A Blog for November

It is that time of year when we celebrate again our Harvest Festival, a tradition in the church that seems to be as old as the hills. However, in fact, the celebration of Harvest Festival in churches is a relatively recent practice. It was the Rev Robert Hawker in 1843 who, noticing the revelry and feasting in his native Cornwall around this time of year, started the tradition of holding a service in his church offering communion bread made with the first corn of the harvest.

Of course, that would have been much earlier in the year than we celebrate Harvest today. Lammas Day (or Loaf Mass Day) or Lughnasadh on 1 August, was celebrated as the day of bread, when the locals would be encouraged to take a loaf of bread to a church service to celebrate the harvesting of the first of the crops. This was again a pagan celebration originated by the Celts who celebrated the god of Lugh on this day, but soon became a way of celebrating harvest in churches.

Michaelmas, or St Michael’s Mass was celebrated at the end of the harvest season on the 29th September, and at a time when all the harvest should have been gathered in. The end of the harvest was celebrated with huge feast, known as the Harvest Supper which was eaten on Michaelmas Day. Here the ‘Lord of the Harvest’ would sit at the head of the table, and the diners would be served goose stuffed with apples and a variety of vegetables. This gave rise to the Goose Fairs, the largest of which still continues today in the UK in Nottingham for four or five days around St Michael’s Day some 700 years later.
The traditions perhaps for our Christian celebration of Harvest stretch right back into the pages of the Old Testament. I read a short while ago that ‘all Jewish festivals are Harvest Festivals’ and I think there is more than a grain of truth in that. The Festival of Weeks took place seven weeks from the first corn being harvested, the Festival of Tabernacles took place seven days after the end of the harvest, and the Festival of Unleavened bread and Passover involved bread and an offering of livestock. The law instructed: “No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed: each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.”
No matter how you might celebrate Harvest, whether pagan, or Christian or Jewish, it is good for us to recognise the ways in which we have been blessed, and to stop and give thanks for that which we have received. To recognise our dependence on one greater than us who supplies all we need, and to offer something back so that all may share in the feast.

You will no doubt be looking forward to celebrate International Kissing Day, which each year is held on July 6. It’s a day when couples might spend a little more time in the act of osculating in order to express their affection. In times other than these, we may be thinking about kissing others we perhaps would not normally kiss, as an expression of affection and intimacy.

If you find yourself at a lose end on the 6th July..and the 7th and the 8th….you could always grab someone close to you and see if you can break the world record for the longest kiss. Apparently it currently stands at 58 hours, 35 mins and 58 seconds – and I wonder what it was that forced this hot-blooded twosome to stop when they did – was it a cough or sneeze – did they just get fed up. And how did they eat, or even go to the toilet during their record breaking attempt – especially if closely monitored by Guiness book of Records judges throughout the event?

Kissing has always been a very intimate transaction, highly significant, and adds drama to many a storyline. Throughout the Bible we see intimate moments of kissing which each have conveyed different meanings.

In the book of Genesis, Isaac calls his son to give him a kiss, and Jacob in doing so betrays his Father and cheats his brother Esau out of his birth-right. After many years of separation, Jacob returns to Esau, who runs to Jacob, wraps his arms around him and kisses him as a sign of reconciliation. After selling Joseph into slavery, his brothers come to him in Egypt to seek a handout from the foodbank, and in forgiveness Joseph kisses each of his brothers in turn. When Samuel anoints Saul as God’s future king, he kisses him to confer a blessing on him. In the Psalms, Saul’s successor David writes poetically of righteousness and peace kissing each other. In the gospels a woman kisses Jesus’ feet as an act of devotion, and of course one of his closest friends, Judas, ultimately betrays Jesus with a kiss. Love, devotion, betrayal, blessing, reconciliation – all encompassed in those unspoken acts of kissing.

However, it is from outside of scripture and to the Christian mystics that I look to for the most intimate examples of a kiss. The kiss of God on our souls. It is said that the human soul comes from God and that the last thing that God does before putting a soul into the body is to kiss the soul. The soul then goes through life always dimly remembering that kiss, a kiss of perfect love, and the soul measures all of life’s loves and kisses against that primordial perfect kiss. St Augustine in his Confessions echoes this when he says :

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

So, on 6th July I don’t really know what you will be doing. If you decide to attempt the world record challenge then do let me know. If you find yourself kissing a computer screen, or blowing a kiss over the telephone, that may well lighten your heart. But I might suggest you spend a moment, make some space, and allow your soul some time to remember and recall that perfect kiss.

June sees the churches celebrating the festival of Pentecost, the birthday of the church, and the sending of the Holy Spirit upon all people. Christians will be asking the Holy Spirit to come and fill us and be with us once more.

When we do this we think of being filled with peace, being filled with love and kindness. We think of the light and warmth of God filling us. But I wonder if our congregations really know what they are saying when they say “Come Holy Spirit”?

In the gospel of John, Jesus says to his disciples:

“These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Parakletos (that is most often translated as comforter), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all I have said to you”
John 14:26

And it is that word “comforter” that we are always in danger of misinterpreting. Because we think of the Holy Spirit as the one who soothes, and holds us, and protects us, and makes everything all right. But the Parakletos does not come to the disciples, to help them remember all that Jesus has said, so that they can just sit and console themselves with happy memories. But instead the Spirit reminds them of Jesus words to encourage them so that they can go out into the world and get on with the hard work of building the kingdom.

