Tonight I was at the 2016 Boyle lecture in St Mary-le-Bow given by Professor Sarah Coakley, the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Murray Edwards College. This annual lecture series addresses topics which explore the relationship between Christianity and our contemporary understanding of the natural world.
Coakley's lecture was entitled 'Natural Theology in a Changed Key? Evolution, Cooperation and the God Question'. She writes: 'The latter part of the 20th century saw a revulsion against classic forms of "natural theology" which was propelled as much by theological fashion as by secular scientific resistance. This lecture lays out a cautious case for the reconsideration of a new style of "natural theology". It does so in the light of remarkable new discoveries in mathematicalized accounts of evolutionary "cooperation" which significantly challenge the idea of pervasive randomness in evolutionary processes. The ethical and teleological questions which are raised by these cooperative phenomena, it is argued, demand some sort of meaning-making response and ultimately metaphysical issues cannot be shirked. The question of God is reconsidered in this context, with a surprising final twist to the argument in which the human epistemic subject is itself drawn towards an invited transformation.'
She spoke about five different evolutionary mechanisms, identified by Martin A. Nowak, 'in which 'cooperation' can be shown to be favoured in repeated choices.' She, therefore, attributes 'certain forms of patterned and pervasive cooperative structure to different levels of the evolutionary spectrum', particularly those 'which arise in intentionally-motivated higher-mammal cooperation and human altruism.' To do so, is to make philosophical proposals about the fundamental nature of evolution's dynamics. Doing so, equates to the contemplative practice outlined by Origen of seeing existence as-a-whole; which, necessarily, 'is no longer strictly evolutionary science nor yet philosophy of science.'
Coakley is helpfully suggesting that the existence of cooperation in the dynamics of evolution is both a corrective to explanations of evolution predicated on selfish genes and a prompt towards a more holistic contemplative of evolution and its processes. What she proposes is 'a unified spiritual thought-experiment evoked precisely by critical reflection on evolutionary cooperation and its ethical and metaphysical meanings.' This is a profoundly helpful and hopeful proposal; one which, she notes, 'may itself evince a new creative posture of hope.'
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George Harrison - What Is Life?
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
Arriving at Station XIII
Arriving at Station XIII is a short series of videos exploring the development of a newly commissioned artwork for the Stations of the Cross project, running from February 10 to March 28 in 14 locations around London, from museums to cathedrals. Click here to view the video.
The videos follow the progress of the artist Michael Takeo Magruder (takeo.org) as he conceives, develops and finally presents his installation at St Stephen Walbrook. In this first video, Context, Michael discusses being approached to take part in the project, themes he regularly explores within his work, and the inspiration for his contribution.
For more information about the exhibition, including podcasts and associated events, visit: http://www.coexisthouse.org.uk/stations2016.html.
Henryk Gorecki - Symphony of sorrowful songs - Lento e largo.
The videos follow the progress of the artist Michael Takeo Magruder (takeo.org) as he conceives, develops and finally presents his installation at St Stephen Walbrook. In this first video, Context, Michael discusses being approached to take part in the project, themes he regularly explores within his work, and the inspiration for his contribution.
For more information about the exhibition, including podcasts and associated events, visit: http://www.coexisthouse.org.uk/stations2016.html.
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There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet
Here is my sermon from today's Choral Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:
A central aspect of God's experience as a human being in the person of Jesus Christ was that of rejection. Jesus was, in the words of Isaiah 53, ‘despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account’ (Isaiah 53. 3). We see that rejection here, in this story (Mark 6. 1 - 6), set in his home town at the beginning of his ministry, just as we see it more violently worked out at the end of his ministry when he is crucified.
Rejection is a human experience which we all understand because each us will have experienced rejection at one time or another. It is an experience that God has also shared and therefore understands as we go through our personal experiences of rejection.
But rejection is a human experience which we all understand because it is also something to which each of us is party. As in this story, we find it easy, as human beings, to find reasons to reject other people. It is not so long ago in the history of this country that there were appalling signs in windows saying, 'No Irish, no Blacks, no Dogs'. In our lifetime we have seen whole societies built around the separation of people on the basis of colour, with the Civil Rights and anti-apartheid movements, thankfully, having brought some significant change to those situations of rejection.
Yet, although we have seen change, we continue to see particular groups of people in society demonised, scapegoated and rejected. In the Church today, it is the LGBTI community who have that experience while in society generally, it is migrants, whether refugees or asylum seekers, that are the focus of significant rejection.
When Jesus is rejected, as in our Gospel reading, God is rejected. God, in Jesus, enters in to our experience, as human beings, of rejection. He does so in order to bring to light our constant scapegoating and rejection of others by exposing us to the futility of that way of life. Rejection of others ties us into a cycle of revenge and recrimination locking us in to spirals of violence.
