house he saved and lived in. 

With its barley twist brick chimneys and oak framed white-washed walls, the design of house looked to be something from five centuries earlier, rather than just five decades old. The garden, designed by Thomas Mawson, retains its clear lines of yew hedges, bold planting and expansive lawns. The house's Aesthetic Movement interiors are heavy with designs by William Morris and his associates. Morris & Co did not formally design for Wightwick Manor but all the wallpapers, fabric wall coverings and soft furnishings were bought through the Morris & Co shop or catalogue.

Over time a unique collection of Pre-Raphaelite art developed, with some major pieces supplied by the National Trust, and small works and sketches either purchased or given to the National Trust. The artworks are shown in a domestic setting. Their collection now boasts over 70 works by D.G Rossetti; 50 by Edward Burne-Jones; 23 by Evelyn De Morgan and 20 by Millais. They also have works by the often overlooked Pre-Raphaelites; Lizzy Siddal, Lucy Maddox Brown and Simeon Solomon. 

Simeon Solomon was Jewish, gay and suffered from mental health issues. Through his friendship with Rossetti he became one of the group of artists, poets and designers involved in the second wave of Pre- Raphaelitism. He was hailed a genius within his lifetime, exhibiting his art in all the major London galleries, designing stained glass for Morris & Co. and illustrating beautiful books, all to much critical acclaim. Initially he gained much critical and commercial acclaim for his depictions of Old Testament scenes with his accurate portrayal of costume and location, using his own Jewish heritage and community as inspiration, while being sold to a predominately Christian market. Yet he is largely forgotten today and died in obscurity, poverty and alcoholism in the workhouse. The Honeysuckle Room at Wightwick Manor contains 10 works of art by Solomon; most from the later period when he is repeatedly exploring the themes of Night and Death.

In the purpose-built Malthouse Gallery, a new exhibition at Wightwick Manor displays drawings and paintings by the pioneering female artist, Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919), and the creations of her husband, the preeminent ceramic designer, William De Morgan (1839-1917). The sumptuous interiors and original De Morgan tiled fireplaces at Wightwick Manor provide the perfect setting for the De Morgan Collection to be housed in a purpose-built gallery in the grounds. The current exhibition Look Beneath the Lustre invites visitors to discover how the wonderful De Morgan artworks were created by looking beneath the lustre of the De Morgan’s artwork. More preparatory drawings and sketches by William and Evelyn De Morgan are on display than ever before, inviting the visitor to consider the people and preparation behind the paintings and the plates. Look Beneath the Lustre is in partnership with the De Morgan Foundation with items on loan from the V&A and National Portrait Gallery.

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Loreena McKennitt - The Mystic's Dream.

Beyond Airbrushed from Art History: Kjell Nupen

The Guardian's obituary for Kjell Nupen highlights the Church commissions he received towards the end of his career:

"Towards the end of his career he received some spectacular commissions, including the decoration of the church of Søm in Kristiansand (2004). Here a window runs from behind the altar to the entrance wall, splitting the ceiling in two in a blaze of bright abstract forms.

From Darkness to Light, Nupen's name for his creation at Søm, would also be a suitable description for the tall, slender windows that he made in 2010 for the church at Geilo, a mountain resort town between Bergen and Oslo. Blue at the base and yellow at the top, they bathe the polished altar and baptistery, also designed by Nupen, with colour. As the artist put it: "Here one truly paints with light." Together with Nupen's bronze crucifix installed nearby, these works were given the title The Unending Journey, a concept often represented in Nupen's art by the motif of the boat.

Most impressive of all was the Ansgar Chapel in Kristiansand (2008), for which Nupen proposed architectural proportions similar to those ascribed in the First Book of Kings to the Temple of Solomon. While the building itself alludes to the Old Testament, the windows, which run through the ceiling and even the corners of the church, powerfully symbolise the light of the world."

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Tom Jones - What Good Am I?

