Author: David Herbert

My name is David Herbert. I started growing up in Leicester. I’m currently growing up in Ellesmere Port. I am a priest in the Church of England. I was ordained in Sheffield in 1974. I have been privileged to serve in communities in Sheffield (Manor and Gleadless Valley) and communities near to Chester (Ellesmere Port and Tarvin). I am a keeper of learning spaces and support continuing ministerial/professional development in the Diocese of Chester.

>Desks against the wall

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>It is not good for man to work alone – especially when the desk is piled high with paperwork (see Genesis). Friend Simon led an excellent session on delegation yesterday on our leadership programme – going through the continuum of leadership styles – tell, sell, consult and share and sharing the grid of confidence and competence.

One phrase that keeps cropping up in relation to delegation is “letting go“. It’s a funny expression but indicates the difficulties of delegation and that it involves grief.

Just wondering.

Just wondering whether better words might be “letting in” – then delegation becomes an issue of hospitality, celebration and fun.

It also gives a eucharistic reference to delegation – as this icon by Rublev of the Trinity shows. God is letting/inviting us in in the ultimate act of delegation and self-giving. His mission/work is placed in our hands and on our lips as he trusts us with his work. He doesn’t “let go” in the sense of leaving us to it but “lets in” as he promises constant companionship (bread sharing).
“Letting in” sounds as if it could be so much more fun than “letting go”. It sounds as if there is more room for celebration – and more chance of continuing relationship. There is nothing worse than letting go of something important and not knowing what on earth has happened.

So what are we saying when we have our desks against the wall? The Lord does indeed prepare a table before us, and that table often looks very like a desk of paperwork. How hospitable are we with our work? Shall we let people in? Shall we keep it to ourselves?

Politics

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Politics is not just a tiresome consequence of human shortcomings, it is an ongoing conversation about how to bring out and empower the ocean of different gifts and talents in a community. It is not about the limited money in people’s pockets, it is about the limitless potential in their hearts and minds and souls and bodies. It is about how to engage all the energy that is about, and how to discern and embody that which constitutes the goodl life. It may not always be happy, beautiful, or rich, but if a community can express such a notion of politics, it can experience a goodness that other communities, with their impoverished politics, can only envy.
Sam Wells: God’s Companions (2006) p169

>Pause for Reflection

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This picture is from Estaticist’s photostream and is from Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island called Pause for Reflection.
Sam Wells refers to the way sherpas in the Himalayas will suddenly stop their climbing, put down their equipment and rest – as if waiting for shomething or somebody. This causes great consternation to westerners. “Why do you do that?” The sherpas’ reply is “We have travelled a long way; we are waiting for our souls to catch up with our bodies.”
This seems to represent an essential spiritual discipline – and we westerners need to learn that though we have moved on so fast, and been through so much change, we haven’t always given our souls time to catch up. It is the same principle as the sabbath – a regular time, once a week for us to catch up with ourselves. And for the same reason, we need family holidays and celebrations to allow ourselves to catch up with one another and to realise that we have missed each other in all the busyness.
Sometimes though, our soul is never going to catch up with us. We can wait until the snow melts, but our soul is never going to find us. Being lost like that signals the need for us to retreat – with retreat being another essential spiritual discipline, Retreating far enough helps us regain soul and and the location of what we value most. The story of the Prodigal Son is the classic tale of the retreat of a man who finds all that he ever wanted and all that he ever needed.

>Folly and Wealth

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Jim Janknegt‘s picture of the Rich Fool describes two economies. The economy of the rich fool shows the grim reality of the rich fool who decided to build bigger barns and to take life easier. He is on his own, surrounded by “stuff” with the lights turned down – presumably saving money. Neighbours live in a smaller house. They are bathed in light as they gather round the table enjoying company of each other. Jesus’s parable, Jim’s picture, and the credit crunch underline the folly of materialistic capitalism. We’ve been led to believe that we should follow the lead of those with style – celebrity lifestyle – with the likes of HEAT magazine. From this picture we seem to have a lot to learn from those who haven’t succeeded in the worldly economic sense – those who value people more than things – those who look out for others instead of just looking out for themselves.
Rev Tim Hastie Smith, speaking at the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference referred to the “prophetic duty” of schools to challenge lives “dedicated to the acquisition of more things”. He said the next generation will learn to make do with less only if it is introduced to a different sort of wealth.

