Monday, February 09, 2009

Sermon - Sacred Space

In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A couple of weeks ago I found myself in the Parish church of St Ives. From the outside a rather dull building of grey stone but once over the threshold you are greeted with a spectacular vision of countless medieval angels and apostles beautifully carved and coloured greeting you from their elevated position all around the body of the church . You are immediately made aware that this is no ordinary space, it is not a museum or gallery where tourist can acquire the consolations of culture or a sense of history rather it is a sacred space where heaven and earth mingle together angels and saints are mysteriously present. As you move forward into the church you are almost tangibly touched by a profound stillness a deep ageless silence where the busy world has been hushed and left behind and you are being invited to linger and let go of your immediate cares and concerns and see yourself afresh in relation to this sense of eternity of which the building so powerfully speaks and evokes. Then you move to the Lady chapel where there is the gentle radiance of lit candles, prayers have recently been offered and you discover some words written just for you to help you through the experience of arriving in this sacred space, words from the 11th century by St Anselm, “Come now and put aside all business for a while , take refuge from your tumultuous thoughts cast off all your cares and let your burdensome distractions wait awhile . Take some leisure for God, enter into the chamber of your heart put out everything except Go , close your door and seek him alone , say now to God with all your heart “I seek your face O God your face I seek” . However distractions and tumultuous thoughts that we carry around with us of which St Anselm speaks can be overwhelming Seeking God alone in prayer isn`t always easy especially when we are in a crisis and everything is changing around us are we feel we have little control. When we are ill or feeling unwell or anxious about a hospital appointment we may not have the energy to pray we perhaps become despondent it is then we have to remind us that others are praying for us on our behalf. Those statues of angels and saints are a reminder that there are other forces always along side us uniting their prayer with ours. This is why intercessory prayer is so important. Our prayer for others is a real form of support. We carry people to God who cannot carry themselves. It is an act of love . And because prayer touches the threshold of the divine we will not know how our prayer is used or how it takes effect but it will become part of God`s providential care for the person we are praying for . Then we quietly leave the church of St Ives, and find ourselves back in the sunshine. The world now seems slightly a different place and we walk up the hill to a whitewashed house where there is an invitation to enter a garden the garden of Barbara Hepworth . A tropical garden with Australian Cabbage palm , Fuchsias , Bougainvillaea , Camellias , Japanese Quince , Narcissus and among the colourful foliage and trees are her own sculptures works which she always wanted to have with her. We have entered another space no less sacred than the space we have just visited . And again we find some words written just for us words Barbara Hepworth left for her visitors, “Wonder around the garden on your own , let them look at you and they will speak to you” . It may seem an odd notion of sculptures speaking, but there are many levels of communication , many ways of being touched and moved . In fact we are invited to touch the sculptures themselves to make a connection and to walk around and through the larger spaces. There is one piece which is particularly moving called “Prayer” it is an organic plant like form reaching up, almost pleading and seemingly at the same time drawing down energy from above. This piece was done after the sudden death of her son Paul. We can see how Barbara Hepworth turns her grief into a creative act . It is a lamentation but at the same time an expression of hope reaching outwards and upwrds from within the pain of loss.It could not have been an easy for Barbara Hepworth to create this sculpture task but the actual doing of it was her prayer her expression of where she was and now it becomes ours. We too can connect with that stretching beyond ourselves seeking to draw down the strength or the wisdom or the patience which we may need for the situation we find ourselves in . The garden had its own stillness and spoke it own language and was for me a reminder that God can touch us in so many different ways and that all creativity is an extension of God`s own creativity entering his world through the imagination of others and feelings of others . Each one of us will have our own sacred space that speaks to us it may be the space of a friendship or a love, a particular piece of music or a passage from scripture it may be a poem or a novel, it may be something about this space of St Michael's and the delicate web of friendships whatever it is let us not neglect but cherish them visit those places because they are all gifts from God , expressions of his love towards us.