Remember your Creator

“When most people think of young people they see us as a horizontal line. One end screams, "Violent! Asbos! Hoodies!" and the other end whispers, "A* student; passes; friendly".
We are lumped into one group or the other. More often than not the only group that is ever reported on is the former. Well what about the rest of us? …

Why aren't we reported on, or our lives documented and televised? It seems that we can only be interesting if we are smoking, snorting or stabbing.”

That’s what Dominique Mitchell, 18, from Leicester, said when he was interviewed by the Guardian about stereotypes of young people in 2009.

King Solomon was a young man and a young King, yet we see him acting with real wisdom in today’s Bible reading (1 Kings 3. 3 - 14). God asks him an entirely open question - What would you like me to give you? It’s a question to which it would be very easy to give an entirely selfish answer. Solomon could have asked for long life for himself or riches or the death of his enemies but he didn’t.

Instead, we see him make a wise request based on a wise assessment of his situation. He recognises that he is facing a huge task – ruling a people who are so many that they cannot be counted – and that he doesn’t have the life experience or knowledge to carry out the task – “I am very young and don't know how to rule.” Wisdom starts with a realistic assessment of the situation we find ourselves in. It is only once we have a realistic understanding of where our starting point is that we can begin to find ways forward. So, Solomon shows wisdom before he asks for and is given wisdom.

That makes him an example of a wise young person. In fact if you look at the way his life pans out, he actually turns the stereotype completely on its head because he is wiser as a young person than he is as an older person. In his youth he listens to God and follows God’s instructions while in his old age he listens to other human beings and worships other gods.

Jesus confronted his disciples with the same challenge when they asked him, ‘Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?’ He called a child to come and stand in front of them, and said, ‘I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.’ (Matthew 18. 1 – 3)

What is the wisdom of those who are greatest in the kingdom of God? What is the wisdom of youth? Well, the young King says, the task is huge and I am young and inexperienced, therefore I need the leading, guidance and wisdom of God. As we are told King Solomon was later to say, ‘Remember your Creator while you are still young.’ (Ecclesiastes 12. 1)

Going for Growth, a Church of England report considering how we engage with and express God’s love to this generation of children and young people, whoever and wherever they may be, responds to these challenges by saying that the Church needs to listen to children and young people themselves and take seriously what it hears.

The report recognises the sadness that churches rarely have the confidence which enables them to face the devastating directness which theological questions may take on in the mouth of a child (or young person). Churches lack the humility (that we saw in the young King Solomon) to face the truth about the quality of their life and worship and to set about addressing the needs which are then identified. Instead, we want to seem wise in our own eyes instead of recognising the wisdom of youth.

The report suggests that if, instead of trying to teach good news to children (and young people), the Church tries to become good news, it will need fresh eyes to see itself. Such a church would need the confidence to deal with questions rather than always having to find the answers. It would be prepared to surrender its life and lets its institutions be transformed. A church which genuinely welcomes children (and young people), accepts their gifts and ministries, meets their needs, advocates justice, seeks new life, challenges evil with love and truth, continues to learn the values of the Kingdom by living them, so is going to be a Church which is good news not only for young people but also for all its members and for the world.

This leads us towards the second thing for us to note, which is that wisdom is not an end in itself. Solomon doesn’t ask for wisdom simply in order to be wise or knowledgeable instead he asks for wisdom in order to rule with justice. Wisdom is not an end in itself instead it is needed in order to do justice.

We see this also later on in the pages of scripture because, after Solomon, the majority of Israel’s Kings are not wise. Instead, unlike Solomon, they use their position and power to exploit others for their own personal gain. They oppress and exploit their people in a way that is unjust and when they are then criticised by the prophets which God sends to denounce them it is this lack of justice that they highlight.

