‘Effing’ the Ineffable in Well
Or
Absurd Religion
I recently visited Well Church (it was ages ago, I just haven’t got round to writing this up). There is a lot to see in Well Church but as I was wondering round I in particular noticed the boards with bible verses painted on, one of which proclaims,
“But to do good, and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”
This is an old, and to my mind largely incomprehensible, version of Hebrews 13 verse 16, which is usually translated in modern bibles something along the lines of,
“…do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
I wonder if it made more sense in the past or if it was just a poor translation, one that didn’t ‘communicate’ as the board said we ought.
I also noticed a delightful stained glass picture of David as a youth fighting a lion. I don’t think the artist could ever have seen a lion, the animal he has depicted looks like a friendly Labrador wearing both a fake mane and the false teeth of an elderly gentleman. David, who seems to me a little bit feminine, appears to have got his outfit from the Victorian dressing up box. I feel rather sorry that he going to whack such a friendly lion.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not being critical, I find such things wonderfully delightful, and I could certainly do no better than this anonymous craftsman, in fact almost certainly a whole lot worse.
What the lion and the scripture verse did make me think is that while mortal efforts to express the glory of God inevitably fall short of that divine glory some of our efforts fall a long way short.
As there is such a chasm between the perfection of God and the rough and ready efforts of humanity there may well appear something inherently absurd in all our efforts to communicate our experiences of the divine, no matter how seriously we take them, it is just more obvious in some efforts than in others. We are ‘effing’ the ineffable. When I say ‘we’ I mean of course people like me who believe in the infinite divine and care to try and tell people of its wonder, although enthusiastic materialists have much the same problem in speaking of the almost limitlessness which lights up their souls.
We shouldn’t let that put us off.
God receives our attempts at telling of his glory with far more grace than those around us may do, he takes our childish crayoned pictures and proudly sticks them on the door of His heavenly fridge. Astonishingly, He also uses our poor efforts to help others understand the wonder of His glory, I know this because I have seen Him use my exceedingly poor efforts.
God asks willingness of us, not perfection. He can make up for our lack of perfection by the work of the Holy Spirit.
As Saint Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4, ‘…since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.’ He explains that God made ‘his light shine in our hearts’ but that we have ‘this we have this treasure in jars of clay.’ The imperfect holding the perfect through Grace, not just in our bodies but, as Paul explains, in all that we do that sets forth the truth.
St Michael’s Church in Well is well worth a visit (no pun intended), it contains many curious and interesting things if you care to look. As there has been a church on the site for close to a thousand years it is perhaps an example of how God by His grace makes use of our imperfect efforts to communicate His glory. I was also struck by the angel of coloured light that stood by the font, and the windows that produced it.
Pictures below…
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