Today, the Christian church keeps the festival day of St. John the Baptist. There is another feast day later in the year when we mark his beheading at the hands of King Herod. Today, however, it is a joyful day, possibly helped by the fact that in the Northern Hemisphere it is Mid-Summer!
One of the things that marks this as a special time for all sorts of people is that it is also associated with a special flower, The Hypericum, or to give it its posh name, Hypericum perforatum. A native of Europe but now flowering in many other places worldwide (except for Siberia and other cold extremes),it is a bright flower marking bright summer. The dominant colour is vivid yellow, its petals often decorated with black dots. It generally has five petals with five smaller leaf-like sepals below them.
Hypericum is made up of two words from Greek – Hyper meaning above and eikon meaning picture. This may well date back to a custom, in earlier times, of hanging the flower over an Icon (sacred picture) in the home.
This really introduces us the other name for this plant which is St John’s Wort.There is a direct association with St John the Baptist in the flower itself. It has been suggested that the five petals form a halo, a symbol of saintliness. The red juice which is released when the stem is crushed, represents the blood of the martyred saint.
St John’s Wort is also known for its healing properties and in various forms is awort or salve (0intment). In earlier times it was used, therefore to ward off evil spirits; safeguard against sickness, protect against the bad things in life. This made the plant special in the nature of healing and it is still offered as an alternative medicine. It is however toxic to some animals and even humans so should be used carefully and advisedly. Its power and that of St John the Baptist, is, however feted in an anonymous 14th Century Old English poem:
St Johns wort doth charm all the witches away. If gathered at midnight on the Saints holy day. And devils and witches have no power to harm Those that do gather the plant for a charm. Rub the lintels and post with that red juicy flower No thunder nor tempest will then have the power.
The ministry of healing, offered by John the Baptist to the people who heard his message was a more powerful salve. He was known in the Gospel as the Forerunner the one who prepared the way of Salvation through God’s Son, Jesus.This Salvation is God’s healing of a broken and unloving world and Jesus his beloved Son His Salve, is the ointment of God’s Saving Love. John the Baptist led the way to Jesus through his baptism of Repentance, a Baptism which Jesus enhanced through his own life and ministry, death and resurrection. It is possible to say that it is in Baptism that we receive the Healing of God, the Salve which invites us to partake of the Salve of eternal life.
Another title by which St John the Baptist is known is that of Friend of the Bridegroom. He knew Jesus through a life lived in friendship with God. Friendship brings its own healing and when we are in friendship with God we are touched by the salve or Wort of his love and friendship for us.
Often when we visit friends we take them flowers. Receiving flowers can brighten and change the direction of our day and even our life. Giving them is even better! The love behind them is better still.
St John the Baptist offers us not St John’s Wort but the love and friendship of the giver, the Lord, our SALVE-ation, who loved us a into being created us to be bright with His image.
Yesterday, the Christian Church celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi. This is the time we gather to give thanks that at the Last Supper, our Lord Jesus gave us this memorial of his Passion. Through this sacrament he brought us its saving power until the end of time.In this Sacrament he feeds God’s people and strengthens us in holiness, so that the family of humankind may come to walk in the light of one faith, in one communion of love.
That’s quite a big statement and certainly more fulsome that that of Queen Elizabeth I who, of the Eucharist, said: His was the Word that spake it, He took the bread and brake it, And what that Word doth make it, I do believe and take it.
Both statements express a profound understanding of the Eucharist and, in some way, point us to the appeal of this Sacrament to the Church and to the life and journey of Christians. This journey is a pilgrimage of Love in response to the Sheer Love of God.
This Pilgrimage began in the story of the Church at the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday. This is a day of mixed solemnity, of festivity and leave-taking; of fellowship and parting; of instruction and acts of service.Overshadowing it is the Trial, Passion, Crucifixion and death of Jesus. Only after Easter did it begin to make sense and the Eucharist take a rightful and central place in the Church.
Which is why, on the first free Thursday after the Easter Season, the Church keeps this Day of Thanksgiving for our Lord’s gift of this Blessed Sacrament, and its place at the spiritual heart of the Christian Community.
