10th May, 2020

My dear friends, 
                                                                                                                                              
Because of the Coronavirus lock-down, we were not able to celebrate the 75th anniversary of V.E. Day yesterday as perhaps we might have wished. I made my way to Great Bardfield war memorial to observe the two minutes’ silence at 11.00 a.m. and was joined by some parishioners and a passing cyclist. It was almost more impressive because it was impromptu. There were some lovely displays of bunting and flags in the village which I much admired.
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I expect that like me, many of you spotted the uniformed St John Ambulance first aiders in the old film showing the crowds outside Buckingham Palace on V.E. Day 1945: I daresay that was a duty they never forgot.

I was much struck by some of the words of the Queen in her admirable broadcast at 9.00 p.m. yesterday: ‘Today it may seem hard that we cannot mark this special anniversary as we would wish. Instead we remember from our homes and our doorsteps. But our streets are not empty. They are filled with the love and the care that we have for each other. And when I look at our country today, and see what we are willing to do to protect and support one another, I say with pride that we are still a nation those brave soldiers, sailors and airmen would recognise and admire.’

I was especially moved by Her Majesty’s words about our streets being filled with the love and care we have for each other. Much of that love and care is being shown today by members of St John helping Coronavirus patients. In this way, we follow the fine example of our forebears in St John in the Second World War: they would recognise and admire our work in the present emergency.
With continued prayers and kindest regards,

                                                                             The Rev. Dr ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
EASTER 5 – 10th MAY 2020.
 
Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, verses 42-47.
Gospel according to St John, chapter 10, verses 1-10
I rang my bank’s helpline last year and got through to an operator. There was a delay while we were waiting for my details to come up on a rather slow computer – and, to kill time, the operator began chatting away to me. ‘I see you are a Reverend,’ he said. ‘Ye-s,’ I replied, wondering slightly anxiously where this was leading. He began talking about the ‘Religions of the Book’ – but before we could get properly going, his computer sprang into life and gave him my details, and our business was soon done and the call ended.

That expression, the ‘Religions of the Book’ stuck in my mind. It was coined by a scholar to describe the three great Abrahamic religions of Judaism Christianity and Islam. All three religions have their holy books: Judaism has the Hebrew Scriptures – what we call Old Testament; Christianity has the Bible, containing the Old and the New Testaments; and Islam has the Koran.
I expect the academic writer who first came up with the expression, the ‘Religions of the Book’ probably meant well. I am all for academic freedom and for members of different religions studying each other’s beliefs and systems: indeed, many years ago, I studied Islamic theology.
I have to say, however, that from a Christian point of view, the expression ‘Religions of the Book’ is a mis-perception of our Christian faith. I should like to make it quite clear that Christianity is not a religion of a book. Christianity is a religion of a Person, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. Christians believe the Bible to have been uniquely inspired by the Holy Spirit; but the Bible should rightly be understood as a tool, or perhaps better, as a witness, pointing towards the greatest work of the Holy Spirit: the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born an ordinary human baby, perfect God and perfect man, to share our life, to love us and save us. This truth is made clear in today’s Gospel reading from St John.

The setting is towards the end of the Last Supper. Having washed his disciples’ feet and instituted the Eucharist, Jesus now settled down and gave what we call his ‘discourse,’ his teaching to prepare the disciples for his separation from them. Not surprisingly, they were dismayed at such a prospect and Jesus sought to reassure them using the beautiful words which we are all familiar with from the funeral service: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling-places ... And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.’

Then, in response to a question from Thomas, Jesus said something about himself of great significance: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him, and have seen him.’

‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’ Not ‘I am a sign, or a guide, or a guru.’ Instead, ‘I am the way.’ Jesus Christ is himself the way to God the Father. God hasn’t sent us a map or a law, but a Person: our way is to follow him. Indeed, the first generations of Christians sometimes referred to Christianity itself as ‘the Way’ because of Jesus’ use of that word.

‘I am the truth.’ The fullness of truth is to be found in Jesus Christ. I remember many years ago when I was a young and still somewhat green priest, a Frenchwoman – not a churchgoer – asked me about my work as a priest and why I had been ordained? She was older than me, very much a child of the 1960s, and I don’t think she could understand why anyone would want to be ordained. I said that being a priest was a vocation from God, and often quite a challenging one as I saw rather more of the world’s pain and suffering than many people probably guessed, but that I was inspired by the Gospel of Christ and by the belief that in it we had the truth. The woman became very angry, raised her voice, and said that she expected to spend her whole life in search of the truth and still probably not find it. I must record that she sought me out the following day and apologised for her behaviour.

Well, with hindsight, I might have expressed myself differently – but I would still want to affirm that the reason I am a Christian and a priest is because I believe Christianity to be true. Curiously, despite her angry outburst, I remember quite liking the Frenchwoman; and of course one has to remember that one doesn’t know what other people have experienced – or had to endure – in the past.

However, no Christian believer can ever say they expect to spend their whole life searching for the truth and still not find it. Nor less can we say that I have my truth and you have your truth, because truth is relative. Something is true because God makes it true, and for no other reason. Something does not become true just because a lot of people believe in it, however fervently.
 If the child born at Bethlehem really is the incarnate Son of God, who rose from the dead in the Resurrection on the third day, then, Jesus Christ really is the fullness of divine truth, revealed to us by God himself. We must take his life and words with the greatest seriousness.

‘I am the life.’ True and eternal life is to be found in Christ Jesus: he grants meaning and significance to our lives, relationships and work in this world, and he prepares us for eternal life in the world to come. We see a reflection of this in the life of St Stephen, in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Stephen was a deacon and was the first Christian martyr. He accepted martyrdom by stoning because he came to believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, and realised that true and everlasting life is to be found in our relationship with Jesus. Stephen was not prepared to abandon Christ, and he paid the price and became our first martyr. There have been many other Christian martyrs since.

Back to Jesus’s discourse to his disciples in the upper room. Another of the disciples, Philip, said ‘Lord, show us the Father and we shall be satisfied.’ Jesus answered him, ‘have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say “show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.’

Here is the central point of Christianity. If we want to know what God is like, we must look to the Son of God. He is the image of unseen God. We should study his teachings, think about his compassion for the suffering, healing of the sick and other miracles. Reflect for a moment on the great love Jesus must have had for humanity to allow himself to be crucified to save us from our sins. If we ponder these things and pray about them, we will begin to glimpse just a little of the nature of God Himself. As Jesus himself said, ‘Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.’

​I end, as I began, by refuting the idea that Christianity is a religion of a book. Our book, the Bible, is sacred and special, but only because it leads us to a person, who uses it to speak to us. We are the members of the religion of a person, Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, who is the way, the truth and the life. As St John Chrysyostom once wrote: “Walk by the Man, and thou wilt arrive at God. For it is better to limp on the right way, than to walk ever so stoutly by the wrong (way).”
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