You may remember a book published a few years ago called ‘Eats shoots and leaves’ by Lynn Truss. It dealt humorously with the pitfalls of punctuation. The sentence above could be referring to a murderer or to a panda bear, depending on where you put the punctuation. Or maybe you have read the poignant poem by Stevie Smith, ‘Not waving but drowning’ about the misinterpreted signals of a desperate person trying to attract attention. Our words and actions can so easily be misinterpreted unless understood in the right way. The Mona LisaArt works in the same way, it needs to be interpreted and the interpretation depends on how we read the signs or symbols that the artist puts in front of us. The great art of the Classical and Renaissance periods relied on geometrical form and proportion, the triangle and the rectangle, arranged in perfect proportions to give a picture that sense of harmony that brings beauty to nature. Yet for the artist there is more than just harmony, there is emotion and personality, that of the artist and of the subject. A perfectly harmonious composition would be boring, but one that combines harmony with emotion engages us in a relationship that lasts for a lifetime or indeed for generations of lifetimes. Consider, for example, what is acclaimed as the greatest work of art ever painted, the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is not only a painting of exceptional beauty, combining the perfect proportions of geometry, but is also famously enigmatic, posing questions about the personality of the sitter. Is she smiling or is she frowning? Is she looking at me, do her eyes really follow me around the room? All this is the work of the genius Leonardo da Vinci whose understanding of anatomy and light enabled him to play tricks with our eyes that bring the face before us alive. The link between the Mona Lisa and our passage today rests on the same need for interpretation and the measure that is used is not beauty but love. How do we understand words such as Sin, Righteousness, and Judgement, that are so central to the Gospel picture? Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will interpret: “When he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness and judgement” John 16: 8 Further, Jesus links these three words to what is to come: His Passion, Resurrection and Ascension: “He will make know to you what is to come” John 16: 13. The key to interpreting these three words is love. The love of God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who Jesus tells us will shine a light on the work of the Father and the Son: “He will glorify Me, for he will take what is mine and make it known to you. All that the Father has is mine, and that is why I said, “He will take what is mine and make it known to you” John 16: 14/15. The Passion: In the Passion, the spotlight shines on the Son. Here we see the love of God taking on Himself the sin of the world. The world had understood that sin was something for which each person must account, but the Spirit makes known that in Christ, God Himself has taken the sin of the world on himself. St. Paul puts it like this “Him who knew no sin, he made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” 2 Cor. 5:21. The Resurrection: As the Passion shows us how we die to sin in Christ, so the resurrection shows us how the Father raises us to a new life in Christ. The world had understood that righteousness was achieved by good works, but the Spirit makes known that this new life is made possible only by the Father, as we are raised up with Christ. Again St. Paul spells it out: “But God is rich in mercy, and because of his great love for us he brought us to life with Christ when we were dead because of our sins... and he raised us up in union with Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2: 4-6 The Ascension announces the final judgement of God as Christ takes his place in glory and ‘The prince of this world stands condemned’ John 16:11. The world had thought of the final judgement of God with dread but the Spirit reveals that it is not mankind that is condemned but the evil one. “The Spirit of God affirms to our spirit that we are God’s children; and if we are children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ... we are also to share His glory. Romans 8:16/17. Those three words, sin, righteousness, and Judgement that sound so severe are in fact words of comfort when interpreted by love. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one in love working together to bring the whole of broken creation back into perfect harmony through the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of the King of love. Rev. Simon Brignall
What is it about the British monarchy that makes it so unique, indeed more than unique, a mystical even sacred institution? Over the seventy years of her reign poets and painters have tried to capture something of the aura of divine authority that resides in the person of the monarch and the institution of monarchy. The last poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy caught something of the essence of that authority that weighs heavily on the head of the Queen. (See poem below) The Crown translates a woman to a Queen,Endless gold circling itself.An O like a well, fathomless for the years to drown in. A young woman, only 26 when she succeeded her father, but now the inheritor of a thousand years of history and tradition. A lonely place to be, set apart from the rest of society and yet embodying the hopes and dreams of all those who call her their Queen. Pietro Annigoni’s ( 1910 – 1988) portrait of the Queen is perhaps one of the best known. Commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers in 1954, it is not on public display, but copies hang in many British Embassies around the world. It captures the young Queen just a year after her coronation alone in an English landscape. Annigoni confessed to being at a loss when faced with the task but the Queen put him at ease. As they spoke she told him how as a girl she had watched people through the windows. These words were the inspiration for the portrait. “Her words were like a searchlight, lighting my way,” he said. “ I saw her immediately as the Queen who although dear to the hearts of millions of people whom she loved, was herself alone and far off” It may be that he also had in mind the words spoken In 1947 on her 21st birthday. The Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, made this solemn vow before God and the people of the Empire: “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great Imperial family, to which we all belong, but I shall not have the strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do... God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share it” Her words reflect the words of Christ himself: “The Kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, but I am among you as one who serves” Luke 22: 27. In 1952 on the death of her father George VI, Princess Elizabeth became Queen of Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and 50 other lands. Fifteen months later at her coronation in Westminster Abbey, the vow she made as a young woman became a reality as she was consecrated with holy oil as God’s ‘Anointed servant’. Only after this solemn act did she take up the ‘emblems of majesty. As her trust is a sacred one, her first responsibility is to God. She is set apart by this act of anointing with the words ‘as Kings, Priests and Prophets were anointed’ The Investiture which follows these words serves to emphasise this God-given authority. As the Archbishop placed in her hands the royal Orb, he says: “When you see this Orb under the Cross remember that the whole world is subject to the power and empire of Christ’. After this, the Queen’s ring, the wedding ring of England is placed on the fourth finger of the Queen’s hand to indicate that she is wedded to her people. Today we celebrate the Queen’s faithfulness to these vows over the tumultuous 70 years of her reign. Under the intense glare of the media’s spotlight, and throughout the social upheavals, and family troubles of her long reign she has lived by the words she spoke then. On the occasion of her Golden Jubilee 2002, she once again returned to her commitment to God and service to her people. “For me, the teachings of Christ and my own accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life” Why should the Queen’s faith be such an issue for us today? We live in a secular age in which the trappings of religious life have been overthrown, and yet we live in a nation that still holds itself accountable before God. Unlike other countries we do not have a written constitution, nor are we a democracy accountable solely to the wishes of the people. Instead, we live by an ancient text that has shaped our society for a thousand years, the Bible. Along with the symbols of royal power, the monarch is handed a bible with the words: “This is the most valuable thing the world affords. “Here is wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively oracles of God.” This ancient wisdom tells us that all authority is from God himself, “By me Kings reign and rulers make laws that are just... I walk in the ways of righteousness and along the paths of justice.” Proverbs 8: 15/20. The long and glorious reign of our Queen is a testament not just to her faithfulness but to our just and gracious God. Rev. Simon Brignall The CrownThe Crown translates a woman to a queen,Endless gold circling itself.An O like a well, fathomless for the years to drown in.History’s bride, anointed, blessed for a Crowning.One head alone can know its weight,On throne, in pageantry and feel it still in private space. When it’s lifted, not a hollow thing but a measuring.No halo, treasure, but a valuing.Decades and duty, time gifted.The Crown is old light,Journeying from skulls of Kings to living Queen.Its jewels glow, virtues,Loyalty’s ruby, blood deep.Saphire, ice resilience.Emerald, evergreenThe shy pearl, humility.“My whole life, whether it be long or short, devoted to your service.”Not lightly worn. Carol Ann Duffy on the occasion of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
Sometimes it takes an explosion to remake the world. Think of the French revolution, or maybe today our thoughts turn to Ukraine and the way the Russian invasion is reshaping Europe and indeed the world. Explosions are never tidy and always destructive but often out of an explosion comes something new or even better. For the Ukrainians despite the destruction, a new sense of national unity and identity is emerging that might well determine the outcome of the war and define the Ukrainian nation in the years to come. Cold Dark Matter: An exploded view. 1991 Cornelia Parker This is the idea behind the exploded shed recreated as a sculpture suspended as an installation in the Tate gallery. Filled all sorts of everyday objects gathered from car boot sales Cornelia Parker then invited the Army school of Ammunition to blow up! After the explosion, the bits of the shed and dispersed objects, twisted and blackened from the force of the explosives were carefully gathered together and suspended as if in mid-flight from the epicenter of the explosion on transparent wires. Installing the work adds new layers of meaning to it as Cornelia Parker explains: ‘As the objects were suspended one by one, they began to lose their aura of death and appeared reanimated, in limbo. The light on inside the installation created huge shadows on the wall, so the shed look like it was re-exploring or perhaps coming back together again.’ The title of the work is a reference to the ‘big bang’ that brought the universe into being. Cold dark matter, despite its invisibility, makes up the greatest part of the matter of the universe and thus of us and all the visible universe. The exploded shed becomes a metaphor for the rearrangement of the material world in a new and creative way bring not destruction but order and beauty. Reclaiming the Temple We don’t often think of Palm Sunday in terms of a revolution but to the authorities, it was clear that Jesus was intent on overthrowing the old order and reclaiming the Temple courts for the people. The court of the gentiles and the court of the women had been taken over as a marketplace for the traders and money changers. The money from this trade was the main source of the Temple’s income and its loss would be a serious threat. Jesus then had come into Jerusalem to reclaim the Temple from those who had forgotten or worst betrayed its purpose. In so doing he is fulfilling the ancient prophesies that foretold how the Lord would return to his Temple. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey.” Zechariah 9: 9 Reclaiming the Throne The events of Palm Sunday remind us that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem not just to reclaim his Temple but also his throne. The crowds shout ‘Hosanna’ which is the greeting given to Kings and has the same significance as ‘Hail’. ‘Hail Caesar’, would have been a common greeting for the Emperor Augustus recognising him as the deliverer of universal peace and prosperity. Underlying this word, however, is the word salvation or salve, healing from Jesus for the body and soul, something that Saviours and Messiahs were meant to deliver to their disciples. Jesus is welcomed by the crowds who now recall the prophecies of their Scriptures that their Lord and King, would return to the Temple riding on a donkey. Jesus, they hope, is the one who will restore the glory of God to the Temple and bring Israel’s long oppression to an end. “Shout Daughters of Jerusalem! See your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9.9 However, as the account in Luke makes clear, the authority of Jesus is challenged by the Priests, Scribes, and Elders. “One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the Temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up to him and said “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who is it that gave you this authority” Luke 20: 1-2 Mission to the World Israel was from its earliest calling in the days of the Patriarchs had a mission to the world, he was to be the Father of nations: “A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and Kings shall come from your body.” Genesis 35: 10 These prophetic words echoed the Covenants drawn up with Abraham and Isaac and called Israel as a nation to a universal destiny, not just a national one. Jesus makes references to Israel as: “the light of the world, A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people put a lamp and put it under a basket, but, on a stand, and it gives light to the whole house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14 Israel’s God is the Creator God, the One God, the Source of all Life, love, Justice, peace, health, and mercy. The Temple was the symbol of this universal mission as seen in the Court of the Gentiles. Jesus, however, has come to lament the loss of this vision: “My House shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers” Matthew 21: 13 Jesus – The Earthquake! Matthew reports in his account that there was a tumult in the city when Jesus entered. The word ‘Tumult’ can be translated as ‘Earthquake’ and we can interpret this to be a comment on the impact of Jesus' ministry and subsequent lament over Jerusalem as he foresees its destruction. “For the days will come upon you and hem you in on every side, and tear you to the ground.” Luke 19: 44 The Temple is no more for it has failed to welcome the Messiah King, it has failed to Welcome the Nations, it has failed to be a beacon to the world. But destruction can be creative as Cornelia Parker reminds us In ‘Dark Matter – an exploded view’. Out of the destruction of the Temple was to emerge a living Temple, the Church where Christ is worshipped, the Community welcomed and the World served Rev Simon Brignall
