What is written? Reflections for the Church Parade, April 19th, 2023
What is written? And where? And how do we read? These are all questions that come to us through what is written. The word ‘scripture’ simply means what is written. What is written is an essential feature of the religions of the world.
There are the writings of Confucius in the Analects along with Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching of Taoism in China. There are the writings that belong to the Hindu tradition in the Vedas, the Upanishads and other writings such as the Bhagavad Gita in India. There are the many writings within Buddhism, both in classical or Theravada Buddhism, and Mahayana Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism. There are the writings of the Hebrews in the TANAKH, an acronym for the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. There are the writings of the Christian New Testament. There are the writings of the Recitation of Allah to Mohammed in the Qur’an for the cultures and people of Islam. Ramadan celebrates the giving of the Qur’an and ends with Eid al Fitr beginning on April 20th or 21st depending on the sighting of the crescent moon. Not to mention the many writings of the philosophers of antiquity who have contributed to the shaping of the ethical and spiritual imaginary that has been such a major part of our world, past and present.
What is written in the dust? Levi read the story about Jesus and the woman taken in adultery. It is the only time that Jesus is said to have written something. We hear about what he said as written down by others and even what he read as written in the Jewish scriptures, but what he wrote in the dust we do not know. Yet the image of him writing in the dust looks back to creation, to God breathing his spirit into the dust of our humanity such that we become living and thinking beings.
Here Jesus is the target of attack. His accusers set before him a woman accused of adultery to test him about his relation to the Law in its literal sense. He bends down and writes in the dust. What he wrote we do not know. We only know what he said. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And all the accusers fade away convicted in their own consciences. To the woman he says, simply and gently, “Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” These are powerful and moving words of life in the face of animosity and division. They are words of resurrection and forgiveness written in the dust.
Socrates, too, wrote nothing. But in Plato’s dialogue, The Meno, Socrates, not unlike Jesus, writes in the dust, or at least draws a diagram in the dust, to show that Meno’s slave boy who has never been to school nonetheless knows the Pythagorean theorem, meaning that it can be drawn out of him. It is a powerful scene about learning through a kind of remembering or discovering what is actually in us as spiritual and intellectual beings. These writings in the dust recall us to creation and speak to us about redemption and about who we are.
What is written in the Law? The Exodus journey of the ancient Hebrews is a journey of learning, ultimately learning the Law written on tablets of stone and given to Moses by God. They become the defining feature of Israel and set before us the teaching that transcends but does not negate the culture of the Hebrews.
What is written in the Law shapes what is written in the Prophets. Lucy read from the prophet Hosea about taking words and returning to the Lord. The words signal love and forgiveness. They are words written for our learning. “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things,” Hosea concludes.
What is written in glass? Paul, too, speaks about words “written for our learning,” referring to the Hebrew Scriptures. Later his own words will be understood to be written for our learning. In the school Chapel, that idea is written in the stained glass windows which speak to the educational project: “Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest,” as Cranmer famously puts it. The words extend by way of Sir Francis Bacon in his essay On Truth to all our intellectual studies. Fides quarens intellectum, faith seeking understanding, is written in the glass of the Anselm window. The School motto, Deo Legi Regi Gregi, “for God, for the Law, for the King and for the People,” is written in the Bishop Inglis window. These writings in glass recall us to the purpose and meaning of the School and of education in general.
What is written on the walls? ‘Writing on the wall’ has become a proverbial saying for what is inevitable. It derives from The Book of Daniel where Daniel interprets the Aramaic phrase Mene Mene Tekel and Parsin for King Belshazzar as a warning to him about the end of his kingdom. Words from the Qur’an are written or engraved on the walls of Mosques and Madrassas in the Islamic cultures and words from the Old and New Testaments are written on the walls of some Christian churches. Here at Christ Church the writing on the wall reminds us “this is none other but the house of God; this is the gate of heaven,” words from Jacob’s dream at Bethel in Genesis and, on the other side, words from Habbakuk about the Church as the temple of God. Over the Chancel arch, the words written refer to Jesus in terms of his death and resurrection. “I am He that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore.” They are words from The Book of Revelation, the last book of the Christian New Testament.
