Start:Stop - Making it out of lockdown

Henry Moore inspects the altar at St Stephen Walbrook

You can listen to an audio recording of this Start:Stop reflection at this link.

On Monday the Prime Minister announced that places of worship will be able to reopen across the country from Thursday 3rd December, provided that social distancing restrictions remain in place. This means that we should be able to gather around our altar once again to receive the Eucharist. 

There is a wonderful black and white photograph of the church taken towards the end of its reordering, showing Henry Moore inspecting the altar he sculpted. Standing with one hand on the flat surface, the artist is leaning down towards the side of the altar, looking intently at it as if in conversation with the stone itself. The image reminds me of “The Makers” a poem by Dorothy Sayers, in which a stone speaks to an architect and craftsman, revealing the interconnectedness of our lives and reminding us of the ultimate source of life; the Lord, our Maker.

The Makers

 

The Architect stood forth and said:

   “I am the master of the art :

I have a thought within my head,

   I have a dream within my heart.

 

“Come now, good craftsman, ply your trade

   With tool and stone obediently;

Behold the plan that I have made -

   I am the master; serve you me.”

 

The Craftsman answered : “Sir, I will;

   Yet look to it that this your draft

Be of a sort to serve my skill -

   You are not master of the craft.

 

“It is by me the towers grow tall,

   I lay the course, I shape and hew;

You make a little inky scrawl,

   And that is all that you can do .

 

“Account me, then, the master man,

   Laying my rigid rule upon

The plan, and that which serves the plan -

   The uncomplaining, helpless stone.”

 

The Stone made answer : “Masters mine,

   Know this: that I can bless or damn

The thing that both of you design

   By being but the thing I am;

 

“For I am granite and not gold,

   For I am marble and no clay,

You may not hammer me nor mould -

   I am the master of the way.

 

“Yet once that mastery bestowed

   Then I will suffer patiently

The cleaving steel, the crushing load,

   That make a calvary of me;

 

“And you may carve me with your hand

   To arch and buttress, roof and wall,

Until the dream rise up and stand -

   Serve but the stone, the stone serves all.

 

“Let each do well what each knows best,

   Nothing refuse and nothing shirk,

Since none is master of the rest,

  But all are servants of the work-

 

“The work no master may subject

   Save He to whom the whole is known,

Being Himself the Architect,

   The Craftsman and the Corner-stone.

 

“Then, when the greatest and the least

   Have finished all their labouring

And sit together at the feast,

   You shall behold a wonder thing:

 

“The Maker of the men that make

   Will stoop between the cherubim,

The towel and the basin take,

   And serve the servants who serve Him.”

 

The Architect and Craftsman both

  Agreed, the Stone had spoken well;

Bound them to service by an oath

  And each to his own labour fell.

“The Makers” was used as a dedication to Dorothy Sayers’ script for ‘The Man Born to be King’ - a series of radio plays on the life of Christ, first broadcast by the BBC in December 1941. Writing shortly afterwards, the Director of Religious Broadcasting said production of the plays “ought to go down in the annals of Christian co-operation.” The script initially sparked controversy as the characters, including Jesus, speak in realistic modern language. An ecumenical committee was convened, under the chairmanship of the Archbishop of York in response to criticisms raised in parliament, to consider whether the broadcasts should be stopped. The committee unanimously agreed they should continue. Creating the broadcasts required considerable technical co-operation; producer Val Gielgud (brother of Sir John) was charged with working around wartime restrictions which meant that the cast of thirty five had to read, rehearse and record each hour long play in just two days; as opposed to the usual week.

“The Makers” – the poem used as a dedication to the plays - begins with an Architect declaring himself to be the master – the King Pin; appealing to the Craftsman to follow his plans obediently. The Craftsman reminds the Architect that it is he who gives shape to the Architect’s “little inky scrawl” – and that he, therefore, is King of the Hill. Then the Stone speaks, reminding the others that he can “bless or damn” their plans simply by using the gifts that he has been given to the best of his ability – by being a stone! The stone calls on his colleagues to serve humbly, following the example of Christ, our Servant King. He encourages the Architect and the Craftsman to set aside their pride and focus on sharing their gifts, by doing what each knows best “since none is master of the rest, but all are servants of the work” – the work of God, who is master of all; architect, craftsman and corner-stone. 

By selecting ‘The Makers’ as a dedication to her radio plays, Dorothy Sayers is undoubtedly referencing the huge team effort required to get the production to air; highlighting the interconnectedness of the creative process and reminding us of the ultimate source of our creativity. But perhaps the poem is also making a wider comment - about our relationship to each other and with God as we make our way through the ups and downs of life.

 

The pandemic has highlighted our interconnectedness; images of the crystal-clear waters in the canals of Venice reminded us of our close relationship with the environment. Empty supermarket shelves and the tireless work of nurses and care-home staff reminded us of our dependence on (often low-paid) workers in the retail, logistics and public sectors. No matter how wealthy you are or how independent your life seems; you soon realise how interdependent life really is when you’ve just used your last sheet of toilet roll; a eureka moment with enough imagery to keep theologians, philosophers, artists and politicians in work for some time! Perhaps it is not surprising that the way out of the pandemic seems to be following a similar theme; the recently announced Covid-19 vaccines are themselves the result of huge efforts in international and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

But the poem makes a further important point; as well as emphasizing our interconnectedness - that we have been created to live in relationship with each other - the stone reminds us that God has provided all we need to make a good life – each of us has unique gifts to contribute to the common good. He has also given us an example of how best to use these, by following in the footsteps of his Son; our Servant King.

 

When we return to church and gather around our stone altar, anxious about our place in the world as we make our way through life after lockdown, may we find strength in our mutual relationships and in the abundant generosity of God.

 

At the end of the poem, the Architect and the Craftsman both agree that the Stone had “spoken well”. 

Do you?

 

 

O Lord our Maker, grant us the wisdom to discern the gifts you have given us, the confidence to share them and the humility to receive them from others.
Help us to break down the walls that separate us from others and from you.
Free us from all that holds us back from sharing your love in the world.
We pray that your kingdom may come
despite everything that seems to fight against it,
a kingdom in which the first are last and the last first,
in which all people live together in justice and harmony.
Amen


(The Makers is the ‘Dedicatory’ from the published scripts of ‘The Man Born to Be King’ – A Play-Cycle on the Life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ written for broadcasting by Dorothy L. Sayers and published by Victor Gollancz Ltd in London in 1946).