Yet, when we have, as human beings, scapegoated and rejected God himself, what more can we do by way of rejection? The way to free ourselves from these negative cycles is by rejecting the impulse to reject or scapegoat others, in other words by following in the footsteps of Jesus who freely laid down his life for others. It is this to which Christ’s death as a scapegoat on the cross calls us.
Today, while we may not literally see signs saying 'No Irish, no Blacks, no Dogs', similar signs are nevertheless still there is our words and actions although applied to different groups of people at this different time. 'No economic migrants,' even 'No migrants', would seem to be the current cry, while in the Anglican Communion we persist in rejecting people on the basis of their sexuality. For those who follow a God who was scapegoated, reviled and rejected, there can be no scapegoating of others. For those who follow a God who laid down this own life for love of others, there must be a similar breaking of cycles of rejection through our own attitudes, speech and actions.
Instead of being those who reject, we need to become those who invite. The opposite of rejection is not simple acceptance, but active engagement; the invitation to participate in community. The goal of those who are great inviters is “to have everyone participating, giving and receiving gifts.” Abundant community involves welcoming “those on the margins”, “which is the heart of hospitality.” As William Butler Yeats was credited with saying, “There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet.” ('The Abundant Community' by John McKnight & Peter Block)
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Sixpence None The Richer - A Million Parachutes.
A central aspect of God's experience as a human being in the person of Jesus Christ was that of rejection. Jesus was, in the words of Isaiah 53, ‘despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account’ (Isaiah 53. 3). We see that rejection here, in this story (Mark 6. 1 - 6), set in his home town at the beginning of his ministry, just as we see it more violently worked out at the end of his ministry when he is crucified.
Rejection is a human experience which we all understand because each us will have experienced rejection at one time or another. It is an experience that God has also shared and therefore understands as we go through our personal experiences of rejection.
But rejection is a human experience which we all understand because it is also something to which each of us is party. As in this story, we find it easy, as human beings, to find reasons to reject other people. It is not so long ago in the history of this country that there were appalling signs in windows saying, 'No Irish, no Blacks, no Dogs'. In our lifetime we have seen whole societies built around the separation of people on the basis of colour, with the Civil Rights and anti-apartheid movements, thankfully, having brought some significant change to those situations of rejection.
Yet, although we have seen change, we continue to see particular groups of people in society demonised, scapegoated and rejected. In the Church today, it is the LGBTI community who have that experience while in society generally, it is migrants, whether refugees or asylum seekers, that are the focus of significant rejection.
When Jesus is rejected, as in our Gospel reading, God is rejected. God, in Jesus, enters in to our experience, as human beings, of rejection. He does so in order to bring to light our constant scapegoating and rejection of others by exposing us to the futility of that way of life. Rejection of others ties us into a cycle of revenge and recrimination locking us in to spirals of violence.
Yet, when we have, as human beings, scapegoated and rejected God himself, what more can we do by way of rejection? The way to free ourselves from these negative cycles is by rejecting the impulse to reject or scapegoat others, in other words by following in the footsteps of Jesus who freely laid down his life for others. It is this to which Christ’s death as a scapegoat on the cross calls us.
Today, while we may not literally see signs saying 'No Irish, no Blacks, no Dogs', similar signs are nevertheless still there is our words and actions although applied to different groups of people at this different time. 'No economic migrants,' even 'No migrants', would seem to be the current cry, while in the Anglican Communion we persist in rejecting people on the basis of their sexuality. For those who follow a God who was scapegoated, reviled and rejected, there can be no scapegoating of others. For those who follow a God who laid down this own life for love of others, there must be a similar breaking of cycles of rejection through our own attitudes, speech and actions.
Instead of being those who reject, we need to become those who invite. The opposite of rejection is not simple acceptance, but active engagement; the invitation to participate in community. The goal of those who are great inviters is “to have everyone participating, giving and receiving gifts.” Abundant community involves welcoming “those on the margins”, “which is the heart of hospitality.” As William Butler Yeats was credited with saying, “There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet.” ('The Abundant Community' by John McKnight & Peter Block)
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Sixpence None The Richer - A Million Parachutes.
Tuesday, 2 February 2016
Candlemas: Patience has formed itself in me a virtue
Tonight we were please to celebrate Candlemas at St Stephen Walbrook with our patrons, the Worshipful Company of Grocers. Here is the sermon that I preached as part of their Candlemas Service:
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. At the time it was first used, that slogan would have seemed perfectly acceptable. Now, it seems to sum up all that has gone wrong with a culture built on credit.
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.”
