St Aidan: Flame of the North and Light for Today

Here's my sermon for today's Group Service at Redbourne, celebrating Aidan.

Picture by Tom Richardson from geograph.org.uk and wikicommons.org

1 Corinthians 9:16–19

For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.

John 13:16-20

Jesus said “Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

“I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfil this passage of Scripture: 'He who shared my bread has turned against me.'

“I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

Today's service is focused on Aidan of Lindisfarne, who is commemorated in the church calendar on 31st August.

We don't know much about Aidan, but we do know that he came from the monastery on Iona.  That monastery was founded by Columba and became an important centre of religious practice and literacy.  Aidan was sent by the fifth Abbot of Iona, Ségéne, to help King Oswald bring Christianity to Northumbria. Oswald was also raised on Iona, and may have been friends with Aidan there.

This morning I want to draw out three aspects of Aidan's life and think about what they might mean for us today.

Creation

The first is Aidan's connection with creation.  Aidan belonged to the Celtic stream of Christianity, which again we know little of for sure, but there does seem to be a particular connection with the natural world.  Like the early monastic communities which were formed in the desert by people like Anthony of Egypt, Columba wanted a place away from the populated areas, away from the hustle and bustle of life which might distract him and his fellow monks from their connection with God.  When Oswald invited Aidan to set up a monastery in Northumbria, he didn't choose a place on the mainland next to Bamburgh, where Oswald's power base was, instead Aidan chose Lindisfarne, now known as Holy Island.  Aidan valued its peace and solitude when the tide was in, cutting it off from the mainland; and also the ease with which he could travel across when the tide was out.

However, unlike the desert, Lindisfarne was not just chosen for its peace and solitude, the environment itself was also aid to contemplation and worship.  Aidan has been said to be “the St Francis before St Francis”, which is why we started the service with a hymn based on Francis' words.  Aidan, along with others in the Celtic stream of Christianity, saw nature as participating in the worship of God as well as helping us to see truths about our Creator through his creation.  The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:20 “God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

The prayer attributed to Aidan that's on the back of the service sheets [and at the bottom of this page] also illustrates how the rhythms of nature guided his schedule: when the tide was in and he was cut off from the world it reminded him that he was to be holy and set apart from God, and to make time to be with him; when the tide was out and he was connected to the world again it reminded him that he was to take that presence of God into the world, so that others might come to know God too.

For us, Aidan's spirituality reminds us of the importance of the natural world.  However, it also provides a reason for our care for the environment.  Too often the environmental movement bases it campaigning on one of two reasons.  It sometimes appeals to the selfish desire to live in a nice world, or for our children or grandchildren to live in a nice world.  Or it sometimes, either implicitly or explicitly, has a neo-pagan motivation saying that by damaging the environment we incur the wrath of nature deities like Mother Earth, and so we need to appease them by caring for the environment.

In contrast, Aidan's care for and appreciation of the natural world sprung from his belief that the world was created by a loving Creator, for us to enjoy and for our benefit; not just in providing us a place to live and with food to eat, but also to teach us about the Creator and so join in with the creation's praise of God.

Care for the poor

The second aspect of Aidan's life I want to highlight was his identification with and concern for the poor.  Many of the stories about Aidan speak about his humility and his rejection of personal wealth.  As Bede recorded, often when Aidan was given money he went to the slave market to purchase a slave’s freedom – and then also offered to educate them.

Two of the most famous stories about Aidan are about his humility and his concern for the poor.

At one Easter feast with Oswald there was a crowd of hungry, destitute people outside the castle, asking for food.  Under Aidan's influence, Oswald ordered that the feast should be taken out to the people, and that the silver dishes that it was served on should be broken up and distributed among them so that they could eat another day too.

Many years later, when Oswald's son Oswin was king, Oswin presented Aidan with a fine horse with royal trappings as a gift to help him on his journeys around Northumbria.  Almost immediately Aidan gave it away to a beggar he met on the road.  When Oswin found out, he was furious, but Aidan responded that the beggar was a son of God and therefore worth more than the son of a mare.  Oswin realised his pride and asked for forgiveness.

