He explained that, ‘Lent gives us an opportunity – a time less to do than to listen; a time less to struggle with faith than to let go of much around us; a time to allow God’s glory to shine in our lives: a time for transfiguration – the gift of God rather than a prize earned by devotion.’The Sermon was in the context of the story of the Transfiguration in which Jesus is portrayed as taking his three closest companions up Mount Sinai to an extraordinary encounter with Moses and Elijah. The Dean described that Transfiguration ‘as a momentary glimpse of reality, when eyes, hearts and minds are stripped of all that distracts us in our everyday life, and when we catch sight of that light of God who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’

‘The Transfiguration stands on its own as a story – but relates to everything else. Lent too stands on its own, but if it is to be effective it too must relate to everything else that we do day by day.

‘Traditionally Lent is a time of discipline – you may want to climb the mountain yourself (or at least climb up Steep Hill to this Cathedral) and make a point of being here at one or more of our weekday services during Lent.  Perhaps at the 8am Holy Communion, come and be present as were Peter James and John, when Jesus showed himself to them. Come up this mountain and spend time in the presence of Christ as he makes himself known to us, and find your day and yourself transfigured by the glory of God into his likeness in whose image we are made.

‘Our collect holds these ideas together when we pray to God the Father,  whose Son was revealed in majesty before he suffered death upon the cross: give us grace to perceive his glory, that we may be strengthened to suffer with him and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory…

That collect is for today, the Sunday before Lent, as we look to the coming season for change in ourselves, a time to grow closer to God, to grow more into that likeness of Christ.’

The full text of the sermon can be found by following the link

The account of Christ’s Transfiguration on the mountain [Mark 9.2-9] is a glorious story that stands on its own. Jesus takes his three close companions away from the crowds and they see him, as we might say, in his true colours. The dazzling white of intense glory envelops him and alongside him appear Elijah and Moses – representing both the Law and the Prophets of old. Interestingly enough in Mark’s Gospel Elijah is mentioned before Moses, whilst Matthew and Luke (traditionally thought to use Mark’s earlier account) reverse the order to harmonise Moses and Elijah with the Law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah). But perhaps in Mark’s mind is the reference to Elijah as the forerunner to come again before the Messiah. Or we might think of Elijah being taken into heaven (as in our first reading 2 Kings 2.1-12). For the Transfiguration foreshadows Jesus’ own departing – albeit through a starkly real human death. But before that, here we see Jesus declared as the one who shares in the glory of God.I say this story stands on its own, but of course it does not stand alone, for it has many strands leading to it and from it. In the previous chapter [Mark 8.29] we heard the dramatic confession of Peter in response to Jesus’ question Who do people say that I am? Peter replies You are the Messiah.

At the Transfiguration we hear the divine confession in the voice that comes from heaven This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him. So Jesus is affirmed by both God and man.

Immediately of course we think of the previous time when such words have been heard – following the baptism of Jesus as he came out of the river that divine voice was heard saying: You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.  The divine voice on that occasion was speaking to Jesus himself, now it addresses his followers. And each time it signifies a new chapter unfolding. For Jesus the voice came as he was to begin his public ministry; for his disciples it came as he was about to set his face towards  Jerusalem and the inevitable conflict and death that awaited him.

Of course the events on the mountain top recall the meetings between Moses and God on Sinai. Here again is the idea of shining in reflected glory – you will recall how Moses’ face shone so that he had to keep it veiled on his return.[Exodus 34.29f]  That is the image that Paul picked up in our second reading [2 Corinthians 4.3-6] when he spoke of the Gospel being ‘veiled’ by the god of this world – our sinful self-centredness which blinds us to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The Transfiguration is a momentary glimpse of reality, when eyes, hearts and minds are stripped of all that distracts us in our everyday life, and when we catch sight of that light of God who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Here Jesus is seen in the company he keeps – with Elijah, Moses and of course God the Father. Very shortly we shall see him again in other company he keeps, with two criminals hanging on a trio of crosses. For there too we see him enthroned in a different sort of glory – for there we see God’s love shining out in real darkness and despair. We see Jesus identifying fully with humanity in all its weakness: he is despised and rejected – a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Yet Transfiguration speaks also of the future hope of humanity sharing in God’s glory. So today we look at an event rich in meaning and symbolism – looking back to past moments and reaching out to the future. A moment of glory to inspire hope and sustain Christ’s followers in the times of trial which lie ahead.

Our collect holds these ideas together when we pray to God the Father,  whose Son was revealed in majesty before he suffered death upon the cross: give us grace to perceive his glory, that we may be strengthened to suffer with him and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory…

That collect is for today, the Sunday before Lent, as we look to the coming season for change in ourselves, a time to grow closer to God, to grow more into that likeness of Christ.

Even though we hear the divine voice or glimpse the divine meaning it is never easily understood.  Peter, having made his confession of faith, shows how little he understands its implications when moments later Jesus says to him Get behind me Satan. Then on the mountain top again it is Peter who is confused by all they witness and who makes a lame suggestion of marking this moment with three tents. Humanity’s glimpse of the divine can so easily be misunderstood: that is why we need to wait upon God and listen attentively for his meaning.

Lent gives us that opportunity – a time less to do than to listen; a time less to struggle with faith than to let go of much around us; a time to allow God’s glory to shine in our lives: a time for transfiguration – the gift of God rather than a prize earned by devotion.

The Transfiguration stands on its own as a story  – but relates to everything else. Lent too stands on its own, but if it is to be effective it too must relate to everything else that we do day by day.

Traditionally Lent is a time of discipline – you may want to climb the mountain yourself  (or at least climb up Steep Hill to this Cathedral)  and make a point of being here at one or more of our weekday services during Lent.  Perhaps at the 8am Holy Communion come and be present as were Peter James and John, when Jesus showed himself to them. Come up this mountain and spend time in the presence of Christ as he makes himself known to us, and  find your day and yourself transfigured by the glory of God into his likeness in whose image we are made.

On 17 March, the Cathedral choir is performing the St John Passion and Chapter Clerk, Phil Hamlyn Williams, asked Charles Harrison, our Deputy Director of Music who is conducting the performance, to tell him more about this work described by many as one of the supreme achievements in classical music. He began by getting Charles briefly to describe the piece.

‘It’s an oratorio, so it belongs to the same family of works as Handel’s ‘Messiah’: a setting of a sacred text for choir, soloists and orchestra. The action begins with Jesus’s arrest, and concludes with his death on the cross. The toughest job is done by the tenor soloist who narrates the evangelist’s part; it requires extraordinary stamina and dramatic range.’

‘So, it’s liturgical really?’

‘Its first performance was at a church service on Good Friday in 1724.  We are offering it as a concert, but one which comes within the context of our preparations for Holy Week and Easter. For some, the performance will be a devotional experience, for others, it may be purely about the music. It is certainly much more dramatic and vivid than most church music, and almost operatic in places.

The work is in two sections, which would have been separated by a pretty lengthy sermon (a feature we are not including in our version!).  In many other ways, our performance will be very similar to the premiere: children will be singing the treble line; the orchestra will play original eighteenth-century instruments (or copies); and we are using ‘baroque pitch’ which is slightly lower than modern pitch.’

‘Do these unusual instruments need specialists to play them?’

‘Very different techniques are required: for example, the bows used on the stringed instruments are much shorter than modern ones, and this has implications for the way the music is shaped. The Baroque Players of London are all top-notch instrumentalists, and completely at home with the conventions of period performance. The leader of the orchestra, Nicolette Moonen, has spent many years working with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, perhaps the world’s highest authority on baroque playing styles.