Amos speaks to the great leaders of the great nation Israel to say:

“You people hate anyone who challenges injustice and speaks the whole truth in court. You have oppressed the poor and robbed them of their grain. And so you will not live in the fine stone houses you build or drink wine from the beautiful vineyards you plant. I know how terrible your sins are and how many crimes you have committed. You persecute good people, take bribes, and prevent the poor from getting justice in the courts.” (Amos 5. 10 – 12)

“How terrible it will be for you that stretch out on your luxurious couches, feasting on veal and lamb! You like to compose songs, as David did, and play them on harps. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest perfumes, but you do not mourn over the ruin of Israel. So you will be the first to go into exile.” (Amos 6. 4 – 8)

What should they have been doing? What would have made them wise, not foolish? Amos says, “Make it your aim to do what is right, not what is evil, so that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty really will be with you, as you claim he is. Hate what is evil, love what is right, and see that justice prevails in the courts.”

Wisdom is not an end in itself instead it is needed in order to do justice. At the end of wisdom there is the achievement of justice.

King Solomon is credited with summing all this up in the words of Proverbs 8:

Listen! Wisdom is calling out.
      Reason is making herself heard.
 On the hilltops near the road
      and at the crossroads she stands.
 At the entrance to the city,
      beside the gates, she calls:
 
         I appeal to all of you;
      I call to everyone on earth.
 Are you immature? Learn to be mature.
      Are you foolish? Learn to have sense.
 Listen to my excellent words;
      all I tell you is right …

Choose my instruction instead of silver;
      choose knowledge rather than the finest gold.

I am Wisdom, I am better than jewels;
      nothing you want can compare with me.
 I am Wisdom, and I have insight;
      I have knowledge and sound judgment.
 To honour the Lord is to hate evil;
      I hate pride and arrogance,
      evil ways and false words …

I walk the way of righteousness;
      I follow the paths of justice …

Those who find me find life,
      and the Lord will be pleased with them.

Let us learn from one who was wise when he was young. He says:

So remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, I don't enjoy life. That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you, and the rain clouds will never pass away. Then your arms, that have protected you, will tremble, and your legs, now strong, will grow weak. Your teeth will be too few to chew your food, and your eyes too dim to see clearly. Your ears will be deaf to the noise of the street. You will barely be able to hear the mill as it grinds or music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from sleep. You will be afraid of high places, and walking will be dangerous. Your hair will turn white; you will hardly be able to drag yourself along, and all desire will be gone.

We are going to our final resting place, and then there will be mourning in the streets. The silver chain will snap, and the golden lamp will fall and break; the rope at the well will break, and the water jar will be shattered. Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us. (Ecclesiastes 12. 1 – 7)

So remember your Creator while you are still young.

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The Bluebells - Young At Heart.

Twin track promises for a twin track life

King David lived a double life. Not in the sense that he was duplicitous but in the sense that there were twin tracks of significance running through his life.

David was the fair-haired shepherd boy who defeated a giant named Goliath. He was the wise Jewish ruler who brought the tribes of Israel together as a united nation. He was a powerful warrior, cunning diplomat, and talented musician. He was known as a "man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 13:13 - 15) and yet he was also someone who sinned miserably. How can an adulterer and a murderer be called a man after God's own heart? It would seem to be because when he failed, he repented and then turned back to God (see Psalm 51).

Those are some of the incidents from and the aspects of the life that King David lived. They make him one of the most interesting and significant characters whose stories are told within the pages of scripture. This is all broadly in line with what God is recorded as having promised David in today’s reading (2 Samuel 17. 1 – 14a). In verses 8 – 11 we read:

“I took you from looking after sheep in the fields and made you the ruler of my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have defeated all your enemies as you advanced. I will make you as famous as the greatest leaders in the world. I have chosen a place for my people Israel and have settled them there, where they will live without being oppressed any more. Ever since they entered this land, they have been attacked by violent people, but this will not happen again. I promise to keep you safe from all your enemies and to give you descendants.”