Dom Gregory Dix, in his monumental study of the Eucharist and Liturgy, The Shape of the Liturgy. reminds us of this Ever since the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, throughout the ages and throughout the world, the Eucharist has been done, in every conceivable circumstance…. He goes on the give a picture of this in a list which begins : There has been no better thing than this to do for kings and Queens at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church… for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination … in thankfulness for recovery from illness… on the beach at Dunkirk…by an old nun on the fiftieth anniversary of her vows; furtively by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously for the canonization of Mother Teresa……. to which I may add: For an old priest at his funeral after years of Godly Service; for Marion who painstakingly taught the faith to a would-be Christian; and Mollie, a lover of Christ who received Holy Communion moments before death; For a dear friend, returning from a Cathedral in the early morning after Confirmation by her bishop; for a student trying to make sense of his father’s death and finding comfort and nearness to him in the bread and the wine: for a retired Archbishop who delighted in celebrating the Eucharist in a College Chapel, looking forward to a breakfast of sausage and beans; and for Mary whose faith sang out joyfully in hymns in in housekeeping for her Vicar; for an autistic child ,eagerly holding out his hands to receive the holy wafer, eyes filled with laughter and wonder; for a South African Dean who in the days of Apartheid was imprisoned for giving Communion to black and white people, who in a cell where he was given even no water, celebrated a spiritual Eucharist with nothing but his memory of words he sensed a world at prayer for him; for Girl Guides gathered around a cauldron of Guiness Stew at camp after receiving simple Holy Communion; For Ishbel who, having looked after her deeply ill sister all through the night, knelt in the chapel each morning to receive Communion before rushing off to teach the little ones in the Cathedral Song School through lessons tinged with laughter and fun; along the woodland trail of the Camino, people knelt and prayed; in peoples;’ homes in Holy Week; and for those circling the altar at a family Service; and those renewing vows of faithful ministry at the Chrism Mass on Maundy Thursday; Splendidly for thousands and thousands of those who waved off a Pope on his way to Heaven; and for a elderly lady in simplicity by an armchair at a Home Communion; at a hospital bed, at the profession of a Nun and a Lover of God….
And for you and you, and you….
and all who gather, week by week and month by month, on a hundred successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across the Parishes of Christendom, the Church has celebrated the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup. (Dix)
And why do we do this?
Luigi Santucci, an Italian novelist who wrote a remarkable book about Jesus, Wrestling with Christ, tells it like this.
At this point I see Jesus’s eyes wandering around over the remains of the bread on the table-cloth and then shining with ineffable inspiration: this, this would be his hiding place. That’s where he would take refuge. That night they would not capture him in his entirety….So he stretched out his hand over the already broken bread, broke it into smaller bits raising it into the air. This is my body, it’s been given for you
He would hide himself in that bread. But He would not remain hidden. Whenever we gather around the table of the Eucharist Jesus goes on revealing himself to us. This amazing miracle which began in a point of time goes on endlessly and week after week, day after day, we gather with Jesus, as it were on the hillside and he feeds us. In the Upper Room our Lord seeks and finds a way not simply by which we shall remember him as we remember our first lover or first car – but how we can re-member, call to mind and heart and spirit, just how much he loves us – and how, because of that love, he wants to be with us – feeding us with the food of eternal life. He enfolds us in his arms of mercy, in his embrace of sheer love, freely and joyfully given.
Do this, our Lord tells us. And we do – gladly!
On behalf of our Lord Jesus, those who are privileged to be a part of God’s continuous reaching out in Love, His priests, offer not just the Lord’s Supper but all that follows as a result. What follows for priests is a constant ministry of trying to make God REAL for others. This was a key mantra of Sidney Evans when he was Dean of King’s College, London.
I have not always succeeded but I do know that We all make God REAL for others when we make ourselves REAL to God at the moment God reaches out and is REAL to us in out of sheer love, not least in this Most Holy and Blessed Sacrament.
In some lovely words of Fred Kaan, in his hymnput peace into each other’s hands, I see this Realness of God’s Love in action especially in two verses which centre us on the Eucharist.
As at communion, shape your hands into a waiting cradle; the gift of Christ receive, revere, united round the table.
Put Christ into each other’s hands he is love’s deepest measure; in love make peace, give peace a chance and share it like a treasure.
Receive, Revere , Respond, Make Real. The World needs that from us.
Amen
[Mr G. a sermon at St. Mary-at-Latton. Corpus Christi 2025]
[][][]Dom Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy, a study of development was first published in 1945. A new edition was published in 2015.