Why, I wonder, should we wait? As we have just seen, often we don’t like it and we can’t see the point. And yet the Bible is full of waiting. Abraham is promised that he will be the father of a great nation and that promise is fulfilled but only many years after Abraham himself has died. The children of Israel spend 40 years waiting and wandering in the wilderness before they enter the Promised Land. Later they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon waiting to return to Jerusalem. There were approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, with the birth of Jesus. Why so much waiting?
One reason is that waiting can lead to revelation. Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for God, are we looking and listening for all that God wants us to see and hear while we wait?
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.
Waiting can also 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 sharpen our sense of anticipation and also our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting. We can sense something of this in Simeon’s prayer:
“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise,
and you may let your servant go in peace.
With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:
A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles
and bring glory to your people Israel.”
When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God. 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.
I imagine all these to be thoughts and insights which became part of Simeon’s experience, as they can also be for us. I also imagine him finally saying something like this:
I have passed my days in expectation,
anticipation of a time which has not come.
Not yet come. Through long years of watching,
waiting, I have questioned my vocation,
understanding, calling, yet patience has formed
itself in me a virtue and I have been sustained.
And now in wintertime when the seed of life itself
seemed buried, my feet standing in my grave,
at the last moment, when hope had faded,
then you come; a new born life as mine is failing -
now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.
Hope, when hope was dashed. Wonder, where
cynicism reigned. Spring buds in winter snow.
Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Cockburn - Waiting For A Miracle.
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. At the time it was first used, that slogan would have seemed perfectly acceptable. Now, it seems to sum up all that has gone wrong with a culture built on credit.
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.”
Why, I wonder, should we wait? As we have just seen, often we don’t like it and we can’t see the point. And yet the Bible is full of waiting. Abraham is promised that he will be the father of a great nation and that promise is fulfilled but only many years after Abraham himself has died. The children of Israel spend 40 years waiting and wandering in the wilderness before they enter the Promised Land. Later they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon waiting to return to Jerusalem. There were approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, with the birth of Jesus. Why so much waiting?
One reason is that waiting can lead to revelation. Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for God, are we looking and listening for all that God wants us to see and hear while we wait?
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.
Waiting can also 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 sharpen our sense of anticipation and also our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting. We can sense something of this in Simeon’s prayer:
“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise,
and you may let your servant go in peace.
With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:
A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles
and bring glory to your people Israel.”
When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God. 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.
I imagine all these to be thoughts and insights which became part of Simeon’s experience, as they can also be for us. I also imagine him finally saying something like this:
I have passed my days in expectation,
anticipation of a time which has not come.
Not yet come. Through long years of watching,
waiting, I have questioned my vocation,
understanding, calling, yet patience has formed
itself in me a virtue and I have been sustained.
And now in wintertime when the seed of life itself
seemed buried, my feet standing in my grave,
at the last moment, when hope had faded,
then you come; a new born life as mine is failing -
now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.
Hope, when hope was dashed. Wonder, where
cynicism reigned. Spring buds in winter snow.
Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Cockburn - Waiting For A Miracle.
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.
Monday, 1 February 2016
New Management Board Members sought for the London Internet Church
The London Internet Church, which is based at St Stephen Walbrook, is seeking new development and Management Board members - click here for more information.
Established in 2007 to spread the Christian message throughout the world, the London Internet Church has flourished into an organisation that has a 22,000+ strong global email database and a website receiving in excess of 25,000 visitors per month.
Prayer requests, “light-a-candle”, Morning Prayer, Night Prayer as well as sermons and videos of various Anglican services sit at the heart of its offering, enabling it to connect with Christians whenever and wherever they may be. They receive a significant and open-ended grant from Google each year to enable them to advertise their work through AdWords, which produces around 20,000 (PPC) clicks – i.e. site visits – per month.
They are now actively recruiting new volunteers to join the Management Board to help move the charity into the next exciting phase of its development. Key opportunities include how social media is best leveraged, keeping in regular contact with the ever growing email database, harnessing the potential of live streaming services provided by Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook and, ultimately, re-launching the website. The current website is built on the popular and open-source WordPress platform.
Click here for more information about the London Internet Church in the latest newsletter from St Stephen Walbrook.
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Discover & explore: Hope
The first in a new series of Discover & explore services was held at St Stephen Walbrook today. These services, which feature the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields, explore their themes through a thoughtful mix of music, prayers, readings and reflections. Themes for the current series are based on Eric Whitacre's anthem 'Hope, Faith, Life, Love' and, as a result, this series of musical discovery explores the themes of hope, faith , life, love, dreams, joy, truth and soul.
Today's theme was Hope. Next week (Monday 8th February, 1.10pm) we will explore the theme of Faith in a service led by Revd Sally Muggeridge.
Here is the liturgy and reflection from today's service:
Opening responses
Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love.