‘What is like to work with a musician of that calibre and experience?’ 

‘It is a huge privilege, and there is so much to learn from collaborating with someone of Nicolette’s standing. When she first came to perform with us, I was a little apprehensive about taking to the podium, but also very keen to establish a good relationship with Nicolette and the orchestra. She was quickly impressed by the choir, and made a point of congratulating them early in the rehearsal; after that, everything flowed very naturally and happily, because we all shared the same goal of bringing to this wonderful music to life.

Nicolette writes: “I love working with the Lincoln Cathedral choir. Their two musical directors imbue the choir with great commitment and energy.
I will never forget the expression on the faces of all the children who sang in their first John Passion in 2010. There was this huge sense of achievement, elation and happiness. It was a musical experience that they and all their listeners in the audience will surely always remember. I would like to single out one of the young singers, Phoebe Kirrage, who sang the role of the maid. I have simply never heard that role sung so well and so naturally. It touched me to the core and will always stay with me.”

‘Going back to the baroque orchestra, how do these period performance conventions influence the overall sound?’

‘There is a lightness and agility which allows much more detail to arise from the music: to draw an architectural comparison, a modern orchestra is perfect for the ‘macro structure’, generating magnificent arches and landscapes in sound; the baroque orchestra is ideal for zooming in on the exquisite carvings of the ‘micro structure’.’

‘You talked about the evangelist’s part: how do all the other performers fit in?’

‘The choir sings all the words attributed to groups of people, including the soldiers who arrest Jesus and the Pharisees in the judgment hall; they have some of the most intense and dramatic music, for instance when the crowd is screaming for Jesus to be crucified. The soloists have arias that take a step back from the action and offer a ‘commentary’ or emotional exploration of the biblical text. Jesus’s works are sung by a bass, and there are sections for Pontius Pilate, Peter and other smaller parts. The audience has a role too: scattered throughout the piece are Lutheran hymns (many of whose tunes are still widely used today); we invite the audience to join in with some of these, as the congregation would have done at the first performance.’

‘Will the audience have to sing in German, then?’

‘The hymns they will sing will be in English, but we are performing the rest of the piece in its original language. German is very expressive, and the sounds of the words are often very apposite to their meaning. I think the language forms a large part of the work’s identity. We are providing a simultaneous English translation which will be projected onto a screen near the stage.’

‘What are the challenges in preparing a performance of the St John Passion?’

‘The choral parts are technically very difficult – they lie very high in the voice, the lines are long and sometimes extremely fast, and they jump around in an unpredictable, angular way. Considering how much Bach worked with singers, it is surprising that he continued to write such tough music for them, and gave them so few opportunities to breathe! We are working with children, some as young as 9, so we must take care to plan rehearsals that are not too tiring, and which bring all the elements of the performance together on the day of the concert.

The choir has to know not only its own part, but also how their music fits in with the rest of the piece – the drama of it often depends on a very rapid interaction between soloists and chorus. Then there is the highly-charged emotional content; the choir must understand that, and be able to communicate it across the huge spaces of the Cathedral’s nave.’

‘And during this rehearsal period, the choir continues to sing daily services in the Cathedral?’

‘Absolutely. We sing eight services each week, and we are also fitting in a recording for the Naxos label this term.’

‘The St John Passion is widely regarded as one of the supreme achievements in classical music. How does it earn that status?’

‘That is a tough question, because part of the answer lies in actually experiencing the music. People hearing it for the first time, even those who do not listen to much classical music, find it has a genuinely transcendent quality. By the end of the piece, you feel that you have undergone the full spectrum of human emotion: there is rage and violence, love, tenderness and deep sorrow. Part of its appeal lies in this kaleidoscopic and constantly-shifting variety; the orchestral sounds, the deployment of voices, and the underlying moods rarely stay the same for long. It is a piece that keeps you engaged from the outset.

Bach’s amazing gift for drawing out specific human emotions in sound is matched by his complete technical mastery of musical form. This exquisite balance of form and content is what we find so satisfying and elusive in the great works of Shakespeare, Leonardo and Michelangelo; the technique is so fluent and assured that you are unaware of it, and somehow pass beyond the thing itself (the music, poem, sculpture or painting) to a different place.’

‘Finally, what will be distinctive about this performance, and how does it fit in with the life of the Cathedral?’

‘The really important thing is that it is live. There has been a proliferation of recordings, and many of them are available at the click of a mouse. That is good in many ways, but I sense that people are actively seeking out live performances, where there is direct communication between the audience and the musicians. The feeling of corporate concentration and enjoyment in the audience is another important element, and part of the whole experience.

We are seeing a resurgence of interest in singing in this country; television documentaries, competitions and figures such as Gareth Malone are doing wonderful work here. For those whose curiosity has been piqued, this is an opportunity to witness a slice of our choral heritage in action. That children can perform to such high professional standards is pretty amazing, and in itself is something worth seeing.

The Cathedral serves many purposes, and it reaches out to people in different ways.  3000 people joined us for the carol service on Christmas Eve, so there can be little doubt that the Cathedral is still a deeply important focus for many in the region. With this performance, we are building on that relationship, and hoping to offer something of great musical quality, artistic integrity and spiritual value.’

Tickets are available from the Cathedral Shop (01522 561644) and online at http://www.lincolncathedral.com/shop/more-info/st-john-passion

This passage from John’s Gospel (John 1:11) is incredibly well known. We hear it every Christmas and it becomes so familiar that the depth of it is often lost on us. This morning, I just want to pick up on one verse in the passage: verse 11: “He came to his own, and his own people did not accept him”. What does this mean?In last week’s gospel reading from Mark we saw Jesus at the home of Simon Peter and curing Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever. We reflected on the fact that Christ was not just to be found in the big and important events of life, nor just in church but in the ordinary everyday events of life. Today in the reading from Colossians, we heard that all things in Heaven and Earth have been created through Christ and for Christ. There is no sphere that falls outside the realm of Christ. There is no ‘godless space’ anywhere in the physical, the social or the private world. Nowhere from where it is legitimate to exclude Christ.

Hidden away in the Greek of this verse is a double meaning. The first time we hear the words ‘he came to his own’ the Greek is gender neutral and plural, which means John is referring to things, not people. “He came to what was his own…” What John is saying is that this world and everything in it belongs to Jesus. It is his own: the world is his possession. He is Lord and King and sovereign over all creation.

Yet it is perfectly possible for anyone to reject Christ’s claims. We are free to do this. Freedom is part of what it means to be human. It is a troublesome and dangerous thing. It is always the first thing that dictators try to eliminate when they come to power. But this freedom is a gift from God and God will always act to protect it.

All things are indeed created by and for Christ, but human freedom is part of that creation, and Christ will not override that freedom. It’s what gives humanity its dignity as part of the creation. Because we are free and because that freedom will not be overridden, we are free to reject Christ. We are free to exclude him from both our private and our public lives.

Last week a High Court Judge ruled that it was unlawful to include prayers on the agenda of a public meeting. The challenge was brought by an former councillor who said that he was embarrassed and made to feel uncomfortable by the prayers. Having read the reports of the ruling and the reasons behind it, I am left wondering what it is that makes for such discomfort that it makes a man launch a legal case against public prayer. Surely people don’t do that because they are a little embarrassed that the minister called upon to say prayers goes on a bit too long in a slightly silly voice? So what is it that worries this man and by extension the Secular Society who want to see all religious expressions banned from the public sphere?

