Preached by: Venerable Stephen Taylor We continue the Christmas Christian connection with our windows which is a challenge as there is no religious symbolism in them, except these too roundels.…
Preached by: Venerable Stephen Taylor
We continue the Christmas Christian connection with our windows which is a challenge as there is no religious symbolism in them, except these too roundels. Which i will save for another day.
But here we are at the East Window. Traditionally, we have called the wise from east kings, and we have at least one king pictured here in the east window. B A window was put into the east wall of the old church in 1379-80 by Henry de Yeverly, the King’s mason.
Sir John St.John, 1st Baronet commissioned the Battersea window 1631 by Abraham Van Linge, the leading glass painter of the early 17th century.
It was transferred to this new church in the works that saw the taking down of the old and buiding of the new, beginning exactly 250 years ago this year and taking two years to complete.
It was restored insitu in 1976 by John Haywood
This window specifically commemorates Oliver St.John, Viscount Grandison, who died in December 1630 and owned the Battersea estate which he left to his nephew, the first Baronet. This window is entirely heraldic’.
At the top is the Tudor Rose created by Henry VII to unite the Houses of York and Lancaster after the wars of the Roses combining the red Lancastrian and the white Yorkshire roses.
It is a sign of reconcilliation, and 1485, when Henry VII won the crown at Bosworth Field, was the last time the crown was won in a battle. It was not only the symbol for the monachy in the 118-year period of the five Tudor monarchs. The first and last are pictured here. But it remained the symbol of our monarchy until 1947.
Similarly, the hereldic shields combine the different families that married into the St John family and create a symbol of unity and diversity. Another Christian theme.
Mottos
King one arrives: Caspar
Sanctus in terra beatus in coelo” (“Holy on earth, blessed in heaven”).
King 2 arrives: Melchior,
deus providebit – God will provide
King 3 arrives: Balthasa
Dieu et mon droit has been translated in several ways, including “God and my right”, “God and my right hand”, “God and my lawful right”, and “God and my right shall me defend”.
What might your motto be?
Honi soit qui mal y pense: a dialect of Old Norman French spoken by the medieval ruling class in England, meaning “shame on anyone who thinks evil of it”. It is the motto of the British chivalric Order of the Garter, the highest of all British knighthoods,
And along with Duei et non droit, is on British passports
Today, I want us to think about the journey. The wise men travelled on a road that brought them from far away because of the Divine GPS that was guiding them. They set out on foot, or perhaps on camel as we depict in the nativity scene. But regardless, they travelled a long way to meet this child.
Many of us have our stories of how we have travelled a long way to know Jesus. Journeys that we have taken that have drawn us closer to Christ.
Some of us have longer journeys than others. Some of you have followed Jesus all of your lives. Some of us have come to understand Christ more intimately in recent years. But whatever your story is, YOU have been on a road. You have been on a journey to find the Christ child. To understand who this person is for you and for the world.
And so the wise men took the scenic route as they were nearing Jesus, they were called to a meeting with Herod. He pulled them aside and asked them to find out more about this Jesus and where he lived. He would have been concerned about what this unusual event could possibly mean. He would have been nervous and afraid because a star was often a sign that a new king would arise.
Herod wanted to use the wise men for his own purposes. He wanted to know how he could stop such a threat to his own throne.
Many scholars believe that even these foreign wise men would have known that Herod was not to be trusted. And yet the wise men listened. We don’t have any record that they argued with him or protested his commands. They just went along their way to seek out this child who would be king, and they found him. They found this small child at home with his mother, and they knew immediately that he was the king. They worshipped him because they instantly knew who he would become.
Before leaving the child Jesus, the wise men had a dream. They had a dream that they should not go back to Herod. Because these wise men were diviners- they spent their lives interpreting dreams- they knew they had to trust that dream. And so, instead of going back the long road they’d gone before, they left for their own country by another road. They went by another road.
They went home by an even longer road than the one from which they came. They knew they couldn’t go back the way they’d come. They couldn’t go back to Herod and his deception. They had to go back by another road.