(Psalm 33:18)
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. (Psalm 33:22)
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. (Psalm 62:5)
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. (Psalm
146:5)
Reflection
Five sixths of the medieval part of the city of London, including 13,000 houses and 84 churches, were destroyed by the Great Fire of London that lasted 4 days in total. This was a disaster zone where everything was lost and people were in despair. Where is hope to be found in such a situation?
Of course, we know what happened. King Charles II invited architects, surveyors and engineers to present alternative plans. Although many of his plans were unrealised, Christopher Wren and others then rebuilt the City in a new way using better materials.
This is the starting point for an exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects entitled Creation from Catastrophe: How architecture rebuilds communities, which explores the varying ways that cities and communities have been re-imagined in the aftermath of natural or man-made disasters.
Disasters are frequent occurrences, “some natural, many more due to man’s ham-fisted neglect of the planet or our inability to get by without recourse to violence.” “The result is always the need for a new start, and how we respond and rebuild colours an uncertain future more than ever. Yet, for all the carnage and chaos that catastrophes bring, an odd truth is apparent: disasters do give us the chance to shape things differently.”
As a result, as Terry Eagleton writes in Hope without Optimism, “the most authentic hope is whatever can be salvaged, stripped of guarantees from a general dissolution.” It is whatever survives a general ruin. This is where we find the writer of Lamentations; bowed down with the reality of exile, yet trusting that it is in the nature of God to bring a new beginning from this disastrous affliction which is “wormwood and gall” to him. Similarly, Emily Dickinson claims that, hope is heard most sweetly in the Gale, “the chillest land” and “on the strangest Sea”.
The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti, reflecting on the Arab Spring, recently wrote: “Today, many see “hope” and “optimism” as obscene words.” Nevertheless he still finds “reasons to feel encouraged” despite the fact that, “the physical causes of the revolution on 25 January 2011 – corruption, tyranny and poverty – still exist, and have an uglier face.” In fact, the situation is so dire, he says, “that it is not sustainable; the revolution is still possible because nothing else is.”
Eagleton finds hope in the same place. Hope, he writes, “is to be found in the unfinished nature of the actual, discernible as a hollow at its heart.” “Potentiality is what articulates the present with the future, and thus lays down the material infrastructure of hope.” Hope is about a vision for a future that is different from the present; one which therefore requires imagination and vision. For Christians that vision is of the kingdom of God; which has begun to be realised but is still to come in its full reality.
As a result, in Theology of Hope Jurgen Moltmann argues that “Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it. Peace with God means conflict with the world, for the goad of the promised future stabs inexorably into the flesh of every unfulfilled present. If we had before our eyes only what we see, then we should cheerfully or reluctantly reconcile ourselves with things as they happen to be. That we do not reconcile ourselves, that there is no pleasant harmony between us and reality, is due to our unquenchable hope. This hope keeps man unreconciled, until the great day of the fulfillment of all the promises of God.
The Church, then, is intended to be “the source of continual new impulses towards the realization of righteousness, freedom and humanity here in the light of the promised future that is to come.” Our hope should “provide inexhaustible resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love.” It should constantly provoke and produce thinking of an anticipatory kind in love to humanity and the world, “in order to give shape to the newly dawning possibilities in the light of the promised future, in order as far as possible to create here the best that is possible, because what is promised is within the bounds of possibility.” “Thus it will constantly arouse the ‘passion for the possible’, inventiveness and elasticity in self-transformation, in breaking with the old and coming to terms with the new.” The Christian hope should always have “a revolutionary effect in this sense on the intellectual history of the society affected by it.”
“Wherever that happens, Christianity embraces its true nature and becomes a witness of the future of Christ.”
Intercessions
We pray for all those currently experiencing natural or
man-made disasters and for whom life is wormwood and gall. By living all the
way through these experiences of vulnerability may they find their way to a
place of new beginning in which power can be plucked from weakness and life
made fruitful once again. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
May we find in the unfinished nature of the present, a
vision of a better future; a vision of the kingdom of God. Give us the
imagination and vision we need to shape things differently and rebuild colours
in an uncertain future. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
May your Church be a source of continual new impulses
towards the realization of righteousness, freedom and humanity here in the
light of the promised future that is to come. May we see the inexhaustible resources
for the creative, inventive imagination of love that hope in you provides. Constantly
arouse in us a ‘passion for the possible’, inventiveness and elasticity in
self-transformation, by breaking with the old and coming to terms with the new.
May this hope continue to have a revolutionary effect on the intellectual
history of our society. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Blessing
Places of new beginning, power plucked from weakness, life
made fruitful once again, the realization of righteousness, freedom and
humanity, resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love, visions of
a better future, visions of the kingdom of God; and may those blessings of God
almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain
with you always. Amen.
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Bob Chilcott - Even Such Is Time.
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