Outside the Co-op in Zermatt, I spotted a large poster with the words ‘Look around you and you will see the glory of God’. It is an awe-inspiring experience to look up at the Matterhorn shining in the sun or wreathed in clouds, such beauty you say to yourself cannot be an accident.This kind of glory shouts at you and indeed overwhelms you. You have to stop and fall on your knees, which I did quite a lot while skiing! But there is another kind of glory, the glory of small unnoticed things, the flower, the butterfly’s wings, or maybe just the lichen on the warm Cotswold drywall. It is a beauty that does not advertise itself but requires a moment of silence and a desire to look and listen.The Welsh poet RS Thomas reflects on this hidden glory in a few short lines that capture a moment of ‘Eternity’, as he puts it. ‘I have seen the sun break throughTo illuminate a small fieldFor a while, and gone my wayAnd forgotten it. But that was thePearl of great price, the one field that hadTreasure in it. I realise nowThat I must give all that I haveTo possess it. Life is not hurryingOn to a receding future, nor hankering afterAn imagined past. It is the turningAside like Moses to the miracleOf the lit bush, to a brightnessThat seemed as transitory as your youthOnce, but is the eternity that awaits you. RS Thomas Van Gogh follows a long tradition of Dutch artists who see the eternal in the ordinary and every day. He captures an eternal moment in a workaday scene of harvesters on a still summer evening as the sun goes down, and turns what to many would have been an unremarkable sight into ‘The miracle of the lit bush’. To see this hidden glory’ like Moses we need to turn aside,That is, to pay attention to the moment, ‘living not for a receding future or an imagined past’ but to the eternal in all things. The Wedding at CanaToday's gospel speaks about this glory, hidden to all but those who look and listen. Not a God who is revealed in glory but a God hidden in the ordinary and every day. The story is a familiar one and has even become a byword for turning 'the ordinary', water, into something special, wine, but there is a disturbing episode in the story that never fails to make me stop and try to imagine what is going on. Whatever may have been the cause of the shortage of wine, Mary the mother of Jesus feels responsible and goes to Jesus with a plea for help. This gives rise to a strange exchange between them. Jesus answers her with a rebuke. “Woman, why do you involve me?”... “My time has not yet come” John 1:4 However, we try to soften this rejection the mystery remains. Why should Jesus respond in this way? As I understand it, Jesus, who Mary knows can help, wants to remain in the shadows rather than perform a miracle that would draw attention to himself. “ This is not the time,” he says to reveal who he is. That time will come, a day when the world will see what the glory of God looks like but it is not now. Silence: When God hides and we confront this silence we must first remember that Jesus himself came up against the silence of God, his Father. In the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed: “If it is Thy will let this cup pass from me”. Luke 22: 42. At the centre of our Christian lives, we will discover the silence of God, but the silence is not a rebuke but an answer. The response of Jesus in the Garden was: “Not my will, but yours be done” Luke 22: 42. Prayer:This was also the response of Mary. Mary gives us the perfect model for our prayers. In response to the apparent refusal of Jesus, she teaches us what it means to trust in God ‘His mother said to the servants “Do whatever he tells you” John 2: 5. There will be many times in our lives when we are asked to trust God without understanding what God is doing. Glory:So what was God doing on this occasion? The answer comes right at the end of the story. ‘This was the first of his miraculous signs ... He thus revealed his glory.’ John 2: 11. The moment when all seemed lost, as at the Wedding in Cana is in fact the moment when God reveals His Glory. The first of Jesus' miracles points to the Cross, the ultimate disaster when all did seem lost. The Cross experience lies at the centre of our Christian experience. It is usually in times and places like loss or disaster that we often find God opening our eyes.It is often in the humble and ordinary that God’s glory is revealed. The Best:Mary’s prayer is answered, but not in the way she expected. That is usually true of every experience of God, revealed in the unexpected places and people we meet each day. The silence of God takes us to that place where we like Mary and the disciples learn to wait on Jesus to see what he will do.