Yet there is another aspect to the life of King David – the second track running through his life – that eventually comes to mean that more is written in the Bible about him than many other famous Bible characters, including Abraham and Moses. Believe it or not, there is also more in the Bible about King David than there is about Jesus!

The second track to David’s life is that he serves as a paradigm for the coming Messiah. What does that mean? A paradigm is a pattern, frame, template or model within which something broadly similar but not exactly the same can be recognized. David’s life became the template or model for what the future Davidic King – the Messiah – would look like. That future King – the Messiah – wouldn’t David come back to life or an exact copy of David in every respect but key aspects of David’s life and character became reference points enabling people who would live after him to recognize the Messiah when they saw him.  

So we read, at the end of today’s reading, that God said to David:

“I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son.”

That promise could apply to David’s immediate descendents – King Solomon, who built the temple in Jerusalem, for example – but it can also be understood as speaking about a future descendent who will also be God’s Son and who will establish an eternal Kingdom. It is a twin track promise from a twin track life. David’s life was both the life that he lived in his own day and time plus the ongoing significance of his life as a pattern, template or paradigm for the future Messiah.

Matthew tells us, in his Gospel, that Jesus was a descendant of David and gives a genealogy to demonstrate this. In Acts 13 we read of Paul preaching that God had testified concerning David: “‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’  From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Saviour Jesus, as he promised.” (v. 22 – 23)

Incidents from the life of David that were regarded by the Church Fathers as foreshadowing the life of Christ include; Bethlehem being the birthplace of both; the shepherd life of David pointing towards Jesus, the Good Shepherd; the five stones chosen to slay Goliath as typical of the five wounds of Christ. The betrayal by David’s trusted counsellor, Achitophel, and his crossing the Cedron (or Kidron) brook are reminders of events from Christ's Passion.

Many of the Psalms David is credited with writing are also typical of the future Messiah. References found in the Psalms that are understood in the New Testament to indicate that Jesus is the Messiah include the following: the Messiah will be God's Son (Psalms 2:7); He will be rejected by many but accepted by God (Psalm 118:22); his close friend will betray him (Psalm 41:9); he will experience agony on the cross (Psalm 22:1-21); he will rise from the dead (Psalm 16:8-10); he will ascend into heaven (Psalm 68:18); and will become the eternal priest-king (Psalm 110:4).

This is all very interesting but how is it significant for us? Firstly, this is how Jesus and the Early Church often explained his significance. After all, Jesus was an obscure preacher in an obscure part of the Roman Empire who never did any of the things we normally associate with greatness and who died a criminal’s death. Why should anyone pay attention to what he did and said? On the road to Emmaus (Luke 24. 25 - 27) we read of Jesus explaining to his two disciples what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. In Acts 8. 32 – 35, we read of Philip starting with a passage of scripture from Isaiah and going on to tell the Ethiopian official the Good News about Jesus using the scriptures. That was the usual practice of the Early Church and we can benefit ourselves from understanding Jesus’ significance in the same way.

Secondly, we are also called to live double or twin track lives in a way that is similar to that of David. Our lives, as Christians, are to be patterned or modelled on Jesus – we follow in his footsteps by doing the kinds of things which he did and said to the extent that we can in our contemporary lives. When we act in ways that are similar to Jesus – the pattern or template for our lives as Christians – we reveal for a moment something of the reality of the kingdom of God in contemporary life. Our lives as a whole, and particular actions or initiatives with which we are involved, can therefore be signs of or pointers to the reality and nature of the kingdom of God. Like the life of David, our lives can have significance both for who we are – people loved, accepted and used by God – and for what we can reveal of kingdom of God – our words and actions showing something of the pattern and nature of God’s kingdom.

David’s life speaks to us of Jesus. In what ways do our lives our lives do the same? How does the way we live our daily life speak to others of the Messiah that we love and serve and follow? Let us pattern our lives on what we know of Christ and pray for Christ to be seen in us, even when we are not consciously aware that we imitating him.

