Further Prayers for Morning Prayer - Peace Within Thy Walls

Peace window, United Nations Building New York by Marc Chagall, 1964

Further prayers written for Morning Prayer by telephone conference call from St Stephen Walbrook on Wednesday 27th October 2021

Start:Stop - Nevertheless believers

From 'Panel 11' by Jacob Lawrence, 1955

Hello, my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to our Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. You can hear an audio recording of this reflection here. During Lent at our informal discussion group, we are exploring the Gospel of John - do join us via Zoom on Thursdays at 7.30pm if you can. 

One of the distinctive features about the gospel of John is the number of ‘asides’ or ‘stage whispers’ if you prefer, often shown in the text in brackets, which add explanatory detail or insights to the narrative; like those moments in plays or on television when the ‘fourth wall’ is broken and an actor steps outside the world of the production to speak directly to us, their audience, in our time.

Drawing on the tradition that the author of the fourth gospel lived well into old age (Clement of Alexandria claimed John lived until he was around 100 years old), many like to see these asides or whispers as answers to the most common questions and comments that John encountered over a long and difficult lifetime teaching people about the love of Jesus; what it means to be the ‘Beloved Disciple’ – a vocation which is been distilled into the beautifully crafted text of this Gospel.

The passage we are about to hear is one of the longer ‘asides’. Here, the Beloved Disciple addresses us in his own voice at the end of the first half of his Gospel, known as the ‘Book of Signs’. In doing so, he offers his explanation as to why, despite all the signs that Jesus has performed – beginning at the Wedding in Cana and ending with the Raising of Lazarus amongst many others – the people still do not believe - and even the few who do are afraid to publicly proclaim their faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.

Start:Stop - Do you want to be made well?

Sunbather, David Hockney (1966)

Hello, my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to our Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. During Lent at an informal discussion group, we are exploring the Gospel of John - do join us via Zoom on Thursdays at 7.30pm if you can, all are welcome.

In our Start:Stop reflection this week, we explore how one of the ‘Signs’ from John’s gospel confronts us with questions about the limits we impose on grace, truth and love; and points us towards the limitless love of Jesus, who is full of grace and truth.

Start-Stop:Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus

Hilma af Flint - Paintings for the Temple - Group X, No 3, Altarpiece - 1915

Good morning and welcome to Start:Stop. Our reading today is the beautiful text from the prologue to the Gospel of John.

BOOK REVIEW - Four Ministries, One Jesus : Exploring your vocation with the four gospels by Richard A. Burridge

I was given this excellent book by Fr Chrichton, my last vicar in Southgate. I think it helped (but was not essential) that I had read “Four Gospels : One Jesus” (by the same author and considered to be a modern classic) before reading this book.
‘Four Ministries’ draws on the theme of the earlier (1994) text, using the four symbols now associated with the evangelists to describe a different area of mission and ministry. As in the earlier book, in which Richard Burridge makes clear that the four portraits of Jesus offered by each gospel help to provide a different picture of the same man (in the same way that at Chartwell, different photographs on the walls in different rooms show different aspects of the life of Churchill), so this text, divided into sections examining each gospel, describe different aspects of the one mission and ministry of the church.