Jesus' observations on the weather in today’s reading could hardly be more topical. Throughout this heatwave, we have had strong winds coming from the south bringing the heat of the Sahara desert to us. We are waiting for those winds to change and bring us a westerly wind that will bring cool Atlantic breezes to us and refreshing rain. Jesus was quoting from the folk wisdom of the day, part of the life of farming communities worldwide. Yet it was not until the 19th century that this folk wisdom was recorded scientifically leading to our modern meteorology. Constable was one of the first painters to make detailed studies of the clouds and studied the latest research. “ I am a man of clouds” he once said. The painting of Salisbury cathedral was a draft for his final ‘Six footer’. It was never intended to be exhibited but is part of a study of the clouds towering over, and dominating the slender spire of Salisbury cathedral. Here the clouds are full of structure, they aren’t the light, fluffy, whipped white of Constable’s early skies. The clouds are turbulent, surely a storm is coming. As the folk law predicted: ‘When clouds appear like rocks and towers The earth’s refreshed by frequent showers Today's reading encourages us to be weather watchers: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once ’A shower is coming,’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time.” Luke 12: 54 - 56 The changing weather that Jesus is forecasting heralds more than a scorching wind or a coming shower, it heralds fire and war, division and stress in the whole fabric of society. These are the signs of a new order coming into the world and the passing of the old age. As Jesus approaches his final days in which his Baptism (Death and Resurrection) is accomplished he senses the coming storm and tells his disciples and the crowds around him to be ready for a ripping apart of society that would divide even families: “Do you think I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” Luke 12: 51 The kingdom of God was coming into the world and no one had noticed! Jesus' words sound harsh and don’t fit easily with the image of the ‘gentle Jesus meek and mild’ we have of him. His words however do not contradict his message of love but say, “It’s time to wake up and see what is happening in the world, just as we see the changing weather in the clouds that tells a storm is coming." In his discourse, Jesus warns his hearers not to get embroiled in disputes and family rows but to be ready for what is coming. Later he reminds them of the people in the days of Noah who: “Were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” Luke 17: 26 Jesus gives these warnings now so that they will not be shocked when they discover that following Jesus will mean some very tough choices. The kind of choices that each generation faces will always be different. Jesus speaks of the choice between family and faith, for others, the choice has been between riches and poverty or freedom and captivity. A personal example from our own times helps to make the choice facing some more real to all of us. For some like the Rusian poet Irina Ratusinskaya, it meant the choice between liberty and the Gulag. As a young girl growing up in the Soviet Union she longed for truth and not finding it in her teachers she turned to literature. “Russian literature saved my soul. When I was a young girl in school and I asked what is evil, no one in that corrupt system could show me” As a young adult Irina lived by the truth she had discovered and wrote poetry to express that truth but her honesty and truth-telling cost her freedom and she almost lost her life. Despite years in the Gulag when everything was stripped from her, she was able to say to the world on her release: “ The individual has to die for the person to emerge, I have learned the security of those who have nothing to lose” The question that Jesus puts to us is not, I think a choice between faith and family, wealth and riches, or freedom and imprisonment, the question is this: ‘If you were stripped of family and friends if you were stripped of wealth and possessions if you were stripped of freedom and dignity what would be left of you?’ Irina who experienced all that could say: “The individual has to die for the person to emerge” At the core of her being there was a person whose existence did not depend on family and friends, wealth or power, freedom or possessions. A person whose life was built on the solid foundations of faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself put it this way: “ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” Luke 9:24 There is for all of us a choice to be made not once but at every turning point in our lives, do we choose to build on the solid foundations of faith in Jesus Christ or on the shifting sands – What, when everything else is stripped away will survive of us? When the storm comes will we be able to stand or will we be swept away? When the wind blows will we be found naked or clothed in Christ? What times do we live in today? We live in interesting times! Looking out into the world and attempting to interpret the ‘Times’ convinces me that as in every generation we are called to hold fast to our faith in Christ in the face of a world that has lost its bearings. Extremes of religious belief advocating violence and death. Extremes of political populism catering to the worst appetites of the far right and far left crowd out the voices of faith and reason. In a world like this, the ideological evils of Communism and Nazism were born in the 20th century because men and women of reason were found wanting. ‘The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Yeats wrote at the beginning of the 20th century Does that describe the world today, does that describe the church? Does it describe us? If it does then we will surely be swept away as in the 20th century, We will be stripped and found naked, we will be blown away by the storm and drowned by the flood. We will only know when the storm comes because it will depend on the choices we make today, are those choices ones that build the person within or feed the ego? Like the Prophets and Patriarchs of the Old Testament, we are called to live by faith. It is for us to stand on the solid foundations of faith in Jesus Christ, to keep faith with Christ, and witness to his selfless life. ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.’ Hebrews 12: 1-2 Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions. Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen
With the cost of living crisis threatening to overwhelm one in three families in Britain, and a world food crisis affecting the lives of up to a billion people there can be no better moment to consider Jesus teaching on Social Justice. At the core of the Christian ethic is love for God and love for neighbour, so our responsibilities to one another are very much a concern for us all. Our response will, I suspect, be determined by how threatened we ourselves feel at this moment. Fear of the future can so easily drive out love for neighbours. The Raft of Medusa. 1819-20 Theodore Gericault. Consider a historical example famously painted by Theodore Gericault, ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ 1819 - 20. It is an over-life-size painting that depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Meduse, which ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritiana on 2 July 1816. On 5 July 1816, at least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft; all but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue, and those who survived endured starvation and dehydration and practised cannibalism. The event became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain. But incompetence was not his only fault he, as a Captain, failed to put his passengers before himself, casting them adrift in an unseaworthy raft without sufficient food and water. The result was the barbaric desperation of men, women and children doomed to starve. Gericault’s painting depicts the moment when a sail is sighted and the fifteen who remained alive are rescued. The ‘Raft of Medusa’ could serve as a parable for today as we see an artificially created food and energy crisis threaten the lives of so many. We live in a world of plenty, scarcity is the result of decisions taken by human beings who place themselves at the centre of their world rather than share it with others. Do not worry. Luke 12:22 ‘Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and your body more than clothing.’ Luke 12: 22-23 Jesus paints a portrait of a man very much at the centre of his own small world. ‘The rich fool’. He piles up his crops into barns, thinking that he will be secure but he is robbed of everything by death. “ You fool this very night your life will be demanded of you.” Luke 12:20 This is not a bad man, but he is mistaken in where his true treasure lies not in possessions but in the quality of one’s life. A life where we place ourselves at the centre is, in the bible, called idolatry. Listen to the way this man talks to himself appearing to live in his own world. “ He thought to himself, what shall I do?” ‘ he said to himself, “I will do this. I will …I will … I will and I will say to my soul … relax, eat and be merry.” Luke 12: 17 – 19 This is a man who puts ‘Goods’ in place of God, and self in place of the neighbour, making greed his God. The OT prophets warned the Jewish people again and again that they would become like the gods they worshipped. If we worship lifeless objects we will lose our humanity, we will lose our soul, and we will become lifeless. ‘Perfect love drives out fear’ 1 John 4:18 The root of this greed is fear and anxiety, which is why Jesus repeats again and again: “Do not fear … Do not be afraid … Do not worry.” Greed then is the fear of scarcity but Jesus does not counter this fear with a promise of riches, but with a promise of love. He rejects the idea that our worth consists in the abundance of our possessions by telling us that: “Life is more than food and the body more than clothing” Luke 12: 23 Jesus is not asking us to make a vow of poverty but pointing us to the true source of all our desiring. The desire to be loved, to know our true value in the love of another. We will fill our lives with things if we believe our true value consists of the things we own, but fill our lives with love and we will discover our true worth. In the presence of God, in the presence of love, fear is cast out. Love reverses the vicious cycle of fear and scarcity and propels us outward toward others. A life grounded in this ethic of love recognises that we have nothing to fear because in God we meet the true object of our desires. The one who loves us and desires our love. In God we meet our ultimate desire and destination, in God, we come home and when we hear the words: “ this night your life is being demanded of you” we can be at peace because we know we are loved.” Today we meet at the Lord’s table, a symbol of His love and generosity. He lays a table for us with the symbols of His life, bread for His body, wine for His blood. Symbols of love that we are then sent out to share with the world. The rich farmer was right about one thing, “ Relax, eat, and be merry” because “ You have plenty of good things laid up.” This is a table laid up for us. Taste its abundance and you’ll see that the Lord is good. Rev simon Brignall Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Ame I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
