6th June, 2021

​My dear friends,

I went up to London for a meeting last week – the first time I have been in the capital since March 2020. It was lovely to be back in London and to see familiar buildings and landmarks, but the city felt different to my last visit. A friend recently described the West End to me as feeling like a Sunday in the days before Sunday trading was allowed, and I could see what she meant. I saw that some shops were open for business – though they didn’t seem to have many customers – whilst others were locked tight and looked as though they hadn’t been open for a while. Some people were to be seen walking in the streets, but not many, and the traffic in the City of London was lighter than usual. Liverpool Street Station in the rush hour contained a couple of hundred commuters, rather than several thousand.

The message I brought away from my visit to London is that dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic is going to be a long haul. We might almost think of it as something like a world war. The virus is constantly adapting to local conditions in order to survive. We talk about learning to live with Covid-19, and that is doubtless right, but I suspect we shall not make much progress until most people in the world have been vaccinated. With the best will in the world, this is unlikely to be achieved for several more years. The First World War lasted for four years and the Second World War for six. Perhaps we must envisage a similar time-span for the Coronavirus pandemic.

I was once sent a letter which Archbishop Cosmo Lang of Canterbury had sent in 1940 to Marjorie Holland, whose husband Rupert had been captured by the Germans during the Second World War and was a prisoner-of-war. The Archbishop wrote: ‘Meanwhile keep your faith, however much it may be tried, for at a time like this when we are besieged with so many distresses and doubts, the one thing necessary is to keep one’s faith as men in a besieged fortress keep the well. May God help you and strengthen you.’
I found this a very moving letter. Mrs Holland treasured it all her life, and after the war she was reunited with her husband.

St John has worked wonders so far during the pandemic. There will doubtless be much to do and many challenges in the next few years. We shall have to think of life after the pandemic, even though that may be further off than we should ideally like. But when we are confronted with difficulties, perhaps we should try to think of all the people who are grateful to St John, for lives saved, sick people helped, vaccinations administered, families supported and comforted.
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As Archbishop Lang said, we must keep our faith as men in a besieged fortress keep the well. I end by echoing the old Archbishop’s final words to Mrs Holland: may help you and strengthen you.
With my continued prayers and all good wishes,

​                                             The Rev. Dr  ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
TRINITY 1 – 6th JUNE 2021.
 
Gospel: St Mark, chapter 3, verses 20-35
I would like us to think today about the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph and Jesus – and also their wider family. Perhaps we might start with part of St Mark’s Gospel which occurs slightly before today’s Gospel reading:
 
The crowd came together again, so that Jesus could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying ‘He has gone out of his mind.’
 
And a little later
 
Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers? And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’
 
We are not entirely sure who these brothers and sisters of Jesus were. Some recent writers have speculated that they may have been other children, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Joseph. There is, however, an ancient tradition that the Blessed Virgin Mary only gave birth to one child, Jesus, and that the men and women referred to as ‘brothers and sisters’ were St Joseph’s children by a previous, deceased wife: thus, they were Jesus’ older half brothers and sisters. I have also heard it suggested that in First Century Palestine ‘brothers and sisters’ might also have meant cousins. We will never know for certain, but my personal view that they were St Joseph’s older children and thus Jesus’ half brothers and sisters.
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            The point is behind all this is that we should avoid imagining the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph and Jesus as a sort of cut-off, self-contained unit. The truth is that the family was very important in Middle Eastern society – it still is – and Jesus would have grown up in Nazareth surrounded by an extended family and as part of a web of relationships.

            In today’s Gospel, we see the family’s consternation when aged thirty Jesus shut up the carpenter’s shop and began his public ministry. The crowds flocked to hear Jesus – the pressure was so great that there wasn’t even time for him to eat – and some unpleasant people began to say he had gone mad. Poor Mary and his family didn’t really understand what was going on – remember, the story was still unfolding, and we know more about Jesus this side of the Resurrection than they did at the time. So, full of concern, they turned up to take him away. They probably thought he was overwrought, and needed a good rest, some home cooking, and a few restorative walks along the Sea of Galilee.

            Except, that when the crowds told Jesus his family was waiting outside, he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers? And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

            This is radical teaching. Jesus says two things. Firstly, that following him is more important than family ties. That is not to down-play the importance of the family – we know from elsewhere in the Bible that the family is very important in God’s scheme of things. But what Jesus does here is exhort us to put God first in our lives. He is to be above everything else.

            Secondly, Jesus expands our understanding of family. It doesn’t simply mean ties of blood and kinship.  ‘Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’ I have often said that although I am proud of my British Passport, I am prouder still of my Baptism Certificate. This means that all the Baptised are my brothers and sisters. I think I would go further still, and say that Jesus died on the Cross for all, so all men and women in a sense are my brothers and sisters. We, too, are each part of a web of relationships, with God at the centre. The challenge is (1) to remember our wider family, (2) to put Jesus first, and (3) to live out our Christian faith, day by day.
 ‘Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.