大象传媒

Angela: Good Morning,At the beginning of a New Year many of us are probably feeling shell-shocked.聽Our economic future as a nation is uncertain as is the future of our union of nations.聽And then there鈥檚 the pandemic. Who would have known a year ago that we鈥檇 be wearing masks,聽that we鈥檇 be restricted in seeing our families,聽that we鈥檇 be watching the news anxiously to see whether numbers of Covid cases are going up and down.聽

Stephen:We鈥檝e been surprised by change, and often, not in a good way.聽For those who have faith it raises questions of God鈥檚 goodness and providence,聽and also of what his call and challenge is to us as individuals.聽What has happened to our nation and our world in 2020 is much greater than what has happened to us as individuals, and yet we鈥檙e all affected by it.聽
Angela:Stephen and I have worked together for over thirty years as both broadcasters and as priests.聽We鈥檝e had the chance to travel the world together through pilgrimages and productions.聽聽The years have thrown up changes and chances that were entirely unexpected鈥�and more so as we鈥檝e got older.聽

StephenWe鈥檝e remained good friends - and I think it鈥檚 fair to say that we鈥檝e both sensed the providential nature of God鈥檚 call in our ministries.聽聽For both of us, the words of Robert Bridges鈥� hymn have expressed on many significant occasions what it means to follow that call:聽鈥楳e through change and chance he guideth, only good and only true鈥櫬犅燞ymn: All my hope on God is founded聽 (Tune: Michael)
Stephen:聽Grant, O Lord, that among all the changes and chances of this fleeting world,聽we may find rest in your eternal changelessness.聽 May we meet this New Year bravely,聽sure in the faith that, while people come and go, and life changes around us,聽you are always the same, guiding us with your wisdom and protecting us with your love.聽 聽Amen.聽

