This year marks the 410th anniversary since Wadham’s chapel opened. Our chaplain, Jane Baun, has been very busy this past term, marking the occasion with exhibitions, festivities, and talks. We were privileged to have former archbishop, and more importantly, Wadham alumnus, Rowan Williams give a short address at a special evensong. It was recorded and, well, here it is! Many thanks to Bishop Rowan for his time and we hope you enjoy it.
You can provide feedback on Wadcast at https://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/wadcast
You can listen to past episodes of Wadcast on all major podcast platforms, including:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wadcast/id1632600269
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2eat8a5SAF0SgsXRAkJQ1R?si=60da56343ab6471c
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8yMDAzNTQ4LnJzcw?sa=X&ved=0CBsQ27cFahcKEwjYieCktuH4AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQGg
This year marks the 410th anniversary since Wadham’s chapel opened. Our chaplain, Jane Baun, has been very busy this past term, marking the occasion with exhibitions, festivities, and talks. We were privileged to have former archbishop, and more importantly, Wadham alumnus, Rowan Williams give a short address at a special evensong. It was recorded and, well, here it is! Many thanks to Bishop Rowan for his time and we hope you enjoy it.
You can provide feedback on Wadcast at https://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/wadcast
You can listen to past episodes of Wadcast on all major podcast platforms, including:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wadcast/id1632600269
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2eat8a5SAF0SgsXRAkJQ1R?si=60da56343ab6471c
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8yMDAzNTQ4LnJzcw?sa=X&ved=0CBsQ27cFahcKEwjYieCktuH4AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQGg
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I think
my first task is to
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wish the chapel
happy birthday
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and many happy
returns
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to say
that this is a
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happy return for me,
certainly
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to what's already
been described
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as the scene of my
greatest triumphs.
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Thank you to Jane.
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Thank you to the
College community
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for their welcome.
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In the name of the
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Father and of the Son
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and of the Holy
Spirit
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Amen.
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When the
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Roman Empire
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persecuted the early
Christians,
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they did so mostly
on the grounds
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that Christians
were atheists.
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That's to say,
Christians
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didn't understand
about the gods,
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and they treated
the gods
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so clumsily
and tactlessly
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that the gods
were liable
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to get very angry
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indeed with
the Roman Empire,
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which is why it was
not a good idea
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to have a lot
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of active
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Christians around
in the Empire.
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It was not only bad
for public morale,
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but very bad indeed
for PR
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with the
heavenly hosts.
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What, after all,
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did Christians
get up to?
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They didn't
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behave with their
God
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as sensible
people did.
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Sensible
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people
knew that gods,
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all sorts of them,
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lived in
particular places.
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And if you were
treating them
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sensibly,
you'd build them
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a nice,
comfortable house
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that you could visit
from time to time.
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Gods lived in
houses.
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That's what
temples were for.
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You might gather
outside those houses
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and sacrifice
and have a
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generally good time.
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But the point of the
temple
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was to house
the god.
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Where were Christian
temples?
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Nowhere to be seen.
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What did
Christians do?
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Heaven only knows.
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But they seemed
to meet on
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Saturday nights
and Sunday mornings
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in squalid top floor
flats to do
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goodness knows what
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they were said
to perform appalling
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things, to eat flesh
and drink blood.
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Who could trust
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people like that?
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You really needed
to get them
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out of the way
because they didn't
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understand
about God.
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Christians
were bad enough,
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but then actually
so were
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Jews.
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Jews at
least had a temple,
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just the one
apparently
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in Jerusalem.
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A very spectacular
building.
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But one of
the stories
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we’re told about
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Roman bafflement
over Jewish religion
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is the story
of how Caesar's
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rival Pompey,
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in his journeying
through
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what was then
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Syria, arrived
in Jerusalem
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and forced his way
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into the innermost
sanctuary
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of the Jerusalem
temple
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expecting to find
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what you would
normally find in
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a well-appointed
sanctuary
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that is, lots of
valuable gifts
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and a statue.
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What did he find
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in the sanctuary
at Jerusalem?
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A rather
elderly wooden box
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and nothing else.
