Breaking boundaries with love

This was my reflection at yesterday's lunchtime Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Jesus seems to have been deliberately rude to the Canaanite Woman – a woman from another race and culture – that he encountered in today's Gospel reading (Matthew 15. 21 - 28). 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.

We can see these same issues recurring in our own day and time in the way in which the debate about immigration has changed enabling the whole apparatus of the state to now be bent towards reducing immigration. The effect can be vividly seen in the issues faced by and the endurance 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.

We know from their experiences that the Bishop of Dover was absolutely correct when he accused senior political figures, including the prime minister, of forgetting their humanity and attacked elements of the media for propagating a “toxicity” designed to spread antipathy towards migrants. He said, “We’ve become an increasingly harsh world, and when we become harsh with each other and forget our humanity then we end up in these standoff positions. We need to rediscover what it is to be a human, and that every human being matters.”

Seeing this story of the Canaanite woman 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.

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 ourselves.

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Mumford & Sons - Hopeless Wanderer.

Making a family out of strangers

At the invitation of John Garbutt, Alderman for Walbrook Ward, I attended last night's Limborough Lecture which was held at St Stephen Walbrook and was followed by supper at The Mansion House in the presence of the Lord Mayor of London.

The annual Limborough Lecture is a part of the Company Year for the Worshipful Company of Weavers, the oldest recorded Livery Company, and stems from a legacy provided by James Limborough, a prosperous member of the Court of Assistants in the eighteenth century, to fund a series of lectures "to promote useful religious knowledge and real wholeness of heart and life".

This year's lecture was given by The Ven. Paul Taylor, Archdeacon of Sherborne, and was entitled 'Making a family out of strangers'. This title is 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. Archdeacon Paul began by telling the story of St Michael's revival before using it 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. 

In doing so, he also referred those present 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. But we are not made in isolation. We belong together in a creation which should be cherished and not simply used and consumed." The hope of the Bishops is, "that others, who may not profess church allegiance, will nevertheless join in the conversation and engage with the ideas" shared in this letter.

St Michael's Camden Town is also the location for a colossal art installation entitled HS by Maciej Urbanek, measuring over 60 square metres and covering the entire west wall of the huge Victorian Church, which could be one of the world’s largest photographic works. This installation, which covers badly damaged plasterwork in a church still in need of a great deal of restoration, appears to the viewer to be a vast explosion of fabulous silvery light. However it is made from the most humble of materials – dustbin bags which the artist has arranged, lit and photographed such that a mundane material is transformed into a grand, majestic artwork. While not referred to in the lecture, this artwork relates to Archdeacon Paul's theme because, as Fr. Philip North, then Team Rector of the Parish of Old St Pancras and now Bishop of Burnley, has explained: "For us as Christians, the fact that ordinary dustbin bags have been used to create something so overwhelmingly beautiful is a metaphor for God’s work in taking ordinary human lives and making them extraordinary."

Paul Taylor has been Archdeacon of Sherborne since 2004. Prior to coming to the Diocese of Salisbury, Paul had spent his entire ministry in the Diocese of London. He was ordained in 1984 and served his curacy in Bush Hill Park, near Enfield. He was Vicar of St. Andrew’s, Southgate for nearly ten years and then for the following seven years, Vicar of St. Mary’s and Christ Church, Hendon. Paul was also Director of Post Ordination Training in the Edmonton Area of London Diocese and Area Dean of West Barnet. Beyond his work in the Archdeaconry Paul is particularly involved in developing the Salisbury clergy Wellbeing programme and also chairs the Salisbury – Evreux link.

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Paul Mealor - Love's As Warm As Tears.