The following is an address and a poem given by Canon Alan at St. Michael and All Angels Hartlip
A Song for Simeon …. Hartlip, Anchorites and Faith, 29th January 2012
“In you O lord is the well of life
and in your light shall we see light… ”
Today we celebrate Candlemas, and give thanks for the Well project, and all who work so hard to make it a success.
The Gospel : Luke 2. 22 – 40
At the end of today’s Gospel, we heard about the prophet Anna, how she lived in the temple and spent all her time worshipping there with prayer and fasting. This week, I received an email from someone named Daniel Rollings, researching the history of anchorites and anchorholds in England. An anchorite is a person set apart for the solitary life, and an anchorhold was where this person lived. An anchorite was a hermit who lived all the time in a room built onto a church, and was dedicated with the blessing of the bishop to lead a life of prayer and fasting.
There are some historical volumes with old photographs of our vestry down at the west end on the north side – which may have been an anchorhold; apparently anchorites – or their patrons – favoured the northside, as it was a bit of extra penance not to have so much sunshine. I’m not sure I quite approve of that…. I’m rather a southside man myself. Anyway, the only thing we know about our Hartlip anchorite is that his name was Robert.
Well I wonder what would happen if today the vestry door creaked open and out stepped Robert, flummoxed to be experiencing the 21st century;he would look around him, note the candles with approval, think that choirs had improved a lot since the middle ages – they have had a few centuries to practise - though people do dress oddly , and we seem to have run out of incense, and our Latin seems a bit… well, non-existent.
But Robert is a man of prayer, that’s what he spends all his time here doing, so he is looking for something more important; what is he looking for ? He is looking to see if the Jesus he knows is at the centre of our lives, and if his light shines among us.
“Well at least they are saying prayers in the nave rather than selling chickens,” he says to himself; “that’s a start.” And, he adds, “ prayer is a dangerous thing… you never know where it might lead you…. look where it led me ! It is always the beginning of something new, if it comes from where prayer ought to come from, out of the human heart… ”
Well, Robert has retreated to his somewhat uncomfortable abode, but he suggested first, that rather than boring you with a sermon today, I might try a bit of poetry instead. “It usually works,” he says; “ try it.”
And so…
JESUS AT THE CENTRE
Simeon came and saw and witnessed
Anna came and saw and witnessed
They saw something new,
Someone new
“Salvation ” , Jesus among them
Shining light upon them
Uncontainable
Unrestrainable
Jesus at the centre of their life.
A woman came to the well
Weary and rejected
untrusting, at the end of her tether;
Jesus, waiting there for her;
quietly, patiently
knowing who she was
knowing what she needed
- not just water but salvation -
Telling her – her own story
She rushes away with a kind of wild joy
to tell her story, to tell his story
- the disciples scratch their heads -
and the village comes out to Jesus
and he is at the centre
as he meets them at the well
pouring out for them the water of life…
Here we are today; candles burning
as in the Temple
anthems raising, Simeon inspired,
hearts hoping, Anna uplifted,
for Jesus at the centre of our lives;
here with bread and wine he greets us
in the word of scripture meets us
“Follow me” his call to us,
“Don’t look back” his word to us
living water, new wine,
fire of love, refining fire
bread of life;
Jesus at the centre of our lives.
+ + +
