大象传媒

大象传媒 Radio 4. Our preacher on Sunday Worship now is Dr Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and Chair of Christian Aid. This morning鈥檚 service comes live from Emmanuel Church, Didsbury in Manchester, and begins with a setting by James Whitbourne of words by Desmond Tutu, voiced by the leader of today鈥檚 service, the Rev Dr Kirsty Thorpe.

MUSIC 1: Whitbourne 鈥� A Prayer of Desmond Tutu 鈥� Choir (with speech and bongos)

Goodness is stronger than evil;
love is stronger than hate;
light is stronger than darkness;
life is stronger than death.
Victory is ours through him who loved us.

Speech 鈥� KT
Good morning.
Seventy years ago, at the end of World War Two, much of Europe lay in ruins, and a massive refugee crisis demanded action. The churches came together in new ways to respond to the plight of those suffering and to work for a better world in the future. Those months were probably a key turning point in Christian witness and practice in these islands.

The words of Desmond Tutu we鈥檝e just heard set our theme for today 鈥榳e worship a God in favour of the powerless and despised.鈥� For God has a bias towards the powerless, poor and suffering of our world. Many of the humanitarian agencies and organisations we know well now have their roots in that time. People then prayed for God鈥檚 help in the face of overwhelming need. We join in prayer now too:

Speech: Prayer 鈥� Reader

God of love,
you stood beside your people at the end of war,
and held them while they looked at the world that was left.
We are privileged to stand with you now,
after seventy years, and to look back at what they saw.

They saw then
the depths of human cruelty and suffering,
and heard the call of your Son
to love not only neighbour but even enemy.

We rejoice that there were people then
who recognised your irresistible love for any who suffer,
for the refugees and the broken, for the lost and the hungry,
and encouraged others to answer your call.
As we know the strength of your love with us today,
and as we lift voices and hearts in praise,
may we be stirred once more to love both our neighbours
and our enemies, that your will may be done.

The Lord鈥檚 Prayer
听
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Speech 鈥� KT

As World War Two ended many people had lost not just loved ones and homes but their hopes and dreams too. Bomb sites, rubble and rationing would last for years to come. The scars left on family relationships, on people鈥檚 bodies and minds, were less visible but just as real.

As accounts began emerging of what had happened during the war, the toll of misery mounted. People were shaken by stories from the concentration camps. If they tried to take in the whole picture of continued suffering in Europe they could easily have been overwhelmed.

How amazing, then, that some in the Churches not only faced this desperate crisis but also responded to it, including as they did so the needs of those in countries which were former enemies. We sing the hymn: 鈥楾here鈥檚 a wideness in God鈥檚 mercy鈥�.听

MUSIC 2: There鈥檚 a Wideness in God鈥檚 Mercy 鈥� congregation
听听听听听听 Tune: Coverdale

Speech: Reading - Female

Genesis 1:26-27 (NRSV)
26 Then God said, 鈥淟et us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the wild animals of the earth.鈥� 27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.听

Speech - KT

These verses powerfully remind us that all people are made in the image of God. It was the total denial of this truth that allowed people to dehumanise others, and to kill them in millions. At the end of the war many people in the churches, and beyond them, re-emphasised the peril of forgetting that we are all made in the image of God. They acted on the basis of their firm conviction that all people, without exception, have inherent dignity and worth.

In May 1945 the leaders of all the main churches asked that on the Sunday after VE Day Christians should resist celebrating a victory and instead donate what they could to help reconstruct Europe.听 More than 拢3 million in today鈥檚 money was raised that week-end.
Christians formed organisations such as Sword of the Spirit, the Ecumenical Refugee Commission, the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief and Christian Aid, which is commemorating its 70th anniversary this year. Later they helped to create Voluntary Service Overseas, the World Development Movement and the Disasters Emergency Committee.听

Seventy years ago people who had suffered much themselves, and who had few resources, raised their eyes from their own needs and resolved to help create a better future 鈥� with remarkable generosity and energy. They didn鈥檛 want to repeat the mistakes made after the first world war. Rather than punishing the defeated by reparations they found ways to 鈥榣ove even their enemies鈥� and tried to build a true peace. Here is a story of one such act of courage and compassion, told in the words of a Scottish chaplain in Germany, Douglas Lister.

