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A Cross marks the centre
Even if you have not yet seen the Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral you will have heard of it. The map bears the name of its author 'Richard of Haldingham or Lafford' (Holdingham and Sleaford in Lincolnshire). Recent research suggests a date of about 1300 for the creation of the map. The world as it was seen when the map was drawn centred on Jerusalem. Any move away from that was seen to threaten the position that religion had in the world. In 1543 the Polish astronomer, a distinguished churchman, Nicolas Copernicus published his treatise De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (The Revolution of Celestial Spheres) where he presented a new view of the world; a world that revolved around the sun. Copernicus was aware that these ideas would inevitably create conflicts with the Church. He was challenging the established religious view of reality. He waited until he was about to die to publish his ideas. He saw the first copy on the day that he died. All the reassurances of the cosmology of the Middle Ages were being threatened, and here was a new view of the world, less secure and comfortable. The Church supported Luther’s denunciation of it: “I believe the Holy Scriptures, for Joshua commanded the Sun to stand still and not the Earth”. But the investigations of an Italian called Galileo confirmed the Copernican theory of the solar system. He too was apprehensive about the reaction to his discoveries and did not openly declare his findings until 1613. In 1616 the system of Copernicus was denounced as dangerous to faith, and Galileo, summoned to Rome, was warned not to uphold it or teach it. He was summoned to Rome again in 1633 and tried by the Inquisition. He was found guilty of heresy. His punishment was to stay in his house for the rest of his life. He went blind but still kept thinking about the sky and what he saw there. The idea that the world might not revolve around what the church saw as central was regarded as heresy. If we were to draw a map of our world, not a geographical one but a map of the communities to which we belong, what would we place at the centre? Where we would place the church? For those whose lives are centred on the church it can be difficult to envisage life where the church is not central or at least very close to it. But most people today have lives that are centred elsewhere. The church and its beliefs lie on the outer edges of their solar system. For some people religion may not even be anywhere in view, not even with the powerful telescope of a stretched imagination. Questions that might help us to begin to understand where the church and the religion it espouses might be found in a map of their world are:
For urban churches that offer some practical support to the local community there could be quite a few people outside the church who would respond quite positively. They would miss the soup kitchen, the morning coffee when out shopping, the bring & buy or the support for their church school. But try asking someone in Great Malvern about a church in Little Malvern. Even asking such questions makes an assumption; that it is the church that is important. Jesus faced similar issues about the church’s existence. There were those to whom tradition and their church were important but for the wrong reasons. “These people honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew Ch 15 vs 1-9). He upset many when they thought he had claimed he could destroy their Temple and then rebuild it in three days. “Destroy this temple and I will build it again in three days” (John Ch 2 vs 12-22). Yes he was referring to his body but the reaction we see at his trial indicates how sensitive they were about their precious church and is further evidence in support of the quote from St Matthew’s Gospel. Perhaps the question should not be then about the church but about our faith. Who would notice if Christianity ceased to play any part in the life of our society, and why? At the heart of our beliefs, our faith, is the story of a man who gave his life for each of us in order that we might be reconciled to God in the new life that is given us through the resurrection. This became so important to members of the early church that they made it central to their lives. It became the driving force behind all that they undertook. At the centre of their “mappa mundi” was the crucifixion and the resurrection. From that centre they spread outwards across countries and across centuries. So it was that they reached out even as far as us. Thank God they did. So what does that say to us and about our part in it all? Eric Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of Passage ?
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him an leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blows the grass and earth, and shakes his stump, but he sits stoically, never removing the blindfold. It is be the only way he can become a man! Finally, after a horrific night the sun appears and he removes his blindfold.
It is then that he discovers his father sitting on the stump next to him. He has been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him. Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there. "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
Erase the will nots, may nots, might nots, that may find a home in my heart Release me from the could nots, would nots and should nots that obstruct my life.
Most of all, dear God, I ask that you remove from my mind my heart and my life all the am nots that I have allowed to hold me back, especially the thought that I am not good enough. Amen.
Author known only to God. "I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might-have-been has never been, but a has-been was once an are." Milton Berle
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