To a secularist, prayer is addressed to a non-existent being and is irrelevant. At best all it can be is a harmless eccentricity, a relic from the past. To make such a fuss about it seems to me to suggest that something much deeper is going on. Perhaps there is a subconscious recognition of the claims of Christ on the public sphere. We are after all all of us made in the image of God

To be honest, I’m not really all that worried about whether public  prayers are said at the start of public meetings or at the start of the parliamentary day. I’m not too sure what they achieve. I’d be much more worried if someone tried to stop the Church praying for civic and political life and more worried still if someone tries to stop a Christian, or any other sort of religious voice from being heard in public discussions and debates. This would be a restriction on human freedom. I’m much more worried about the idea that religion is just a private matter. Something one should keep to oneself and not allow to interfere with public life and policy.

I think that Christians, and followers of other faiths, have a right and a duty to contribute to the public debate. It is important that a faith perspective is put on the issues of the day and that prevailing values and practices are challenged when necessary. The light shines in the darkness says John and making our contribution to public issues, is one way of keeping that light shining.

Now to the second time that phrase is used in verse 11 we here that: “His own people did not accept him.” This time it is in the masculine gender, which suggests John is now talking about people, not things. In its original context, John was referring to the rejection of Christ by the Priests and the Pharisees. But we can also apply the words his own people to us as Christians. We reject Christ when we seek to confine him to defined parts of our lives and seek to carry on in other parts of our lives as if Christ had no claim on them.

Christ is to be found in the world among us. Wherever truth is told, however painful it might be. Wherever there is identification and solidarity with those who suffer; wherever lives are transformed for the better, wherever there is forgiveness and reconciliation. That is true and something that I find hugely exciting and comforting, the thought that God is alive and active in the world.

But there is another darker side to this truth. For wherever we fail to tell the truth, wherever we fail to show solidarity with those who suffer, wherever we fail to help to transform lives for the better, then we are in danger of denying Christ. We can seek to confine Christ to certain parts of our lives and in so doing deny him in other parts of our lives. Perhaps the areas of our lives which we want to keep most control over are the very areas where Christ is most ready to meet us. God can be a very surprising God sometimes and turn up in the places we least expect.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us says John. Indeed so Christ is to be found in all aspects of our lives and in all aspects of society. We can deny him in many different and subtle ways, but that will not alter the fact of his presence among us.

It turns out that Lincoln Cathedral is full of hidden carved animals, and a few mythical creatures, that are made out of wood and stone. They can also be seen in the colourful stained glass windows of the ancient building.

The animals in the Cathedral include horses, camels, fish, pelicans and even snails!

One carving shows soldiers slaying dragons, as they are seen as evil creatures and the carvings are thought to symbolise good overpowering bad.

The fish carvings represent the sailors that travelled on the sea, who are able to visit a special Chapel that is at the Cathedral.

The snail carvings are embedded in stone just in front of one the gates inside the Cathedral. David, our Cathedral guide told us that the snails are on their way home after a hard day of hunting for food and drink! They are carved out of stone and they are very detailed.

On our visit to Lincoln Cathedral we found a surprising amount of different animals, with many stories attached. When you visit, try and see how many you can spot!

By the Monks Abbey news team

What is the Church for? This is a question that I’ve found myself pondering this last week, partly in the context of the debates in the General Synod, partly in response to world development and partly as a result of our forum on the morality of the financial markets, held last Friday in the Chapter House. It’s easy enough to point to the things that any church does: worship, gathering around the Word and the Eucharist, different social activities and pastoral care of people amongst other things. All these things are important and vital to any church community. One of the points that emerged from our discussions in the Forum was the need for the church to be seen to be modelling different values from those that often predominate in the world.From his prison cell in Tegel prison in 1944, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

The time when people could be told everything by means of words, whether theological or pious, is over, and so is the time of inwardness and conscience – and that means the time of religion in general.

Quite what Bonhoeffer meant by the end of religion is not at all clear and causes much scholarly debate. When he says that the time of words and the time of inwardness is over I think that he had something quite specific in mind though. I think that he meant that no one was going to be convinced of the truth claims of the Gospel by argument or even by spiritual talk. Neither are they going to be convinced by professions of great inner conviction. We live in a world where words abound and where different values compete for our loyalty and attention and arguments and debates are to be found in abundance.

St Irenaeus once said that the glory of God is a human being fully alive. I believe that the fundamental role that the church can play in our world today is in being a living demonstration of the values of the Kingdom of God. That is the church, and by that I mean all of us as individual Christians, more and more enact the values of the Kingdom of God. Only when we clearly live by different rules, only when we are seen to value things in the world differently and to have different priorities to the world’s agenda, and only when these  recast values are shown to make life whole and exciting to live will we truly model the values of the Kingdom of God. People are weary and suspicious about words and arguments, but a practical demonstration of a better way of living is another thing entirely.

This is a very demanding idea of Bonhoeffer’s, but as Lent approaches, it would do us all no harm to think about what it is that we value most and what God might be asking us to value most.

Mark Hocknull, Chancellor

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 The Director of Music writes: Congratulations to Mary Wilson who is being made up as a chorister (cope girl) at Evensong on Sunday 12 February and indeed to all members of the choir – and our matron Peggy Harding – who have worked so hard this last week on a new CD of John Ireland’s choral music to be released later on this year (the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death).

Organ Recital:  There will be an Organ Recital by Charles Harrison, Assistant Director of Music and Sub Organist at Lincoln Cathedral, on Sunday 4 March at 17.30 pm.  The programme will include J S Bach, Toccata and Fugue in F BWV 540; Percy Whitlock, Four Extemporisations: Carol, Divertimento, Fidelis, Fanfare; Paul Hindenith, Sonata no 2: Lebhaft, Ruhig bewegt, Fuge: Mäßig bewegt, heiter; César Franck,    Cantabile; Maurice Duruflé, Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain.  Admission charge will be £5 and seating will be located in the Nave and St Hugh’s Choir.

Tim and Valerie Wallis write: we will be holding a Traidcraft “Big Brew” at our home, 9 Chestnut Close Sudbrooke LN2 2RD on Friday 9 March from 10 to 12.  Do come and enjoy a cup of Fairtrade tea or coffee and biscuits and learn more about the Fairtrade movement.  Funds raised will go to support Traidcraft’s work helping people to work their way out of Poverty.  Traidcraft goods and cakes will be on sale.  For further information please phone 01522 751211.

Lincoln Theological Society:  Wednesday 14 March 7.00 for 7.30 in The Robert Hardy Lecture Theatre, Bishop Grosseteste University College, Newport, Lincoln.  Jesus and Genesis by The Rev Canon Dr Trevor Dennis, an acclaimed scholar and speaker.  Tickets £5.00 to include a glass of wine, available after the 9.30 service, from the Cathedral Shop and from Unicorn Books in Lincoln’s Covered Market.

The much loved annual visit of the Hallé to Lincoln Cathedral is taking place on Saturday 12 May this year, with conductor Sir Mark Elder and a fabulous programme of Borodin Overture Prince Igor, Mozart Symphony No 40, Borodin Symphony No 2 and Tchaikovsky ‘1812’ Overture.  Their last visit in September had a full house in rapture as Sophia Jaffe played the Bruch Violin Concerto No 1.  Tickets go on sale from Lincoln Minster Shop 01522 561644, shop@lincolncathedral.com or on line at www.lincolncathedral.com/shop/box-office  on 14 February.  It was a sellout last time, so don’t delay to avoid disappointment.