Speech 鈥� SW Douglas Lister Reading 2鈥�16鈥� (read by Robin Laing)

[From: The Luneburg Story by Douglas Lister published by Wm Culross and SonLtd, 2003]听听

Music 3: When I needed a Neighbour - Choir

Speech - KT

Sydney Carter鈥檚 When I needed a Neighbour arranged by Barry Rose, sung today by the Ad Solem, the Chamber Choir of the University of Manchester, who are directed this morning by Andrew Earis.

It鈥檚 impossible for us to understand completely now what it was like to come through six years of war, what people dreamed of for the future and what it was like to be a part of the church then.听 Anne Booth-Clibborn has vivid memories from that time.听

Speech听 - Anne Booth-Clibborn:

When the war ended in 1945 I was a 19 year old army ambulance driver in London
For 18 months I had been driving through the destruction in the East end of London 鈥� often with the reality of the explosion of 鈥榙oodle bugs鈥� [pilot less planes]

A month later I was a staff car driver in occupied Germany, and nothing had prepared me for the devastation I saw.听听 Mile upon mile through the Ruhr without a roof on a building; bridges blown; Hamburg where more bombs had been dropped in one weekend than in London over months;听 the roads and railways clogged with refugees; the opening of the concentration camps, the collapse of the currency and people bartering for food with cigarettes.

For our safety we were surrounded by barbed wire, and one day an elderly German woman, grey with hunger, beckoned to me and handed me a small German New Testament.听听 We had no common language but I gave her an English New Testament.听听 A vivid reminder to me that the Confessing Church had opposed Hitler at the risk of their lives, and that the great German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who had visited my cousin in Scotland before the war, had been executed for trying to get rid of Hitler.

In 1946 I was sent from Germany to march in the Victory Parade in London, with representatives from all the Allied nations.听听 Afterwards in a train to Cambridge a violent argument broke out over help being given to the Germans when we were still rationed.听听听 Having seen the scale of suffering, I was glad the churches were playing a leading role in sharing what we had - even with our former enemies.

This experience of the churches working together to respond to human need- wherever it is - has stayed with me all my life.

Speech - KT听 听

Seventy years ago, Christians were motivated both by the needs they saw around them and by their Christian faith. They were transformed by the God whose image is to be found in everyone. In Jesus they could see how God blesses the poor, living among and for those who are destitute, hungry and longing for peace. Everyone has dignity, worth and value 鈥� and God finds special significance in those we might be tempted to despise or forget.

The churches found again how Jesus declares God鈥檚 blessing and bias for the poor and they stirred themselves to follow him. In a few moments, former Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd Rowan Williams, will give the address, which was recorded a few days ago. But first a reading from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 6, beginning at verse 20.

Reading: 听Luke 6:20-23

Luke 6:20-23 Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Then he looked up to his disciples, and said:
鈥淏lessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
听鈥淏lessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
鈥淏lessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
听鈥淏lessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you, on account of the Son of man.
Rejoice on that day, and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets鈥�.听

Music 4: 听Chilcott 鈥� The Beatitudes 鈥� Choir

Sermon: SW Rowan Williams sermon 6鈥�49鈥�

听鈥業鈥檓 going to let you into a secret鈥�, says Jesus: 鈥榶ou think you know who matters to God and why 鈥� but the secret is that the one who are blessed, the ones who are in tune with God鈥檚 will and God鈥檚 world, they鈥檙e the ones you don鈥檛 expect.鈥櫶� When Jesus spells out who is 鈥榖lessed鈥� in his great address to the crowd of friends and followers and all the curious people who鈥檝e travelled from all over the region to listen to him, we should think of him as lifting the veil for a moment on a truth we still find pretty difficult.听 It鈥檚 not a moral or political program that he outlines, it鈥檚 a glimpse of reality.听 And, as the poet said, 鈥榟umankind cannot bear very much reality.鈥�

Jesus lets us into the secret that God sees things differently from us.听 Sounds obvious when you put it like that 鈥� but it鈥檚 very far from obvious if you look at the ways we usually do things and fix priorities as individuals or as whole societies.听 And what we鈥檙e asked to do as believers is to see freshly 鈥� to see people as God sees them, and then to work out what actions follow.
At the end of the Second World War, the people we remember today, people like Douglas Lister, whose story we heard earlier, saw things.听 They saw unspeakably terrible things when the death camps were discovered in Auschwitz and elsewhere.听 They saw what happened when a whole race was written out of human fellowship and sympathy in the attempt to exterminate the Jews 鈥� and the Roma as well; when people with disabilities or unacceptable views or unacceptable sexuality were relegated to the category of subhumans.听 They saw the results of generations of lazy prejudice and contempt transformed into mass murder.

They saw the sheer facts of suffering in the wake of war: a devastated Germany betrayed by its rulers; unprecedented numbers of refugees, families left stranded on the stony shore as the tide of war retreated, children who seemed to have no future.
They saw and they responded.听 But they didn鈥檛 just see a lot of poor suffering victims who needed help from prosperous and generous people.听 They saw men, women and children who needed above all to have their dignity recognised when everything had been working against it.听 After many years in which human dignity had been so drastically undermined 鈥� by legal discrimination, in the camps, in mass bombing campaigns, in the often heartless shifting around of populations because of new political settlements 鈥� those we remember today resolved to set a new standard, to give the suffering, the hungry, the forgotten and displaced, the honour and significance they deserved just because they were human.听 They saw for a wonderful and grace-filled moment with God鈥檚 eyes.

When we talk of men and women being made in God鈥檚 image, we don鈥檛 just mean that men and women have a few things in common with God.听 Perhaps it helps to think of the image we see when we look into a mirror.听 It鈥檚 there because we鈥檙e there, looking at it.听 And so when God makes human beings 鈥榠n his image鈥�, he looks at what he鈥檚 making and sees his own beauty and generosity reflected back to him.听 When he looks at us and we look back, that鈥檚 when the secret becomes clear: he asks us to mirror him, to reflect the way he acts and the way he sees.

So when we look away from God, we stop seeing things or people truthfully.听 We see them as if they had nothing to do with God - because we鈥檝e cut ourselves off from God.听 We see them as raw material for our projects and ambitions; we don鈥檛 see the dignity and the beauty.听 And St Paul has a wonderful phrase about how when we turn to God, the veil is removed from our own faces: we discover who we are; and so we discover who and what everything and everyone else is in the light of God.

Jesus invites us to look 鈥� to see him and then so to see everything else in his light.听 That鈥檚 when we begin to see each other properly.听 We see others as called into the same adventure we鈥檙e called to, capable of love and generosity.听 Nothing wrong with talking about enterprise and initiative here 鈥� we don鈥檛 want other people to be there just so that we can Do Good to them (you remember the old joke 鈥� 鈥業f we鈥檙e put on earth to do good to other people, what on earth are the other people for?鈥�).听 The vision that inspired the Sword of the Spirit, Christian Aid, the Ecumenical Refugee Commission, Oxfam and many other groups during and after the war was more demanding.听 It was the vision of helping the poor and forgotten to take their proper place again as partners in the great work of humanising the world and guaranteeing the well-being of all.

That鈥檚 the vision to which we鈥檙e being asked to commit ourselves again today.听 But it鈥檚 a vision; it means we need to learn to see better, to see where prejudice and thoughtless indifference today may lead us to turn away from the face of God and start seeing the world falsely.听 To see better we need a bit of sitting still, looking again into the face of God so that the veil of ignorance and sin can fall away for a moment.听 And from this comes the energy to work for a time when others will have the freedom to do what they were created to do 鈥� to show God鈥檚 action and God鈥檚 joy, living out their human dignity to the full in giving nurture and love to each other.

