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SUMMARY:Family Communion
DTSTART:20250622T090000Z
DTEND:20250622T101500Z
DTSTAMP:20260419T022001Z
UID:8999802025-06-22 09:00:00+00:00achurchnearyou
CATEGORIES:
DESCRIPTION:Family Communion for the First Sunday after Trinity: celebrant
  the Revd Tola Badejo. \n\nFirst reading: Psalm 42. 1–14\nGospel: Luke 8
 . 26–39\n\nPsalm 42 is about faith challenged by adversity\, and the psa
 lmist's reliance on God even when God seems to have abandoned him. The dee
 r longs for water because. like the psalmist\, it is being pursued by hunt
 ers intending its death\, be they wild animals or humans. The psalmist\, a
 gainst all objective evidence\, is utterly confident that in the end God w
 ill save him.\n\nIn a way\, the Gospel illustrates the salvation longed fo
 r in the psalm\, although it comes to a different person in a completely d
 ifferent context. The man possessed by a legion of demons is not the victi
 m of political conspiracy or civil war\, but someone suffering extreme pro
 blems of personality or mental health\, to an extent that makes his own li
 fe intolerable and lays a heavy burden on his community. It's worth reflec
 ting on what Jesus does here: he engages with someone whom most people wou
 ld\, with good reason\, be careful to avoid and brings healing in a situat
 ion which (like the psalmist's) appeared objectively hopeless.   \n\nThe B
 ible is full of animal imagery\, and\, particularly in the Old Testament\,
  animals are often seen very positively\, as representations of attributes
  of God. In the Christian Middle Ages the stag had come to be regarded as 
 a symbol of purity and nobility\, and as such was adopted as an emblem by 
 King Richard II. The image above is the reverse of the Wilton Diptych\, a 
 two-panel travelling altarpiece made for the king in about 1395. On the fr
 ont (see attached)  are the kneeling king and\, behind him\, John the Bapt
 ist and two regal saints: Edward the Confessor and Edmund\, king of East A
 nglia. It's interesting that although by this time St George was generally
  regarded as as the patron saint of England\, Richard chose two solidly hi
 storical English figures as his supporters\, one of whom was undoubtedly m
 artyred for his faith in our own country. Above the St George's Cross bann
 er on the right is a tiny circle which contains a miniature map of Britain
  - the 'precious stone set in a silver sea' described by Shakespeare in hi
 s play 'Richard II'.
GEO:0.037423;51.469833
LOCATION:Kidbrooke\, St Nicholas
URL:https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/671/service-and-events/events/89
 9980/
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