And isn’t that what we are called to do? On our journeys, when we are so easily distracted and pulled away by things that take us away from Christ, we are called then to go by another road. We are called to leave what might be familiar and even easy and go by a more difficult road that is the right road.
Nothing about Christianity is intended to be easy or simple. In fact, we are called to be set apart. We are called to be different. And we are called to make choices in our lives that reflect the Jesus that we worship. And so, we can’t go back to the ways that we have known. We can’t go back to the things that distract us. We can’t go back to the things that pull us away from Jesus.
There have been so many times in scripture when people have chosen to go by another road. Ruth and Naomi chose to go by another road. Ruth had every right to go back to her own family after her husband’s death, and yet she stayed with her MIL. She made a choice to go by another road. And that road led her closer to God.
When Hannah asked God for a child and God gave her Samuel, she could have kept that baby and raised him to adulthood. Instead, she made a promise to God that she would commit him to the Lord once he was older. She made that promise and kept it. She went by another road. And God honoured her and Samuel for their faith. (Would we?)
Henry VII choose to break the trend of marriages within houses and married Elizabeth of York from a rival house to secure a peaceful future.
In modern times, we can see people throughout history who have gone by another road. We think of those who have stood up against injustice, poverty, and oppression.
We think of Corrie Ten Boom, who hid Jews in her home during WWII so that they might escape the Nazi Holocaust. Instead of the path that was simple and safe, her faith led her by another road to risk her own life for the lives of others.
More recently, former Presine t of the US Jimmy Carter, when he left office didn’t go on the after dinner speaking curcuit, he became a Sunday Scool teacher in his local church.
But we don’t just think of these well-known examples who made bold moves in extraordinary circumstances. We must also recognise those who have gone by another road in ordinary ways.
We have to choose difficult roads. We have to go by another road than the one we’ve taken before. WE have to choose God’s best for us. WE have to listen for the dream that God is giving us. We have to listen and see who God is guiding us to be, and we have to choose to go by another road.
We go by another road every time we choose forgiveness over holding a grudge. We go by another road every time we choose understanding over aggression.
We go by another road when we choose love over blame.
We go by another road when we choose peace over war.
We go by another road when we choose to give away more of what we have than what we keep for ourselves.
We go by another road when we filll our minds with things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable instead of letting social media lead us to things that give us fleeting satisfaction.
We go by another road when we choose to place our trust and confidence in God’s greatness and in God’s mystery even when it feels more natural to be afraid or uncertain .
Now the star has guided us to Jesus, and we have a choice. We can go back from where we have come, or we can choose to be changed. We can choose to go by another road. And this choice is not one that happens only once in our lives. It happens constantly as we seek out God’s intention for our daily living and choices.
A popular Robert Frost poem ends:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference..”
That poem resonates with us because we are all faced with paths to take in every choice that we make. And while we like to think that our choices are inconsequential, most of them are more significant than we know. And Jesus wants to be part of that. Christ wants to be part of our choices in this year to come. Christ wants to be the cornerstone of our paths.
Once we have met Christ, we can’t go back to the ways that we once would have prefered to live – that which is comfortable and easy. We must press on to what is difficult – all for the sake of Christ, our Messiah and King.
The wise men went by another road because they didn’t feel an allegiance to Herod. They feel an allegiance to Christ. And we must reflect on that for ourselves. To whom is our allegiance? To the world and all it offers, or to Christ?
And so, at the beginning of this year, let us all consider the road that we are on. What epiphany might God be offering you this year? What revelation about your life and about what choices you face, might God be speaking to you? Is God calling you – not to keep going where you have been, but to go by another road?
When we leave this church this morning, we will be sent out It’s a reminder. Once we have met with Jesus in word and sacrament. We need to take another road
Amen.
Enter your details below to receive the St Mary's weekly newsletter.
If you want to know more about St Mary's, contact the clergy or for another enquiry, please use the Contact Us facility below.
Contact Us