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Keith Green - Psalm 51.

The significance of unknown and unregarded actions

At the west end of the Nave of Westminster Abbey is the grave of the Unknown Warrior, whose body was brought from France to be buried there on 11 November 1920. The grave, which contains soil from France, is covered by a slab of black Belgian marble from a quarry near Namur. On it is the following inscription, composed by Herbert Ryle, Dean of Westminster: 

 BENEATH THIS STONE RESTS THE BODY
OF A BRITISH WARRIOR
UNKNOWN BY NAME OR RANK
BROUGHT FROM FRANCE TO LIE AMONG
THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS OF THE LAND
AND BURIED HERE ON ARMISTICE DAY
11 NOV: 1920, IN THE PRESENCE OF
HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V
HIS MINISTERS OF STATE
THE CHIEFS OF HIS FORCES
AND A VAST CONCOURSE OF THE NATION
THUS ARE COMMEMORATED THE MANY
MULTITUDES WHO DURING THE GREAT
WAR OF 1914-1918 GAVE THE MOST THAT
MAN CAN GIVE LIFE ITSELF
FOR GOD
FOR KING AND COUNTRY
FOR LOVED ONES HOME AND EMPIRE
FOR THE SACRED CAUSE OF JUSTICE AND
THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD
THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS BECAUSE HE
HAD DONE GOOD TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD
HIS HOUSE

Around the main inscription are four texts:

“THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS.”

“GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS.”

“UNKNOWN AND YET WELL KNOWN, DYING AND BEHOLD WE LIVE.”

“IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE.”

The idea for this burial seems first to have come to a chaplain at the Front, the Reverend David Railton (1884-1955), when he noticed in 1916 in a back garden at Armentières, a grave with a rough cross on which were pencilled the words "An Unknown British Soldier". In August 1920 he wrote to the Dean of Westminster, Herbert Ryle, through whose energies this memorial was carried into effect. The body was chosen from unknown British servicemen exhumed from four battle areas, the Aisne, the Somme, Arras and Ypres. (The number of bodies exhumed varies in different accounts between four and six). The remains were brought to the chapel at St. Pol on the night of 7 November 1920. The General Officer in charge of troops in France and Flanders, Brigadier General L.J.Wyatt, with Colonel Gell, went into the chapel alone, where the bodies on stretchers were covered by Union Flags. They had no idea from which area the bodies had come. General Wyatt selected one and the two officers placed it in a plain coffin and sealed it. The other bodies were reburied.

In the morning Chaplains of the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and Non-Conformist churches held a service in the chapel before the body was escorted to Boulogne. The next day the coffin was placed inside another made of two-inch thick oak from

Hampton Court

, lined with zinc, sent over from England. It was covered with the flag that David Railton had used as an altar cloth during the War (known as the Ypres or Padre's Flag, which now hangs in St George's Chapel). The destroyer HMS Verdun transported the coffin to Dover and it was then taken by train to Victoria station in London where it rested overnight.

On the morning of 11 November the coffin was placed on a gun carriage drawn by six black horses and began its journey through the crowd-lined streets to the north door of Westminster Abbey. The coffin was borne to the west end of the Nave through a guard of honour of 100 holders of the Victoria Cross, under the command of Colonel Freyburg VC. During the shortened form of the Burial Service, after the hymn "Lead kindly light", the King stepped forward and dropped a handful of French earth onto the coffin as it was lowered into the grave.

On 11 November 1921 the present black marble stone was unveiled at a special service. General Pershing, on behalf of the United States of America, conferred the Congressional Medal of Honor on the Unknown Warrior on 17 October 1921 and this hangs in a frame on a pillar near the grave. The body of the Unknown Warrior may be from any of the three services, Army, Navy or Air Force, and from any part of the British Isles, Dominions or Colonies and represents all those who died who have no other memorial or known grave.