Sermon - The Saints

On Saturday morning I was in attending a talk at St Margaret`s Church next to Westminster Abbey . The whole day was a reflection on the life of a 19th Century Russian Saint St Seraphim of Sarov . When we read an account of his life it seems for the most part to have been rather uneventful. He spent most of his time hidden away in the wild forests of Russia. However he was to become the most famous saint of that country. His popularity was founded on his immense warmth and infectious joy. What was most noticeable about him that in his presence he would radiate something of the light of the Resurrection. In the western church saints are often marked by the stigmata of Christ signs of his passion we have only to think of St Francis but in the Eastern church it is light that marks out a saint the resurrection light. St Seraphim had so immersed himself in the life of the Holy Spirit through prayer that be began to reflect something of its radiance. He once said “have a peaceful heart and thousands around you will be saved”. The acquisition of a peaceful heart requires a great deal of work in relation to our own inner demons that, inner peace is not won easily but clearly it was this gift of peace that drew the crowds to visit Seraphim in his cave in the Russian forest. At his canonisation in 1903 the Czar and his family were there and there is a film of the event. With the rise of communism his body was placed in a museum to celebrate the triumph of atheism , but because it drew such crowds who would come to pray to St Seraphim it was removed and hidden away only to be rediscovered a few years ago . Yesterday was the coldest day in London for 15 years Seraphim would have been quite at home. The speaker the former Bishop of Sheffield Father Jack Nichols, made the point that saints are our friends in heaven and he clearly believed that the influence of St Seraphim was alive in his own life . Seraphim was insistent that we should pray constantly for the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we can share in the transforming love of God and know within ourselves the gifts he longs to bestow upon us. There is a beautiful story of a group of passengers sharing a table on a cruise , On the final night the captain asked this table of passengers to entertain the rest of the company . As you can imagine there was a certain amount of reluctance however one of the company got up and sang a song another displayed his gifts of being able to whistle any tune that was requested , finally there were just two gentleman left , the first refused I`m a professional actor and this is my holiday I won`t perform but after some persuasion he agreed and recited the 23rd Psalm The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want , He makest me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me besides the still waters , he restoreth my soul...at the end there was tremendous applause and appreciation for his rendering of the psalm then it came to the turn of the final guest around the table , I can`t he said I really can`t anyway the only thing I know is the 23rd psalm “well just say” it so he got up “The lord is my shepherd I shall not want, he makest me to lie down in green pastures he leadest me beside the still waters, he retoreth my soul . At the end of the psalm there was complete silence and the actor stood up and said you can hear the difference I know the psalm but he knows the shepherd . Knowing the shepherd can express itself in many ways . And as through our baptism we all share in the life of the Holy Spirit his life God`s life active within us will manifest itself in ways that are appropriate to the kind of person we are. The Holy Spirit makes us more individually ourselves. I am a great reader of the church times and on the back page there is always an interview with a christian about their faith and how they have arrived at where they are in their journey towards God. You could view them as testimonies about the Holy Spirit active within them . There story can sometimes help us to see our story with fresh eyes and give us hope and confidence. This week was an interview with a psychiatric hospital chaplain Annie who was a former Quaker but now an Anglican. Annie states the Quakers believe that there is that of God in everyone and that everybody should be accepted with respect and dignity. St Seraphim would greet everyone with the words “My Joy” He showed the same respect and something more my joy. Annie later speaks “that the most important choice I have made in my life was to give up worrying about how to look cool. I gave up my fear. I was worried about trying to conform to ideas about Christianity and worried it would`t be me. But God broke through and belief became a relationship I realised that he doesn`t want me to be anything other than what I am . There is a lot to be learned when you let go. Then finally she speaks about prayer. Prayer is the basis of everything. There is so much that I can`t do and so much that God can do. When I go to see a patient I pray to be empty open to surrender. God alone knows what that patient needs. I have a badge that was sent to me by a friend saying “Blessed are the cracked because they let in the light” . When the outer persona gets broken gets broken we let God in. We need to hear the stories about the saints because they offer a vision of what could be and we need to hear the stories of our fellow Christians because in them we hear how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of those around us and in hearing we are encouraged and perhaps enabled to expect something more of his antiquity in our own lives. As St Seraphim said “we have only to ask” . Amen