This is a picture from a scene on the Bayeaux Tapestry, a tapestry which tells the story of the invasion of England by William the Conqueror. In one panel, a bishop is seen laying into a group of reluctant soldiers with the flat of his sword. The caption says: “Here Bishop Odo uses his staff to comfort the boys.” A strange kind of comfort indeed!

The word comfort I guess literally means to encourage - “comfort” = Com Fort = With Strength. To comfort someone is to give strength to those who are weak and vulnerable. In the scenes recorded by the tapestry, the Norman troops are scared by the impressive fighting of the English under Harold. Some of them thought of deserting, others of refusing to go into battle. Until Bishop Odo came and comforted them, that is!

The disciples in Acts were weak and vulnerable, until the Holy Spirit came and strengthened them for the task in hand. We see the transformation of a group of scared individuals into a bold and charismatic team of Apostles who begin a worldwide movement.

So my biggest hope is that when those in our congregations call upon the Holy Spirit to come again into the church, and into their lives in the coming month, they are not looking to be wrapped up in a nice warm blanket and listen to soothing words. But they really do invite this Holy Spirit, this wild fire, this hurricane to tear through our church. Asking the comforter to come among us and wield his staff like Bishop Odo, and to strengthen us so that we can set about again the work of building the kingdom.

Prayer:
Jesus,
Send your Holy Spirit upon us,
and upon our churches,
and into the communities where we live.
Comfort us when we are feeling weak and vulnerable.
Strengthen us for mission.
So that we can continue the work of those first apostles -
reaching out in ways that overcame the barriers of language and nationality and difference.
Teach us,
and bring to our remembrance all that you have said,
and so inspire us to continue building the kingdom, in the places that you have sent us.

Amen

We refer to St George so many times when we talk about our own church that we find we have stopped to really consider who it is our worshipping community is named after. Today, 23 April, is St George’s Day and it is right that today we stop to give a thought for this person whose name generations before us have uttered when talking about our church community.

That St. George was a real person is beyond all reasonable doubt. Though I think that is all we can claim with any historical certainty. Some have George being born in Armorica (modern day Brittany) and others have him originating from Turkey. Though the facts of his birth are clouded in mystery, there seems to be some sort of conclusion that his death came about during Diocletian's persecution on the 23rd of April 303 A.D.

Jerome, who lived from 331 to 420, mentioned him in one of his lists of Martyrs and in the following century many churches were erected to his honour, our own church in this tradition but many years later. St. Gregory, who lived from 540 to 604, has a ‘Preface for St. George's Day” in one of his works, and the Venerable Bede in 672 to 735 says “At last St. George truly finished his martyrdom by decapitation, although the gests (tales) of his passion are numbered among the apocryphal writings.”

In the history of the “Order of the Garter” it says that King Arthur in the 6th century placed the picture of St George on his banners, and we are told in other places that St. George was the patron saint of England even in Saxon times. The council of Oxford in 1222 commanded a festival to St George be observed in England as a holiday, and on the establishment of the “Order of the Garter” by Edward III, St. George was adopted by England as it's patron saint.

Though George was certainly a real person, what of this dragon? It is perhaps just a simple allegory to express the triumph of a Christian hero over evil. We see similar stories with St. Michael, St. Margaret, St. Silvester and St. Martha who are all depicted as slaying dragons in their histories. St John the Evangelist charmed a winged dragon from a poisoned chalice given to him to drink,  and John Bunyan avails himself with the same figure when he makes Christian encounter Apollyon and prevail against him.

The most vivid images that we have of St. George and the Dragon invariably come from a ballad found in a collection of poetry compiled by Bishop Thomas Percy and published in 1765. In this account St. George was the son of Lord Albert of Coventry, and his mother died in giving him birth. The newborn babe was stolen away by the weird lady of the woods who brought him up to deeds of arms. His body had three marks on it:  a dragon on the breast, a garter around one of the legs, and a Blood Red Cross on the arm.

When he grew to manhood he first fought against the Saracens,  and then went to Sylene, a city of Libya, where there was a stagnant lake infested by huge dragon who's poisonous breath had slain many cities. The dragon’s skin was so thick that no spear or sword could pierce it. Each day a virgin was sacrificed to it and at last it came to the lot of Sabra, the King's daughter, to become it's victim. She was tied to the stake and left to be devoured, when St. George came up and vowed to take her cause in hand. On came the dragon, and St. George thrusting his lance into its mouth killed it on the spot. The king of Morocco, and a king of Egypt, unwilling that Sabra would marry a Christian, sent St George to Persia and ordered him be killed. He was thrust into a dungeon, but made good his escape and carried off Sabra to England, where she became his wife and they lived happily at Coventry together until death.

Who knows how much fact is rolled in with all the stories and legends around St George. But today it seems poignant that we should pay honour to one who defeated a dragon ‘whose skin could not be pierced by sword or shield’. The Coronavirus is infesting our land today, and indeed the whole world. It is a disease that seems impervious to anything we might attempt to do to destroy it, and each day we hear the toll of those who sadly have given their lives over to this terrible monster. Surely the story of St George, if it does anything, encourages us that the monster, however impregnable it may seem, can be defeated. We praise the work of scientists around the world, and most prominently in Oxford today, who are working on that vaccine that might just defeat this virus.

As people of St George, as we are, surely we stand in our community as a testimony to the history of this Christian tradition that celebrates the victory of good over evil, and the crushing of the dragon by those with God on their side. Let us pray today for all those who have lost their lives to this virus, and pray that those seeking a vaccine and a remedy for Covid-19, may find success and release us all from its danger.