Jesus reminds us not only that seeing like this isn鈥檛 easy but that isn鈥檛 popular either.听 A lot of the world 鈥� well, actually, a lot inside each one of us 鈥� will be frightened and resentful at the idea that we can鈥檛 see straight, that there is a great secret we鈥檙e missing, a secret we can only discover when we stop hoarding our resources and our prejudices and our fears.听 But don鈥檛 be paralysed by this, says the Lord: you know just a little of what it is to look into the face of God.听 You know what it is to see reality, instead of the fictions we make to keep ourselves safe and warm.听 What our predecessors at the end of the war discovered was both the horror of a world where people have surrendered to poisonous falsehoods about what human beings are 鈥� and the unexpected, poignant truth of the immeasurable dignity that is half-hidden in every human face, even or especially the most powerless and abused.听 And once you see these things, the world starts changing.听听

Stop, look, listen 鈥� that was the advice schoolchildren were given in my childhood for crossing a road.听 It鈥檚 good advice for all of us today.听 Pause to let go of the anxieties and obsession and fears; look at the faces of God鈥檚 children, God鈥檚 images; listen to the voice calling you to set God鈥檚 children free.听 Then cross over to the new creation, the Kingdom of God that belongs to the poor.

Music 5 : 听Jesus Christ is waiting -听 congregation
听听TUNE: Noel Nouvelet听

漏1988听 WGRG, Iona Community, Govan, Glasgow G51 3UU, Scotland

Speech - KT

As we pray for the world, we remember the seventieth anniversary of Anne Frank鈥檚 death in Bergen-Belsen, sometime in March 1945. Her diary, and her testimony, speak deeply of our shared humanity and the sense that 鈥榯his must not happen again鈥�.

Following our prayers we hear music from 鈥楢nnalies鈥�, James Whitbourne鈥檚 setting of passages from the writings of Anne Frank.听听

Speech 鈥� Prayer 1

We give thanks, O God,
for those who, seventy years ago,
became servants of their neighbours,
and found ways to restore
a world wounded by war.
We celebrate those who today
give, act and pray,
in charity that seeks justice
inspired by faith
in your unconditional love.
Music - Kyrie

Speech听 - Prayer 2

We pray for all the agencies
whose stories began at the end of war,
and whose work continues still.
May they go on being inspired
by the blessings you promised to the poor.
Strengthen all who reveal the causes of poverty,
and those who bring humanitarian aid,
or advocate and promote development goals,
and campaign for justice and a renewed earth.

Music - Kyrie

Speech 鈥� Prayer 3

We pray for those who live in poverty now,
and for whom war still rages.
In our unequal world,
let us never forget the scandal of poverty,
or tire in the task of ending it.
Let the powerless find their strength
and those wounded by violence rise to a new day.
Give all your people joy together,
as neighbours together in creation.

Music - Kyrie

Speech 鈥� Prayer 4
听
We give thanks for those who respond
when help is asked for;
who collect money or rally for a cause,
who pray and speak and protest,
For generous people responding to your generous love,
for seventy years of giving, campaigning and praying,
and for the promise and hope of a new future, we give thanks.听
听
Music 6: 听James Whitbourne 鈥� Annalies - Choir听

Speech- KT

We have celebrated the resource sharing, reconciliation and reconstruction that happened because of so many people of faith seventy years ago. As we look around at our own world, we acknowledge with regret the evidence of renewed destruction 鈥� the rubble of communities 鈥� in Ukraine, in Syria, in South Sudan and many other places.

In the face of such brokenness our continued need for God 鈥� and for courage and hope to respond to suffering 鈥� take us forward into God鈥檚 future.听

Music 7: 听Beauty for brokenness听
Graham Kendrick (b. 1950

Speech: Blessing - KT

God of all creation, renew us in your image.
Jesus Christ, may we see your face in friend and stranger.
Holy Spirit, set our hearts on fire with your love,
that, through you, the life of the world
may truly be transformed.
AMEN.听听

Music 8: ORGAN: Voluntary - Nun Danket Alle Gott - Sigfrid Karg-Elert