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Saturday 18 February, 13.00 – 14.30, Peal Attempt by the ringers of St Mary’s, Amersham

Tuesday 21 February 19.00 – 21.30, Shrove Tuesday Event organized by the Community Association

Wednesday 22 February, Ash Wednesday

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Bible Readings

Sunday 12 February               Second Sunday before Lent

Sung Eucharist                       Proverbs 8: 1, 22-31,   Colossians 1: 15-20,   John 1: 1-14

Mattins                                    Deuteronomy 8: 1-10,   Matthew 6: 25-end

Evensong                                Genesis 1: 4b-end,   Luke 8: 22-35

Sunday 19 February              Sunday next before Lent

Sung Eucharist                       2 Kings 2.1-12; 2 Corinthians 4.3-6; Mark 9.2-9

Mattins                                    Exodus 24.12-end; 2 Corinthians 3.12-end

Evensong                               1 Kings 19.1-16; 2 Peter 1.16-end

Sunday 26 February              1^st Sunday of Lent

Sung Eucharist                       Genesis 9/8-17; 1 Peter 3.18-end; Mark 1.9-15

Mattins                                    Exodus 34.1-10; Romans 10.8b-13

Evensong                               Genesis 2.15-17; 3.1-7; Romans 5.12-19

Sunday 4 March                    2^nd Sunday of Lent

Sung Eucharist                       Genesis 17.1-7, 15, 16; Romans 4.13-end; Mark 8.31-end

Mattins                                    Isaiah 51.1-11; Galatians 3.1-9, 23-end

Evensong                               Genesis 12.1-9; Hebrews 11.1-3, 8-16

Dr Mark Hocknull, the Chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, reminded the audience of forty that this was the traditional role of cathedrals, as centres for debate and discussion. The full text of the presentations may be downloaded here.

The airwaves had been filled with arguments over bankers’ bonuses, stripped knighthoods and the never ending demands that ‘the market’ makes on nation states. It was perhaps hardly surprising that Professor David Head began with reference to Dr Rowan Williams’ Dimbleby Lecture in 2002 where he had thrown his spotlight on the loss of power of nation states as a direct result of the free movement of capital across borders. David went on to set the scene drawing on writings about the St Paul’s Protest and importantly the work that had been done by the St Paul’s Institute and its then canon, Giles Fraser, well before the protest took place. Much of this focused on those who actually work in the financial markets and what they actually think. At its centre there stands a blatant contradiction that what motivates bankers most of all is financial reward, but that reward itself is seen by many of them to be far too great.

Questions and comments from the audience followed each speaker and, really following Professor Head’s lead, the first round of questioners covered the well-rehearsed arguments. Markets were vilified as corrupt; justification was found for them the shape of the demands of investors for above average returns; Mrs Thatcher and the big bang were blamed. The complexity of financial instruments and their misunderstood risks: perhaps markets had tried to be too clever. What emerged though was an understanding that markets by themselves do nothing; it is investors who are empowered to make ethical choices.

Lincoln MP, Karl McCartney, extolled plans for free and fair markets, responsible capitalism, enterprise and innovation. From his own experience of working in the city he recalled the active role of city guilds in philanthropy. He pointed his finger at the withdrawal of tax breaks for pension funds in 1997 as the trigger for their demands for higher investment returns. As to the recent crisis, he pondered whether it might have been better to let at least one bank fail; the others may have quickly learnt responsibility.

This time questions ranged more widely. The imperative of care in the community, tax avoidance, the powerlessness of government when faced with massive bonus payments by state owned banks. The previous over confidence in pension funds and the pension holidays employers were forced to take. The almost unbelievable dependence of government on tax revenues from the banking sector, set in contrast with an economy that overall is mainly populated by small and medium sized businesses.

Mark Hocknull sought to draw the strands together and offered a theological reflection. Perhaps the problem was neither moral nor economic, but about process, about strange independent forces? The Tulip Bubble of 17^th century Holland had already been referred to by more than one questioner; Dr Hocknull saw the valuation of things as more than they are actually worth as a constantly repeated pattern in history. He drew on Peter Selby’s introduction to the St Paul’s Institute Report where Selby focussed on the inherent contradiction that we had identified between bankers both knowing they were paid too much but needing the money for motivation. It is as if the system has a power of its own.

As to theology, he explained that the New Testament is set in a world of principalities and powers; it was how former generations made sense of the world around them. Yet, powers can also be social and psychological and it is perhaps these that are at work in the financial markets. Profit has become the product and no longer the result of providing valued services. There is nothing wrong with the accrual of wealth; the problem comes with how it is used: the missing side of Mrs Thatcher’s project was matching generosity. No government since then has had an ideology; what is needed is one espousing a vision of how wealth may best be used for the good of all.

The final group of questions followed this shift from whence the wealth came to its use. Mention was made of Bill Gates’s declared intent to give away essentially all his wealth, of Warren Buffett’s wish to pay more tax, of the way that philanthropy does go on but quietly. There is a fundamental problem of measurement. We assess value by counting money; there seems to be no way of counting social and cultural values. But where is the debate leading? Dr Hocknull concluded by suggesting that things only change when there is a head of steam; it is matter of people starting to recognise some of the things they truly want so that they may be articulated in the political arena. We are each other’s keeper; we must start to put humanity first.

Phil Hamlyn Williams
Chapter Clerk Lincoln Cathedral
3 February 2012

The text of the three talks by Professor David Head, of Lincoln University, Karl McCartney, MP for Lincoln and the Chancellor with be available on the cathedral website www.lincolncathedra.com

Rev’d Canon John Patrick is well known throughout the Diocese as Chairman of the House of Clergy and, now formerly, Rural Dean of Lafford and Vicar of Sleaford. Air Vice-Marshall Paul Robinson was at one time Commander of the RAF College at Cranwell and brings a long and deep experience of organisations. In his charge to them, Bishop Christopher urged them both not to say in their separate worlds, the spiritual and the secular, but to work in both above all to foster a truly entrepreneurial ministry. This is a little more of what he said.

‘John and Paul bring a wide range of complementary gifts that will enhance not only the mission and ministry of this cathedral – but also support its commitment to excellence in liturgy and care for one of the great buildings of England and those who worship within it. They will help to reinforce the qualities and experience already present within the chapter.

Having mentioned complementary gifts it would be an easy step to characterise John (the priest), as the person who has primarily spiritual responsibilities and Paul, (the lay person), as someone who has more worldly or material concerns on his heart. In short, to this see this from a dualistic perspective in which it is the job of the clergy to inhabit the realm of the spirit and it is the job of the laity to move within another sphere – what we sometimes think of as the real world, the world of balancing budgets, strategic planning, health and safety and risk management.

But to divide reality up in this way is surely a mistake: there is only one world and only one truth – there is not a holy world and a profane world; there is not spiritual truth and worldly truth. There is one world and one truth – perhaps approached from contrasting starting-points.

And it is significant that as well as welcoming John and Paul, tonight we are celebrating the life of a Lincolnshire saint, Gilbert of Sempringham. Because he was a person who managed to hold in balance the worldly and the spiritual.

You will know more about Gilbert than I do, as a mere newcomer. But I am clear that Gilbert was a good example of what might be called classical European humanism.  A tradition in which men and women were equally comfortable in both spiritual and worldly matters.

Gilbert was a person who was always trying to make a difference and deploy his considerable education and gifts to build God’s Kingdom. During his time as a clerk in the bishop’s household, Gilbert started a school for local boys and girls and when his father died in 1130 he became lord of the manor of Sempringham, and immediately began using his inherited wealth to fund the creation and rapid expansion of the Gilbertines, his new religious order. Eventually he had a chain of twenty-six convents, monasteries and missions.