The Sansham Memorial Chapel was built to honour the 'forgotten dead' of the First World War. The series of paintings inside the Chapel were inspired by Spencer's own experience as a medical orderly in the Macedonia campaign.Remembering. John 12: 1 -8Remembrance SundayTo remember is to RE- Member, to RE–Call, that is to bring that person back into our lives as if they were still with us. This morning we have added a new name to the list of those who we remember, Marjorie Viscountess Queninton, and we must tell her story if we are to truly remember her.Marjorie was 33 when she set out to join her husband Michael in Egypt where he was serving with his regiment, the 1st Royal Gloucestershire Hussars. They planned to be together for the Christmas of 1915, but German submarine activity in the Mediterranean and the sinking of the P&O liner the ‘Persia’ where 343 passengers and crew tragically lost their lives, prevented her from leaving until 1916. She was accompanied by Victoria, Michael’s sister, and together they organised the Nurses Empire club in Alexandria. Tragically she contracted typhoid and died on 4th March 1916. Just a month later Michael was killed at the battle of Katia in what is known as the first Gaza war. They left behind them their baby son, again called Michael three and a half years old, the father of Micky St Aldwyn and David Hicks Beech.Their stories and tragically short lives remind us of the many young lives lost not just in battle, but by the diseases that swept through military bases. Particularly disastrous was the so-called ‘Spanish flu’ that struck just as the war was coming to an end. I recently visited the British and French war graves cemetery on a trip to North Macedonia. Looking along the serried ranks of headstones I noticed a curious detail, many of the graves reported a date after the war’s end. These young men, many just in their twenties had not died of war wounds but of the ‘Spanish flu’, in fact, out of a total of twenty thousand casualties, ten thousand died of the flu. Among those who were the nurses who cared for them, like Majorie.Marjorie Viscountess Queninton’s story finds an echo in the ministry of Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus who pours out a costly perfume over Jesus’ feet and then wipes them with her hair. The perfume we learn from Judas was worth around 300 denarii, about a year’s wages. Mary had likely been keeping this secret treasure for a special moment, maybe her wedding or for a funeral.Mary is pouring out this perfume on someone who will soon be dead, it looks like a waste when it could be used for so many useful things to help the living but it is an act of worship that comes from a heart that is full of love. Love that leaves a fragrance and lingers in the air such that Jesus tells us that Mary has done something beautiful for God, a story we are to remember: “Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” Mark 14:9MemoriesThose words “In memory of her” are significant. Think back to your earliest memories I expect there will be a smell associated with them. I remember the smell of carbolic soap at school and am taken right back to those days when I smell it!When Jesus lifted the bread and the wine at the Last Supper just a few days after this act of love he said to his disciples.“Do this in remembrance of me” Luke 22:19When in John’s account of the last Supper Jesus washes the feet of the disciples he says: “I have given you an example that you also should do as I have done to you” John 13: 15Mary’s love and Marjorie’s models how we are to love and serve each other in response to the total love that Jesus has for us. That is why her name and that of the many who gave their lives are remembered whenever the gospel is preached. It is the gospel itself!The heart of the Christian faithJesus points to Mary as an example to us all of the true springs of service to others. It goes beyond actions to motives, true service is always the outpouring of love, a love that has a fragrance that tells us it is genuine.We remember today the women who offered themselves in the service of others as nurses because it speaks to us of the dignity that Jesus gives to suffering and death. As we remember them today we see reflected in them our humanity which God loves and through Jesus pours himself out for:The next time the disciples met for supper with Jesus he offered them bread and wine with the words:“This is my body... this is my blood, given for you. Do this in memory of me” Matthew 26:26The fragrance of that love is still with us today as we renew that love and gratitude through our acts of Remembrance and our service to others as we go out into the world.