Aidan preferred walking on his missionary journeys rather than riding a horse, partly so that he could identify the exact needs of the people he encountered and minister to them in specific ways.  Paul's words in our first reading speak of him being a slave to all so that he might win as many as possible – Aidan had the same attitude.  Both of them could have demanded a certain status and respect because of their positions; Paul as an apostle and Aidan as a bishop; but both of them waived those rights in order to be better able to serve those they came across.  They were both following Jesus' example and his instructions to his disciples as we see in Mark 10:42-45

“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you.  Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Now we are not apostles or bishops, but many of us have positions of authority or leadership, even if that's in a small matter or for a short time.  Aidan's example challenges us about how we use that authority or leadership or decision-making.  But that servant-leadership is not to be done because it is the most effective way to be productive, or even because it's what Jesus did.  Instead it needs to be done from a heart that sees everyone as someone who is made in the image and likeness of God, otherwise our leadership becomes manipulative and our charity becomes condescending and patronising.

Oswin realised that his pride stopped him seeing the image of God in everyone around him, perhaps our pride too stops us seeing people as Aidan did – what are our horses that we need to give up?

Evangelism

The final aspect of Aidan's life should be the most obvious, but it often gets overlooked in favour of his connection with creation, or his humility and care for the poor.

And that is of course, that Aidan's primary concern was to tell people about the gospel - the good news about salvation and life through repentance and faith in Jesus.  That was the reason Oswald asked Ségéne to send someone from Iona to Northumbria – so that his people could know for themselves the God who Oswald had come to faith in on Iona.

Aidan had that same compulsion to preach the gospel that Paul wrote about in our first reading: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”  That was the reason Aidan avoided the distractions of the busy-ness of life, or of possessions.  That was the reason he liked to walk; so that he could meet more people and spend more time getting to know them and talking to them about Jesus.  It was the reason that he was fearless in standing up to kings, because he was on a mission from the King of kings.  It was the reason he spent time training up priests, so that they too could go out and tell more people the gospel.  And it was probably because he trained and sent Hybald that Christianity first came to this area – and that we are here now.

However, Aidan wasn't successful everywhere he went.  As Jesus says in our reading from John's gospel – he himself would be rejected and so we shouldn't be surprised if we who follow him are rejected too.  But he also promised that those who accept us accept him too.  And those who accepted Aidan's message did so partly because they saw Jesus reflected in Aidan's life.

Aidan was not the first monk that Ségéne sent from Iona.  A monk called Corman had been sent, but after a few months he returned home complaining about the stubborn, uncivilised people he was supposed to serve.  Apparently, Aidan quietly enquired if he perhaps should have spoken more gently to them, giving them the milk of the gospel as to small babies. And Aidan was sent to replace him.

We're not all called to be missionaries, we're not all called to what Columba called 'white martyrdom' that is leaving everything to go where God calls us to go.  But all who call themselves Christian are called to the Great Commission of telling others about the gospel – the good news of about salvation and life through repentance and faith in Jesus.  Aidan gives us an example of not being distracted from this calling by other things, but also of making sure that its not just our words that point people towards Jesus but our actions as well.

Conclusion

The name Aidan means 'flame' in Gaelic, and so he is sometimes called “The Flame of the North.”  He is credited with bringing light to Northumbria in what used to be called the Dark Ages.  Because of him literacy became more widespread; kings gradually became less like warlords and more like just rulers; and care for the poor became part of what a king should do.  Of course, there are many examples of the opposite of those both then and right up to now.  But this change is only possible because of the light which Aidan brought, which is the light of the gospel of Jesus.

Ultimately, creation is only worth caring for because it is the creation of God.  Ultimately, people are only worth caring for because they are made in the image and likeness of God.  Ultimately, we are only equal because our value is not due to our status, our education, our wealth or our physical attributes, but because we are equally loved by God.  Aidan lived by this light, and he dedicated his life to passing this light on.

If he were here today, he might ask, humbly, gently and lovingly: is this the light you live by and do you know Jesus, the Light of the World?

Prayer attributed to Aidan

Sunflowers, wheatfields and morality

Here's my article for August:

Vincent van Gogh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Last year I visited the National Gallery in London, and wrote an article reflecting on how just like the Christian artwork displayed there, our society wants to rip Christian values away from their Christian foundations.   But my visit there was definitely worth it as I had another thought while I was there that has inspired this article!!

As I walked around the gallery there were many tour groups with a guide who spoke about the pieces of art and the various movements they belonged to.  They also told you to move away if you got too close, so you didn't get the benefit of their expertise without paying for it!

