Skip to main content

Living Stones

The Cross on the East Wall, Bradwell Chapel
Taken by the author


I’m holding a large, heavy stone in my hand as I reflect this week. Just noticing its weight, its solidity, its integral strength, and its smoothness. Stones and rocks are a constant theme in our set readings for Easter 5 (Acts 7.55-60, Psam 31.1-5, 15-16, 1 Peter 2.2-10, John 14.1-14). Stones are a sign of durability, something you can rely on. In Psalm 31, the Lord is referred to as a refuge, a strong rock, crag, castle and tower; the writer wants the Lord to protect them and keep them safe. Large stones seem to have fascinated humans and had spiritual significance since the earliest times – think of all the ancient sites of standing stones. As humans we are subject to change and decay, so stones become to us signs of eternity. In the first Letter to Peter, the Christian followers are called to be ‘living stones’, which is a very striking metaphor. Humans are not stone; we are flesh and blood and we die. But, nonetheless, our faith roots us in an everlasting strength, it gives us durability and a power – in faith we are strong, we are like rocks that others can rely on, towers that bring refuge and safety.

The Chapel at Bradwell, St Peter on the Wall, is a wonderful place to visit, and it will be one of the first places I visit when we can all move freely again. I particularly like the altar in which three Stones are set; the three stones represent the three other communities involved in Cedd's ministry: the left stone is a gift from Holy Island, Lindisfarne from where he travelled to Bradwell; the centre stone is a gift from Iona, the place where Christianity first reached our isles from Ireland; and the right stone is from Lastingham where Cedd died after travelling there to build a monastery in 644 ad. Cedd died tragically of the plague as did his companions who joined him there at Lastingham.


Looking towards the altar set with the three stones, Bradwell Chapel,
Author's photo


Three stones set in a stone altar, placed within a small stone chapel, on the edge of the land, close to the sea-shore: a powerful and poetic symbol of the durability of faith and the risks that so many have taken to brings its message of hope and love to others.  Jesus says: ‘In my Father’s house are many dwelling places’ and ‘I go and prepare a place for you’. The rock of faith on which we build our lives, is the foundation stone of our inheritance, an eternal home in our heavenly city. As we are exposed, most brutally at the moment, to the fragile and precarious quality of all created life, so we cling ever more tightly to the promises we have received from Jesus: 


‘Do not let your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me’. (John 14)

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This reflection was broadcast as Thought for the Day, Sunday 10th May 2020, BBC Essex, Listen below:

 















































Comments











Post a Comment


Please be respectful when posting comments




















Popular posts from this blog





















Art and Imagination: the apocalyptic vision




























         Rev 12.7-12   Michael Defeats the Dragon              And war broke out in heaven ; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.    Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming,  ‘Now have come the salvation and the power     and the kingdom of our God     and the authority of his Messiah,  for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down,     who accuses them day and night before our God.  But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb     and by the word of their testimony,  for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.  Rejoice then, you heavens    ...




















Post a Comment









Read more






























Radical Story-telling?




























    Public Domain   The Flight into Egypt   File: Adam Elsheimer - Die Flucht nach Ägypten (Alte Pinakothek) 2.jpg  Created: 31 December 1608       Which of the Gospel writers include an account of the birth of Jesus? When were they writing, for what audience? Mark’s Gospel is almost universally considered to be the earliest Gospel and it’s understood that both Matthew and Luke used it as a source text. But Mark has no account of the birth of Jesus, he begins with John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism. Only Matthew and Luke have birth narratives and they are different whilst sharing some common features: Mary and Joseph are to be married and there’s a miraculous virgin birth in Bethlehem. But that’s about it. Jesus is born in a house in Matthew’s account whilst he is placed in a manger in Luke’s because there’s ‘no room at the inn’. Mary’s thoughts and feelings are not mentioned in Matthew at all, whilst from Luke we get the story of the Visitation, Annunciation and the wonderfu...




















2 comments









Read more




























‘Things Fall Apart – the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’




























 Holy Week Reflection       The Jewish people had a framework for understanding the world and most importantly their relationship with God and with one another. They had the Law and the Prophets and yet at various points in their history they were radically challenged by the events that occurred in their communal history. The deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians became a foundational narrative for them about God’s ability to save. They were not a people unused to suffering, unused to war, unused to persecution and these experiences led them as a people to expect from their God – compassion, mercy and most importantly deliverance. They could understand their sufferings in various ways, they could attribute them to their own sin and waywardness, but at the centre of their faith was a belief that God had established a covenant with them and that he would be faithful even if they were faithless.       Jesus came into this history as a possible Messiah, as the Anointed One w...




















Post a Comment









Read more