This was a man who was well-known for his life of prayer, for his humility and for the simplicity of life – one of the hallmarks of the Gilbertine order. But, as his record shows, he also knew how to make things happen. He was a spiritual entrepreneur and ambitious for the gospel.

In this Gilbert is a model for today: both for our clergy and for men and women who exercise power in the world.

Because we clergy could do with a little of Gilbert’s DNA and be more entrepreneurial and ambitious for the gospel  and perhaps those who exercise leadership and manage power  the world could do with some of Gilbert’s spiritual depth, humility and simplicity of life.

So my prayer for Paul and John, (and it is a prayer I make with some confidence), is that from their differing starting-points and complementary sets of experience they, with their new colleagues, will reinforce:

•        the holiness and wisdom,

•        the humility and simplicity of life,

•        the entrepreneurship and ambition for the gospel

… present in this cathedral – building on all the great things that have happened in this place over the centuries and making this cathedral a beacon for the gospel in the 21st century.

There’s nothing nicer than basking in the glory of a job well done, is there? Sometimes, we can spend a long time on a particular project or put a lot of effort into something and when it all goes well, we want to sit back, relax and enjoy the moment…

I sometimes wonder if Jesus ever felt like that.

Today’s gospel story (Mark 1: 29-39) is a case in point. Immediately before Jesus had been teaching in the synagogue and had been confronted by an evil spirit whom Jesus cast out of a man, demonstrating his authority to general amazement.

If that had been me,  I would count teaching in the synagogue, exorcising an evil spirit and leaving crowds of people amazed as quite a good morning’s work!  After all of that I’d want to go and switch off for a while and unwind. Perhaps Jesus was anticipating just this as they headed off to Simon’s house.

Alas no such joy as he discovers that  “Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever.” Fever could mean anything from a minor ailment that will sort itself out in a day or so, to something much more serious and life threatening. The way that Mark tells the story suggests perhaps that it is a fever of the more serious kind, but no one really knows. In any event, Jesus went up to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.”

I’ll come back to this business of waiting on the guests in a moment. For now i’d like to draw your attention to something else. Something that we often pass by without much thought. It is the fact that this little episode takes place in Simon and Andrew’s house  to Simon’s mother in law. Simon was clearly a married man with a home and family responsibilities. Earlier in Mark’s gospel we read of the call of Simon and the others and told that they left their nets and followed Jesus. We might assume that in becoming disciples of Jesus  they gave up everything completely. But the reading from this morning suggests something a bit different.

There is a sense perhaps in which they left everything to follow Jesus but that doesn’t mean they ran away from their domestic responsibilities. They had family and they had property and it was right for them to still behave with responsibility towards those.

But what is interesting, is that Jesus comes into Simon’s house: he enters the domestic, the ordinary,  world of his followers.

And so it is with us. God enters our world, he enters the domesticity and ordinariness of our lives. Being a follower of Jesus isn’t some mystical, transcendental experience that takes us out of the responsibilities of this world. Being a follower of Jesus means that God comes into our lives and he ministers to us in the ordinary, in the everyday.

Isn’t that what the Incarnation is all about? “The word became flesh and dwelt among us”.

Let’s not despise the ordinariness of our lives.  If we want to meet with God, he comes to us in the everyday and he finds us where we are. Jesus meets us in the ordinariness of life.

Having said all of that, I have to say that one of the things I value most about being part of this Cathedral community, apart from all of you of course, is the way that our liturgy can lift us out of the ordinary. Through the liturgy and the music, through hearing the word read and preached we are prepared to encounter the risen Christ in the bread and the wine of the eucharist. all of that is really very important. But it would be a major mistake to think that this is the only place that we might encounter the living Christ. Here is a moment of rest for us from the ordinary routine of life and in meeting with Christ here in the eucharist, and in the word, we can learn to identify Christ more easily so that we can recognise him in our ordinary lives. Christ is to be found in the world among us. wherever truth is told, however painful it might be. Wherever there is identification and solidarity with those who suffer; wherever lives are transformed for the better, wherever there is forgiveness and reconciliation.

Let us learn to see Jesus is the ordinary and well as in the ecclesiastical.

A life of Service

I said I would come back to the question of the newly healed mother in law getting up and immediately waiting upon the guests. Well let’s not be shy about this. She gets up and begins to wait upon the men. Some of you are no doubt thinking how typical. This poor woman has been at death’s door and now she has to get up and cater to the needs of these slightly tired young men. For some this is a typical piece of sexism embedded in the Bible clearly showing the woman’s place is in the home. Feminist critics of the Bible often make this point.

It has to be said that there are some who have tried to use the text like that. But let’s look a little closer at the words used.  The word used for being lifted up, is the same word that is used of Jesus’ resurrection. This woman has been raised, as it were from death and restored to life.

The word used by Mark for Simon’s mother in law waiting on the guests is diakonen. It is the same word that Mark uses throughout his gospel to describe the life and work of Jesus. Jesus is among us as one who serves.

So Simon’s mother in law is someone who has been restored to life and like Jesus begins to use that life in service to others. She has become a disciple, a true follower of Christ, reflecting the life of Jesus to those around her.

As so often with women in the gospel stories, Simon’s mother in law becomes a pattern of discipleship for us to follow.

She meets Jesus in a healing encounter. She is restored to her community and immediately begins to copy Jesus pattern of living. She becomes an example and pattern for us. In a little while we too will have the opportunity to encounter Jesus in the sacrament. and afterwards we will return to our normal lives. There it is that we can find Christ again in the ordinary and there it is that we can demonstrate Christ to those around us who encounter us.

Any one who has been seriously ill  will understand the joy of simply being back as a participant in the “ordinary” processes of life.

Let us Enjoy this wonderful liturgy. Encounter Christ in our worship but then let us return to our everyday life alert to the possibility of finding Christ there also. Amen

poseys or tussie-mussies.

By the 1650s nosegays were carried by both men and women at important functions and ceremonies, such as weddings. In the 19th century nosegays were used to convey messages through the Victorian Language of Flowers, where floral symbolism was used to speak volumes. Receiving a nosegay containing red tulips was a declaration of love, and in return the suitor would hope not to receive a bouquet containing dogwood (a sign of indifference) or a variegated pink (rejection of their affection).

Perhaps the most high profile nosegay today is that carried by H.M. The Queen during the Royal Maundy Service. Rosemary Mason, who holds the Royal Warrant to make nosegays for the Royal Maundy Service, will give a demonstration of making posies together with a talk on the history of the service, the music and the Royal connections.

Friday 2^nd March 2012 in Lincoln Cathedral Chapter House (external entrance off Priorygate)

Two identical sessions will take place at 2.30pm and also at 7.30pm. Doors open half an hour before each session.

Tickets £12 (including light refreshments) are available from Carol Hill 01522 723967, Lincoln Cathedral Shop 01522 561644 or by following this link.

This event is in aid of Lincoln Cathedral Music Appeal (Registered Charity No. 1033089)

Sermon preached in Lincoln Cathedral by the Dean, the Very Revd Philip Buckler at the Sung Eucharist on the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany, 29 January 2012

It would be wrong to leave this Epiphany season without thinking more deeply about one of its central themes – the idea of light.