In one room there was a particularly large crowd gathered around a picture.   As I moved towards the picture, I saw that it was van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'.   This was quite a surprise as I had no idea that that picture was in the National Gallery.  It was also quite a thrill to see this famous picture in real life, and to be able to get close enough to see the brushstrokes.    The tour groups moved on to another room, and I started to look around at the other pictures in that room.  The picture next to 'Sunflowers' was also by van Gogh, and called 'A Wheatfield, with Cypresses'; I found that I was much more captivated by this picture than 'Sunflowers.'  It had swirly clouds and trees and wheat that were all painted in such a way as to look like they were moving – I felt like I was there and could feel the breeze and hear the sounds of rustling.

Another tour group came in going straight to 'Sunflowers' and then leaving after having heard about it.   I felt sorry for 'A Wheatfield' and wondered how often it was overlooked in favour of its move famous neighbour, and then felt sorry for the tour group, who missed out on what I consider the better picture next to the one they concentrated on.  This left me with the question: is an artwork famous because it's good, or good because it's famous?

I'm not an expert in art so I probably don't have much knowledge to contribute to that discussion, but if the question is shifted to the realm of ethics, that's much more in my comfort zone: are certain actions favoured because they are good, or good because they're popular?   Is there an objective moral standard or does society decide what is good or bad?

If society decides which actions are moral acceptable then it becomes very hard to criticise any group for their actions: the UN Declaration of Human Rights might be the moral standard for this time, but there's no reason it can't be altered, or rescinded, in the future.  And even with the UNDHR, some humans, by popular consent, are not covered by its provisions, for example in Iceland nearly all pregnancies with a confirmed Down syndrome diagnosis are terminated.   However, if morality is not to be arbitrarily decided by societal consensus, and it can't be found by looking at the natural world, it needs to grounded in something outside of society, i.e. something that is super-natural.

For Christians, that objective moral standard is not to be found in a distant divine law-giver, but in the God who in intimately involved in the universe he created, and also entered into that universe, becoming human in Jesus.  Jesus not only came to show us what moral perfection looks like in practice, but also to die to take our punishment for failing to keep those moral standards.

Don't judge a book by its cover

Here's my article for Scawby's July magazine:

Image by sergeitokmakov from Pixabay

The Year 6 end of year performance at Scawby Academy this year is “Legally Blonde: The Musical.”   I have to confess that I have not seen the musical nor even the 2001 film on which it is based, so the following thoughts are based entirely on what the internet has told me it's about!!

The plot is (apparently!) about a Elle, a stereotypical ditsy blonde who is dumped by her boyfriend Warner, because she is not serious enough and would damage his chances of becoming a lawyer and then running for political office.  Elle decides to enrol at Harvard Law School to win him back, but despite struggling for recognition and acceptance by her professors and peers, she discovers that has a talent for law.

In some ways Legally Blonde is the opposite of Grease: in Grease the girl lowers her standards to be acceptable to the guy; in Legally Blonde the girl 'raises' herself to the guy's standards, and then finds a better guy who isn't so shallow!  However, the overall moral of the story is: don't judge a book by the cover.

This principle is illustrated in the Bible with the choosing of the first kings of Israel.   Despite God warning the Israelites that rejecting him as king and wanting a human king like the surrounding nations, would lead to the kings becoming self-serving tyrants, they insisted that they wanted a king.  The first king that was chosen was Saul, who was described as “as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else” (1 Samuel 9:2).

Saul started his reign well but eventually rejected God's guidance via Samuel, and so God rejected Saul as king.   God sent Samuel to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem, saying that one of his sons would be the next king.  When Samuel arrives, he assumes that Jesse's eldest son is the one, but God says “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.   The Lord does not look at the things people look at.   People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).  And so Jesse's youngest son, David, is chosen because he was a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).

On the outside Saul looked impressive, and as the youngest son, socially-speaking, David was not considered important, but God knew their hearts.  So, it was David who became Israel's greatest king, and it was into David's family that the King of Kings, Jesus, was born.

So often we judge people, both positively and negatively, on things such as their outward appearance, their achievements, their background, their opinions, their 'success' in different areas of life.  The example of Saul and David remind us that more important is our heart, and whether it is in tune with God's.

