Sermon - Tears that talk

Jurij Solovij, Untitled (Tears) - Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago

A sermon given at Choral Evensong at Holy Sepulchre London on Wednesday 9th November 2022, commemorating the life of Margery Kempe, mystic, referencing the readings set for the day (Isaiah 6, Matthew 5.21-37)

Start:Stop - We cry to you Lord

Roy Lichtenstein, Crying Girl, 1963

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

Start:Stop - The Weeping Woman

Weeping Woman, Pablo Picasso, 1937

Hello my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, in which we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. 

One of the (many) anxieties I had while exploring the possibility of training for the priesthood was ‘crying on the job’. The nervousness that the upper lip will go limp just at that moment when people are looking for a sign of strength, not sadness. I’d been in the choir, or acted as verger at several funerals and found it hard to hold back the tears; unlike our vicar who always seemed to maintain his composure (during the service at least). But when the tiny coffin of a child – Gabriella – was carried through the church, I looked up and saw him wipe away a tear. Some time afterwards, I realised how senseless my anxiety had been; that one silent tear spoke to me more loudly than any words could have done; and I heard it.

The salt of the earth are those who weep

Chris Ofili - No Woman No Cry, 1998

A poem written on the day the church remembers Margery Kempe, mystic c1440.