{}{}{}Wrestling with Christ, by Luigi Santussi was published by Harper Collins in 1972 both as a hard-back but also in paperback. Previously owned copies are often available. Try Abe Books
[][][] Fred Kaan, minister, pastor,hymn-writer and poet. The quote comes from his moving hymn: Put Peace into each other’s hands. it is often sung. He wrote many hymns which are devotional poems. A Collection of his hymns (Hymn texts of Fred Kaan) was publishd by Stainer and Bell (Hope publishing company in USA) in 1985. It is available as a previously owned copy and is well worth hunting for it because it contains Fred’s fascinating story which includes an account of his early life in the Nederlands, a time which spanned the German Occupation.
{}{}{} The Quote from Queen Elizabeth the First is well known and is proof that she was her father’s daughter! At least in the respect that she inherited King Henry VIII’s grasp of Christian Theology.
“The hedgerows are arching with dog rose blooms, buzzing with bees and heralding summer.”
My friend Gill has sent me this photo of a dog-rose growing in the Lakeland hedgerow near her home. It is a sign that summer is bursting forth in our part of the world, even though June rain storms try to tell us otherwise! The dog-rose is perfect for pollinators such as bees and later in autumn, as its blooms are transformed into rose-hips, it is a source of food for birds.
The legend that gave it its name is attributed to ancient times. It is suggested that the Roman naturalist, Pliny, encouraged a belief that the plant’s roots could cure the bite of a mad dog. Hence its botanical name is ‘Rosa Canina’. The plant was popular for treating bites from rabid dogs in the 18th and 19th centuries. Another view is that the name is related to the hooked prickles of the plant which have a look of dog’s teeth. It’s thorny, unruly stems make it an ideal hedge plant, giving it a density which allows it to do it’s job of protection. It may, of course, simply mean wild rose, of which there are several species, to differentiate it from cultivated and posher roses! Maybe that could remind us that wild beauty is a God-given pointer that Nature has its own way of painting our world with a rare and joyous beauty.
This can be related to some of the meanings of the dog-rose. One such meaning is that of ‘Purity’, especially in a religious and spiritual sense. It is also known for its ‘resilience’in that, whilst having delicate flowers, it can withstand harsh conditions. In affairs of the heart the Dog-Rose has been linked with ‘love and beauty’, in many cultures and mythologies. In Victorian times the flowers were given as a sign of affection which, if returned, suggested an interest in marriage. You can always trust the Victorians to find ways of expressing sentimentality.
Though there is no specific reference to the Dog-Rose in the Bible, it has been linked with the Rose of Sharon In the Song of Solomon 2:1, we read : I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys. Links have also been drawn with Isaiah 11: I – a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse and from his roots a bud shall blossom, which has been interpreted as a reference to Jesus. There is no real link with the Dog-Rose in either passages and the Rose of Sharon is usually taken to refer to the plant, Hibiscus Synacus.
However, in one symbolic meaning of the plant, there is a direct link with Jesus Christ. The Dog-Rose is strongly associated with Rebirth-and Resurrection. This is partly because of its association with love and purity but it is also linked with a legend about the Crucifixion of Jesus. In this legend there is a suggestion that the tree was once very large and the wood was strong. It was thus able to be used in Crucifixion. According to the story it was the dogwood tree that was used to make the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. Because of this, it is said that God both cursed and blessed it. It was destined to be forever small so that it could never grow strong and tall again and be used as a cross for crucifixion. Also, its branches would be crooked and twisted which would make it useless for such a purpose. Then God also blessed it. It would produced beautiful flowers each Spring, white or pink, as a sign of Easter glory. God also made its petals in the shape of the Cross, each flower having four such petals. In the centre was a crown of gold.
Like all legends there are things that could be disputed but, legends are never made-up stories nor fanciful thoughts. They always contain a truth which, whilst sometimes clothed in mystery, leads us into a deeper understanding. God is always bigger than the words and thoughts we have of him and we would be wise to see His signs and hear His language in Nature and in the Cosmos and also in our hearts where God’s Spirit constantly dwells. So the lovely Dog-Rose has much to teach us and we who seek God’s truth have always more to learn.
In this spirit, I print below an anonymous version of the Legend. Make of it what you will but don’t just dismiss it for it may be that otherwise you will, to quote the poet Frances Thompson, you may miss the many splendid thing.