In our collect this morning we pray to God our creator, who in the beginning commanded the light to shine out of darkness  taking us back to creation (‘In the beginning…’) when God said  Let there be light, and there was light. Then taking us forward to the hope that the light of the Gospel may shine in the hearts of all your people, and reveal the knowledge of your glory in the face of Jesus Christ…

So light gives the context for life and creation to have meaning – to be seen. But light is also there as a guide as we think of the Epiphany star.  I have a vivid memory of walking along a dusty road in Jordan at night. Along our way were candles guiding us through the ancient city of Petra. I walked in a deep silence through a landscape that had not changed for centuries, and looked up at the countless stars in the sky. I thought of those magi who had travelled – perhaps that very route. It was all the more poignant as this was the eve of the Epiphany – according to the story the time when the magi would have been travelling.

My thoughts were many: God leading them to his presence, his guiding of us to his purposes; the light of a star leading them, the light of faith drawing us.

That image of light – perhaps shining out through the darkness as something towards which we make our way -  is a powerful idea for our Christian understanding. But light is also that which allows things to be seen. Looking into a dark room one can make out nothing; let a light shine and we can see everything that is there. The truth of what is there is revealed – for light brings understanding and recognition, revealing what is hidden.

That is why we speak of Christ as the light of the world. For as we see him we begin to recognise the world in which we live – seen in its proper context – not poorly lit by certain interests alone which highlight some things but cast deep shadows obscuring other things. Jesus is the true light that enlightens everyone coming into the world – wrote St John. He enlightens everyone because he was in the world and the world was made by him and yet the world had failed to recognise him.

If we would understand what life is all about, we need to see it in its true light. So Jesus’ teaching about God the Father, and showing us his loving ways and purposes, bringing healing where there is disease, wholeness where things are broken, freedom where there is bondage – all these are ways that we can both see what is there to be seen and begin to comprehend it.

Our OT lesson [Deuteronomy 18.15-20] draws a distinction between the true prophets of God and those soothsayers so popular in the neighbouring cultures who would predict the future. The latter were seen as magicians with superhuman powers. But for the people of God the prophet is one who speaks God’s words – who throws light on how things are, not just magical promises of the future. Of course the prophets did often warn of future disaster – but based on the belief that if the people continued to ignore God and disobey his commands, then they would come to grief. Prophecy is more about looking intently at the present, and seeing it as it truly is and drawing inevitable conclusions.

In our world today one did not need to be a divinely inspired prophet nor even a magician to see that the economic drive for continuous growth, the never ending offers of credit, the spiralling of property prices, business bonuses, and so on could not go on indefinitely. But like the people of Israel we seemed blind to the realities of common sense.

So with life in its wider context. We can easily be unable to hear or see the truth, preferring to believe just what we want to believe.

The second reading this morning [Revelation 12.1-5a] explores another part of the light/darkness relationship in which the darkness tries to overcome the light. So the image of the woman giving birth to the new hope in a child who is to be ruler of all – a messianic image it would seem. But here drawing upon familiar myths we see the threat to destroy the hope – but as it goes on we learn that the child is safe and eventually will return to overcome the dragon or serpent of old.

Our Gospel reading [Mark 1.21-28] sheds further light on our theme as it portrays Jesus astounding the people with the illumination of his teaching. He throws light on their world and God’s law, he teaches them as one having authority in this he was clearly different from the many who taught in synagogue and elsewhere. His teaching has the ring of truth about it – it has a depth of credibility – he shows them things in a new light which makes sense of what they see.

There will be those to whom we have listened whose words have that sense of authority – often forged in difficulty. We might think of people in our own day like Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu – speaking from the authority of suffering transfigured into hope.

We say of something or someone It doesn’t ring true or it doesn’t look right.   If we pause long enough to think about it, I daresay that much we hear peddled in the public forum today would not have that sense of authority about it. Whom shall we believe? Who are the prophets of today?

One measure is undoubtedly the likeness of Christ – that likeness into which St Paul invites us to grow. For he is the true light to shine upon our world and ourselves, in his light we see light – we see the way forward through the darkness of our world today. But of course his light illumines all before him – not just the issues and matters of concern, but ourselves also. For we are seen in his light – that is the meaning of judgement – not a severe court case which we must defend, but rather a clear understanding of what and who we are – underneath all our pretence and masking. We find the truth about ourselves – and that is the beginning of healing and new life for each one of us. It was so for those possessed who recognised Jesus – it can be so for us too.

So Epiphany calls us to the light – to see the star of promise inviting us to follow; to see the light of the world in the simplest thing of all – a young child; to let that light shine on all around us and to see everything we are and do in that light which reveals it as it really is.

So as we dwell in this light we find ourselves warmed into wholeness and forgiveness, and thus we too become reflectors of that light to shine in the darkness of this world to reveal to others the glory of God.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven

The Cathedral is such a dynamic place! It has a superb new website and most recent addition to the site is the Chancellor’s Blog.  I’m planning to write at least one new post per week to keep it topical and up to date.

The current post raises the issue of the regulation and morality of the financial markets. This is the topic that will be discussed in the Chapter House on Friday February 3^rd starting at 2pm. Joining me in the discussion will be Karl McCartney MP for Lincoln who, before he was elected MP worked in the City, and David Head, Dean of the Business & Law faculty in the University of Lincoln.

In the Blog I write that Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the end of history in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin wall. He declared that there was no alternative to western liberal capitalism and the free market as a social and political system. The events of the last 23 years say otherwise. History is far from ended.  A growing number of people are blaming the free market system for our current financial problems and successive governments have grappled unsuccessfully with the problem of regulation. Recently the major party leaders began setting out there vision for a new form of capitalism.

It’s tempting to think that faith and theology should not get involved in this debate. It is all too tempting to see faith as a retreat or an escape, but nothing could be more misguided. Religion and Theology have deep resources which help us to ask some fundamental questions about what society is for and how it should be arranged and to think differently about what is going on in the world.

Each of the three of us taking part in the discussion on Friday will outline their own perspective and there will be plenty of space for questions and contributions from the audience. Do come along and take part and let your voice be heard.

 Mark Hocknull

Chancellor

 The Installation of the Subdean, Canon John Patrick, and Lay Canon, Air Vice-Marshall Paul Robinson, will take place at Evensong on Saturday 4^th February, the Feast of Gilbert of Sempringham.

Confirmation Preparation will be taking place over the next few weeks prior to the Cathedral Confirmation during the Paschal Vigil on Easter Eve (Saturday 7 April at 8.00pm). Preparation will be lead by the Chancellor on Sundays following evensong, beginning in February. Those interested in being confirmed (of whatever age) should initially speak with one of the Cathedral clergy.

Jeannette Davies writes:  Tickets are on sale in the Cathedral Shop or at coffee on Sundays for the Community Association Shrove Tuesday party. A raffle will be held at this event with the proceeds going to the Lincoln Community Larder. The Community Association would be grateful to receive prizes for the raffle. Please speak to Lyndon Nicholas or Jeannette Davies if you can donate something.

The Dean writes:  Last year we celebrated the 400^th Anniversary of the King James version of the Bible.  This year we are celebrating the 350^th Anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer (1662).  As part of our celebrations, a Study Day on the Book of Common Prayer will be held in the Cathedral on Saturday 1 September 2012.  Please note this date in your diary.

Michael Ardley writes:   The Lincoln and Lindsey Blind Society seeks Befrienders to develop mid- to long-trem relationships with blind and partially sighted people.  If you are interested or would like more information, please telephone the Society on 01507 605604.