Our Bible readings tonight are also of those whose role or responsibilities or sacrifice is potentially overlooked. In our first reading (1 Kings 1. 15-40), Solomon, who had been promised the throne by his father David, is in danger of being overlooked and out manoeuvred when his elder step-brother claims the throne for himself. In our second reading (Revelation 1. 4-18), we read of the glory of the risen and ascended Jesus, but that picture also then reminds us that during his life, and in his death, he was despised and rejected by humanity. In both readings we also see those who have been overlooked then being recognised and honoured; Solomon is affirmed as King by David and Christ is glorified following his ascension.    

Here at St John’s Seven Kings we have our own story of those who fought and died in the First World War yet were overlooked because their names were, for many years, absent from the War Memorial here in church. The absence of the names of Charles Brooks Smith and Frederick Allam Smith from the memorial commemorating those from the parish who in the First World War was discovered as a result of a successful entry in 2006 to a TV competition in Channel 4's Lost Generation season.

Sara James, one of our young people at St. John’s Seven Kings, together with her friends Rebecca Smith and Zeenat Pelaria, won first prize out of 1000 students who had entered the competition. Entries were open to students aged 11-16, working in groups of three or five to create a short project about World War One. For their project Sara, Rebecca and Zeenat decided to adopt the war memorial dedicated to those who lost their lives in the First World War from St. John’s. The three 14 year olds represented the Chadwell Heath Foundation School and were up against GCSE students from the best private and grammar schools from all over England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Initially they obtained information from historical research of St. John’s. They then compared the names on our War Memorial with a photograph of the church football team from a few years before the war and found that several of the names matched. They were able to obtain more information on the internet using sites such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 1837 Online and the Western Front Association in order to find out more about some of those who had died.

Their competition entry, along with all the others, was judged by a panel of historians, writers, teachers and others involved in Channel 4’s history programmes. They won a ClipBank History Library worth £700 for their school’s history department, which will enable everyone to obtain further wide-ranging historical materials about the two World Wars. There was also a VIP trip for Sara’s class of around 30 students, along with some humanities teachers, to the Imperial War Museum in London.

As a result of their research featuring on the website of St John's Seven Kings we were contacted by the family of Charles Brooks Smith, in the football photo, and his brother Frederick Allam Smith. Both had been killed during WW1, Charles Brooks Smith at the Somme, but their names had not been included on the War Memorial. Their family, therefore, asked whether their names could be added to the Memorial and earlier this year that work was completed with the letter cutting being undertaken by Mark Tremaine of Woodenyou. We are thrilled that members of the family can be here this evening.

So today, as we remember all those who have given their lives in the service of others through the armed forces, we remember particularly Charles Brooks and Frederick Allam Smith and we rededicate this War Memorial, with the addition of their names, to the glory of God and in memory of all those from this parish who lost their lives during the First World War in the name of God almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

All this is also a reminder and encouragement to each of us in our service of God through our own lives. The contribution we make through our lives and the service we offer to others may not be well known and may not be publicly celebrated but it is significant and of real and lasting value nonetheless. Most importantly, it is seen and known by God and will be valued and celebrated when we, like Jesus, are in his presence. The reality for most of us is that our contribution to others and to the wider community is known only to our friends and family, but it is nonetheless important and significant for all that. The significance of service is to be found in what people do rather than in what is known of what people do. In his ministry Jesus criticised the leaders of his day for actions designed to impress and St Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians says make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. As with all those we have thought about today, including Charles Brooks and Frederick Allam Smith, it can be our unknown and unregarded actions which are actually the most significant of all. As Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “your Father, who sees what is done I secret, will reward you.”

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George Harrison - All Things Must Pass.

