Start:Stop - The stature of waiting

Bible reading

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2. 25 – 32)

Meditation

50% of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn't load in 10 seconds. 3 out of 5 won't return to that site. 1 in 4 people abandon a web page that takes more than 4 seconds to load. T-shirt slogans say, “I want instant gratification and I want it now” and “Instant gratification takes too long.” The advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring.

Simeon had been waiting throughout his life to see Lord’s promised Messiah, as the Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before the promised event occurred. His wait had been and it must have felt to him like a long time. He was tired from waiting and so ready for death that, as soon as he had seen Jesus, he prayed, “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.”

Waiting can grow the virtue of patience in us as to wait is a test of our patience and an opportunity to build patience. We would like God to solve all our problems right now, but our patience and perseverance is often tested before we find answers to our prayers. How would we actually practice patience if there were not times when we were called to wait upon the Lord?

We all know the saying that good things come to those who wait. Waiting can also sharpen our sense of anticipation and our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting.

When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God, as in Isaiah 40. 31: "those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

Prayer

Lord God, there are so many things that can distract us from waiting. Although our 24-7 instant society seems to teach that impatience is a virtue, help us learn the virtue of waiting.

May our waiting lead us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

We cry, “how long O Lord?” We have remembered your coming and we long for your coming again – your second coming when all sorrow and suffering will cease. As the season of celebrating your first coming ends, teach us to wait expectantly and watchfully for your second coming.

May our waiting lead us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

May we recognise your love by forging an offering; the coming-to-be of understanding - knowing you more clearly, loving you more dearly, and following you more nearly. As this understanding comes in our lives, may your love convey its richest blessing and complete its work in triumph.

May our waiting lead us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.

Blessing

Love conveying its richest blessing. Love completing its work in triumph. The cessation of all sorrow and suffering. Learning the virtue of waiting. May those blessings of almighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Howard Goodall - The Lord Is My Shepherd.

Out and about

In the final weeks of my sabbatical I've enjoyed seeing the following:

• Monument at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts is an exhibition which draws together works by artists who address the idea of the monument in a great variety of ways. This exhibition is part of an EU Interreg funded, cross-channel collaboration between galleries in England, Normandy and the Pas de Calais. These regions have in common 20th century war memorials that are a feature of nearly all towns and villages. While on the European leg of my sabbatical art pilgrimage, I saw the section of Monument which is at the Musée de Beaux-arts in Calais.
• John Virtue: The Sea at the Sainsbury Centre is a body of new work based on Virtue’s time on Blakeney Point, North Norfolk, walking and drawing this stretch of coast each week, immersed in the sea and sky in all seasons and in all weather. From this part of the coast the uninterrupted panoramic views across the salt marshes and shingle beaches lead directly to the horizon. The artist’s connection with this place is communicated through the encompassing scale of these canvases. His expansive gestures, the bold handling of paint, draw the viewer in to the image and the environment he captures, the intensity and turbulence of the sea.
• Sense and Sensuality at the Sainsbury Centre presents some 65 works drawn from the Arwas Collection, the Anderson Collection of Art Nouveau (already in the Sainsbury Centre holdings), and from various other private collections. This exhibition looks at those Art Nouveau designers who were interested in the darker, more complex side of life. The show embraces the sensuality of Art Nouveau, which at times is risqué, and features a wide range of works from sculpture, graphics, and books to ceramics, glass and furniture.
• All Saints Selsey was an early commission for G. F. Bodley, a young architect who had got to know the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood in 1858, and it was his promise of commissions that contributed to the establishment of a fine arts design firm by William Morris that included Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, and Philip Webb. This remarkable partnership of artists and intellectuals was called upon to design stained glass windows for the new Church. The distinctive saddleback tower of All Saints rises over a hundred feet to catch the changing Cotswold light on its French Gothic gables; it is the last of the great Cotswold wool churches, and the first to exhibit work of the English Arts & Crafts Movement.
• Holy Trinity Slad is a small country church in the village made famous by Laurie Lee's "Cider with Rosie" - he now lies in the churchyard and this has become a place of pilgrimage for many admirers of his writings. The church has recently had a new stained glass window installed to commemorate Laurie Lee. The Museum in the Park at Stroud has also been celebrating Laurie Lee's centenary.
• Gerardo Dottori: The Futurist View is the current exhibition at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art. Dottori was one of the pivotal figures of Italian Futurism during the inter-war years. His expansive and intensely poetic visions of the Umbrian landscape, viewed from above, were among the earliest and most striking examples of ‘aeropainting’ – the dominant trend within Futurist art throughout the 1930s, exploring the dynamic perspectives offered by flight.
• To Be or not To Be at the Whitechapel Gallery features Italian artist Giulio Paolini who immerses us in elegant installations of canvases, windows, fragments of statuary and checkerboards – sometimes presented by 18th century footmen. Believing that every work of art embodies earlier traditions, Paolini pays tribute to artists such as Chardin, Lotto and Velazquez. His own face, hands and eyes reappear throughout the show, as he asks Hamlet’s question of the artist. From To Be or Not to Be (1994–95) where canvases radiate across the floor into infinity to the existential drama of The Author Who Thought He Existed… (2013).
• Continuum of Repair: The Light of Jacobs Ladder is an installation by Kader Attia at the Whitechapel Gallery. A series of marble busts of wounded soldiers from World War I and repaired North African wooden learning boards (ketab) observe a towering structure of bookshelves filled with centuries of accumulated human knowledge. The process of repair is central to Attia's work, which he sees as an underlying principle of development in nature as in culture, and a motive to re-invigorate his extraordinary library. Inside the structure of books lies a warmly-lit cabinet of curiosities above which a vast mirror reflects a horizontal beam of light, transforming it into rungs of a ladder to infinity. This commission is inspired by Jacob’s vision of angels ascending to heaven, as well as by the space itself which is steeped in history as a former library reading room.