In Jesus’ time, the dogwood grew To a stately size and a lovely hue. ‘Twas strong and firm, its branches interwoven. For the cross of Christ its timbers were chosen. Seeing the distress at this use of their wood Christ made a promise which still holds good: “Never again shall the dogwood grow Large enough to be used so. Slender and twisted, it shall be With blossoms like the cross for all to see. As blood stains the petals marked in brown, The blossom’s centre wears a thorny crown. All who see it will remember Me Crucified on a cross from the dogwood tree. Cherished and protected, this tree shall be A reminder to all of My agony.
The 80th commemoration of VE (Victory in Europe) Day on May 8th and events surrounding it was bound to be a time of emotion for many and of quiet reflection. At a time when there are increasing conflicts around the world it is hard not to feel a sense of futility. Can we talk meaningfully about the Victory of Peace over War when humanity is seemingly locked in battles and struggles with each other. The futility is even greater when we note that a few leaders of nations are mainly responsible for what is happening. Just about a dozen men are holding the world to ransom. The real tragedy is that 8.2 billion of us are letting them. A proportion are even physically involved in fighting at the whim of those leaders. Not surprisingly there is increasing talk of a Third World War, this time with the probability of using nuclear weaponry and all the horror that brings with it.
Conflicts are being witnessed in other places where there is a battle of a differing kind. The fear of difference; racial, sexual, gender issues, poverty, malnutrition, injustice are all part of a mix in which might swamps right and bullies impose their views. Sadly, some of that fear can be laid at the feet of religion and an insistence that ‘truth’ can only exist if it is ‘my’ truth. In his book, The Dignity of Difference, the Late Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks said that “Truth on earthis not, nor can it aspire to be, the whole truth. It is limited, not comprehensive; particular, not universal. When propositions conflict it is not necessarily because one is true, the other false. He suggests that the difference is because we are coming at something from a different angle but both are only part of the truth because, he says, only in heaven there is truth; on earth there are truths.“ Something I try to remember when I think I am right!
This week of remembrance has therefore a deeper meaning than gratitude and thanksgiving. It is also a time of going forward with new resolve and with a seeking of a new attitude and deeper sense of care for each other. This means that we must seek the well-being of others, with compassion, a sense of justice and kindness. Celebrating, not fearing, difference.
This came home to me when a lady called Ruth Klauber was interviewed on the BBC programme on Bank Holiday Monday.
Ruth is 101 years old and in 1933 her father brought his family to England from a Germany which was just becoming ruled by the Nazi party. He had read Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf’ and realized what was happening, not least to Jewish families such as his.
His daughter Ruth settled in England and when War broke out, she decided to join up to share in the fight against Hitler and his dictatorship which was already destroying those in German society who were different and considered ‘impure’. Amongst them of course were Jewish people but also gay people and Romanies.
Ruth joined the Royal Air Force where it was suggested that she might be a cook, or a batwoman, someone who looks after officers’ uniforms! She said ‘no’ to these suggestions so they said, “well, you can be a flight mechanic”. Which she thought might be interesting so that is what she did.
In 1942, she joined an RAF crew fixing the bombers that helped the Allies to turn the tide of the war. These included Lancaster Bombers and she, with a handful of women worked alongside male mechanics. She spoke of working with people from different backgrounds but everyone got on with each other. They grew to trust each other’. This became a key to how we might live and work together on common tasks.
Ruth said,“We all got on together and I just wish we could learn to trust each other. People couldn’t waste time emphasizing differences. We had to learn to work together and just get things done.”
Ruth then had something to say to us today:
“I do think that difference is what people fear and that’s something we have to think about, how we can make it possible (to get on with each other) when there isn’t a common enemy – we need to trust each other more.”
She has lived a long time and has a deep insight and wisdom of the human condition. She is a voice with that common-sense authority which is born out of a life which has been forged in times of persecution, and making the most of things. When she tells us that we must learn to get along with each other and TRUST one another, she speaks to us from the heart. We should listen to her.
A Ponder Quote :
“Even with the most deeply held differences, treating the other person with respect and as a fellow human being, is always a good first step towards a greater understanding.”
-Queen Elizabeth II – Christmas message 2018
Amen to that.
[Mr G]
{}{}{} for more information about Ruth Klauber, there are many articles about including from the Jewish Chronicle.
Mr G's Ponderings 