Patronal Festival

Next Sunday is the Patronal Festival at St John's Seven Kings. We will be displaying the winning entries in our Images of Hope Art Competition in the church from Sunday and beyond. Bishop David, the Bishop of Barking, will present the Art Competition prizes - bibles given by the Bible Society - during our 10.00am Festival Service.

 

Bishop David will be preaching and presiding at the 10.00am Festival Service, which will also include the following prayer of dedication for our congregation, bringing Stewardship month to a conclusion:

 

God has created me

to do him some definite service:

he has committed some work to me

which he has not committed to another.

I have my mission –

I may never know it in this life,

but I shall be told it in the next.

Somehow I am necessary for his purposes:

as necessary in my place

as an Archangel in his.

I have a part in this great work;

I am a link in a chain,

a bond of connection between persons.

He has not created me for nothing.

I shall do good, I shall do his work;

I shall be an angel of peace,

a preacher of truth in my own place.

Deign to fulfil your high purposes in me.

I am here to serve you, to be yours,

to be your instrument.

(Cardinal John Henry Newman)

 

St John's member, Dr Winston Solomon will be licensed as an Authorised Local Preacher during this service and we will be singing the St John's Centenary hymn, which was composed by church member, Lester Amann. 

 

In the evening, at 6.30pm, choirs from various local churches will join us for a choral celebration entitled Sing Glory!

 

These will be two very special services, and all who wish to join us, as we celebrate our Patronal Festival together, will be very welcome.

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John Rutter - The Lord Bless You and Keep You.

Tamil Carol Service

Some of the congregation

Dr. Winston Solomon

Children's Choir

Children's Choir

Grace & Solomon Benjamin

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Thea Gilmore - That'll Be Christmas.

Proverbial wisdom

A proverb is a succinct and memorable statement containing advice, a warning, a prediction or an analytical observation. King Solomon is credited in the Bible with writing an entire book of Proverbs based on the wisdom that God gave him through his experience of life.

1 Kings 4. 32-34 tells us that:

“God gave Solomon wisdom—the deepest of understanding and the largest of hearts. There was nothing beyond him, nothing he couldn't handle. Solomon's wisdom outclassed the vaunted wisdom of wise men of the East, outshone the famous wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, wiser than Heman, wiser than Calcol and Darda the sons of Mahol. He became famous among all the surrounding nations. He created 3,000 proverbs; his songs added up to 1,005. He knew all about plants, from the huge cedar that grows in Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that grows in the cracks of a wall. He understood everything about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. Sent by kings from all over the earth who had heard of his reputation, people came from far and near to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.”

Solomon’s reputation rested not only on his own brilliance but also his patronage of learning and the arts. The Queen of Sheba, who visited him because of his reputation for wisdom, was just one of a stream of visitors who poured into Israel to hear him and put him to the test, and from whom he learned as well. He and his wise men culled the wisdom of the east, but incorporated nothing that was not in line with God’s standards.

The book of Proverbs begins by setting out what wisdom is for:

“These are the wise sayings of Solomon,
David's son, Israel's king—
Written down so we'll know how to live well and right,
to understand what life means and where it's going;
A manual for living,
for learning what's right and just and fair;
To teach the inexperienced the ropes
and give our young people a grasp on reality.
There's something here also for seasoned men and women,
still a thing or two for the experienced to learn—
Fresh wisdom to probe and penetrate,
the rhymes and reasons of wise men and women.”

Wisdom, in the Old Testament, tends to be the voice of reflection and experience, rather than of bare command or preaching. Through Wisdom, we are persuaded, even teased, into seeing a connection between God’s order in the world and his orders to human beings. That includes the absurdity or foolishness of going against the grain of God’s creation.

Then Proverbs gives us the key to wisdom. “Start with God,” it says, “the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.” Or in other translations, “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”

The ‘fear of God’ is the starting point of Proverbs and the pivot of all Wisdom literature in the Bible. Secular philosophy tends to measure everything by human beings, and comes to doubt whether wisdom is to be found at all. But the Old Testament with this motto – ‘the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom’ – turns the world the right way up, with God at its head, his wisdom the creative and ordering principle that runs through every part; and human beings, disciplined and taught by that wisdom, finding life and fulfilment in his perfect will. Knowledge in its full sense is a relationship with God, dependent or revelation or wisdom and inseparable from character or discipline.