Do you have a favourite journey, a road or railway journey that is never boring however often you take it? Filled with memories maybe, or overlooking a beautiful landscape or with a view of some grand castle or cathedral. One of my favourite journies is along the M40 passing through the Chiltern cutting and passing through the Oxfordshire countryside which stretches away for miles on either side of the motorway. Or maybe even more beautiful is the stretch of the A303, not everyone's favourite I know, but as you get past the bottleneck at Stonehenge there are wonderful views across the hills to the south as far as Shaftesbury. You may have guessed why these are some of my favourite journies, they are all along roads that I take home or go on holiday. Living and working in Oxfordshire the M40 passed right down the middle of my parishes and in Dorset, famous for not having any motorways, it is our holiday highway! The journey that Jesus sets out on is in one sense a journey home for Jesus is going to Jerusalem, and as events unfold, to his home in heaven, but here in this world he tells his disciples he has no home, nowhere to rest. Stanley Spencer captures the essence of these words as he portrays Jesus, arms outstretched as on the Cross, travelling through a barren landscape with only the foxes for company. But notice, though he has no home of his own his outstretched arms have sleeves big enough to make a home for the foxes! Jesus though he has no home of his own invites his companions to make their home in Him. Today our reading takes us on a journey along a road where we meet three characters one eager to follow Jesus the others more hesitant, to each one he offers a challenge “Come join me as a homeless traveller” and an encouragement, “and I will bring you home” none are turned away. None are condemned all are invited on the journey. But the first group he meets on the road are the Samaritans, they resolutely refuse to follow him and the disciples are keen to condemn but Jesus rebukes the zealous disciples. He will not condemn those who follow another faith and as we learn from the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ Jesus commends them for their neighbourly love to the stranger. There are others who would-be followers, ready to sacrifice all. Surely Jesus would welcome them to his band, but his words are a warning to those who would commit themselves that this is a journey that involves leaving home and becoming a traveller like him. Then there are those who are cautious. They have family commitments that they fear will keep them from giving themselves wholeheartedly to the life of a follower of Jesus. His words to the cautious are an encouragement to trust him, he will give us a home. “Go and announce the Kingdom of God” Luke 9: 60 for that is our true home. Then there are those who would follow Jesus part-time. It is an interesting offer that Jesus makes and worth exploring they say, but there are so many other interesting offers that must be explored. ‘Let’s see how it goes. Here Jesus gives a warning: There can only be one home for those who follow Jesus: “No one who puts his hand to the plough and then looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God” Luke 9: 62. Four different types of people: It takes all types to make a Church and Jesus holds the door open to all of us. Jesus continues to attract discussion and disagreement amongst us all today. His life and teaching are still centre stage in the debates about how we should live. For each one Jesus has a word, “Come and join me and make your home with me, my arms are big enough for all” To each he gives time, refusing to condemn, always challenging, inviting us to consider how life might be if we followed him and made our home in Him. We have no idea how each of responded to Jesus' invitation, it is not for us to judge or condemn, but only to consider how we ourselves respond to the challenge of Jesus' invitation. For Stanley Spencer, there was only one true home. At his memorial service at St James’s Piccadilly on 27th January 1960, the Revd M Westropp said: ‘He told my wife that dying and reaching heaven would be a sense of relief being safe again, of being home where one belongs’ Rev. Simon Brignall We continue to pray for healing in our lives, both of body, mind and soul, remembering especially Rory, Adam and David. Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. we pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
