We don’t often read scripture as subversive literature but it is there hidden in plain sight. In particular, the many encounters where Jesus is in dialogue with feisty women. Women who refuse to be ignored, women who answer back, women who defy the conventions of the day by demanding to be recognised. The Samaritan woman who Jesus meets by Jacob’s well is one such woman. She is certainly a woman of some character, like the Wife of Bath, she has had five husbands and the man she lives with now is not her husband. Jesus comes to the well at midday, the hottest time of day, and is thirsty. Usually one would not expect to find anyone there at that time of day but this woman is a social outcast, no respectable woman would want to be seen with her. Jesus asks her for water, and she challenges him. ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria’ John 4: 9 Not only is Jesus creating a scandal by talking to this woman but breaking the long-held rules of racial segregation as Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with each other. The Samaritan woman continues with another provocative question: ‘Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well?’ John 4: 12 Clearly, she is not going to submissively agree with this strange man. Again she raises the temperature, to divert attention, I think, from the thorny topic of her ‘Relationship status’. ‘Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem’ John 4: 26 Theological talk was reserved for men and yet she broaches one of the most divisive issues of the day, the correct place where God should be worshipped. An issue as divisive in Israel today as then! Women, like this, step out of the pages of the gospel throughout the ministry of Christ. The Syro Phonesian woman, the woman with an issue of blood, the woman who gatecrashes a dinner party to anoint the feet of Jesus with her hair, the women who risk arrest by going to the tomb of Jesus when the other disciples are hiding away in the upper room. All defy convention and custom by calling into question the religious taboos of the time. This is subversive literature looking at life from the underside. Artemisia Gentileschi was a woman very much in this mold. A student of Carravagio she was a prodigious talent but her art is a statement of her fierce independence as a woman in a man’s world. Of the fifty-seven known works, forty-nine are of women, and of her religious paintings, none feature the Madonna or any woman in the role of submissive obedience. All her women, Judith, Esther, Bathsheba, Jael, Cleopatra, and her own self-portraits are of women in control! Controversially it has been suggested that this was the result of the trauma of rape and the subsequent trial in which she and not the rapist was tortured so as to verify her testimony. The rapist was never punished and Artemisia had to flee Rome to escape. Could it be that the four paintings that she did of the ‘Judith slaying Holofernes’ owed something to this experience? I don’t think Artemisisa ever found peace and happiness in her life but carried the trauma of her experience to the end. She stands for the many women through history who have raised their voices but did unlike the Samaritan woman had no one to answer their questions. We do know the happy ending of the Samaritan woman’s story. John records that though it is Jesus who asks her for water it is she who is thirsty for answers. She draws water for Jesus but it is she who finds that her thirst is quenched as Jesus offers ‘the water gushing up to eternal life’ John 4: 14. She comes to the well for water but in reality, she is thirsty for truth. Each generation is asking anew questions that are raised by the conventions of the day. Often the voices raised are angry at past wrongs, present abuse, or perceived injustices. Often the victim's voice goes unheard or ignored but if like the Samaritan woman, we are to find healing then the anger must be listened to before the healing can begin. ‘Where are we?’ ‘Who are we?’, ‘What’s wrong?’, ‘what’s the remedy?’ Past generations have assumed that the answers to these questions were self-evident. Jews and Samaritans both lived in a world where the answers seemed self-evident. Both lived in a secure world, satisfied that they had the answers to life’s questions. These answers however did satisfy those who chose to defy the institutional religion of their time. To the Samaritan woman and many like her, Jesus reached out with not new answers but with healing for the hurts of the past and hope for the future. Where are we? Not Jerusalem or Samaria, neither East nor West, whether on the right side of history or the wrong side we are all equally loved before Jesus. Who are we? Whether victim or abuser, whether oppressor or oppressed we are in need of healing by Jesus. What’s wrong? The unheard voices, the untreated wounds, and the hidden crimes all come into the light of Jesus Christ. What’s the remedy? Anger and protest have their place but healing comes as we seek not angry independence but forgiveness and healing for ourselves and others. Behind this discussion lies an important question, ‘What is God like?’ Is He a God confined to a particular shrine, place, or culture? Is he a God who does not hear the raised voices of the angry? Is he a God who knows nothing of the pain and anguish of the victim? No! He is the God who we know in Jesus Christ who comes to seek us where we are, to listen to us as we ask questions, and to gently reveal to us where our wounds need to be healed. The God who offers us the water of life. He is the God who comes to us in spirit and truth as we worship him. Rev. Simon Brignall Please pray for Elizbeth and her family as they mourn the passing of Ray. May he rest in peace and rise in glory Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. we pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
