REFLECTIONS


These pieces are written each month by members of our clergy team.

September Parish Magazine Leader:

I wonder where your oasis of peace and calm is and if you actually have one at all? One peaceful place for me is St Giles church, especially in its quieter moments. After a while sitting in its gentle silence I sense a change within me, its solid walls shut out the stress and noise of the outside world and then it becomes easier to sense the presence and peace of God. It is sad that we are not able to leave the church open throughout the day so that people can come in to share in its beauty and peace, such are these times.

I have always been someone for whom buildings matter, the place where worship takes place should speak of beauty, stillness, calm, and order. Even if a place of worship is recently built and modern in design, to my mind it should still speak of order and calm. I cannot stand the clutter that you find at the back of many churches, old paper backs, stuff left over from fetes, out of date notices, dog eared papers, carrier bags, cardboard boxes and loads of stuff that everyone felt might come in useful one day which has been sitting around for over a decade. At St Giles, the endless war against mess and clutter continues week by week waged by the cleaners, myself and my Churchwarden (see photos below) and anyone else who dislikes it as well. If you think this is just down to my own quirkiness then I thought you might be interested in what the 18th century priest George Herbert had to say on the matter.

‘The country Parson hath a special care of his church, that all things there be decent and befitting the name by which it is called. Therefore, first, the priest takes order, that all things be in good repair; as walls plastered, windows glazed, floors paved, seats whole firm and uniform, especially that the pulpit and incumbents desk and communion table, and font, be as they ought for those great duty which be performed in them. Secondly, that the church be swept, kept clean, without dust or cobwebs…….’

Usually when we come to church we have enough mess of our own to cope with, our inner lives are invariably full of confusions and contradictions and as much as we try to squeeze our feelings into neat boxes, they seldom go. The mistakes of the past and the ongoing problems of life create their own disorder. How nice it is to enter into a church of stillness, order, and beauty. I am reminded of a lovely line from the hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind which states:

Drop thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of thy peace.

Part of the work of a parish priest is to lead people to a place where they can find the love and grace of the Lord. St Giles is such a place of peace, beauty and order and will remain as such, as long as a broom and bin bag is at hand. Matthew

Matthew Hughes

Reflection

The account of Jesus feeding the multitudes is unique in the sense that it is the only miracle of Jesus that appears in all four Gospels namely, Matthew, Mark Luke and John.  We can tell from this inclusion that the event must have been important to all four Evangelists as they came to set down in wright the events of Jesus's life.  Before we move on to the significance of this miracle, a word about miracles in general.  Clearly for many people the miracles that Christ performed are problematic, especially in a world dominated or guided by the scientific and rational.  It is argued that miracles belong to a pre-scientific age when primitive people eagerly attested to the occurrence of the miraculous, when in modern times other explanations would be more credible.  For some the miracles of Jesus look and feel like magic, walking on water, changing water into wine, and multiplying loaves and fishes for a huge crowd - seriously?!  Two things can be said in response.   

The first is that the miracles Jesus performed attest to the person that he was and still is.  For Christians, Jesus is God incarnate, in other words Jesus was human as we are yet also Divine and it's the Divine nature in him that enabled him to perform miracles.  God as the creator set the universe along certain laws and yet it is within the capacity of the creator to suspend or alter these laws for a higher purpose or good.  In his humanity Jesus identifies with all of us in our earthly life, but in his Divinity he possesses the power to go beyond the limitations of humanity to forgive us and grant us eternal life.  Only God can do this.

Let me give you an example, one day I will come to the end of my life, I will be in a hospital or hospice and there will be nothing more that any human being can do for me, it will be at that point that I will need something beyond the human to guide and support me, and that guide will be Jesus exercising his Divine power.  The miracles that Jesus performed remind us that he has the power to save and to bring life wherever he chooses.  As Jesus says in John 5:  

‘The Son gives life to anyone he wants.’  

So, when I read of the miracles of Christ I am comforted to know that Jesus's love and ability to save and transform is far beyond what I have as a human being, we are mortal and limited, Jesus’s love is immortal and unlimited.  

The second thing to note about miracles is that they all have a context and layers of symbolism and meaning which can teach and instruct us about the life of God.  It is not only important to ask, 'Could this miracle have happened'?, but also, 'What does this miracle mean and symbolise'?  

With this in mind let us now look at the feeding of the 5000 as recorded in John chapter 6.  As I mentioned, this miracle appears in all four Gospels, probably because it is so reminiscent of the feeding of the Israelites as recorded in the book of Exodus (16:1-36).  In this account the children of Israel complained to Moses of being hungry whilst they were in the wilderness.  In response Moses prayed and they were fed by manna from heaven, which was actually dried coriander seed which they then ground into flour.  In our account Jesus is clearly meant to be seen as the new Moses who feeds all his people, not with perishable manna, but with divine bread that satisfies them spiritually, furthermore there is enough Divine love for everyone, for all people and all nations.  

The opening theme in this miracle is the hunger of the people.  We are all hungry for something.  Some people in the world are literally hungry and starving, for us in the West our hungers are more hidden. We are hungry for love, meaning, peace, forgiveness, health and wellbeing.  Our rampant materialism is perhaps a reflection of just how hungry we are!  In response to our hunger Jesus says:  

‘I am the bread of life and whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’ John 6:35  

Most times in life we are never fully satisfied, there is never quite enough to go round.  In this miracle there is enough for everyone and even left overs to spare.  Christ never says to anyone there is nothing for you, the world of Christ is not one of competition and sparsity, it's one of equality.  No one loses out, no one goes away hungry because others are more assertive and pushy, as is usually the way of the world.  

Furthermore, it was through the faith and generosity of a child that Jesus was able to perform this miracle, he offered up his five loaves and two fishes despite the cynicism of the adult disciples.  We learn from this that Jesus is able to take the slender resources that we offer to him and make them go a long way.  At times the demands of life seem very great and we often do not feel equal to the challenges ahead of us.  Our response is to say ‘Lord, here are my few loaves, take them, use them, make them be enough for myself and others.’  And if we look back over our lives lived in faith and trust we will probably see that there was enough.

Finally the key principle from this feeding of the multitudes is that love grows when you give it away. Loving and generous deeds always multiply beyond themselves.  There are many examples where a life well lived in the service of Christ has gone on to positively affect the lives of countless others. For example Mother Teresa began her work amongst the poorest of the poor with a handful of rupees and 12 sisters, today there are over 5000 sisters working in numerous poverty stricken countries around the world, caring for the sick and dying and transforming the lives of countless people - love multiplies when you it give away.

Matthew Hughes