Love is all you need?This Beatles song summed up the philosophy of the generation that most of us grew up in. It was a hope, an aspiration for the world that we believed could be realised by turning our backs on everything that divided us, including our notions of God.As John Lennon sang ‘Imagine there’s no heaven’. Religion for many of us represented all that was worst in human societies, bigotry, intolerance, and division, and yet at the centre of Christ’s teaching is the commandment to love God and your neighbour as yourself.Last year the Church of England encouraged churches to study a booklet ‘Living in Love and Faith’, setting out the arguments for and against the blessing of same-sex unions in church. Opinions are sharply divided, as you will know within the Anglican church, between those who take a conservative approach and a more liberal understanding of scriptural teaching. It all depends on how you define ‘Love’The Great CommandmentJesus of all the great religious teachers put a priority on love above all other scriptural commandments, even the strict prohibition of working on the Sabbath. In doing so he sets a precedent for questioning all the other interpretations of scriptural teaching in the light of the commandment to love.The challenge set by the religious lawyer was to prioritise the commandments:“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Mark 12: 28.This was a trap, beloved of lawyers designed to force Jesus into taking a position that would antagonise and divide. There were so many binding commandments that to prioritise one over another would lead to a heated argument.Onr Rabbi challenged to the same test answered:“What you hate for yourself do not do to your neighbour, that is the whole of the law, the rest is commentary” Rabbi GamielNotice how Jesus’ reply differs from this:“Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Mark 12: 29He starts with God and not the neighbour. Love, then, is to be defined not by human love but by divine love. We cannot take human love as the measure because, as Joh writes in his epistle to the Church:‘Beloved let us love one another, for love is from God’ 1 John 4:7Divine Love – Unity in diversityWhat then is the love that defines God, the love that makes him one?First, God’s love is a shared love, a love that embraces three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It would follow that if love is to hold us together in unity it must embrace all types and conditions of men and women.There can be no one outside the love of God. That is why Jesus had no time for the divisions of race, culture or status. The unity in diversity of the God of love questions the basis of any discrimination either by race, gender, or sexuality.Divine Love – Unity in PurposeThe wide embrace of God’s love is however single-minded in its purpose for it exposes the fallibility and compromises of human cultures and traditions as we see so often in the gospel accounts of Jesus' teaching and ministry.Human love is to be defined not by the standards or laws of society but by God’s love for us. In Jesus Christ, we see God’s undivided love for us. Through his Son, he loves us with all his heart, with all his Soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength, so that he might restore a world in rebellion against its creator and at war with itself.Divided Love?Because Jesus defined love in this way he often came into conflict not only with the religious authorities but the Roman authorities. Mark, in this chapter, gives us three examples of the choices and challenges of loving God with the same undivided love as he loves us.The parable of the Tenants and the Vineyard owner, speaks of rebellion against God’s love. The paying of taxes to Ceasar, speaks of loyalty to human authorities and loyalty to God. Finally, in the question about Marriage, he speaks about the difference between relationships on earth and those in heaven.In all these situations Divine love challenges human priorities and preferences. There are times and places where we must choose between what we believe God has called us to do and the pressures of power, wealth or social acceptability.Love your neighbour as yourselfYou will notice that the second commandment is not phrased as a negative but a positive. Loving your neighbour is not about refraining from harming others, but about actively seeking their welfare, whether they be friend or foe. Whatever our differences we are to act towards our neighbour out of love.On both sides of the argument on same-sex relationships, there is a real need to lay down personal agendas and seek the welfare of the whole Church and indeed the whole of humanity.Love is not all you needLove requires a definition, a direction and a distinctiveness that is Christian.The definition of love is seen in the unity of God who is three persons embracing all in one.The direction of love is seen in the obedience of Christ who chose to challenge the priorities, and prejudices of human societies in rebellion against God.The distinctiveness of love requires that we love not out of selfish ambition but out of love for those who disagree with us.The distinctive architecture of Byzantine churches illustrates these points.They are topped by a single dome to symbolise the unity of God, Three smaller domes usually surround them to represent the diversity of the Godhead, and they are open to the sky so that the light of the Holy Spirit can shine into our hearts.Inside there is a large communal space, without pews or chairs so that all gather together in a space shared by all.