Bible Readings

Sunday 29^th January                  Fourth Sunday of  Epiphany

Sung Eucharist                          Deuteronomy 18: 15-20,   Revelation 12: 1-5a,   Mark 1: 21-28

Mattins                                     Jeremiah 1: 4-10,   Mark 1: 40-end

Evensong                                  I Samuel 3: 1-20,   I Corinthians 14: 12-20

Sunday 5^th February                 Third Sunday before Lent

Sung Eucharist                          Isaiah 40: 21-end,   I Corinthians 9: 16-23,   Mark 1: 29-39

Mattins                                     Jeremiah 26: 1-16,   Acts 3: 1-10

Evensong                                  Numbers 13: 1-2, 27-33,   Philippians 2: 12-28

Sunday 12^th February               Second Sunday before Lent

Sung Eucharist                          Proverbs 8: 1, 22-31,   Colossians 1: 15-20,   John 1: 1-14

Mattins                                     Deuteronomy 8: 1-10,   Matthew 6: 25-end

Evensong                                  Genesis 1: 4b-end,   Luke 8: 22-35

at the Sung Eucharist on Sunday 22 January 2012,

during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

We will all be changed

Thank you for inviting me to speak at this Eucharist this morning.  It is a witness to your commitment to ecumenism that a Catholic is invited to preach in this fine Anglican Cathedral.  Speaking for myself, I’d say that, in all honesty, you could have done better than me: but that problem now is yours, and I’m very pleased to be among you.

Once again we find ourselves in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, a time when we are asked to focus especially on the challenge of ecumenism, although of course this task mustn’t be relegated to this week only.  The theme indicated for this year is “We will all be changed”, taken from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.  “We shall all be changed; this will be instantaneous, in the twinkling of an eye”.  The path we are on is one which is very far from instantaneous, and this work on ecumenism is a lifetime’s work, indeed many lifetimes’ work.  But in joining together today, as we do, we know that we are playing our part in this process of change, opening ourselves to the promptings of the Spirit, who is the origin of all authentic change.

The source material for our theme comes from Poland: its churches and its people.  We read in the material provided that the secular and ecclesiastical histories of Poland intertwine.  This comes as no surprise to us, when we stop and think about it, for it would be the same for many nations, and indeed for our own country too.

The Polish writers remind us of the many times that Poland was invaded, the partitions, oppression by foreign powers and hostile systems.

“The constant striving to overcome all enslavement and the desire for freedom are features of Polish history which have led to significant changes in the life of the nation.”

In our own country we have to think back almost a millennium since we were last invaded; but we can think of other situations where our secular and ecclesiastical histories have become fused.  All of our monarchs are crowned in the context of what we are doing this morning, in the celebration of the Eucharist.  The secular and the ecclesiastical coming together in harmony.  But we can also bring to mind St Thomas Becket, the leading churchman of his day, who was murdered after the raging of the King, leading to great strain between Church and State.  And of course during the sixteenth century, and the years of reformation, where Church and State came together, but the Church was split against itself. What we notice, when we reflect on it, is that in each of these periods there has been change, and that change brings with it growth.

Reflecting on its secular history led the Churches of Poland to the conclusion that there are lessons to be learned from this experience.  Poland, like many other nations, has a chequered history of religious tolerance, but progress has been made.  So it is in our country.  The relations between Church and State, and even more so between the different Churches and Christian Communities, has a chequered history.  We are in a period now, as evidenced by this Week of Prayer, where relations are good, and are improving.  My invitation to speak in your Cathedral this morning would not have happened a generation ago.  But this is not a time for us to be complacent, or to rest on the journey.  If working for Christian Unity is to continue, and it must continue, then changes have to occur at all levels.

Using the mould, the template of our country’s secular history, and placing that side by side with the life pattern of Jesus Christ himself, allows themes to emerge that may encourage and enliven the work of what we call ‘ecumenism’.  We recall that at the very beginning of his life Jesus was rejected, there was no room for his family in the inns of Bethlehem.  Away back in 1908, when the first Octave of Prayer was held, it garnered little support at first, and was spurned by many, not lease I have to say by the Catholic Church.  We also take heart that when Jesus preached and healed, he was not looking for immediate results; he trusted in the Lord, and in His providence.  So too it must be with us: we are charged with this important task, but we have to know that we don’t undertake this work on our own.  The Pope, speaking earlier this week, reminds us that “this spiritual event, which unites Christians from all traditions, increases our awareness of the fact that the unity we strive for cannot result merely from our own efforts; rather, it is a gift we receive and must constantly invoke from on high”.

So during this Week, in our praying, and in our witness, we are asked to think about service of one another, of unity between one another.  In being neighbourly we come together, and we must have the patience to see what we do as worthwhile, and the patience to continue what we do, even when we get downhearted, and perhaps don’t see what we do as worthwhile.  We are in God’s hands, and so we remind ourselves that we are putting into practice that great prayer of Jesus from the night before he suffered: “Father, may they all be one”.  Isolation, and retreating into our ghettos, is not the way forward; that course is in no way ecumenism.

We also know from our own experience I’m sure, and it does us no disservice to remind ourselves, that this work of ecumenism may involve suffering, struggle and misunderstanding.  Jesus gave us a perfect witness of God our Father, and each one of us struggles to reflect that witness in the way we lead our own life, and in the way we relate one to another.  Whether we are speaking to people of our own denomination, to a Christian from another tradition, or to someone wholly outside our Church, we are open to challenge.  The life of Jesus is an example of what loving our neighbour may involve: how many times was Jesus misunderstood or challenged?  Jesus was doubtless delighted when Peter professed faith in him at Caesarea Philippi, but almost immediately had to tell him to ‘get behind me, Satan’.  How quickly the message was understood, and misunderstood.

Another of the themes covered in the text from our Polish brothers and sisters is peace-making, a theme common in the bible, and in the life of Jesus.  We in this United Kingdom know something about how important peace-making is from our experiences of Northern Ireland over so many years, and how reconciliation may be possible, and indeed is possible.  Perhaps it is the struggle to see that this comes not in our time, but in God’s time, and that the work we do may be no more than the sowing of seeds.  Just as in the lifetime of Jesus there was no Church as such, and indeed relatively few followers, so it may seem with our work for ecumenism.  Do we sometimes wonder whether the work we do, maybe even the occasions such as this morning, will actually lead to anything?  If we cast our minds back a generation, might we not have said the same sorts of things about the quest for peace in Northern Ireland?  And yet we can see the huge healings and reconciliations that have happened between the people there.  This gives us an inspiration from our own times, that there is no place any more, and indeed never should there have been, for bigotry and religious division.

All of this is based on genuine Christian love and an honest meeting of one with another in the light of the Spirit.  Our own lived experience, and the experiences of so many others, is the challenge we are all called to.  This is no easy task in a liberal secular society like ours, where the Church, its adherents, and indeed its founder Himself are relegated to the margins of what is deemed important and relevant.  How can our message be heard without our society, within our secular country, when we speak with so many different voices?

Dear Friends, it is now more important than ever that we stand together and present, as far as possible, a united Christian witness.  For this to be possible we need to turn afresh to the Lord and realise that change must take place, and that change will be His.  We are merely workers in the vineyard, and it is not ours to know whether we have been hired at the first hour, or in the middle of the day, or at the eleventh hour.  All we do know, and know with certainty, is that the harvest will, one day, be gathered in.  At that time we will be given our wages, if we have worked honestly and faithfully – for we can do nothing more by our own merits.  In our trust of God we place our hope for ecumenism, that we will indeed, one day, be one.

All that is left is a question: Will we honestly trust Him?