Bedlam from the Rake's Progress 1735 William Hogarth If I was to mention some of the most pressing social issues of the day, mental illness, social exclusion, male violence, and racial prejudice, it might surprise you that all of these are addressed in this account by Luke written almost two thousand years ago. It is the story of Jesus's encounter with a violently disturbed man, shunned by his community, abandoned by his family, and living naked with a herd of pigs! Yet Luke describes this man, not as a madman but as a ‘Citizen of this country'. The encounter with Jesus begins innocently with the kind of question we might address to someone who is soon to be friend, “What is your name”, and the conversation continues after he is freed from his demons as the two sit side by side, with talk about his home and family. It took centuries for the Church to model this kind of compassion for the mentally disturbed. The treatment of the mentally ill, until the 19th century, was not unlike that meeted out by the people of Gerasa, the hometown of this poor man. They were chained, excluded, and sometimes exhibited for the entertainment of the crowds. This is the scene Hogarth painted in the last of his great series of paintings, ‘The Rake’s Progress’. The Rake lies prostrate, almost naked, there are manacles on his ankles and wrists and although it appears that his family tends to him, he is an object of amusement to the ladies who have come to gawp at these poor creatures. The scene is one that would have been common in ‘The Bethlehem Royal Hospital’ in the 18th century. Here a certain Margaret Nicholson was imprisoned after an attempted assassination attempt on King George 111 in 1786. The knife was blunt and the King was not harmed, he even felt a certain sympathy for the woman who believed herself to be the rightful heir to the throne. As the guards took her away he shouted after them: “The poor creature is mad: do not hurt her, she has not hurt me.” These words undoubtedly saved her life as even an unsuccessful regicide was treason and carried a death sentence. Margaret was certified as mad and committed to living out her life at Bethlehem Royal Hospital more notoriously known as Bedlam. She died there 42 years later in 1828. It is probable that George recognised a fellow sufferer as he himself suffered from delusional thoughts and uncontrollable actions. The King however was fortunate to have a doctor who understood that mental illness required sympathy and began a strict regime then termed ‘Compassionate moral treatment’. Though he was ill for long periods during his life this treatment helped to bring him back to his family and his people. Power corrupts Our gospel reading for today describes a man who has lost control of himself, his family, and his life. The picture given to us is of a ‘wild man’ but there is much to suggest that he was once sane, maybe even someone of importance in the community. Not only does he have a home and a family, but he is described as a: ‘Citizen of the city of Geresa’ Luke 8:26. Maybe once he was a man of power, but now he is a man driven to violence by the demons that possess him. We might guess at the causes of his madness. Maybe like Hogarth’s Rake, he is the victim of his own downfall. Could it be that having once been powerful he is now powerless and is consumed by an anger that is dangerous to others and to himself? My name is Legion’ Luke 8:30 Though he could break free from his chains it was his ‘Demons’ who controlled him. We can understand the term demons in both a literal as well as a metaphorical sense, indeed the only way for a pre-scientific mind to understand the uncontrolled violence of mental illness was to ascribe it to forces beyond our control. When we seek to dominate and control we end up by being controlled by demons we cannot tame. Master of the waves and the wind. Luke gives us a lovely parallel portrait of Jesus in contrast to this man called ‘Legion’. He has just described the moment when Jesus calms the waves and the wind. He is a man in control not just of himself but of the elemental forces of nature. But Jesus is not a man who seeks to control or dominate. As he meets Legion he does not attempt to subdue him as others have done but speaks to him by his name. “What is your name?” Luke 8: 30. Perhaps for the first time in many years, this man is being treated as a human being. Instead of the fear and the force with which Legion had lived here is someone who will befriend him. But there is a curious detail here, for whereas Jesus speaks gently to the man, he commands the demons to come out of him. Jesus can command the demons but he does not command the man. The master of wind and waves, the one from whom demons flee, is not willing to command obedience from this man. The power of love: John tells us in his prologue that the one who created the world by his command comes into a world but is not received by the world. ‘The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him, He came to His own and his own people did not receive Him’ John 1: 11 This reminds us of the mystery at the heart of the Christian gospel - the human heart cannot be controlled by force but only won through love, a love that respects our humanity. The power of love is clearly seen in the transformation of this man. When his friends and neighbours come to see him he is: ‘Clothed and in his right mind’. Luke 8:36 Isn’t it remarkable that Jesus sends this man straight home? The family is the place where we are to prove that we are transformed, people. It is in these intimate relationships that we reveal our real selves and find wholeness and healing. King George 111 was a family man and his family was a source of strength to him. How fortunate he was to be able to return to them unlike poor Margaret Nicholson manacled for eight years and imprisoned for life. Jesus gives us a model of healing not by a display of power but by the power of love. Now this citizen of Gerasa is to seek out and serve his family and community as God has sought out and served him. He is re-clothed in his rightful mind. Rev. Simon Brignall We continue to pray for healing in our lives, both of body, mind, and soul, remembering especially Rory, Adam, and David. Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. we pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen
