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Today’s Readings: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; John 2:1-12.
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Let us pray.
Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
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A Reflection from Carola
The other day, my younger son, who is nearly 13, was thinking about his future: ‘Do you think that you ought to help poor people, like Mother Teresa does,” he said, “or is it OK to stay here in the rich world? Because that would be a lot more comfortable.” I was impressed that he was thinking about his future life in terms of helping others, and also conscious that in my life I’ve chosen to live in the comfortable ‘rich world’ as he called it. But I tried to answer his question, talking about how God has jobs for us all, and not everyone has to do a job like Mother Teresa’s.
In today’s reading, St Paul describes how the Holy Spirit gives different people different jobs to do – wisdom, knowledge, healing or prophecy - saying that each gift or job is given for the common good. Later in the same chapter, he points out that these different gifts are like the parts of a body, and each one needs the other: “the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ and the head cannot say to the feet ‘I don’t need you’” (1 Cor 12:21) he says.
What St Paul doesn’t explain is how you work out whether you’re supposed to be an eye or a hand, a head or a foot – which is the problem that my son was wrestling with. Sometimes, of course these gifts are clear to the person who has been given them. As well as the ability to do something, God often gives us the gift of wanting to do it. I can barely remember a time when I didn’t want to sing. Certainly by the time I went to primary school, the singing that we did every day in assembly was important to me. Sometimes I’ve been equally clear that I don’t have the necessary gift. When my children were at primary school, parents were often asked to help with school activities, such as fundraising events. I decided that I would volunteer for anything that involved music or cooking, but I would leave the visual arts – posters, murals, decorations – to others. They are just not my gift.
Of course, our choices - and those of the people around us – interact with our gifts, for better and worse. Some friends of mine, a married couple, told me that as children they had both wanted to play the piano. One of them had parents who loved music – they found him a piano teacher, paid for his lessons, went to his concerts, and he became a very fine pianist. His wife’s parents thought that piano lessons were a waste of time and money, and so she never learned.
How are we to think about the interaction between the world around us, the gifts that we are given (whether talents and abilities, parental support or more material things) and our own choices? Richard Holloway, the former Bishop of Edinburgh, suggests the image of weaving. The loom is set up with strands of wool all going in one direction – the warp. Then the weaver must throw the shuttle at right angles to the strands of the warp so that it weaves between them – this is the weft, and together the two sets of strands at right angles create the cloth. The warp can be seen as everything in our life that is set up and cannot be changed – our genes, where and with whom we grow up, the choices that are made for us. But as we weave the cloth of our lives, we do have some choices. We can keep on weaving with a particular colour of wool, or we can tie a knot and start with a shuttle full of a new colour. And when we look back at our lives so far, we will see the moments when the colour changed – suddenly or gradually, because we were weaving with a different colour of wool.
I wonder if the scene described in today’s gospel was one of those moments. I’ve always been struck by the exchange between Mary and Jesus. He tells her off for expecting him to do something about the lack of wine: ‘Woman, what is that to do with me, my time has not yet come’. But Mary seems to know that his time has come: ‘Do whatever he tells you,’ she says to the servants. And she is right – this is Jesus’s first miracle. He has woven a life out of his family and friends and a job as a carpenter in an obscure town in Galilee. Now he has to change the colour of his wool and start weaving something very different: travelling far from his home-town, gathering disciples, teaching, performing miracles.
It’s not that the previous part of Jesus’s life was a waste of time. In his book ‘A Nazareth Manifesto’, Sam Wells points out that Jesus spent 30 of his 32 years of life as an ordinary citizen in Nazareth. The name ‘Emmanuel’ means ‘God with us’ and Dr Wells suggests that before all the teaching and miracle-working, and the dramatic events of the Passion, Jesus was simply with humankind, an incarnation of God’s presence with us.
But as John’s Gospel tells the story, the wedding at Cana is the moment when Jesus stops weaving his life with the quiet, faithful shuttle of the Nazareth years and begins his public ministry. And the fascinating thing is that, until the wine runs out at the wedding, he seems not to have been aware that this is the moment. So why does his mother say to the servants ‘Do whatever he tells you’. Does she sense that this is a turning point in his life? Or is it more that he has often – in those quiet Nazareth years – helped out a friend or a family member when disaster struck, and she knows that he can do it again.
And what wonderful help he gives! Gallons and gallons of the best wine – much better than the host could afford. And although his mother and the servants know what he’s doing, there’s no need for the host to know. As so often in the Gospel, Jesus does good in secret, seeing no need to publicise what he does, sometimes even banning discussion of what has happened.
Emmanuel means God with us, and Jesus’s actions in the Gospels teach us both what God is like, and what we can be like when God is with us. God is unexpected and often chooses to act in secret. God is also absurdly generous – making not just enough wine that’s good enough, but a huge amount of the very best wine. You may not know what the result will be when you put down one shuttle full of wool and start to weave your life with a different colour. But if the Holy Spirit is present, the results may be more than you could possibly ask or imagine.
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Organ Voluntary
Improvisation on ‘How great thou art.’
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Today’s hymn
Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour:
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Music from Matthew
At the offertory today Sophie will sing the aria ‘Eternal source of light divine’ from Handel’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, composed in 1713. Although a secular cantata, the libretto by Ambrose Philips here describes the attributes of the Queen, it works equally well as a meditation on light divine.
‘Eternal source of light divine’ from Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne
music by G.F. Handel (1685-1759)
Eternal source of light divine
With double warmth thy beams display
And with distinguish’d glory shine
To add a lustre to this day.
Iestyn Davies (countertenor), Crispian Steele-Perkins (natural trumpet)
The King’s Consort, Robert King (conductor)
https://youtu.be/wf5XdRhFRAg
During communion, this alto aria, which was composed in 1725 during Bach’s tenure at the Thomaskirche Leipzig, forms part of his cantata for Reformation Day (although the texts are not related to any particular Sunday). In the recording that follows here, a boy alto from the Thomanerchor Leipzig sings this aria, just as boys would have sung the soprano and alto solos when J.S. Bach was in charge.
God is our sun and shield! Therefore, our grateful spirit praises the kindness with which he cares for his little flock. For he wants to continue to protect us although our enemies sharpen their arrows
and a blasphemous dog now barks.
‘Gott ist unser Sonn’ und Schild’ from Cantata no.79
Thomanerchor Leipzig, Georg Christoph Biller (director)
https://youtu.be/gUtyci2F2tg?t=300
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Barbara on Luke – Part 2
The second chapter is again placed in an historical setting, although not entirely accurately. Mary gives birth to her first-born son; this does not imply that she had other children, as indeed she did not. ‘First-born son’ is a kind of title; the child is dedicated to God (2: 23), to be redeemed by the parents’ offering of a sacrifice.
The child is lain in a mange. God incarnate begins his earthly life in a lowly and humble setting, for it is mainly for the poor and the under-privileged that he has come.
The annunciation of his birth is made to the shepherds, representing the marginalized and the poor, who were despised for their lack of social status. And also as sinners. The poor would be uneducated and would not know the Law, so they could not keep it and thus were in a sinful state. Jesus has come to bring salvation to sinners, as is demonstrated throughout the Gospel (see 19: 10). And it is the rejected and scorned, not the rich or powerful, who most frequently recognize and acclaim who Jesus is.
We note that the angel tells the shepherds: ‘to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord …’ (2: 11). Salvation now is a theme of Luke; see the Zacchaeus event (19: 1-10.). The shepherds glorify and praise God, and they share the story (2: 17).
Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus to the Temple, to present him to the Lord, as required by the Law; the Holy Family are good observant Jews! We celebrate this event at the Feast of the Purification, or Candlemas, on February 2nd.
The righteous and devout Simeon and the faithful and prayerful Anna both recognize the Holy Child. Simeon, guided by the Holy Spirit, goes into the Temple and takes the child in his arms. He praises God in the canticle ‘The Nunc Dimittis’ which we use at Compline. God’s promise that Simeon should see the Messiah before he dies is fulfilled. We assume that Simeon is old, but could he, perhaps, rather be suffering from some terminal condition? Yet he retains his faith and joyful openness to the Spirit. An example for us; even when we are suffering or feel that death is near, we can praise God for his blessings, be open to new revelation and have faith in God’s promises.
Simeon’s prophecy declares inclusiveness; salvation is offered to all. And it indicates the opposition and conflict which Jesus will face. The sword which will pierce Mary’s soul is usually interpreted as her suffering at the crucifixion, but there is another understanding. It could be the sharp-edged sword of the word of God, which will make her aware, at the Fining of Jesus in the Temple, of who her Son is. This will change the nature of their relationship; Mary must let go of her Son. Are we aware of this sword and its demands on us in our own lives?
The aged Anna comes up to the Holy Family. We may note, in passing, that the Holy Spirit does not need to make a special visitation to Anna. Anna was in the Temple, day and night; she knew exactly who came and went, and when and why! She is of a great age, but she is alert to revelation, and eager for the redemption of Jerusalem. And she spreads and shares the story. Luke thus celebrates the old. We can be open to a new revelation and spread the Good News with joy and praise of God all our lives!
At the Finding in the Temple (2: 41ff) the status and destiny of Jesus are confirmed. But Mary and Joseph do not understand the words that Jesus speaks to them. This event invites us to seek Jesus, to hear his words, to treasure them, and to ponder, so that we may grow in our understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation.
We will explore further themes in the Gospel of Luke next week. For now, we note the praise of God and the joy which run through this chapter, remembering that the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary all come from Luke 1 and 2. Perhaps we will feel drawn to take up our Rosary beads and pray these Mysteries afresh!
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Something new at St. Anne’s, a service of music and readings to mark the Feast of Candlemas, the end of the Christmas Season and as we turn towards Lent.
Sunday 30th January at 6pm. More details to follow. A reflective service to which to invite friends, family, and neighbours.
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Walsingham Pilgrimage 2022
Friday 18th March – Sunday 22nd March.
Cost - £180.00
I am having to re-do our booking list. If you have NOT received an email from me on this subject but would like to go, then please speak to me at church tomorrow, as I shall send in the list on Monday morning.
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Gert Van Hoef Livestream
First broadcast on the Feast of the Epiphany 2022
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Spanish Rice
When I have visited my dear friend, Lola, in Valencia we have always stayed in her beach house, just south of the city, and on the edge of the many rice fields producing the Spanish short-grain rice. I was particularly impressed to see that the harvesters were all made in Lincolnshire – forgive the moment of ‘provincial pride!’
Most of us are familiar with paella, usually made with either chicken or seafood and sometimes both. However, the essential dish, ‘Arroz con…’, is a peasant dish and usually with vegetables. I might even be right in recalling that one of the earliest recorded recipes of this type was made with snails!
Essentially, you can use any vegetable you like and the only clues to success are the proportion of rice to stock, 220g to 710ml, do not stir, however tempted you might be, and be patient! With or without saffron? With or without tomatoes? With or without sweet paprika? Your choice!
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Firstly, put on your stock, home-made or from a cube/’stock pot.’ If you have/want to use saffron, add a healthy pinch to the stock.
Put a good slug of olive oil into a large frying pan, on a medium/high heat. Then add one chopped onion. This is the moment for the vegetables, a pepper (not more than 2” strips), a courgette (in half-moons), some green beans (again, about 2”). Stir from time to time until the onions are translucent (about 4-5 mins). Then add four cloves of garlic, roughly chopped and stir for 30 seconds. Then a teaspoon of sweet Spanish paprika, stir in for no more than 30 seconds, otherwise it can go bitter. Now for the tomatoes, two freshly grated or half a can of chopped. (You can also use a tablespoon of tomato puree, in which case just cook it off for about a minute, stirring into the vegetables). Cook down until thickened and season with salt and pepper. Now throw in the rice, stir in until coated in the juices. You can also add in a drained and rinsed can of chickpeas, Cannellini or red kidney beans at this point. Then add in the warmed stock, stir gently to distribute the rice and vegetables evenly and then leave on the medium/high heat for 8-10 minutes until the top is ‘dry’ and the stock is reduced, but not NOT stir during this time. Then turn the heat down to low and leave for a further 3-5 minutes until the stock is almost gone, without stirring. Remove from the heat, set aside and cover with a tea-towel for a further 5 mins or so for the rice to steam and finish cooking. Garnish with chopped herbs and serve!
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For your prayers
Please pray for Raisley Moorsom, 22, who is critically ill in hospital after being attacked on the street.
Also, for Adam Clayton who remains seriously ill in hospital.
Also, for the repose of the soul of Bill Saunders. His funeral will take place on Friday 28th January, at St. Mary, Brookfield, at 12.30pm.
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A Concert for HNCC
As most of you will know, we have been in partnership with Highgate New Town Community Centre for many years now, supporting and, sometimes, funding their valuable community and outreach work, especially with young people.
You may also know that the Community Centre, on Bertram Street, is currently being redeveloped and needs to raise around £650,000 for the furbishment of the new premises.
Do support this lovely concert, if you are able, as I know that some of you know Charles Owen who is playing and others of you as keen supporters of the Harington Scheme.
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