大象传媒

lease note:

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

Radio 4 Opening Announcement: 大象传媒 Radio 4.听 It鈥檚 ten past eight and time to go live to St Martin-in-the-Fields in London鈥檚 Trafalgar Square for today鈥檚 Sunday Worship.听 The preacher is the American author and Episcopal priest, the Revd Professor Barbara Brown Taylor and the service is led by the Vicar, the Revd Dr Sam Wells.

Sam Wells:
Good morning and welcome to St Martin-in-the-Fields. Ten years ago this week, the day after London had been awarded the 2012 Olympics, four coordinated bombs were detonated in central London on underground trains and a double-decker bus. In all 56 people died and 700 were injured. The 7/7 bombings brought the international crisis of Islamist terrorism to the forefront of British attention and represented the first suicide attack of its kind in British history.

Hearts went out and still do to families and loved ones of those murdered in such horrifying circumstances. Beyond the grief and the fear of repeat attacks, lie troubling questions. What is the nature of violence; what drives people to blow themselves up and take dozens of people to death with them; and is there something about religion that brings out this disturbing dimension of destructive hatred?

Let us pray.
God of rushing wind and raging storm, you know the secrets of our hearts and violence that sometimes lurks within us; in your Son鈥檚 body on the cross you took upon yourself our hatred and horror: show us the peace that passes understanding, the ways of gentleness and reconciliation, and the justice that rolls down like a never-failing stream, that we may see beyond the terror of the present to the glory that will be revealed in you. Amen.

Violence isn鈥檛 the first word; it鈥檚 always a secondary intrusion on a deeper, truer, peace that engulfs us like a mighty river.听听2

Hymn: Like a mighty river flowing (Tredinnick)

Sam Wells:
Countless people were affected by the 7/7 attacks. John Valentine is Rector of St George鈥檚, Queen Square, close by Russell Square tube station.听 He was called to the scene of the tube bomb that morning.听听

John Valentine:
As I walked towards Russell Square tube station I felt as if I was in a film. Time had slowed down.听 It was as though I could watch myself as if I was a different person. Two people were wrapped in what looked like tin foil. A bemused man in London underground uniform told me with incredulity 鈥� 鈥楾hey put a bomb on my train鈥�.听 People were running towards me, their faces and clothes blackened.听 One man in a smart suit had blood running down his face. 鈥楢re you alright?鈥� I asked stupidly.听 鈥業 am okay,鈥� he said.听 Then, pointing towards the tube station, 鈥楾hey need you in there鈥�.
听
I don鈥檛 know how many times I had been to the ticket office at Russell Square tube 鈥� hundreds, I suppose.听 It was eerily familiar, but totally strange.听 The barriers were open.听 People sat against the walls, wrapped in the tin foil, some in blankets.听 No one spoke.听 In the centre of the room were medics, some in white coats, some not.听 They were moving fast, shouting, calling for help, working in improvised teams.听 On the floor were the injured.听 One man, was wrapped in a blanket from the waist down, it was black with blood.听 I don鈥檛 know if he had lost his legs.听 I knelt beside him.听 He looked me in the eye, and asked with courage and terror, 鈥楢m I going to die?鈥櫶� A woman lay quietly, but trembling.听 I walked to the lifts 鈥� they were like a charnel house, the whole floor thick and sticky with blood.

It was a moment, and a morning, of horror.听 I still don鈥檛 understand it 鈥� still find it hard to go back there in my mind.听 It has changed me.听 There is still outrage, anger.听 Still a great sense of shock, of violation.听 But, to my surprise, a friend who was also there spoke of seeing Jesus on the streets of Holborn that day. And there in the middle of the horror, He was.听 The courage of ordinary people.听 The dedication and tenacity of the medics, working to save life with none of the right equipment.听 The ambulance man about to go back down to the tunnels again, this time to get the bodies of those who had died. The policeman asking for prayer, shaking with the strain, but then 5 minutes later calm, directing the anxious crowd.听 The people who came in to open the church, to provide a place of safety and care, with food and blankets and hot sugared tea.听 The school teachers calmly reassuring the children.
听
Yes, a day of horror.听 But, yes, we saw Jesus walking the streets of Holborn that day.听听3

Choir + Choristers: Be still, my soul (Finlandia)

Sam Wells:
Jesus is under no illusions about the violence that stalks his own ministry, because he remembers what happened to John the Baptist when he spoke up in the face of power. John was imprisoned and beheaded. So Jesus always knew a similar destiny was likely to await him. Here he speaks of the forerunner John.听 听

Frances Harris:
A reading from the Gospel of Matthew [11: 10-15]
This is the one about whom it is written, 'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.' Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Let anyone with ears listen!听听陆

Choir: Down by the riverside (Trad. arr. Rick Modlin)

Sam Wells:
Our preacher is the renowned Episcopalian priest and author, Professor Barbara Brown Taylor.听听

Barbara Brown Taylor:
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
Who knew the truth of that better than Jesus?听 Even before the violent had come for him, he knew what had happened to God鈥檚 messengers in the past: silenced, exiled, outlawed, killed. What did people expect?听 Speaking in the name of God may fortify the speaker, but it has a way of agitating listeners鈥攏ot just those with something to lose if things do change, but also those who have already lost their grip, who feel the rage piling up like a storm inside them as they watch the world they thought they owned snatched from their hands by the other team.
Violence did not surprise Jesus. He was prepared for it, and he tried to prepare his followers as well but few of them had ears to hear.听 They were more focused on the perks of discipleship, the rate of return on their investment.听 Then King Herod threw John the Baptist in prison鈥擥od forbid!-- and Jesus had to say it all over again: expect violence; prepare for it; never underestimate the harm it can do.听 There is no magic shield around the kingdom of heaven; the violent can take it by force.

