{"id":412,"date":"2012-12-21T08:18:19","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T06:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/?p=412"},"modified":"2013-01-09T14:06:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T12:06:37","slug":"swindon-town-fc-carol-service-17th-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/12\/swindon-town-fc-carol-service-17th-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Swindon Town FC Carol Service – 17th December"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reverend Andrew Deuchar gave an interesting sermon at the recent STFC carol service in Christ Church. With his permission we publish it below.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s great to be here this evening, celebrating together, in songs of joy and thankfulness.\u00a0 So thanks to Simon for inviting me to be a part of it, though I have to say that there\u2019s still a way to go before you reach the heights of musical achievement of the Townend, and as for the lyrics…. I can only say our lyrics tonight are, shall we say a little less imaginative.\u00a0 I am particularly fascinated by the inventiveness, nay the poetry of the chants which greet some poor, misguided striker who a season or two before has been the hero of the County Ground, but has made the rash mistake of returning in different colours.\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Last weekend, I wandered in to Simon\u2019s vicarage prior to going down to the Doncaster game.\u00a0 In a scenario I well remember from my own past, he was sitting at his kitchen table, finishing his lunch, writing a sermon for the following day, and putting together all the bits and pieces for various people relating to this service this evening, all at once.\u00a0 In between writing about death and judgement, heaven and hell (nothing to do with the forthcoming game), he apologised to me \u2013 and I hope this isn\u2019t divulging trade secrets \u2013 in case I didn\u2019t approve of the translation of the Bible he had decided to use for this evening\u2019s service.\u00a0 Since there have been over 450 English translations through history, there was a fair chance that he had not chosen my favourite.\u00a0 Contrary to popular belief in some quarters, Jesus did not speak in 17th<\/sup> Century English, and Ancient Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible, are notoriously difficult to render accurately into English, just in straight translation, never mind when trying to convey the complexities and subtleties of spiritual insight and religious tradition from an obscure middle eastern culture of 1000, 1500, 2500 years ago.\u00a0 But our brief conversation reminded me so sharply there was never an occasion so sure to create upset, disappointment and anger amongst church-goers and aggro for me than the annual parish carol service.\u00a0 This one remaining truly universal feast of the Christian calendar, which still inspires so many people to celebration, so easily and regularly degenerates into discontent and sulks.\u00a0 Whether it is the translation of the Bible, the omission of someone\u2019s mostest favourite carol, or sin of sins, as I did one year, to mention the irony of the fact that as we were merrily dinging our dongs on high, tanks and heavily armed troops were smashing their way into Manger Square in Bethlehem, it seems that the season of peace and goodwill is actually open season for attacking one another.\u00a0 How strange!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, on another visit to the County Ground, when we were delighted to welcome the Zambian High Commissioner down here to hear all about the growing link with Livingstone which Clive mentioned earlier, I had the enormous pleasure of meeting Don Rogers on the fiftieth anniversary of his first game for Swindon.\u00a0 Now, apologies to our current heroes here this evening, but for Town supporters of a certain age, Sir Don is where it\u2019s at and it will take a truly massive earthquake in the playing staff to supplant him as THE legend of Swindon\u2019s history.\u00a0 But in forty four years of supporting Town, I had never met him.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s not strictly true, because, as I told him the other day, as a young teenager, I had regularly stood gazing through the window of his shop, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, but never daring to go inside because I had no idea what I would say to him.\u00a0 Just once I went in, and chose a pair of red socks, and yes he was there…..aaaaggghh…what to do…. I waited until he had disappeared out the back before going to the counter where I paid my dues to his delightful wife.\u00a0 Of course, when I met him he was a very pleasant, quite ordinary person, and we chatted about the pressures of running a small business these days.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But I think there is something quite important to reflect on in the contrast of these stories, and the contrast has been magnified for me by events over the weekend.\u00a0 I am not going to make any amateurish and inappropriate analysis of the appalling tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, or indeed the less-publicised attack on 22 children in China on the same day, which left them dreadfully injured and emotionally scarred, or any of the numerous stories every day of the cruelty which human beings inflict on one another.\u00a0 We have been reminded so powerfully over this past week and throughout the year of the dangers of words, of how easy it is to rush in, stirring up reaction, judgement and condemnation with no sense of concern or responsibility for the outcome.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So different from that magnificent celebration last night for the sports personality of the year, where words were actually unnecessary, repetitive, superficial; \u00a0it was just \u00a0awe<\/em>, the wonder of human achievement, some of that growing out of the depths of adversity as with Martine Wright, \u00a0Ellie Simmonds, and David Weir.\u00a0 That\u2019s what pulled the strings.\u00a0 Most of the commentary was superfluous. Of course, adulation of sports stars or of anyone else is not necessarily a good or a true thing.\u00a0 At the end of the day we are all simply human beings, and we all share the challenge to live our lives to the full in order to create a world which is a better place for all to live; but there is in the first place, for better or for worse, a relationship between us and our heroes, a relationship that is not based on words, on rules or control.\u00a0 It is based on awe, on admiration, on wonder, on a recognition that, at a remarkably profound level, this person draws me from myself and changes my life.