Rev Mons Canon T P McGovern, Prot Ap, VG

Lincoln

Some years ago there was a story going around on the internet of a multi-faith chaplaincy team on a university campus in North America.  The team had resolved to conduct a mission across the campus and called together a group of what they thought would be willing students to help them get things ready.  However, one of the undergraduates was a little cynical about the whole venture.  What credentials had any of them got for doing this?  What proven track record had the chaplaincy team got in converting people to faith?  He would only support this venture if the three chaplains, Fr O’Hara, the Rev Billy-Bob and Rabbi Cohen would first prove their worth by each converting a bear!

Not surprisingly the three chaplains were somewhat apprehensive but they agreed to the challenge and arranged to meet a week later to report back.  Well, a week rolled by and the three chaplains turned up and what a sight they looked.

Fr O’Hara had his arm in a sling as he told his story.  “Well,” he said, “I found a bear and I decided the best way to bring him to faith was to teach him the catechism, but that old bear was having none of it and he started mauling me, so I quickly sprinkled him with some holy water and you know what, he was like putty in my hands.   The Bishop is coming next week to confirm him and give him his first Holy Communion”.

Rev Billy-Bob also had a broken arm and a broken leg too.  He told his story; “When I found me a bear, I thought I would preach to him from the Word of God, but I’d hardly gotten started before he began slapping me about.  So I leaped on him and we rolled over and over down a slope until we fell into a stream and I baptised him by full immersion and after that, the old bear was like a lamb.  We spent the rest of the day by that stream just praising the Lord”.

Rabbi Cohen had arrived in a wheel-chair, with two broken arms and his legs in splints.  “How did it go?” they asked him. “Well”, he said, “I found my bear alright, but I have to say as I think about it now, circumcision probably wasn’t the best place to start”.

Knowing where to start in sharing the experience of knowing God in your life is a tricky one for all of us and it is a theme that crops up in the first of our readings today.  Eli, the priest at the once famous shrine at Shiloh, is presented to us as someone whose faith has been worn down by the faithlessness and apathy of the society and times he is living in.  We join the story at Chapter 3 but if you go home and read Chapters 1 and 2 with a touch of suspicion in your reading, the context is simply awful.  When Eli first meets Hannah, her lips are moving as she prays, but he assumes she is drunk.  Why would he do that?  Except that this would have been his common experience.  He is not used to people coming in off the streets to pray.  The shrine has been used as a shelter from the sun – a place to sleep off a skin-full.  Then there are his sons, Phineas and Hophni, who are corrupt racketeers, creaming off the best cuts of the sacrificial meat for themselves and turning the shrine into a brothel.  They are out of control, but hey, they never had to go to a Bishop’s Selection Conference or read the guide-lines set out in Issues in Human Sexuality.  They got the job as vicar because they were the vicar’s sons.  Now they run the shrine like a family business.  “The Word of the Lord was rare in those days,” the writer tells us, and it is not surprising, no one is listening anyway.  The Ear of Faith has all but turned deaf.  But not quite.

At the second attempt Eli sees and understands Hannah’s need and he says all the right things, he tells her to go in peace and that God will grant her request for a son.  He can’t have expected her to come back.  No one ever did.  But she does and in Chapter 2 and now in Chapter 3, things begin to gather pace for Eli.  There is now a dull flicker of faith.  Eli is now old, his eye sight is failing, but the writer tells us that the lamp of God had not yet gone out – that is a telling phrase.  When God calls Samuel it is not Eli who hears it, but it is Eli who recognises it and each time he sends the boy back to bed you wonder if he wasn’t wishing for the old days when the word of the Lord was rare.  Now he has to wrestle with some bears of his own.

Now in a context where faith is like a desert, he has to find a new way of getting started.  Something new is happening and although he is almost blind, he begins to see that God has given Israel a gift in the life of a child.  All that is needed is for the gift to say “yes” to God; Eli ends the wrestling and starts the language of faith.  “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak Lord, for your servant is listening’.”  He has no idea where this will lead and indeed he will live to see that the word of the Lord is not a Christmas toy, but a proclamation of the justice of God with serious consequences for his family.

But it is Eli, who gets such bad press, and who probably had many regrets, it is Eli who enables the gift which is Samuel to be opened.  And God begins something new.

And we find something similar when we turn to our Gospel reading today.  Epiphany is the season of gifts.  On Epiphany Sunday here last week, the Magi brought their gifts to help us unwrap the identity of Jesus; on Monday we kept the feast of the Baptism of Christ.  God’s gift is unwrapped in the words from heaven at Jesus’ baptism.  Today God’s gift is unwrapped by a rather cocky young man called Nathaniel – whose name means ‘Gift of God’.  But he is Mr Sceptic.  Jesus calls Philip to follow him; Philip goes to Nathaniel and describes meeting Jesus in completely inadequate language and Nathaniel sneers.  Why would God work out of Nazareth – it was a dive, but he goes anyway, probably looking for a thrill and the excitement of meeting the newest celebrity in town and instead he gets a surprise.  Mr Sceptic who has been quite confident that God is a bit classy and therefore quite picky about the parameters within which God will work, is brought up short.  Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, a title he uses of himself only 12 times in this Gospel and one in which nearly every time it is in connection with ascending.  He is the way to God.  Get that Nathaniel, God’s gift, and wrestle with it and unwrap it for the world to see.  God is not playing by the rule book you have been reading.  He is doing a new thing to revive a flagging faith and he is choosing the most unlikely voices to announce it.

I take great heart from a message like this and God’s use of characters like Eli and Nathaniel and I shared that this week with a young ordinand in training who came to tell me of how despairing he was of his home church.  “You know, they are so pre-occupied with fund-raising that I just don’t seem to be able to find Jesus there any more”, he said.  What he hasn’t yet come to realise is that he might well be the gift that God has placed in that community to help it find that vision again – and still raise enough money to keep the place running for the sake of the wider community.  We so often miss the message in the unlikely voice because we don’t expect God in the unexpected.  My six year old showed me this on New Year’s Day when we went to church while we were on holiday in London.  Zachary is into all things Dr Who.  He has a tardis, he likes Daleks, Cyber-men and the Ood, and his favourite Christmas present this year was a sonic screw-driver which he points at his mother and me and says things like, “You are compatible for an upgrade” and “I shall now fit you with an emotional inhibitor”.  During mass at the Ascension, Plumstead, he flourished his screw-driver at the congregation of 16 people and went around the church writing messages on post-its which he stuck to the empty chairs.  A well meaning, and very kind woman, came and offered him a bag of toys to play with, but no one read his post-its.  I gathered them up later and read them, and I still have them.  Some of them are simple greetings like ‘Happy New Year’, one has a Dr Who feel to it saying, ‘God sent the TV to be deleted’, but the most moving is one which simply reads, ‘Do what God says, because Jesus is the light of the world’.  Actually it says Jesus is the light of the wold and no doubt he meant the Lincolnshire Wolds, but for prophetic utterance I will forgive him the spelling mistake. He is six.  Where does he get this from?

God is at work in the voice of Eli the dead loss, Nathaniel, the sceptical cynic and a six year old boy in a church in Plumstead and he says, take heart; I am making a new thing in my world and I need you, Mr, Mrs and Ms unlikely to help me make it happen.  God can make all things new and in this season of Epiphany – the season of the gift we are challenged – even if we feel burned out as Eli or sceptical as Nathaniel to offer our lives for transformation and renewal.  It will mean finding a way of getting started and wrestling with bears.  What is God calling you to do and be?