What Fagin counts

Here's my article for Broughton's July Magazine:

This year's end of year production at Broughton Primary is Oliver!.   With a recent rise in anti-Semitism, it might be relevant to think about the portrayal of “the Jew” Fagin, particularly in Dickens' book, as the personification of evil.   The overt anti-Semitism we see today, and perhaps more worryingly society's lack of condemnation of that anti-Semitism, mirrors closely the Victorian cultural views around when “Oliver Twist” was written, and that we thought we'd moved on from.   However, that's a complicated topic with much nuance needed that a short article cannot adequately cover.

Instead we'll think about the much less controversial topic of money!   When Oliver is brought to Fagin by Dodger, Fagin explains what their 'business' is.  He sings “In this life / one thing counts / in the bank / large amounts. / I'm afraid these don't grow on trees / you've got to pick a pocket or two.”  Fagin is avaricious and greedy, he loves hoarding money but doesn't use it either for himself or for the boys he looks after (and who get him the money!)   Because he believes that the only thing that counts in this life is large amounts of money, his self-worth is based on how much he has, not what he does with it.   And he is prepared to do anything to increase the amount he has – or more correctly, he is prepared to let others risk themselves to increase his wealth.

The Bible has a lot to say about wealth, and it is one of Jesus' most common subjects to teach on.  In Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus teaches us to store up treasure in heaven not treasure on earth, firstly because earthly treasure will perish.  Secondly, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Whatever we value most, we will strive to obtain – “you cannot serve both God and Money.”  Famously, Paul writes “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:9-10).  One of those evils is the exploitation and oppression of others to gain wealth, which is an insult to their Maker (and our Judge) (Proverbs 14:31).  Fagin gives us a working example of that evil.

We may not go as far as Fagin does, but for a lot of people their self-worth lies in how rich they are or in the things they own, and so they are never truly content because they can never have enough money, nor all the possessions they want.  Jesus teaches “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” instead we are to seek his kingdom first (Luke 12:13-34).

Fagin considers leaving his life of crime but the lure of money is too much for him.  Our attitude to money and possessions can become idolatrous and God calls us to trust him for what we need, and perhaps demonstrating that trust involves generously using what we have for the benefit of others.

Click here for other articles on Oliver!

How to be free from desire

Here's my article for June:

It's time for another football World Cup: which will be a cause for rejoicing for those who can't get enough of football and despair for those who have had enough of football!  I've mentioned previously about football chants but as well as adapting lyrics to popular songs, football fans also adopt songs as their own.

Famously, Liverpool fans sing “You'll never walk alone” from the musical Carousel; West Ham fans sing “I'm forever blowing bubbles”; Hibernian fans sing “Sunshine on Leith”; and Newcastle fans sing “Blaydon Races.”  Other songs transcend individual clubs and are sung by many fans, such as “We are the Champions” and “Sweet Caroline.” Another song in this latter category is “Freed from desire.”

When I was chaplain to the Scunthorpe United Academy, the U18s team would often play this song as part of their pre-match playlist.  This always struck me as slightly odd as although the the music and rhythm are invigorating, the wish to be freed from desire doesn't seem to be the best motivation for going into a competitive match!  I'm sure that it will be said many times during the World Cup that poor performances from teams are because of a lack of desire.

The song itself is actually a reflection of Eastern spirituality, especially Buddhism – that's the 'strong beliefs' referred to.  The singer's love has been freed from the desire for money, power and fame, and his mind and senses have been purified, unlike other people who just want more and more.  This seems to be similar to Jesus' teaching “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 5:19-20), and also to the apostle Paul's “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2).

However, the reason these desires should be avoided in Buddhism is because never-ending desires and cravings that cannot be quenched cause suffering.  Buddha taught that even the desire not to desire is in itself a desire, and as such a source of suffering.  Therefore the solution is to cultivate non-attachment to everything – including the idea that there is a permanent essence of anything.

In contrast, the Bible teaches us that the created world was good and that humans made it very good, because we are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1 and 2).  We are created to be in eternal relationship with God, but humanity's sin has corrupted us and the world.  Therefore our desires are now not for God but for earthly 'treasures.'  The good news, however, is that through trust in Jesus' death and resurrection, we can be freed from those desires and enjoy the abundant, eternal life with God that we were created for.

image by Prawny from Pixabay

The Inspired Life

Here's my article for May:

When we hear about people achieving amazing things we often describe them as being 'inspired' particularly in the fields of art, literature, ideas and music.   The word 'inspire' comes from the Latin meaning 'to breathe into' and was originally used to describe divine beings breathing ideas, virtues or talents into, usually, humans.  This feature of pagan myths is a glimpse of the full truth that we find in the Bible.

