Angels & Demons

We’ve been doing an occasional film & discussion group at church, and we did Da Vinci code recently, which was fun, and gave me an excuse to get history nerdy and point out where things went far adrift of reality. Anyway, as A & D was just being released in the cinema we took a group to go and see it. I’ve been reading the book too. Well, the film was fun (and actually hangs together better than Da Vinci Code – once again the preposterous plot is ably assisted on its way by a very capable supporting cast) but I’m now unsure whether it’s worth meeting up for a discussion of it. There just doesn’t seem to be much to discuss from the film. As presented, the whole science & religion thing is distinctly downplayed, the Illuminati are a bit of a red herring, and the Catholic church do kind of what you’d expect them to do in the circumstances (with the exception of one character, the weirdness of whom is fairly central to the story). All in all, the church come fairly well out of it – given the feather-ruffling caused by Da Vinci Code Brown presents a suprisingly humane and sympathetic church here.

So, a bit of fun with not much real food for thought. That’s what I thought, however, until I finished reading the book. Now, I’m not a huge Dan Brown fan, and I feel at this point obliged to have a rant about his novels, so you may find it easiest to skip to the next paragraph when I’ve got this off my chest. He does just enough research to make the inaccuracies he includes very plausible to the innocent reader, and as a natural sensationaliser of history he tends towards the most entertaining and shocking interpretations of events. And (especially in the case of TDVC) the images he is presenting will linger long in people’s minds. The blue-tinted ‘history’ images from that film, depicting events that never happened will have an impact on the popular imagination that will not easily be undone. Just when Pagans were starting to concede that the myth of the Burning Times was exactly that, Dan Brown firmly underlines it in people’s minds. He’s also not the greatest writer. Robert Langdon has more than a touch of Mary Sue about him. He’s a good-looking sophisticated, witty, wealthy, Harvard professor with a world-wide reputation, seems to attract sexy smart women, and is also incredibly physically fit and a former champion swimmer… Then there’s the fact that Brown appears to only have one plot: academic is murdered with arcane symbols on his body, leaving a smart and sexy orphaned daughter to accompany Robert Langdon in following a series of clues in which they are hampered by a policeman who looks like a bad guy but turns out to be a good guy, and helped by a guardian angel who looks like a good guy but turns out to be the bad guy who has manipulated the whole thing. Oh, and they dodge some really weird psycho assassin on the way. I can only guess that it was to avoid making the overlap too obvious that Hollywood chose not to make the love interest the victim’s daughter this time, and made the assassin a conventional hitman for hire rather than a sadistic descendant of the cult of Hassassins (that and the fact that no-one wants to add a murderous muslim character just for ‘colour’ these days).

Anyway, I wasn’t overly impressed by the book as a piece of writing, but I did find the handling of the science/religion thing a lot more interesting than they chose to present it on screen. Although the villain is clearly nuts, he has a definite grasp of some interesting tensions between the church and modernity, understood in a more subtle form than is normally the case. The science/religion debate is often presented as being simply a clash between competing world-views, between rationality and superstition or faith and godlessness depending on your position. Commendably, Brown steers clear of this. He makes much of the fact that the two have never been entirely separate. Vetra is priest and scientist, seeking to prove God’s existence with science. And Janus is not a stereotypical advocate of religion alone. He embraces technology and progress. His issues are more subtle (though disturbingly he still feels drawn to take extreme measures to fight for them): the rate of scientific progress being allowed to outstrip growth in moral reflection, and a scientific mindset that encourages a search for answers even when reverent appreciation of mystery may be more appropriate. His problem is actually one of pace: the sense that the rate of scientific progress is pushing human beings beyond their ability to morally develop, that we are literally rushing in where angels fear to tread. This is a not uncommon feeling. Setting aside the trappings of the thriller (not many people feeling like this decide the answer is to provoke a war between science and religion by killing a few cardinals and threatening to blow up the Vatican), this is something well worth exploring.

It is certainly true that the pace of scientific and technological progress is accelerating. Moral codes and legal frameworks struggle to keep pace with scientific development that sometimes raises genuinely new questions: eg what is the moral status of life created from human genetic material but which is not in itself capable of becoming human life? It is likewise true that as a species we seem to find inventing ways to destroy easier than inventing ways to heal or create. Environmental issues as well as the legacy of warfare have left us very aware of the consequences of immoral and thoughtless applications of science in our world. In many ways the whole ‘modern world slipping further away from morality’ idea rings true. But there are some hidden assumptions in this line of argument, however congenial it may seem. Not least of these is that science is not permanently wedded to the idea that there is a single comprehensible answer to everything.

So, there’s probably something to discuss, but only if people have read the book, and to be honest I’m not sure I could in all conscience force people to do it…

I do still knit you know….

Although I have mostly been posting about ministry things I do actually still knit a fair amount. It’s very therapeutic- often prayer time for me. It helps me to be still and I have a few projects that are cast on for particular people I am praying for- to guide my prayers. This cardigan, better known as the conference cardigan was begun on the Lichfield diocesan clergy conference this year. It was a wonderful time for me- mostly because of the sessions themselves. I felt enthused on so many levels not least to begin to love myself and my body more. To care for myself and to be confident about being a woman in my priestly ministry.

The cardigan is very shapely and fitted- it’s the beginning of being proud of me a little. The beginning of working on something I should have worked on sooner perhaps. So watch this space I may blog a little more knitting in future!

One of the hardest sermons ever…but had to be said.