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Lone Justice - Shelter.

Drawing the Line 2

"The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes" Marcel Proust

Drawing the Line 2 at the Frederick Parker Gallery is an exhibition of digitised and original sketchbooks which represent a visual mark-making narrative of the train journey that has been undertaken weekly by Mark Lewis from London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill (and vice versa) on the Chiltern Mainline since April 2011. Mark’s working methods on these journeys are expressed through an extensive range of graphical media and drawing strategies including the use of an iPad. Mark's sketchbook journals are a response to the urban and rural landscape observed on the train journeys. Drawing from a moving train he attempts to establish a form of visual intimacy with a continually changing landscape viewed at different times of the day in all seasons

The exhibition, which follows a first Drawing the Line at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, explores the relationship between visual perception and mark-making and the way in which new ways of seeing are encouraged by working spontaneously under self-imposed pressure. Semi-abstract visual metaphors capture landscape gestures, hidden structures, energies and patterns. These are representations or ‘visual cues’ which have the potential to tease out the truth of a landscape viewed at speed.

For the exhibition related sequences of pages from Mark's sketchbooks have been collaged together to create larger abstract images composed of many semi-abstract landscapes. In this practice his work can be compared with that of John Virtue, who "never makes direct transcriptions of his subjects, but rather uses the hundreds of drawings in his sketchbooks as a starting point for imagined or remembered landscapes." He is interested in making exciting abstractions from what he perceives.

In the 1980s Virtue exhibited large landscape paintings, "assembled from as many as 200 separate drawings placed on abutting panels in a grid formation." Andrew Graham-Dixon wrote of these images: "Each panel in a Virtue is different; this is not nature on the production line, but a potent image of the world's unknowability." In these works "the eye becomes lost in the labyrinth of forms established by the juxtaposition of different panels." Virtue stated, "I wanted to find a means of expression that tallied with my experience of being in the landscape, of being mobile in the landscape." In these images repetition and familiarity do not breed contempt, instead it "breeds a deeper and deeper love; a spiritual experience."

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Bruce Cockburn - Night Train.

Putting on the Christian virtues

Living as a Christian is like getting undressed and then dressed again. The picture we are given in Colossians 3. 12 is of taking off our old clothes (our old way of life – our vices) and putting on new clothes (a new and different way of life – Christian virtues).

This is something that we have to consciously choose to do. Getting dressed is not usually something we do without thinking about it. We take time when shopping to find clothes which we think suit us and generally we do just put on the first thing that comes to hand with whatever the next item is. Instead we match items until we are satisfied that we will look as we wish.

The new clothes that we are to put on as Christians are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. That implies that the old clothes we take off would be their opposites; hatred, unkindness, pride, roughness, and impatience. Also implied is the idea that compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience do not come naturally to us, so we have to make a conscious change. Bishop Tom Wright has said that “the point about “vice”, the opposite of “virtue”, is that, whereas virtue requires moral effort, all that has to happen for vice to take hold is for people to coast along in neutral: moral laziness leads directly to moral deformation (hence the insidious power of TV which constantly encourages effortless going-with-the-flow). The thing about virtue is that it requires Thought and Effort . . .”

So change begins with a conscious decision, not a magical or instant makeover. St Paul writes in Romans 12. 2, “let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind.” We know this is so because we only make changes in our lives when we break bad habits and form good habits. Tom Wright, again, “The point about the word “virtue” – if we can recapture it in its strong sense – is that it refers, not so much to “doing the right things”, but to the forming of habits and hence of moral character ... All behaviour is habit-forming … we [can] use the word “virtue” and “virtuous” simply to mean “behaviour we have had to work at which has formed our character so that at last it becomes natural and spontaneous to live like that.”