So how can be we best use the proverbs and wisdom that we are given in the Bible? It is important to bear in mind that proverbs are by nature generalisations. They state what is generally true, not invariably true. The writers do not deny that there are exceptions. But exceptions are not within the scope of proverbial sayings. For instance, Proverbs states that those who live by God’s standards will prosper in the world. This is generally the truth (and we have statistical evidence today about the health and general well-being of churchgoers to back this up). But it is not an ‘unconditional’ promise, as the example of Job and the life of Jesus clearly show us.

So, these proverbs are not a set of commands or laws that must be followed to the letter in order that we benefit from wisdom. Instead, they are given to persuade us or tease us into seeing a connection between God’s order in the world and his orders to human beings. The style of the proverbs is to provoke thought, getting under the skin by thrusts of wit, paradox, common sense, and teasing symbolism. They are a bit like the parables of Jesus, something to make us think about life rather than being a set of clear and simple instructions to follow.

As a result, it is good to digest or study them a few saying at a time, weighing one saying against another and getting an idea of the general teaching on a particular topic. One resource that I have which helps in doing this is a calendar which has a different proverb for each day together with a very brief relational reflection on that day’s proverb. This calendar is also available as a screensaver for your computer, so could be downloaded to your pc at work as a reminder to you and your work colleagues of God’s values in public and private life.

That brings me on to another aspect of these proverbs that they are for the whole of life. There is no separation of the public and private or the sacred and the secular when it comes to the proverbs and wisdom in the Bible. Proverbs applies the principles of God’s teaching to: relationships, home, work, justice, decisions, attitudes, reactions, everything we do and say and think.

Proverbs 1. 20-21 says:

“Wisdom goes out in the street and shouts.
At the town centre she makes her speech.
In the middle of the traffic she takes her stand.
At the busiest corner she calls out.”

This open proclamation, made above the noise of the market, shows that the offer of wisdom is for the person in the street, it is for the business of living. So, for the Bible’s wisdom to really make sense we have to take and use it in everyday life; to apply to our Monday to Saturday lives rather than keeping it bottled up on Sundays alone. As Amy Carmichael prayed, “Holy Spirit, think through me till your ideas are my ideas.”

Lord Jesus, who as a child did learn and grow in wisdom: enable us to learn from your Word in such a way that we will walk in your ways and daily grow more like you, who are our Saviour and our Lord. Amen.

(Use made of material from The Lion Handbook to the Bible)

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Leigh Nash & Jars of Clay - With Every Breath.

The Tamil Carols - 30th Anniversary

The Children's Choir

The Senior Choir

Traditional Indian dance from the Singaravelou sisters

Revd. Solomon Benjamin

Mrs Watson and Winston Solomon

The annual Tamil Carol service held at St John's Seven Kings celebrated its 30th anniversary tonight.

People travelled from all over London and the South East to be part of the service and the meal that followed. The service, which is organised by St John's members Winston and Shalini Solomon, is a traditional Nine Lessons and Carols but with carols and readings in both Tamil and English and with choirs, singing groups and dancers performing in between the carols and readings.

As ever, it was the children who stole the show. Ajitha and Amirtha Singaravelou performed two traditional Indian dances, Ristian David sang with his mother, and the Children's Choir performed two numbers.

Following the service there were introductions from those new to the service, a slide show of photos from across the 30 years that the service has been held, and a great selection of food.

I am always impressed both with the support for each other shown by those in the Tamil community and by their concern to integrate and be part of mainstream Churches as well as their own Tamil churches.

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Reshma Abraham - Ekaalam.