I did a calculation last week about howmuch time I have a spent on the M5 in the last five and a bit years. I workedit out as 858 hours, plus or minus a few hours. Thats just over five weeks.Thats five weeks of my life that Im never going to get back! And in all thattime there have been no roadworks between junctions 3 and 7 for exactly, yes,youve guessed it, five and a bit weeks!
Those who know me, know that I mostlylisten to Radio 4. Its a good run if I can get down the M5 between the racingtips and Thought for the Day. And my choice of CDs in the car is somewhatlimited. To my embarrassment, when Jeremy Vine was given a lift in my carfollowing his interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, he went through myCDs. Apparently he was impressed with myRunrig CD (think niche, Scottish, 1990s), was indifferent to the GregorianChant, but was somewhat amused to notice a well-played copy of the Mamma Miasound track! I blame my daughter.
As Ive travelled down the M5listening to I have a dream, somethinggood in everything I see, Ive found myself asking, with Job in our firstreading, where wisdom can be seen? Job sits, scraping at his sores andtormented by his friends. His is a life where he has lost family and wealth andherds and home and now his health. Wisdom, he discovers, is not to be founddown a mine, or the depths of the sea, or in a marketplace, but is only to befound in a new deep way of seeing. This is the type of seeing that we need inour nation at this time as we face divided communities, growing intolerance ofminorities, threats from overseas from friends and foes - and emergingtechnology where we have yet to fully work out its consequences. I hear thewords of T.S. Eliot, in the chorus of his play The Rock:
- Where is the Life we have lost inLiving?
- Where is the Wisdom we have lost inKnowledge?
- Where is the Knowledge we have lostin Information?
The answer can only be to look toJesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith and then look out on the world withhis eyes; to look and then to look yet more deeply again.
The early verses of the Job passage resonatewith the story of the Black Country with its history of mining in gloom anddeep darkness and harnessing the fire from the bowels of the earth, which ledQueen Victoria to close her carriage curtains when travelling through the area,so offended was she by the sight of the industrial landscape. In 1862, theAmerican Consult to Birmingham described the area, in a diplomatic memo leak ofhis day, as black by day and red by night. Junction 3 of the M5 is my gatewayto looking more deeply and seeing Gods wisdom in the people who have labouredin the factories and furnaces and call centres of the Black Country; the honestwarmth of folk. And Im grateful for Gods wisdom that I have gleaned fromthose of the Sikh, Hindu and Muslim communities, often over delicious meals, lookingat holy texts together, and building bonds of friendship so that we stay strongduring times when those who want to divide us shout their obscenities throughmegaphones.
Junction 4 makes me look towardsBromsgrove and Redditch and the farming communities to the south, much featuredin The Archers. Gods wisdom that weglean from nature, from the plough turning the soil, the hedgerow folklore, andthe rhythms of the seasons, that warn us how we need to tread more gently onthis our island planet home.
Junction 4A, unlike the mines of Job,is a path that the bird of prey know and the falcons eye has seen, as Iusually have a couple of kestrels or buzzards keeping sentinel overhead as Ipass.
Junction 5, the turning to Droitwich,and I see more deeply the salt that our churches add to our communities, thelight that is generated by them, the yeast thats kneaded into the dough oflife. I see these communities as treasure troves of wisdom, of generationpassing on to generation the faith that comes to us from a great cloud ofwitnesses, many of whom, like Christians today in places of persecution, facedmocking, flogging, chains, imprisonment, and the sword. But they were alert tothe wisdom of faith, kept the rumour of God alive, fanned the flames of thelight of Christ, which means that we are gathered here today knowing the joy offaith in Jesus.
Junction 6, and I look towards the MalvernHills, south to Bredon Hill, from whence cometh my help, and eastwards toMalvern and Pershore from whence cometh plums and asparagus. Beside junction 6is a stand of Silver Birch which, in a low autumn sun, is simply stunning, andalways reminds me of Gerald Manley Hopkins words, The world is charged with the grandeur of God. Itwill flame out, like shining from shook foil.
And Junction 7 brings me here, to this fair city,and fine cathedral. Wisdom seems to permeate the stones and hang in the air.Here, Ive witnessed women and men being licensed as Readers, and answering Godscall to be ordained deacon and priest in the Church of God. Here, IveConfirmed people with the words, God has called you by name and made you hisown. Here, Ive thought of the people of our link dioceses of Magdeburg, Peruand Morogoro and Gods wisdom that I have found through these companion links,knowing that in Morogoro Cathedral tomorrow there will be 8 ordinations to thediaconate, and 19 ordained priest. Here, Ive sat in the silence of prayer andthe prayer of silence seeking Gods wisdom with many of the intractable aspectsof ministry. Here, Ive pondered time and again what it means to join Jesus inrunning a different race. Here, where the Word is spoken, the bread broken, andwine is a token of divine love, Ive tried to look deeply, reflecting on howIve seen that divine love played out the length and breadth of the diocese.
To a close colleaguewho has faced unbelievable personal difficulties, Ive seen how God whispers thereis a light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.(John 1:5)
To a refugee whomI confirmed, amidst huge fear of deportation that he would be sent back to Iranwhere he was persecuted for his faith in Jesus Christ, Ive seen how Jesuswhispers Come to me, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
To the womanliving in the refuge in Dudley, her whole world collapsed around the childrenclinging to her knees, Ive seen how the Holy Spirit whispers, Nothing shallseparate you from the love of God. (Romans 8:39)
So, all this travelling up and downthe M5 what has its purpose been? I like to think that those five and a bitweeks of my life have been, in the words of the Welsh priest poet, R.S. Thomas,time not not to arrive but to return home, laden with pollen you shall work upinto the honey the mind feeds on. Its been about collecting the pollen ofwisdom and having the time to work it into honey.
We have much to be thankful for inthis second best diocese in the Church of England after Norwich! I have much tobe thankful for in having served here.
I am hugely grateful to Bishop John andhis team, colleagues in the bishops and archdeacons offices, and all of you,for how you have shaped me as a bishop. I came with much to learn. I leave withmuch to learn about the next step in this bizarre journey that God is callingme on as I seek, simply, to seek out the pollen of wisdom, looking to Jesusin all that I do and am. Returning to the CDs in my car, in the immortal wordsof Abba, you took a chance on me.Thank you.