I continue this week with my North Macedonian odyssey travelling from one end of the country to the other to see the wonderful Byzantine churches and the stunning wall art.One of the puzzles of this wall art that surprised us was the defacing, or more specifically, the removal of the eyes from some of the saints that adorn the lower parts of the wall, and within easy reach of anyone with a knife.We assumed it must be the work of the Ottomans, whose Empire engulfed Serbia and Greece and brought to an end the Byzantine Empire. Many churches were destroyed, and in some cases, wall art was whitewashed over. However, our guide told us, it is more likely that the eyes were removed, not by the Muslim faithful but by the Christian faithful!Why would Christians remove the eyes of the saints? The answer appears to be that the faithful believed that the saint's eyes had special powers, powers of spiritual insight, and physical vision.This was not then the work of idle vandals but deeply religious if misled, Orthodox Christians.The Orthodox Church understood that all light and vision emanated from God who created it, thus sight and spiritual vision was a gift of God. The eyes of the saints are always painted a deep black to make the point that the light came not from them but from God.It is also true to say that knowledge of God was impossible without ‘revelation’, that is, God himself who is unknowable, must reveal himself to us, he cannot be found by reason or science. He can however be found through faith and it is by faith we ‘see’ God, or more accurately, the God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ. We might call this ‘spiritual sight’ and it is this spiritual sight the Orthodox Church valued above physical sight. It was the sight with which the faithful interpreted the mysteries contained within the Icon or in this case the wall paintings. The significance of ‘Blind Bartimaeus’ The wall paintings of the Byzantine churches are arranged in tiers, with the saints at the bottom and above them the stories of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. Above that are the gospel stories, starting with the Nativity and culminating in the Resurrection above the Altar. Amongst the stories most often depicted is the story of ‘Blind Bartimaeus’. It is a story that speaks powerfully to an Orthodox understanding of ‘Sight’.Blind Bartimaeus is ignored, and Mark tells us ‘Rebuked’. The disciples see him as a nuisance and are angered because they believe that he is distracting Jesus from his path, and yet it is Bartimaeus who, despite their blindness and stupidity, ‘sees’ his real identity:“Jesus Son of David”, have mercy on me” Mark 10: 47This is the messianic title of Jesus that is revealed only to Peter. Mark makes the point that though Bartimaeus is blind, he is given the gift of spiritual sight. Not only does he recognise who Jesus is but he understands what Jesus has come to do – “Have mercy on me” Unlike the disciples, he is not clamoring for status and power but for mercy and grace.Mark shows Bartimaeus to be the one person who truly sees though he is blind! He is not the victim in this story but the one who teaches us.When we look back at this chapter we begin to see what Mark is saying:When Jesus explains to them what it will mean to be ‘Messiah’ they do not understand his mission of sacrificial service.When Jesus asks them what they want him to do for them James and John respond by asking for power and glory, but as Orthodox doctrine emphasised the authority of the saints came not for them to exercise power, but to serve others.The disciples follow Jesus on the road to Jerusalem because they believe he is about to be crowned King. Along the way they push aside the weak and the lame, the children and the disadvantaged the very people Jesus says show us what his kingdom is about. The disciples clearly had not understood Jesus!Clearly, they have not understood anything, but Bartimaeus does and so do the children.It is these ‘little people’ who Jesus calls to him because they model for us what faith looks like as it reaches out to Jesus. The Church over the centuries has, at times, just like the disciples, failed to recognise in the weak and powerless its own need for mercy and grace.If we are to follow Jesus in the Way we must recognise our need:First then our blindness to others. As Bartimaeus shows us, faith in the Messiah is seen most clearly in the suffering and weak rather than in the powerful. It is suggested in the Acts of Apostles that Paul himself had weak sight, and it is this very weakness that Paul says is the source of his strength“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” 2 Corinthians 12:9The gift of the Messiah is not power and glory as James and John thought, but restoration and healing of body and soul so that we can serve others.If we are to follow Jesus in the Way we must respond to his call:Secondly our blindness to God. As soon as Bartimaeus responds to Jesus’ call he receives his sight. It appears that the gift of faith depends not on intellect but on our response to God’s call on us to recognise our need for grace and mercy. Paul recognised this need in his struggles, and indeed through his loss of sight.“ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in you” 2 Corinthians 4:11The light by which we see.It appears so counterintuitive to see the world in this way, clearly, the disciples didn’t understand Jesus and it is arguable that the church too, over its history, has failed to understand Jesus.We still overlook our own need for mercy and grace, our own blindness to God and others, and fail to ‘See’, in the Jesus we follow with Bartimaeus and Paul, the help we need to see the world in a new way.CS Lewis put it like this:“I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”We do not need to remove the eyes of the saints to see the light but we do need the light of God to open our own eyes!A prayer for peace in the Holy Land.O God of all justice and peace we cry out to you in the midst of the pain and traumaof violence and fear which prevails in the Holy Land.Be with those who need you in these days of suffering; we pray for people of all faiths – Jews, Muslims, and Christians and for all people of the land.While we pray to you, O Lord, for an end to violence and the establishment of peace,we also call for you to bring justice and equity to the peoples.Guide us into your kingdom where all people are treated with dignity and honour as your children for, to all of us, you are our Heavenly Father.In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