Mark 6:1-13

I had some really tough decisions to make when I read the readings for this week because the gospel reading says a lot of different things and there were a lot of different sermons that I could preach from it. There was however one thing that it seemed to me needed to be preached. It’s not easy to preach about and it’s not easy to listen to. I don’t want to preach this sermon and you probably won’t want to hear it but I think it is the sermon that needs to be preached. I’m going to talk to you this morning about the things people say about people in ministry. It will not just be about the things people say about me but it will include that. The reason I’m doing this though is not because I’m wanting to defend myself or have a go at people about things they might be saying about me but because I’m not the only person in ministry in this church. We have a curate, Steve (who has at least 2 years of training left to do with us), we have a lay reader, Joyce. There are a number of other people who take very clear public roles- Gloria, Dorothy, George and Sheila, Bill and Sheila… to name a few! We also have 2 people from this church who are actively exploring a possible call to ordained ministry- who are both looking to serve in ministry at St John’s. All of these people have been and will be affected by the sorts of things people say about them to their face or behind their back. So I’m talking about these things today not just for me but also for them because if we as a church can’t learn how to support and encourage those called to ministry amongst us – we will all be losing out.

Picture the scene. Jesus has just begun to travel around galilee preaching the gospel, healing the sick and doing miracles. It’s his home town of Nazareth. It’s the Sabbath- a holy day. So everyone is gathered in the synagogue for worship. Jesus, with his disciples, has come home. He’s there in the synagogue this morning. He’s probably not planning it as a big event- just passing through but he has a ministry of preaching and healing and people from his home town will have heard what he has been doing elsewhere. So he starts to teach. What do you think happens? Maybe to start with it’s just a little muttering at the back where they don’t think he or his disciples will hear. ‘Who does he think he is?’ ‘Isn’t he getting a bit big for his boots?’ ‘not like he’s a proper rabbi-we know who he really is. He’s just a carpenter.’ By now maybe the mutterings and the significant looks have crept a bit further forward in the synagogue and Jesus’ disciples start noticing. Maybe there’s some of the elders up the front making faces at each other behind him where they think he can’t see. ‘hmm hark at him! It’s Mary’s son (we were never quite sure if Joseph was really his father wasn’t he born before they were married?). Look here’s his brothers- James, Joses, Judas and simon, they think he’s a bit strange’. His sisters were sitting in the women’s gallery, maybe they were some of the ones doing the gossiping. The Nazarene’s might have thought their comments and looks were discreet but they didn’t go unnoticed and there was soon a distinct atmosphere in the room. They thought he was a bit too full of himself, they thought he didn’t really know his place, they thought he’d forgotten where he came from and so they stopped listening. Jesus Said ‘A prophet is honoured for the words they speak, words that are given them by God, the right words for people to hear at the right time. Prophets are not without honour except in their home town, their own house and amongst people who know them’. He said this because when people think they know you they think they already know what you’re capable of. So Jesus did minister in Nazareth but their unbelief, their small mindedness, their assumptions and their gossip restricted his ministry so much that the amazing things he had intended to do became impossible. I want you to consider for a moment the implications of that. Jesus was God. God was limited by human beings and it wasn’t what we would see as big sins, huge issues and problems that restricted Jesus’ ministry in that place. The people didn’t stone him. They weren’t too bogged down in sinfulness to be reached by the good news he had to share. They gossiped, they talked behind his back, they belittled him, but that was enough.

I’m not going to tell you any of the things that I’ve heard said here but there are many examples I could give. I will share some of the things I heard said in my previous posts about the vicars there.

Edited out comments.

I don’t think I’m like those priests and there isn’t anyone involved in ministry here like them so the things being said there will not be the same as the things being said here. But things are being said here and not just about me. Just like in the synagogue at Nazareth, lots of things are being said and taken individually none of them sound that serious, they could all be discredited or put into a different perspective. However together they create an atmosphere within which effective ministry becomes impossible. God was limited by this kind of atmosphere in Nazareth and he will be limited as those he sends in ministry are limited in Heath Hayes. I’m not saying we can’t have genuine grumbles or disputes with people in ministry. Sometimes ministers get things wrong and we need to be told when that happens. Sometimes people in ministry do unpopular things and you need to know that you can express your feelings about it. What I’m talking about is not either of those things. It’s not openly challenging something you feel is wrong.

If I could give you some pointers to help I would probably say: firstly: don’t belittle those you have called to serve you. It will not help them to be better ministers and it may make it impossible for you to be ministered to through them. Our marital status, our children and how we choose to care for them, our parentage, our age, our education- all of these things define who we are, but the significance and authority of our ministry has nothing to do with them. Belittling someone by reference to these things or others like them is really a way of attempting to undermine the ministry they have been called to exercise. Secondly: assumptions. Never assume you know anybody so well that you can predict exactly what they will say and do in any given situation. When we stereotype people, when we pidgeon hole them and write them off and stop listening to them we don’t leave space for God to work through that person in ministering to us. I think both of those pointers are really about respect. It’s respect , yes for the person but ultimately for the calling and ministry that they have- irrelevant of the person and their failings.

So my challenge to you is to not be another Nazareth. Do not limit what can be done here. Don’t reject the possibility of amazing things happening. Don’t force your leaders to dust off their feet as they move on in ministry. Respect those whom God sends you, leave space for him to work through them in your lives. God sends people of all shapes and sizes- sometimes they are close to us and sometimes they are a stranger. If you cannot do this for those who are visible ministers, those who are obviously sent by God – if you cannot show respect to these people then how will you do so to the ones God sends you everyday… to each other?

So your vicar is in the pulpit, it’s the Sabbath, the holy day. I wonder what you’re thinking? Am I limited by your knowledge of me? Are the things that define me barriers for you? I wonder will you gossip? Will God touch just a few through my ministry here or will he do amazing things?