On the first Sunday in Lent it is traditional to meditate upon the Temptations of Christ in the wilderness. Malcolm Guite has written a sonnet about the first temptation, Satan’s invitation to Jesus to turn stones into bread. As ever, he generously shares his poetry with others and here it is. His introduction to the poem can be found by clicking on the linked title.
The Fountain thirsts, the Bread is hungry here
The Light is dark, the Word without a voice.
When darkness speaks it seems so light and clear.
Now He must dare, with us, to make a choice.
In a distended belly’s cruel curve
He feels the famine of the ones who lose
He starves for those whom we have forced to starve
He chooses now for those who cannot choose.
He is the staff and sustenance of life
He lives for all from one Sustaining Word
His love still breaks and pierces like a knife
The stony ground of hearts that never shared,
God gives through Him what Satan never could;
The broken bread that is our only food.
Part of the Ipsos MORI poll into Religious and Social Attitudes of UK Christians in 2011, commissioned by the Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, sought to strip self-identifying Christians of their cultural flesh to get to the theological bones beneath. The results moved Richard Dawkins to announce that “Despite the best efforts of church leaders and politicians to convince us that religion is still an important part of our national life, these results demonstrate that it is largely irrelevant, even to those who still label themselves Christian.”
We were very fortunate the Annual Quiz finished just before the snow started coming down in earnest! The event was successful as a fund raiser: £570 was the final count; and it was a very enjoyable social occasion that has attracted kind comments, not only on the night but on line in a couple of places as well. How nice..!
It is often observed that Christianity deliberately coincided Christian High days with older, Pagan festivals in an effort to supplant those traditions and it is certainly true that the coincidence is quite remarkable – so remarkable in fact that, were the argument to be put before any jury in a court of law, they’d likely find that on the balance of probabilities this had to be true.
Candlemas is a case in point and I came across a blog that discusses all the traditions and legends of this mark in the Christian calendar so exhaustively and entertainingly that I have linked to it here. It explores the various traditions, folk, Pagan and Christian, that were observed at this time of the year and also touches upon the connection between the snowdrop and Candlemas.
One thing this blog does not mention about Candlemas is the Nunc Dimittis, the song Continue reading →
“Occupy your soul! The Christian Left gets active“ was a recent headline on the New Internationalist blog, introducing an article written by Symon Hill, associate director of the Ekklesia (see the Blogroll) think tank.
The article is inspired by the planned ‘ring of prayer’ in connection with the expected eviction of the Occupy camp around St Paul’s. Hill endorses the plan and offers an analysis of current Christianity that juxtaposes this sort of activism with other manifestations of Christianity that he sees as complacent or fearful.
In trenchant advocacy for the cause of radical Christianity the article calls upon those “Christians who do not want the options for the future to be nothing more than a choice between promoting bigotry and maintaining tourist attractions” to get up and do something.
Although the remark is a distillation of earlier paragraphs and ought to be seen in context, I doubt that such stridency is helpful when trying to get people on side against the undoubted shortcomings of the established church.
I have a problem with radicalism. It has a visceral appeal but makes me wonder: Continue reading →
Chesterton’s ‘Here is a little door‘ is a puzzling little poem.
It is often attributed to Frances Chesterton but thought perhaps to have been written by GK himself. If it was he who is the author it fits, because the poem is ‘paradoxical’, a word many commentators most readily associate with his work.
The first verse is atmospheric and charmingly describes the scene of the Magi finding the birth place of the King they sought and giving their gifts:
Here is the little door.
Lift up the latch; O lift!
We need not wander more,
but enter with our gift.
A gift of finest Gold,
Gold that was never bought nor sold;
Myrrh to be strewn about his bed;
Incense in clouds about his head;
all for the Child who stirs not in his sleep,
but Holy slumber holds with ass and sheep.
It is the second verse that puzzles, that is unlike the usual nativity carol. The mood radically changes, becomes darker, ominous even, using words of violence and death:
Bend low about his bed: for each he has a gift!
See how his eyes awake-lift up your hands! O lift!
For Gold he gives a keen-edged sword (defend with it thy little Lord!)
For incense, smoke of battle red.
Myrrh for the honoured happy dead.
Gifts for his children, terrible and sweet,
Touched by such tiny hands and oh! such tiny feet.
The second verse is no longer the Magi speaking; it is the poet marvelling at the legacy of misunderstanding and subversion that issued from such tiny hands and oh! such tiny feet.
Crusaders did indeed take up the sword to defend Christ and; ‘God on our side’ became an oft-heard claim to justify wars. Atrocities have been committed in the name of Christ. The history of Christianity is bloody.
Christians may no longer rampage around the world sword in hand but they have found subtler methods to defend their God; it’s done by excluding others from the celebration of Christ’s saving love in the Eucharist unless those others embrace the precise teachings of their particular brand of the faith. It’s done by withholding God’s blessing at a wedding service. The hurt this stance causes may not be bloody, but it often still cuts deep.
The misunderstandings and subversions are still with us.
Click on the player to hear the Kyrie Eleison from Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G min
Church Services Sunday 3 June 2012, Trinity Sunday
8 am Holy Communion
10.30 am All Age Worship- Special Jubilee Service 7Past7 15-minute reflective service, every Wednesday at 7.07 pm