If you have never heard that last bit in church before, I think I know why: it鈥檚 too upsetting.听 The balance of power is all wrong.听 How can the violent take heaven by force?听 Isn鈥檛 God able to prevent that?听 Isn鈥檛 that God鈥檚 job?听 Apparently not.

Those of you who listen to world news know all about the murders at a black church in South Carolina last month.听听 There鈥檚 no comparison to what happened in central London ten years ago.听 The violence was about race, not religion.听 The body count was lower.听 The shooter acted alone.听 The only reason to bring it up now is because it happened in a church, which put Christians at the center of it.听
In most ways that made them no different from anyone else suffering violence.听 The only difference was the teachings they had absorbed, year after year, about how to handle violence when it came.听 Because it was a black church, the teachings weren鈥檛 theoretical.听 There had been ample opportunity to put them to the test.

When the young white man with the odd haircut showed up at their Bible study on Wednesday night, they did what the Bible told them to do: they welcomed the stranger so warmly that he sat with them for close to an hour before he remembered why he was there.听听 Then he took out his gun and started shooting.

All the right people stepped up to the microphone in the days that followed.听 The president spoke of gun control.听 The governor called for the death penalty.听 Citizens said it was time for the Confederate flag at the courthouse to come down. But it was the Christians people were waiting to hear.听 What would they say to the man who had violated their small heaven and taken their loved ones by force?

At his bond hearing two days later he stood handcuffed before them, under court order to listen until they were through.

鈥淵ou have killed some of the most beautifulest people I know,鈥� a mother said of her son.听 鈥淓very fiber in my body hurts, and I鈥檒l never be the same鈥�but may God have mercy on you.鈥澨�

鈥淵ou took something very precious away from me,鈥� said a daughter of her mother.听 鈥淚 will never be able to hold her again.听 But I forgive you.听 And have mercy on your soul.鈥�

鈥淚t was as if the Bible study had never ended鈥︹�� one reporter said, listening to people ask mercy for someone who had shown them no mercy, to forgive him before he had asked. Some sounded like they were still practising. Their hearts weren鈥檛 in it yet, but they knew what was at stake. Violence had already taken the young man in front of them by force. It had taken nine people they loved as well, but it had not taken them yet.听 They still had power to resist that deadly force by doing what Jesus had taught them: turn the cheek, pray for the persecutor, love the enemy, welcome the stranger. In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.

It sounds like advice for angels, not humans鈥攕o unrealistic, so undefended, it鈥檚 a wonder we repeat it at all.听 Yet there it is: the Christian teaching on how to respond to violence when it comes.听 Sometimes it actually works to disarm the violence in others, which is why we know the names of Gandhi, Tutu, and King. But that is not its main purpose.听 Its main purpose is to disarm the violence in us, so that we do not join the other team.

A few days after the church murders, a reporter interviewed someone who worked in a restaurant where the shooter often ate.听 When he asked her why she thought he did it, she didn鈥檛 mention guns, or racism, or flags.听 She said, 鈥淗e always looked like he needed love.鈥�

I wonder who taught him to hate instead?听 I wonder who is teaching a child to hate people like him right now?
鈥�
If there is a shield around the kingdom of heaven, it is not in the hands of God.听 It is in the hands of those who keep deciding not to hate the haters, who keep risking the fatal wound of love and teaching others to do the same鈥攂ecause that is how we prepare the ground around us to receive the seeds of heaven when they come.听 There is no other force on earth like it鈥攖he soft power of God鈥檚 other way鈥攁nd no better teacher than the one we have come to worship here.听听
听听听
Choir + Choristers: Walk softly (Chilcott)

听Prayers and African Kyrie (Richard Carter and Frances Harris):
Let us pray.
God of mercy, when we see your Son on the cross we see your heart broken between anger and love. Come near to all who have had violence take away their beloved, their hope, their trust, their future. Heal any who have seen things they can never forget, suffered things they can never erase, or lost things they can never restore. Bless those for whom the London bombings ten years ago marked a moment after which nothing would ever be the same again. Make us a people of gentleness and transform the violence in our own hearts.

Choir: Kyrie eleison x4

God of justice, your Son looked over Jerusalem and said 鈥業f only you knew the paths that lead to peace.鈥� Renew your church that it might recognise its complicity in patterns of domination and oppression, listen to the stories of those whose blood cries out from the ground, and walk in humility alongside those it once despised. Bring understanding and wisdom across religious divides. By your Holy Spirit, visit Jerusalem and places where difference of faith evokes bitterness and tension. And raise up leaders who embody your joy.

Choir: Christe eleison x4

God of love, your Son taught us to pray for our persecutors. Speak to the hearts of any today who look at a gun as the answer to their problems, look to force as a solution to their failure, or seize upon a scapegoat as a victim for their frustration. Come close to us in the places where impatience and self-hatred and fury turn us from your gracious children into perpetrators of terrible crimes. As you know every saint has a past, ensure every sinner has a future, where you are our companion, guide, and shepherd.

Choir: Kyrie eleison x4

As forgiveness is the heart of your gospel, make it the heart of our prayers.
Our Father鈥μ�听

Sam Wells:
Our final hymn places all its trust on God, who 鈥榠s love, eternal Love.鈥櫶�听听

Hymn: God is love; let heaven adore him (Abbot鈥檚 Leigh)

Sam Wells: Blessing
Gentle Lord, hasten the hour when we shall be forever with you, when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. And the blessing鈥μ�听

Choir + Choristers: An Irish Blessing (Chilcott)听

Organ Voluntary: Prelude in E major, BWV 566 (Bach)听