What a waste! The story of Mother Teresa is told in Malcolm Muggeridge moving biography ‘Something beautiful for God’. Her ministry was to the destitute and dying on the streets of Calcutta and her only purpose was to give them dignity in death. This made no sense to Malcolm Muggeridge, a journalist who could only see that time and money were being spent on those who are about to die rather than on those who had a chance to survive. “What a waste” many would say. “That time and money could have been spent on healing the sick or invested in the young, rather than being thrown away on someone about to die!” The fragrance of Love Mother Teresa’s love for these destitute and dying scraps of humanity transformed not only their lives but the many lives that she touched, even that of the cynical, atheistic Malcolm Muggeridge. Love has a fragrance that spreads and lingers in the air transforming ugliness and squalor into ‘something beautiful for God’. Mother Teresa’s story finds an echo in the ministry of Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus who pours out a costly perfume over Jesus' feet and then wipes them with her hair. The perfume we learn from Judas was worth around 300 denarii, about a year’s wages. It is likely that Mary had been keeping this secret treasure for a special moment, maybe her own wedding or for a funeral. Worship is not worth it! Now Mary believes a special moment has arrived. John tells us that Mary believed in Jesus but knew that death might soon separate her from him as it had separated her from Lazarus her brother. She decides to show her love for him in this extravagant even excessive way. “What a waste,” the disciples said “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor” John 12: 5 “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor, you always have with you, but you do not always have me” John 12: 7/8 Mary is pouring out this perfume on someone who will soon be dead, it looks like a waste when it could be used for so many useful things to help the living but it is an act of worship that comes from a heart that is full of love. Love that leaves a fragrance and lingers in the air such that Jesus tells us that Mary has done something beautiful for God, a story we are to remember: “Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” Mark 14:9 Memories Those words “In memory of her” are significant. Think back to your earliest memories I expect there will be a smell associated with them. I remember the smell of carbolic soap at my Primary school and am taken right back to those days when I smell it! When Jesus lifted up the bread and the wine at the last supper just a few days after this act of love he said to his disciples. “Do this in remembrance of me” Luke 22:19 When in John’s account of the last supper Jesus washes the feet of the disciples he says: “I have given you an example that you also should do as I have done to you” John 13: 15 Just as Mary offered up what was most precious to her so Jesus offers up his life for us, poured out for us in total abandon for this poor scrap of humanity! Mary’s act of worship foreshadows Jesus and in the same way, is to be remembered and imitated by his disciples. Mary’s act of love is not just prophetic but is a model of the way in which we are to love and serve each other in response to the total love that Jesus has for us. That is why her excessive, wasteful act of love is remembered whenever the gospel is preached. It is the gospel itself! ‘Ode to Joy’ and the Bethoven Frieze Gustav Klimpt celebrates the triumph of beauty over power by telling the story of humanity's search for joy as told in the poem that has now become the European anthem ‘Ode to Joy’ written in 1785 by the German poet Friedrich Schiller. This poem in turn inspired Beethoven's 9th Symphony and the famous music that accompanies the final movement. The Frieze was designed for the ‘Secessionist’ building in Vienna, the exhibition hall of the dissident Austrian artists who had abandoned the academy. The themes of the frieze repeat the story of suffering humanity, shown in the painting as whispy spirits. These Spirits first turn to an enormous armed Knight representing power however they are moved on to confront demonic spirits that threaten to overwhelm humanity. Only through the beauty of music, poetry, and art does humanity find its joy, represented in the Frieze, by a choir of angels lifting humanity up to the Elysion fields! Joy! Joy! Joy, beautiful spark of divinity, Daughter from Elysium, We enter, burning with fervour, heavenly being, your sanctuary! Your magic brings together what custom has sternly divided. All men shall become brothers, wherever your gentle wings hover. Mary’s gift of scented perfume is offered up because his love for her has made her once ugly life beautiful again. Love like art transforms the ugliness of life into beauty, it brings dignity and meaning to the brutal death of Jesus, it is an offering of love that reminds us that we are servants to each other. At the heart of loving God is this same gratitude that springs out of the love made known to us through Jesus's own offering of himself. This is the bread and wine by which we remember him but it is reinforced by the daily reminder of the suffering of others, who are our brothers and sisters, especially those in Ukraine at this time “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me” John 12: 8 Seeing the Poor in us: ‘The poor’ or shall we say suffering humanity are amongst us to remind us of the love that like a fragrance pours itself out on those the world sees as worthless. For Mother Teresa, the poor were a reminder to her of the dignity that Jesus gives to suffering and death, in giving dignity to them she was daily reminded of the love and forgiveness that transforms life. Maybe, as we care for the poor we see reflected in them our own poor humanity which God loves and in Jesus pours himself out for: The next time the disciples met for supper with Jesus he offers them the bread and wine with the words, “this is my body... this is my blood, given for you. Do this in memory of me” The fragrance of that love is still with us today as we renew that love and gratitude by our worship today and our service for others as we go out into the world to serve our neighbour. Rev. Simon Brignall