Finding the perfect gift for your family is always a difficult call. I have my sister’s birthday in February and then my daughter’s birthday in March followed by my wife’s birthday in April and then another sister's in May. I am always at a loss to know what to give them and usually give up and ask them what they would like. Our Father God has a similar problem but in reverse. Only He can give us what He longs to receive – the perfect love and obedience of a son/daughter of God. Only one person has fulfilled that description, Jesus himself. He alone lived such a life, only he can come into God’s presence, as John the gospel writer tells us: “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from Heaven – the Son of Man” John 3: 13 So there’s the riddle that Jesus posed. “How do you enter the Kingdom of God” Answer – You can’t! Why? “Because only the Son of man can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only he is perfect” Our Father God has a problem, not unlike the parent who buys a present for his child to give to him! How then does God do what we cannot do for ourselves? This riddle is the theme of our painting this week. ‘The Trinity’ tells the story of a perfect gift, a gift the Father God has chosen himself. Masaccio 1401- 1428 ‘The Trinity’ (1427) The fresco ‘The Trinity’ considered to be Masaccio’s masterwork, is the earliest surviving painting to use linear perspective. To ensure the precise transfer of the perspective lines from the sketch to the plaster, Masaccio inserted a nail at the vanishing point under the base of the Cross and attached strings to it. The marks of the preparatory works are still visible. The perfect gift The story told by the fresco has an amusing twist to it, though I don’t think the donors quite appreciated it at the time. They are seen kneeling, a man in red and his wife in black, at the base of the Cross, presenting their gift to God. However, standing behind the crucified Christ we see the figure of the Father God with his arms outstretched presenting His gift to them - the gift of His Son. The figure of Mary, the mother of Jesus, looks towards them with her hand pointing them towards her Son. Her words to them seem to echo the words of St John: ‘ For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3: 16 The message is clear, this is the perfect gift, the gift God gives to us that we might offer not ourselves, but Jesus, the only gift acceptable to God. ‘Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to thy Cross, I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress, Helpless, look to Thee for grace: Foul, I to the fountain fly, Wash me saviour or I die.’ Rock of ages The question on Nicodemus' mind as he approached Jesus seems to be: ‘What can I do to enter the Kingdom of God’ The problem is in fact the exact reverse of the one Nicodemus thought he faced! The question asked by Jesus is ‘What can God do for us’ or to put it another way what are the gifts that God has given to us? So let’s look at these gifts. Water and the Spirit. “I tell you the truth. No one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of the water and the Spirit” John 3: 5 The picture of water reminds us of Baptism, but it is Jesus’ baptism that John points to. It was for our sake that he was baptised, offering up to God his life of perfect obedience and faith and ultimately taking on himself our sins. He gave to his Father God the gift that we could not offer so we could enter into God’s kingdom! “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit”. John 3: 6 The picture Jesus gives us of the Spirit is of a wind that comes to us as a gift, gently refreshing and life-giving. We cannot control it only feel and enjoy its cool breath. So it is with God’s love reaching out to us, refreshing us, and embracing us, giving us life. Both the water and the Spirit are pictures of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. He has given us the perfect gifts that our Father God wishes to receive so that we can give ourselves to Him. Looking to Jesus. Jesus draws one more picture, the snake that was lifted high on a stake in the desert in the time of Moses. Those who looked on the snake were healed, just one look was enough. God’s final and best gift to us is Jesus, lifted high on a stake so that all who look to him in faith might be healed. This must have been, I believe, the image in the mind of Masaccio as he painted his fresco, all we can do, and must do to find life is to look on him and trust in his love for us. Rev. Simon Brignall. A Requiem Mass will be held for Rory Young at Cirencester Parish Church at 2.00 pm on Thursday 9th March. This Week Lent Lunch at The Gables 12.00 noon. Donations to a chosen charity. Lent Group 'Christ in the Wilderness' at The Old Rectory 7.00 pm Thursday 9th March Fairtrade Fortnight. Clare has a Fairtrade stall at the Quenington coffee morning. Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. we pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen Best wishes Rev Simon Brignall I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
In our Lent groups this year I invite you to spend some time with Stanley Spencer’s series of Wilderness paintings. There are eight completed works, though Spencer prepared sketches of 40, one for each day of Lent. Spencer started this series ( 1939) at a time of great turbulence in his own life, not only had he separated from his beloved wife, Hilda but he had become entangled in a loveless relationship with another woman. Professionally he was out of favour as a result of a series of erotic paintings that were not well received. He was forced to move away from his home in Cookham to a small flat in London cut off from friends and family. The looming war brought back to him the traumas of his own experience in the first world war in which he had served both as a medical orderly and a rifleman in the Berkshire regiment. The painting is set against the barren landscape of Salonika where he fought, recalling the wilderness in Judea where Jesus was tried and tested in preparation for his mission. ‘Driven by the Spirit’ The first in the series ‘Driven by the Spirit’ takes us to the moment captured by Matthew and Mark in their gospel accounts. Mark uses strong language here, whereas Matthew says Jesus is led by the Spirit Mark tells us he is ‘Driven’. Maybe Spencer thought that the word driven reflected better his own experience as an outcast, but it is more than the storms of life that drive Jesus in this painting. Jesus is pictured clutching at the branches for support but there is no wind in the trees instead his feet are planted firmly on the ground and his eyes are fixed at the far distance looking at his destination. He has set out on this journey into the desert with the knowledge of his Father’s love, but knowing that he was to be tried and tested, he is resolute in facing the future. In the silence of the wilderness, he will listen to his Father’s voice guiding him in his mission. This is no pale, pious nor divine figure, but a bulky, bearded man grounded in life’s experiences in a divine way. He has come to show humanity how to live in the midst of testing and trials in a life-giving way. Matthew 4:1 - 11 In our reading today Matthew gives us a glimpse of Jesus under pressure. We are reminded that he was very human, as the writer to the Hebrews tells us: ‘We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin’ Hebrews 4: 15. In fact, the writer goes further and tells us that it was through testing that Jesus learned obedience and became perfect. ‘Although he was a Son he learned obedience from what he suffered and once made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.’ Hebrew 5: 8/9. How encouraging for us as we face the daily trials and temptations of life. The passage we read today was only a foretaste of what Jesus was to go through in his life but it proved one thing, he was confident of the love of his father God that would sustain him through the turbulent years of his ministry. “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3: 17. This was the relationship that was the bedrock of his life, through all the ups and downs and even in the last dying moments of his life he knew he could rely on God’s love for him. The relationship was tested and tried to the limit but God never failed him or forsook him. Whether like Jesus we are tested to doubt God’s love in times of hardship, danger, or prosperity God’s love remains constant, a reminder that even when we fail, he will not fail us. We may sink or shine under pressure, but in all the ups and downs of life, we know that ‘Underneath are the everlasting arms of God. Through trials and tests, we will have the chance to grow in grace and strength. Like Stanley Spencer, we can turn our trials into works of art. Rev. Simon Brignall Rory Young passed away peacefully last Thursday morning. He lived his life to the last full of the energy and enthusiasm that inspired his work as an artist and friend to many. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. We continue in prayer for Ray and give thanks for the recovery of Tim and Ceri. Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. we pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
‘You are what you eat’ has become a popular catchphrase as we become increasingly worried about obesity in the western world. Fast food and fast lives have become part of our culture as we attempt to keep up with the demands of our busy lifestyles. In response, a whole new movement has emerged. ‘Slow food’. The focus is not so much on the food as on the pleasure of eating. One of the chief pleasures is, of course, the company. We eat, as Jesus ate to enjoy the company of others, and we need time to do this. Modern wisdom and ancient wisdom agree here that food has always had an important social function. In the Middle East, the sharing of food is part of a culture of hospitality and human dignity. This is the thought behind Jesus' words: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you eat or drink, or about your body, what you wear”. Matt 6:25. Pieter Bruegel painting the Peasant Wedding, 1567, celebrates not just the social function of food but brings dignity to the ordinary lives of everyday people and the simple food they eat. The food and drink are made from the produce they harvest. The Beer is made from Barley and the broth from Oats but here it is transformed into a sacramental meal in celebration of a wedding. We can see the Bride, centre stage in front of a green drape. She is not eating or talking but sitting modestly under her bridal crown, waiting for the bridegroom to arrive at nightfall. This was the custom in Flanders at the time, and as we can see through the doorway there is still sunlight coming through the door, so she waits patiently. This is a community event with all strata of society present. To the far right is the Landowner, dressed in a rich black velvet outfit, talking to a Franciscan friar who will be present to bless the marriage. To his left is the Notary, sitting on a high-backed chair who will witness the wedding. All around them are the peasant labourers who have produced this simple feast enjoying a rare moment of joy in their hard lives. The Peasant wedding recalls the many meals that Jesus enjoyed together with the rich and poor. It is probable that Bruegal has in mind the Wedding in Cana and the transformation of water into wine, every day turned into an occasion for celebration, and poverty turned into riches. Eating, drinking, and clothing have important social functions that set us apart from animals. We are made for more than just eating, drinking, and keeping warm! The command not to worry about these things calls us to consider the purpose of human life which eating drinking and clothing serve. They are symbols of the dignity of human life and serve to enrich our social relationships. These areas of our life should occupy our thoughts because they determine what we are rather than the food we eat or the clothes we wear. Jesus in fact attaches the highest importance to eating drinking and clothing for they point us to the purpose of life itself. Eating, drinking, and clothing are all used by Jesus as symbols of the Kingdom of God. ‘But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well’ Matt 6: 34. The purpose for which we eat is then to nourish our inner life not just our bodies. The apostle Paul puts it like this: ‘So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’ 1 Cor. 10: 31. As we eat and drink the bread and wine today we remember the purpose for which we were made and the communion which we share with each other and with God through this holy meal. The secret of a worry-free life is to focus on those things that are of lasting value, like friendship and generousity. The things that truly make us what we are. ‘Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes?’ Matt 6: 25. Rev. Simon Brignall We hold in our prayers those who are experiencing ill health, those awaiting operations, or recovering at home. Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. we pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