The Creation stories teach that the difference between humanity and the rest of creation is that we are made in the image and likeness of God and that he breathed life into us (Genesis 1:26-27 and 2:7), so all of us have been 'inspired' by God.  What's more, the Hebrew (and Greek) word for 'breath' can also mean 'spirit', and so in this context we have been created with God's holy spirit.

As the biblical story unfolds, God's holy spirit is revealed to be more than just a poetic way of talking about being 'inspired' in his likeness.   The Holy Spirit is shown to be a personal divine being who is both one with God the Father and God the Son, and also differentiated from them – the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.   Jesus taught his disciples about the Holy Spirit on the night before he died (John 14-16), and this month we will be celebrating the feast of Pentecost, when after Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples and empowered them to tell others about Jesus.  The rest of the New Testament (mostly letters written to the small fledgling Christian communities) speak about how the true followers of Jesus are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who inspires and equips them to trust in Jesus and live in obedience to him.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is, who or what is inspiring us?  Or perhaps, to use a popular term, who is influencing us?  Greek culture valued wisdom - Luke described those in Athens as being people who “spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas” (Acts 17:21)!  But Paul, writing to the church in the Greek city of Corinth, speaks about two types of wisdom: wisdom that comes from God through the Holy Spirit and the “wisdom of this age” which he says is “coming to nothing” (1 Corinthians 2).  This transitory nature of the wisdom of the world is clearly seen as we think back to ideas, trends and characteristics that were once commended but now seem ridiculous and even immoral.  Think for example of the gladiatorial games or the practice of leaving babies on rocks to die simply because they were female.

Jesus describes this contrast using the illustration of houses (Matthew 7:24-27).  The life inspired by the wisdom of Jesus' teaching is like a house built on the sure foundation of rock.   The life inspired by the wisdom of the world is like a house built on sand.  Only one is a truly wise life, able to weather the storm. Which wisdom is inspiring you?

Pictures of Easter

Here's my article for April:

There are many images associated with Easter: bunnies, chicks, decorated eggs, bunches of Spring flowers; but often associated with the religious celebration of Easter is a picture of a hill with three crosses on it, and sometimes a rising sun behind it.  For those who aren't familiar with all the details of the Easter story, this can be a bit confusing.  They might know that Easter is something to do with the death of Jesus on a cross, but who are the other two crosses for?  Perhaps they are for two of his followers?  The answer is that “Two rebels were crucified with [Jesus], one on his right and one on his left” (Matthew 27:38).

The crime of these two men is translated many ways, and traditionally they are said to be thieves, however the translation above is probably closest to the truth.  We know this because crucifixion was the penalty for  rebels or revolutionaries, especially if they were slaves (think Spartacus!).   Jesus was charged with blasphemy by the Jewish religious leaders for claiming he was divine, but the Romans put him to death on a charge of treason for claiming to be the king (John 19:1-16).  Ironically he wasn't leading a rebellion and that was one of the reasons the Jewish leaders turned against him!

So Jesus was crucified along with guilty rebels, and in the place of another rebel, Barabbas, whose rebellion also involved murder (Luke 23:18-19).  So it is likely that they too were guilty of violent and murderous insurrection.  Today we might call them terrorists.

These terrorists were trying to overthrow the occupying Romans and regain an independent nation, and they looked for a Messiah, a warrior king, who would do exactly that.  However, Jesus didn't come as a nationalist leader.  But this makes the words of one of the rebels to Jesus even more appropriate: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).  The terrorist realises that he had been fighting for the wrong kingdom, and instead wants to join Jesus in his kingdom.

Jesus was not offering a Jewish nationalistic alternative to a Roman colonialist system, but a kingdom that is “not of this world” (John 18:36).  He was misunderstood both by his people and by the Romans, and he continues to be misunderstood whenever he is appropriated to a political cause.  Jesus didn't come to be a left-wing alternative to a right-wing government, or vice-versa.  Jesus came to inaugurate a kingdom where he is king; where all ideologies and world-views are de-throned; and our ultimate allegiance is to God.

So if you see a picture of three crosses on a hill, you may want to ask yourself which kingdom you are fighting for, and perhaps to ask Jesus to join him in his.