We can use a different illustration to see how this works in practice. Tom Wright says, “The illustration I sometimes use is that when you learn to drive a car, the idea is that you will quickly come to do most of the things “automatically”, changing gear, using the brakes, etc., and that you will develop the “virtues” of a good driver, looking out for other road users, not allowing yourself to be distracted, etc.; but that the highways agencies construct crash barriers and so on so that even if you don’t drive appropriately damage is limited; and also those “rumble strips”, as we call them in the UK, which make a loud noise on the tire if you even drift to the edge of the roadway.

“Rules” and “the Moral Law” are like those crash barriers and rumble strips. Ideally you won’t need them because you will have learned the character-strengths and will drive down the moral highway appropriately. But the rules are there so that when you start to drift, you are at once alerted and can take appropriate action – particularly figuring out what strengths need more work to stop it happening again.”

So, to sum up, Christian virtue comes “as the fruit of the thought-out, Spirit-led, moral effort of putting to death one kind of behaviour and painstakingly learning a different one.” When the Spirit is at work in us in this way, “we become more human, not less – which means we have to think more, not less, and have to make more moral effort, not less.”

What habits do you need to break and what habits do you need to build as a result of what we have thought about today? “So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience … and to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity.”

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Hurtsmile - Jesus Would You Meet Me.

Virtue reborn

I heard Tom Wright this afternoon speaking at Chelmsford Cathedral about his recent book Virtue Reborn.
Debates in society and the Church, he suggested, often oscillate between a rule book mentality and the cult of spontaneity. Sometimes utilitarianism - the greatest happiness for the greatest number - is invoked as a way out of this oscillation but, Wright argued, the development of character (virtue) is actually what makes sense of both.

Our goal as Christians is the new heaven and earth and we can anticipate in the present what we will become in the new heaven and earth. We practice in the here and now living as we shall live in the future and the more that we practice such living the more it becomes second nature and instinctual. Rules are needed initially because living in this way does not come naturally but only so that this way of living becomes spontaneous. Rules are like the crash barriers on a motorway, only needed when we have an accident.

We are designed to be image bearers, a royal priesthood; angled mirrors reflecting God out into the world and reflecting the world back to God (Revelation 4 and 5). We are people through whom God's blessings come out into the world as we practice the virtues which come straight from the heart of the Servant King. This comes about by the renewing of our minds. We have to work out and practice what is good and pleasing and acceptable to God.

The philosopher Simon Blackburn has written that the early Christians introduced four new virtues into ancient virtue ethics: humility; patience; chastity; and charity. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 writes that love is not our duty but our destiny. We practice love here and now in order that it becomes second nature in God's kingdom.

Virtuous circles go upwards and outwards and, for Christians, involve: scripture (living in the story); stories (biographies of the virtuous); examples (e.g. Maximilian Kolbe); community (being shaped by shared sacraments).

While this brief summary doesn't do justice to Wright's argument, I felt his argument provided a framework for perceptions I've preached on previously. These include the idea that the summary of the Law is also the goal of the Law. I've illustrated this idea previously in terms of parents teaching children to cross the road. The goal of such teaching is that we can judge for ourselves when to cross the road safely wherever we are. However, beginning such teaching involves strict rules preventing the child from crossing the road by itself until the lessons have been internalised and can be applied safely without the parent's presence. In a similar way, the detailed rules of the Mosaic Law were intended to inculcate love for God, others and ourselves.

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Albert Ayler - Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe.

Mixing Church & Politics (2)

Yesterday the Bishop of Barking (with Anglican and Ecumenical partners) hosted a seminar for church leaders on encouraging vocations to public life and political office entitled Mixing Church and Politics.

This was a well attended event at Westminster which saw politicians and political activists from each of the main parties speak passionately about the faith motivations for their political careers. These ranged from the influence of Catholic social teaching to Evangelical urban missions.

Stephen Timms equated Wilberforce’s campaign for the abolition of slavery with the Church’s involvement in the Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History campaigns. Jon Cruddas commended the attempts by Rowan Williams and Vincent Nicholls to change the language of political discourse and to re-emphasise the significance of ‘virtue’. In addition to contributions from Simon Hughes and David Burrowes, Caroline Alabi and Sister Josephine Caddy spoke about their involvements in the Hope not Hate and London Citizens campaigns respectively.

Bishop David has said, "After the past eighteen months confidence in political life in our country has reached an all time low. The Christian community needs to take responsibility in calling out vocations to public life and supporting politicians in this high Christian calling."

The evening saw my continued engagement with local politics as, together with Tom Platt of Living Streets, I presented the Community Street Audit report prepared by the Seven Kings and Newbury Park Resident's Association to the Area 7 Committee in the London Borough of Redbridge.

Our report highlights issues of traffic speeds, pavement parking, damaged paving, renewal of signage, litter, and seating in public areas along Aldborough Road South. We are calling for greater enforcement of the 20mph speed limit; traffic calming measures; a review of parking in the whole area; and additional signage to local amenities. Alongside these requests, we are offering to help fund new public seating and to organise community events to clean up the area and promote pride in the upkeep of front gardens.

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Runrig - City Of Lights / Dance Called America.