Angela:聽聽Our greatest contemporary heresy is to think it鈥檚 normal - or even a universal right -聽to live in a pain-free, stress-free zone, where we are simply owed security, comfort, happiness.The shock and dislocation of Covid has challenged this belief and made us more aware of our vulnerability,聽as we try to come to terms with the brutal fact that sickness and accident can shatter our lives at any time.聽This realisation can make us angry and bitter with God and even want to run as far away from him as we can.
Stephen:聽鈥楾he Hound of Heaven鈥� is a poem by the nineteenth century mystic, Francis Thompson, describing the attempt to escape from God.聽聽
Reader:I fled him, down the nights and down the days; I fled him down the arches of the years;聽I fled him, down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from him, and under running laughter.聽聽Up vistaed hopes I sped; and shot, precipitated, adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, from those strong feet that followed, followed after.
鈥楾he Hound of Heaven鈥�, like so much religious verse, takes its inspiration from a psalm 鈥� Psalm 139 -聽鈥極 Lord, you have searched me out and known me. 鈥櫬� It鈥檚 one of my favourite psalms,聽which is why, I鈥檓 sure, I鈥檓 so enthusiastic about the poem.聽聽One critic called it 鈥榦ne of the great odes of which the English language can boast.鈥櫬� 聽With God鈥檚 hunt for lost souls described beautifully throughout the poem,聽the climax comes at the end with the description of the wandering soul鈥檚 final surrender to God鈥檚 love:聽
鈥楢h, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am he whom thou seekest!聽聽Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest me.鈥�
Both Angela and I have found the psalms an enormous help as they accompany our lives and help us to pray. Both of us at different times have sat for many hours in the chapel of Westcott House in Cambridge(where I studied and Angela later taught) reciting the psalms, morning and evening. There鈥檚 an honesty in them that helps us to acknowledge the depth of our experience and to re-orientate ourselves in God.聽聽
Angela:聽聽A lot of people find the psalms really difficult.聽I certainly did as a child when I went with my family to Mattins at our parish church and I used to wonder why on earth we were chanting unrhyming verses that often had very grim content mixed in with cries of praise.聽English culture doesn鈥檛 always allow for grief, and the way the emotions are both expressed and contained in the psalms can be challenging, until you realise that the expression and the containment are two sides of the same coin.聽
Here鈥檚 Psalm 42, a prayer which swings between desperation and hope.聽 It鈥檚 sung by the choir of St John鈥檚 College Cambridge to a stirring chant composed by Samuel Wesley.聽聽
Music: Psalm 42 (Chant: Samuel Wesley)
1聽 Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks *聽so longeth my soul after thee, O God.2聽 My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God *聽when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?3聽 My tears have been my meat day and night *聽while they daily say unto me, Where is now thy God?4聽 Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself *聽for I went with the multitude, and brought them forth into the house of God;5聽 In the voice of praise and thanksgiving *聽among such as keep holy-day.6聽 Why art thou so full of heaviness, O my soul *聽and why art thou so disquieted within me?7聽 Put thy trust in God *聽for I will yet give him thanks for the help of his countenance.
AngelaThe cries from the depths in that psalm echo the cries of so many who have faced challenge and loss this past year -聽those who have lost health, loved ones, income, a future.聽I myself have lost old and loved friends, and I miss them and mourn for them.聽The psalms show us that there鈥檚 no use pretending to God that all is well when it isn鈥檛.聽Optimism is not faith but we鈥檙e sometimes tempted to think it is,聽which is why loss and grief can knock the stuffing out of us and cause us to doubt any faith we may have in God.聽聽Sometimes we just have to accept the pain of lamentation and the perplexity that goes with it.聽聽
Stephen:聽聽It鈥檚 over ten years ago that I was diagnosed with Parkinson鈥檚 disease.聽聽Of course it came as quite a shock 鈥� to say the least! 鈥撀燼lthough I鈥檇 known for some time that things weren鈥檛 quite right.聽聽Like many people, I tried to hide it at first.聽 Gradually though, as I expected,聽the physical symptoms began to manifest themselves.聽聽Colleagues in my world of broadcasting would notice and, without saying a word,聽would gently support me.聽 Eventually it became clear that I should think of retirement聽and the conclusion of my 25 years working in 大象传媒 Religion was, I like to think, elegant and straightforward.聽聽I was touched by the response from listeners when I first mentioned the diagnosis during a Daily Service I was presenting 鈥撀燼nd I was grateful for the sensitivity of my colleagues.聽聽I must say that that was another step in the long journey of coming to terms with what I鈥檓 going to live with for the rest of my life.聽聽Of course it will affect my ability to do as much as I could in the past.聽聽For most people, growing old is part of life - and my determination not to let the disease rule my life will, I hope, bring encouragement to those around me.聽聽The sentiments of this next hymn 鈥� sung by the choir of Manchester Cathedral to a folk melody arranged by Vaughan Williams -had a particular resonance at that time of conflicting emotions:聽Hymn: I heard the voice of Jesus say (Tune: Kingsfold)
Reader:鈥楪od has created me to do him some definite service.聽He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another.聽I have my mission. I may never know it in this world, but I shall be told it in the next.聽I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.聽He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do his work.聽I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place,聽while not intending it if I do but keep his commandments.聽Therefore I will trust him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away.聽If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve him, in perplexity,聽my perplexity may serve him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve him.聽He does nothing in vain. He knows what he is about. He may take away my friends,聽he may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink,聽hide my future from me. Still, he knows what he is about鈥�.聽
Stephen:That meditation was written by the most recent saint to be canonised in Britain.聽聽John Henry Newman was originally an Anglican priest.聽聽His conversion to the Catholic faith resulted in his losing many friends,聽including his sister who never spoke to him again.聽聽At his beatification Mass in Birmingham ten years ago,聽Pope Benedict said that Newman's 鈥榠nsights into the relationship between faith and reason -聽into the vital place of religion in civilised society -聽continue today to inspire and enlighten many all over the world.鈥�
Angela:聽Newman鈥檚 meditation challenges us to see how even in 鈥榮ickness and perplexity鈥� the threads of vocation are still there.聽聽We can still serve God even when we feel most cut off from him.聽聽We still have a choice at such times. We can refuse to submit to the scepticism of our age.聽We can refuse to give in to any inner voices that might tell us our faith is empty and our hope is void.聽聽We can trace the threads of continuity weaving through the years which we might not have noticed before.聽聽And we can discover how God鈥檚 call to us as individuals to do some 鈥榙efinite service鈥� remains constant.聽 聽We all 鈥榟ave our mission鈥�.聽
Stephen:And it鈥檚 the revelation of that mission that we鈥檙e praying for particularly this morning.聽The mission of our nation following Brexit,聽the mission of the Church in a time of scepticism and unbelief,聽and the personal mission of each one of us. The book of Job in the Old Testament,聽although it focuses on a very specific person and situation,聽is in fact about everyone and for everyone.聽聽It鈥檚 a challenge to seek to live wisely in a world full of tragedy and brokenness.聽William Boyce set words from Job to music in this anthem sung here by the choir of New College, Oxford:聽鈥極 where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding?鈥櫬�
Anthem: O Where Shall Wisdom be Found? William Boyce