And there are words written over the door of the entrance to this Church which you probably didn’t notice. “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.” It is a phrase from The Book of Ecclesiastes. What does it mean? It means to pay attention, for as the passage continues, “be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools.” The irony is that paying attention to your feet while marching into the Church means that you probably didn’t look up! But the point is clear; it signals the purpose of this sacred place and service.
What is written on our hearts? For the Law written on tablets of stone as the prophets of Israel suggest are to be written on our hearts. A lawyer seeking to entrap Jesus asks about eternal life. Jesus replies with two questions: “what is written in the Law?” and “How do you read?” This leads to the confession of the love of God and the love of Neighbour, wonderfully illustrated in the great parable of the Good Samaritan, the ethic of compassion and care par excellence.
What is written on the streets? Today the School as a Cadet Corps has marched down to Christ Church. The Corps on parade is like writings on the streets of Windsor through the tread of the Corps marching to the beat of the drums and band. It is a kind of writing that speaks to the history of the Town and the School in terms of the military and the Church. Each step is like a letter or a word; in short, a story. The parade marks a special moment in the life of the Corps. This parade marks the last public event of the Corps under the leadership of its commanding officer, Major Keith Hynes, who after many years of dedicated service is retiring. Under his leadership and direction, the tradition of the Cadet Ball has become a major social event in the life of the School, Honour Guards have been in place for formal occasions in the greeting of dignitaries, and, perhaps, most wonderfully, the Corps has been fully outfitted in Highland Dress and is, well, “good to go” as the Major is wont to say.
The Corps has taken part in Remembrance Day observances in Ottawa and in Windsor as well as embarking upon a special trip to Holland for Operation Remembrance in the 75th anniversary celebration of the liberation of the town of Oss, Netherlands, by Canadian troops in the Second World War. We welcome to the Church and the parade today, Dr. Paul Kavanaugh, who established the Operation Veterans programme and along with Mr. Kevin Lakes and the Major organized the Operation Remembrance venture to Holland. We give thanks to Major Hynes for his commitment to the Corps and the School on ventures here and far away including the Duke of Edinburgh programme. We are sad to see him go but hope that he is ready and feels that he is “good to go.” We wish him and Carmen, his wife, all the best as they transition into retirement. Well done, Sir!
What is written in jail? Four of St. Paul’s epistles were written while he was in prison. They are letters of encouragement and instruction to the Ephesians, the people and church in Ephesus, to the Phillippians, to the Colossians, and to an individual, Philemon. Such writings are not about a flight from a world of suffering and evil but about a way of facing such a world with a sense of inner joy and peace, strengthened by faith.
While in prison in the 6th century, the philosopher and theologian, Boethius, wrote his great treatise, The Consolation of Philosophy. He was awaiting execution having been falsely accused. In our times, there are the writings from prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, imprisoned by the Nazis and executed in April 1945. There is the famous letter of the preacher and civil rights leader, Rev’d Martin Luther King, written from the Birmingham prison in Alabama. It was written from Good Friday through to Easter Sunday in April 1963 and reflects many aspects of the Christian story about facing human sin and injustice. He writes that:
A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.
He agrees with Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.” Such words written in the past speak to the present, even words written from prison. The Letter from Birmingham Jail was one of the most important writings in the civil rights movement.
What is written appears in various forms: on the ancient cuneiform clay tablets of the Mesopotamian world, on scrolls, on codices or books, later in printed books and now in digital devices, on walls, in stained glass, on wood and on metal. These are all different forms of the technology of reading but reveal one underlying reality, the reality of things written to be “read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested.” In many ways it is all about what is written in our lives, even in the dust of our humanity and even in the face of adversity.
What is written is written for our learning.
(Rev’d) David Curry
Chaplain
The Scripture readings from Hosea and John were read by Head Girl, Lucy Goddard, and Head Boy, Levi Spence. The Readers of the Reflections were read by Sean Hurley, Bryan Ma, Sadie Junger, Lucas Martin, Jessica Nkaa Etou, Francis Aceron, Will Larder and Nate Montgomery.
The Intercessory Prayers were led by Samantha Mayer and Yasuhito Hojo.
The servers were Graydon Spence, Tony Ojinere, David Akinboro, Ryan MacDougall, Owen Donaldson, Rowan Frances, Baltazar Ramirez, Chelsea James, and Kelsea Griffiths.