As the Guardian’s mother’s funeral was being held over the weekend, today’s reflection has kindly been written by Christopher Belk – thanks to him for doing this.
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over. John Masefield
While I was thinking about today’s service, and particularly about the OT reading and the psalm, I for some reason thought the gospel reading was the story of the Prodigal Son, and only on checking yesterday I discovered actually it is the Good Samaritan. So forgive me if I talk a bit about both, and not very much about the sea, given that Christine has in her July notes already paid tribute to the charities who care for seafarers.
In the OT reading, Moses is giving his last advice before his death. He emphasises God’s desire to bless his people, and declares and urges two conditions for getting that blessing; they should obey God’s commandments and they should turn to God with their hearts.
Jesus summarised the law (quoting Moses) as only requiring 2 things; love of God and love of neighbour.
In Psalm 25, written by King David though not clear at what stage of his life, he also declares his confidence in God’s desire to bless, and brings before God the way in which sin, or disobedience, gets in the way. We know he committed one serious sin when he stole Uriah’s wife and had Uriah killed, but psalm 51 deals with that one, and psalm 25 seems to deal with the sort of daily problems and disobediences which we all face. He says to God, OK, I’ve told you everything, I’m turning to you, now turn to me. It’s not as though God had turned away from one he loved, rather that God only turns in one direction, towards those who love him. It says in the hymn, there is no shadow of turning with thee, meaning that God’s desire to bless never changes; only our ability or willingness to receive it does.
It’s easy to think that God is only interested in obedience to rules, and that our daily and often unconscious imperfections disqualify us from his love, and that the church is only interested in condemnation and conformity. In the Good Samaritan parable the priest and Levite who passed by were probably focussing on obedience to detail of the Jewish law which forbade associating with outsiders and required ritual cleanness. But it seems in their hearts they were not turned to God’s love. By contrast, the Samaritan did not observe the Jewish law as such, but his heart was turned to God so that he could hear God’s prompting to be a neighbour.
In the Prodigal Son story we have the two brothers, the younger who did his own thing but then turned back to his father, and the elder brother who saw no need to turn at all. Too often we are
like the elder brother, or the priest and Levite, thinking we are respectable; loving neighbours and family when we feel like it, or it’s socially acceptable; condemning those we think of as undeserving; but not seeing how we are missing out on God’s blessings if we do not turn fully to God. The younger son had good reason to think his father might not receive him back, or if he did only as a menial servant, but the father truly showed what God is like; it takes only a turn in the right direction for God to show his unwavering desire to bless far more than we deserve.
God is portrayed in the Bible not only as father longing for his estranged children but also (notably in Isaiah and Hosea) as lover seeking to attract his faithless beloved .
I included the Masefield poem in this service because it is about the romance and attractiveness of the sea. Many fear the sea any further out than paddling distance, and indeed the Bible (and our first hymn) tend to emphasise its dangers and in Revelation’s picture of heaven there is no more sea. But we need to be ready to realise God’s thrilling attraction and, and dare to believe, as Jesus taught and lived, that journeying with our father God is an adventure full of delight, especially the delight of his presence in times of trouble. Not to mention the comradeship of “fellow rovers”.. Let’s stop just paddling with God.
So how easy is it to turn to God? In one way it is easy and the work of a moment, in other ways it can involve much heart searching, much practice in listening to God, and gradually much more obedience. The Prodigal son parable is often quoted in terms of initial conversion, but we all have the daily and hourly need to keep turning to God, and doing so helps us to understand who for the moment is the neighbour God is asking us to love.
Going back to the sea theme, a sailing dinghy can turn very quickly though it takes practice to do it right without capsizing, as Ruth could tell you from the days when we used to race one together. (I got quite confident I had acquired that skill, and one holiday in the Algarve hired a one-man stand-up sailboard and took off in the direction of N Africa. After a good mile or so I tried to turn round and found I couldn’t turn it, though capsizing was easy: eventually and embarrassingly they sent a motor boat to pull me back). By contrast a loaded oil tanker is very stable but takes nearly half an hour to turn 180 degrees.
Many of us can point to dinghy moments when we suddenly realised and accepted that God had more for us and started a fresh tack. Many of us have spent a lifetime getting slowly closer but still have not turned fully. Many of us may need a bit of help in the form of example, love and prayer from others. Most of us need God’s help and example in loving unattractive people.
If you have never fully discovered God’s father love and thrilling adventure, don’t be frightened of capsizing but turn now. As they say in the sailing boats, “Ready about!”