Angela:Job鈥檚 complaints run on and on for nearly forty chapters while he is offered rather trite spiritual advice by his so-called friends.聽Job鈥檚 friends tell him that he is suffering because he has done something wrong.聽Job insists that this is not so and challenges God to turn up and explain himself.聽Eventually God does鈥�..
Reading:聽 Job 38
The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:2 鈥淲ho is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?3 Gird up your loins like a man,聽 聽 I will question you, and you shall declare to me.4 鈥淲here were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?聽 聽 Tell me, if you have understanding.5 Who determined its measurements鈥攕urely you know!聽 聽 Or who stretched the line upon it?6 On what were its bases sunk,聽 聽 or who laid its cornerstone7 when the morning stars sang together聽 聽 and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?8 鈥淥r who shut in the sea with doors聽 聽 when it burst out from the womb?鈥�9 when I made the clouds its garment,聽 聽 and thick darkness its swaddling band,10 and prescribed bounds for it,聽 聽 and set bars and doors,11 and said, 鈥楾hus far shall you come, and no farther,聽 聽 and here shall your proud waves be stopped鈥�?12 鈥淗ave you commanded the morning since your days began,聽 聽 and caused the dawn to know its place,13 so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,聽 聽 and the wicked be shaken out of it?21 Surely you know, for you were born then,聽 聽 and the number of your days is great!
Music: Job 鈥� a Masque for dancing (Vaughan Williams)聽 Galliard of the Sons of the Morning
Angela:聽The climax of the book of Job is an Epiphany, a revelation of God鈥檚 presence in and through all things.聽God shows Job the whole kaleidoscope of nature with its wise and foolish creatures,聽its strong and weak elements, its boundaries and its breakages.聽聽Job鈥檚 privilege is that he is able to see this,聽to get a 鈥楪od鈥檚 eye-view鈥� on the whole of material reality.聽
Stephen:聽We are not isolated individuals, we are deeply embedded in nature and we share each other鈥檚 lives whether we acknowledge it or not.聽聽As Newman put it,聽 鈥業鈥檓 a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons鈥�.聽In Job鈥檚 epiphany every part of nature is distinctive and yet everything fits together.聽This is the world that God declares 鈥榞ood鈥� and which he is bringing to fulfilment.聽Our part is to bear witness to God鈥檚 hiddenness and God鈥檚 glory as honestly and faithfully as we can.聽As John Henry Newman makes clear, we don鈥檛 really understand our part in the time that we are living through:聽鈥業 may never know it in this world, but I shall be told it in the next鈥�.聽
Angela:聽This is a wild world, where some of the plainest things are strange.聽
Reader: GK Chesterton poem聽A Child in a foul stable,Where the beasts feed and foam,Only where He was homelessAre you and I at home;We have hands that fashion and heads that know,But our hearts we lost - how long ago!In a place no chart nor ship can showUnder the sky's dome.This world is wild as an old wives' tale,And strange the plain things are,The earth is enough and the air is enoughFor our wonder and our war;But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swingsAnd our peace is put in impossible thingsWhere clashed and thundered unthinkable wingsRound an incredible star.To an open house in the eveningHome shall men come,To an older place than EdenAnd a taller town than Rome.To the end of the way of the wandering star,To the things that cannot be and that are,To the place where God was homelessAnd all men are at home.聽
Music: 鈥榁ingt regards sur l鈥檈nfant Jesus鈥� No 11 (Messiaen) with prayers of intercession.聽
AngelaSo we journey on, into this unknown new year giving thanks for the strands of vocation which run through our lives and which God is still calling us to fulfil.聽
StephenWe use a prayer that could almost be a response to Newman鈥檚 prayer,聽the Methodist covenant prayer which is the heart of the New Year Covenant service.聽
AngelaThere is no assumption here that the road ahead will be easy,聽or that we will be spared suffering and sorrow.聽
StephenThe commitment made here is a generous self-giving to God in spite of our circumstances,聽a bid for freedom for ourselves and those we love and a response to God whose grace for us and for all humanity and all creation is simply without limit.聽
Angela聽I am no longer my own, but thine.Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
StephenPut me to doing, put me to suffering.Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Angela聽Let me be full, let me be empty.Let me have all things, let me have nothing.I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.聽
StephenAnd now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,聽thou art mine, and I am thine.聽 So be it.
Angela聽And the covenant which I have made on earth,let it be ratified in heaven.聽 Amen.聽Stephen:Our Father, who art in heaven,Hallowed be thy name.
Angela:Thy kingdom come,Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Stephen:Give us this day our daily bread,And forgive us our trespasses,As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Angela:And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.
Stephen:For thine is the kingdom,The power and the glory,
Both:For ever and ever. Amen.聽
God鈥檚 desire for all of us is that we鈥檒l discover who we really are and that we鈥檒l follow in his way.聽聽Sometimes though, that way isn鈥檛 clear.聽聽Thomas Merton, the American journalist who became a Trappist monk,聽spiritual writer and counsellor, reflected on the journey of uncertainty in prayer:
Thomas Merton, Thoughts in SolitudeMy Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.聽I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself,聽and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.聽But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.聽And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.聽I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.聽And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.聽Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.聽I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.鈥漖
Bethlehem Down (Warlock)聽
Angela聽So like the wise men in the Epiphany story we set out at the beginning of 2021 as though from a far country where we never expected to be.聽And yet we seek our true home. And that true home is where God is at home with us,聽in Jesus, born in a stable, born among the beasts.聽
HYMN: Brightest and Best (Tune - Epiphany)
StephenMay God鈥檚 light and peace, mercy and powerbe with you today and all your days,and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father the Son and the Holy Spiritbe among you and remain with you always. Amen.聽