\u00a0 And I guarantee that if you spoke to any one of those people who become our heroes, you would find that they too would have their heroes \u2013 as we heard so many times last night.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s Beckham or Coe or Farah or Ennis or Redgrave, each is inspired by someone else.\u00a0 And words have little or no place in the heart of that relationship.\u00a0 We heard Chris Hoy say it was Steve Redgrave\u2019s presence<\/em>, through a hug of celebration or commiseration which was so powerful.\u00a0 Of course, words come into it later, as we try to describe and explain what it is that inspires us, but they never say what we want them to.\u00a0 It is like the love of two lovers.\u00a0 Even the most gifted poet will never fully speak the depths of that love.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ben Okri, that most talented of writers and novelists ponders this in a powerful essay entitled \u2018Beyond Words\u2019:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe began before words, and we will end beyond them.\u00a0 It sometimes seems to me that our days are poisoned with too many words. Words said and not meant.\u00a0 Words said and<\/em> meant. Words divorced from meaning.\u00a0 Wounding words.\u00a0 Words that conceal.\u00a0 Words that reduce.\u00a0 Dead words……<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We are all wounded inside in some way or other.\u00a0 We all carry unhappiness within us for some reason or other.\u00a0 Which is why we need a little gentleness and healing from one another.\u00a0 Healing in words and healing beyond words.\u00a0 Like gestures.\u00a0 Warm gestures.\u00a0 Like friendship which will always be a mystery.\u00a0 Like a smile, which someone described as the shortest distance between two people.\u00a0 Yes the highest things are beyond words.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Warm gestures….<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You will remember the playground chant: \u2018Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me\u2019.\u00a0 Well, in the words of another chant \u2013 not heard too often around the County Ground these days, I\u2019m glad to say: \u2018What a load of rubbish\u2019!\u00a0 Words can build up certainly, but words destroy, and inflict great pain along the way.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Church doesn\u2019t have a great record with words.\u00a0 At the heart of the Christian Faith so we are told \u2013 as with most of the great faith traditions of the world \u2013 lies a book.\u00a0 It is a book which tells an extraordinary story, a story which, despite a myriad of translations and retellings, remains a mystery.\u00a0 It is a book which records the relationship between a people and their God.\u00a0 And you know, whatever you may all think, whatever kind of relationship you have with that which we call God, that story continues today.\u00a0 We are all struggling.\u00a0 We are all human beings.\u00a0 We all have the capacity to inspire and be inspired, and we all have the capacity to fail, to struggle and to fall.\u00a0 And the more you read that story and reflect on it with others \u2013 and even football fans do that, as I have discovered: there is no more passionate thread on the Townend.com fans forum than the one which regularly opens up on God and religion \u2013 the more you can see and understand that, in human relationships with one another and with God, there is nothing new under the sun.\u00a0 The Bible is a powerful witness to that fact and we can use it as inspiration in our search, or as a cautionary tale.\u00a0 But the Church, like virtually every other institution in existence, seeks to keep control.\u00a0 It does not trust us. It does not have the courage to let the Bible be what it is \u2013 a story of liberation for the oppressed, a story of healing for the wounded, a story of hope for the lost, of new life for those on the edge.\u00a0 The story of the Word made Flesh to overturn the way we control everything with words.\u00a0 The story of God, to whom we ascribe indefinable words \u2013 immortal, invisible, eternal, all-powerful, all-glorious \u2013 more than can ever be described within the confines of the language we have been given, being born in the humblest of maternity wards, amongst the strangest compatriots, acknowledged in awe and wonder not by kings and politicians, the rich and powerful \u2013 not even by sports stars, but by outcasts, unkempt and uneducated, by shepherds working in the fields.\u00a0 That is the depth of the relationship of love which God has, by this story, instituted and maintained with the world.\u00a0 No words can describe it, but in our hearts we discern truth. God\u2019s warm gesture. \u00a0And it continues to reveal itself.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need to be tied down, controlled by the trillions of words, spoken and written by those who think they can see better than we can.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

God could be forgiven for complaining a bit at what we have done trying to defend him.\u00a0 He must be sorely tempted to send an invading army of angels to win back the world, or an almighty earthquake to destroy the evil we do.\u00a0 But as Psalm 103 hints, God is slow to chide and swift to bless.\u00a0 God gives. If we are to celebrate this great festival of the Incarnation together as God\u2019s people, then, remembering God\u2019s desire to bless, we might heed the thought of the 16thC mystic, St John of the Cross: \u201cWhere there is no love, put love and you will find love\u201d.\u00a0 That is what we are made for.\u00a0 That is what is so brilliant about the link with Zambia, and with so much of the work being done here, and in every football club around the country, quietly, without great words of acclaim or advertisement, all around our communities.\u00a0\u00a0 As Ben Okri says, \u201cIt is not the size of the voice that is important: it is the power, the truth and the beauty of the dream.\u201d\u00a0 And we all know about dreams, don\u2019t we?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Revd Andrew Deuchar<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Reverend Andrew Deuchar gave an interesting sermon at the recent STFC carol service in Christ Church. With his permission we publish it below. It\u2019s great to be here this evening, celebrating together, in songs of joy and thankfulness.\u00a0 So thanks to Simon for inviting me to be a part of it, though I have to say that there\u2019s still a way to go before you reach the heights of musical achievement of the Townend, and as for the lyrics…. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions\/458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christchurchswindon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}