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Bonnie Combe is a woman who lost her husband in a plane crash in Alaska. During her journey through grief, a friend asked her, “Did your husband enrich your life?” “Why, of course,” she answered. The friend came back to her with something that changed her life, “Well then — what are you going to do with those riches?” That statement became the ground of her recovery. [Told on ABC Nightline, 7/21/99 during a discussion of the John F. Kennedy Jr. plane crash]

Savings

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Leo Tolstoy tells the story of a rich man who was never satisfied. Tolstoy tells wonderful stories. He told a story of a man who always wanted more and he heard of a wonderful chance to get more land. For 1,000 rubles he could have all that he could walk around in a day, but he had to make it back to the starting point by the end of the day or he would lose everything that he invested. He arose early and set out. He walked on and on thinking that he could get just a little more land if he kept going on, but he went so far that he realized that he must walk very fast if he was going to get back to the starting point and claim the land. As the sun went lower in the sky, he quickened his pace. He began to run. He came within sight of the starting place and so he exerted his last energies plunging over the finish line, falling to the ground, dead. His servant took a spade and dug a grave. He made is just long enough and just wide enough and buried him. Do you know the title of Leo Tolstoy’s story? “How much land does a man need?” And he ends the story with this line: “six feet from his head to his heels was all that man needed”
a Lindy Black Sermon Nugget

>Angels

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> Friend Owen (aged 4) wants to believe in angels. well, today is the Feast of St Michael and All Angels – and michaelmas daisies have come on cue. Owen asks some wonderful questions – as most children do.

Here’s my response:
How would we know God’s love if there weren’t angels? They are God’s messengers and the bridge between heaven and earth. (Next job – explain to Owen about heaven!!!!) There is a lovely book called Angels written by Jane Williams (wife of the Archbishop) which has some lovely pictures and thoughts in it. It is written for adults.

Angels don’t have wings! That’s how the artist explains their journey from earth to heaven – and back again. Nor are they generally recognisable – only by those who are prepared to acknowledge an angel when they see one. Owen will recognise an angel more by what they say and how they make him feel. In the Bible they usually start by saying “Do not be afraid”. Oh yes – they are alive – and they come in all colours, shapes and sizes – men, women and children.

>Manarchy

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>According to today’s news it looks like the days of the British manarchy are over. The first born child, male or female, is to be the heir to the throne – and a new question will be introduced into our language. “Is the Queen a Catholic” may stand legitimately alongside the question “Is the Pope a Catholic?”
If monarchy is to be a treasured institution it seems obvious that it should reflect the view that every person matters. As things stand qualifications include being male, not being Catholic, and being born in the right family. Monarchy still seems a funny old thing but at least the proposed changes mean that sexism and religious bigotry will not be enshrined in the monarchy.

Strangers

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We have heard it said “beware of strangers” – usually because of what they are liable to take – our jobs, our women, our money.

The Bible encourages us to welcome the stranger. Many are mentioned in the Bible as people who are welcomed as gifts from God (like Melchizedek, Pharoah, Ruth, Queen of Sheba, the Canaanite woman – and many others). Jesus himself is seen as a stranger and sees himself as a stranger – he sees himself in the outsider, the poor, the prisoner and the sick and teaches his disciples to recognise him in the stranger and outsider. (Matthew 25)

We have much to learn about entertaining strangers. Here’s one story which Sam Wells tells in his book, God’s Companions. It is about a couple who go on holiday and take a lift to a scenic viewpoint. They had a Muslim guide. They rushed off to take some photographs, and then realised that they had not seen their guide for some time. Walking around a corner they saw him, semi-prostrate, praying to God. They were humbled realising how they and he had spent the last 15 minutes. They talked about this when they got home and shared this prayer with their congregation:

“If I love thee for hope of heaven, then deny me heaven;
If I love thee for fear of hell, then deny me hell;
But if I love thee for thyself alone, then give me thyself alone.”

People were confused when they discovered it was a Muslim prayer, but the couple who had been on the holiday pointed out that just as the guide had been a gift to them in jolting their spiritual complacency, so this prayer could also be a gift – perhaps dispelling some ignorance and prejudice about Islam.