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| George Grotz, Metropolis, 1916 |
Start:Stop at St Stephen Walbrook enables busy people to start their day by stopping to reflect. Ten minute reflections are repeated on the quarter hour, from 7.45am until 9.00am every Tuesday morning, beginning with a reading from scripture, followed by a reflection based on an event from this week in history, with space for silence and prayer. You can hear a recording of this week’s reflection at this link and read the script below.
Good morning and welcome to St Stephen Walbrook and our Start:Stop reflection. Today is the anniversary of the birth of master-storyteller Charles Dickens, whose Night Walks through the streets of Victorian London provided the inspiration for novels and short stories that revealed his concern for the poor and the oppressed.
Dickens had an on-off relationship with the church into which he was baptised. Though, by his own admission, at times he struggled to do so himself, he was highly critical of those who attended church every week to say the creeds but who seemed to fail to act upon them. People who “talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk.”
A criticism shared by the author of the First Letter of John, writing to the church in the first century. His readers are exhorted to live the word - through acts of righteousness.
Our reading this morning is from the second chapter of the First Letter of John..
Bible Reading : 1 John 2.7-11
Beloved, I am writing you
no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the
beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. Yet I am
writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the
darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says,
‘I am in the light’, while hating a brother or sister, is still in the
darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a
person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is
in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go,
because the darkness has brought on blindness.
Reflection
In his book ‘A Nocturnal
History of London,’ Matthew Beaumont, a professor of English at University
College London, describes Charles Dickens as “the patron saint of the streets
at night.” Professor Beaumont explains that the glorious, mysterious and often
dangerous life of cities at night fascinated Dickens, who, perhaps due to his
own experience of poverty in childhood, felt at home amongst the homeless. Each
day, in the space of just a few hours, the veil of prosperity over the world’s
most populous city fell away. As the streetlamps were lit, life appeared to
turn upside down. On his frequent night walks, Dickens found a community of
outcasts surviving in squalor, forced to traipse the streets in an effort to
survive the cold. Walking alongside them revealed the contradictions of the
city and of humanity – of the solitary and sociable – of poverty and prosperity
side by side - the delicate balance between the two laid bare.
Dickens famously
fictionalised these characters and their plight; his novels highlighting the
abuse of women, children and industrial workers - the suffering of those who
inhabited the dark underbelly of the City. Such was his skill that two
centuries later we still describe these conditions as ‘Dickensian’.
However his concern for
issues of social justice was not simply expressed in the written word - but in
practical action.
With the backing of the
Christian philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, Dickens established a safe
house for women - finding and furnishing a cottage in Shepherd’s Bush,
providing shelter for thirteen former prostitutes.
While on a book tour in
Boston in the USA, Dickens was introduced to prominent members of the Unitarian
church. He was attracted to the zeal with which they acted upon the Word of God
through their commitment to social action. On his return to Britain he began
attending Unitarian meetings in London, leaving behind what he saw as the
unnecessary and unhelpful focus on ritual and practice in the Anglican Church
of the time.
Writing to members of the
church in the first century, the author of the First Letter of John seems to
hold a similar point of view.
Reminding his readers of
the great inheritance of the scriptures, he urges them to practice the New
Commandment - brought into the world in Christ. That we should love one another
as he has loved us. Those who continue to place the written word of the Old
Covenant above the living Word of the New, he explains, are walking in
darkness. Blind to the plight of our brothers and sisters in need. Blind to the
truth that we are all called to do good; to act righteously.
Dickens placed the Bible -
and in particular the New Testament - at the heart of his faith. His tour
manager wrote: “It was the book of all others he read most and which he took as
his one unfailing guide in his life.” Dickens’ night walks through London were
illuminated by walking alongside Jesus, the light of the world.
The last book by Dickens
to be published was a reworking of the four gospel stories, written as a
private devotional for his children. It ends with these words:
“Remember! – It is
Christianity TO DO GOOD always – even to those who do evil to us. It
is Christianity to love our neighbour as ourself, and to do to all men as
we would have them Do to us. It is Christianity to be gentle, merciful,
and forgiving, and to keep those qualities quiet in our own hearts, and
never make a boast of them, or of our prayers or of our love of God, but
always to shew that we love Him by humbly trying to do right in
everything. If we do this, and remember the life and lessons of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, and try to act up to them, we may confidently hope that God
will forgive us our sins and mistakes, and enable us to live and die in Peace.”
Charles Dickens attempted
not just to talk the talk – but walk the walk - and expected other Christians to
do the same.
Meditation
Prayers
In our prayers the
response to ‘You are the way, the truth and the life’ is ‘Help us to walk in
your light.’
You are the way, the truth
and the life,
Help us to walk in your
light.
Lord, as you journey with
us may we be so united with your presence that we find ourselves in the places
where you want us to be.
Help
us to hear the stories of the people there.
With
each step we take today, may we learn to see your image in the faces of all
those around us.
You are the way, the truth
and the life,
Help us to walk in your
light.
Lord, open our hearts to
the suffering in the world, this nation and this city.
Teach
us to find and to follow the path of justice and peace.
To act righteously, with
compassion and generosity with our time and our resources.
May we learn to look with
love on the world as you love us.
You are the way, the truth
and the life,
Help us to walk in your
light.
Lord,
we thank you for our great inheritance of faith; for the treasure of the holy
scriptures.
By your grace, may we grow
in the likeness of your living word;
Steady us as we stagger
between the difficult choies on the way,
So that we might not only talk the talk but walk the walk.
You are the way, the truth
and the life,
Help us to walk in your
light.
Blessing
May the blessing of God
Almighty,
the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit,
remain with us and all
those whom we love this day and always.
Amen.
Thank you for joining us
for this week’s Start:Stop reflection. Feel free to stay for as long as you
wish. This reflection will be repeated again in a few minutes. I hope you have
a wonderful week.
Image : George Grotz, Metropolis, 1916
Links : Night Walks by Charles Dickens (from The Uncommercial Traveller)
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