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What was it then
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about Christians
and Jews
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that pushed them
into this
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Extraordinarily
irreverent
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and irregular
behaviour,
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which seemed to take
no account
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of the gods -
what they needed
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what kept them
happy
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where they needed
to live,
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what you needed
to say to them.
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Jews and Christians
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believed in God
in a different way.
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They didn't
simply believe
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in a different God.
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They believed that
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their encounter
with God
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was an encounter,
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not with a power,
a presence,
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rather like theirs
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only bigger
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but something like
being projected
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into an unimaginably
larger
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world.
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In the
Old Testament,
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when Solomon
dedicates
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the temple
in Jerusalem,
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he says, “We know
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perfectly well
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that heaven and the
heaven of heavens
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cannot contain you.”
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This is not a house
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for you to retire to
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with a dog in a
patch of garden.
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This is simply
a space
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through which
we human beings
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may glimpse
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a limitless
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unborn,
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unending reality
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in whose presence
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we are changed.
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Christians inherited
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that vision,
or you might say,
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non-vision of God.
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The God that
Christians worshipped
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was not a God
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who lived in houses
made by hands.
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We read that
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Again
in the pages of
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the New Testament.
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Those houses
made by hands
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where Christians
might meet
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to encounter God
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were passage ways
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into the new
landscape,
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where people
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thought and felt
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and saw differently.
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That's
why it's significant
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in both Hebrew and
Christian Scripture
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that great moments
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of crisis
and transition
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tend to happen out
in the desert.
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That featureless
space
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with no buildings,
no houses,
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no dogs,
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and no back gardens
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out under the
infinity of the sky.
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Jews and Christians
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understood
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that the God
they worshiped
00:07:51:14 - 00:07:53:14
was never
to be contained,
00:07:54:00 - 00:07:55:24
but rather that
his life
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reached out
to embrace
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them.
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Jacob,
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in our Old Testament
lesson,
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is running away
from home.
00:08:06:17 - 00:08:08:17
He doesn't know what
his future holds.
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He has
mortally offended
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probably every
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other member
of his family.
00:08:13:14 - 00:08:15:14
His future
looks bleak.
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He lies down
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in a desert place.
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He pillows his head
on a rock
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and he finds
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that this place
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is God's place,
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not because there's
a little marker
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around it
saying “God's place”
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but because,
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well, you might say
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because God.
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Because
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this is where He is
to meet
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the presence
that will begin to
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transform
his identity
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and the
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identity of all
those around him.
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He rises from his
dream of God
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and the angels
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and says,
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The Lord was here
in this place,
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and I did
not know it.
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Or as we might
translate it:
00:09:05:11 - 00:09:07:11
“I’d never have
guessed it.”
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But listen also
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to the way
in which the
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resurrection story
is told
00:09:15:00 - 00:09:17:00
in our New Testament
lesson tonight.
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Once again,
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at the heart of
everything
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is an empty space
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where
the body of Jesus
00:09:25:21 - 00:09:27:19
is meant to be.
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There is a gap,
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a doorway, a passage
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into something new.
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“Why are you
looking for
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the living
a mong the dead?”
00:09:37:18 - 00:09:38:17
the angels say
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to the women
at the tomb.
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“Who are you
looking for?”
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says Jesus
to Mary Magdalene.
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“Don't cling to
me”, he says.
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“I am on my way
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into the
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Heart
of the mystery.
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and you can't
hold onto me
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and contain me
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and make a
little house for me.”
00:10:03:19 - 00:10:05:05
“Why, then,
00:10:05:05 - 00:10:07:13
should we celebrate
any building?”
00:10:08:05 - 00:10:10:05
you might say.
00:10:10:24 - 00:10:12:13
Simply
because we need
00:10:12:13 - 00:10:14:13
signs of passage.
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Signs that
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take us in one way
or another
00:10:19:12 - 00:10:21:12
from a habitual
world
00:10:21:21 - 00:10:23:21
into something
larger
00:10:24:02 - 00:10:26:06
that take us from
our habitual self
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and our pictures
of ourself
00:10:28:16 - 00:10:30:13
into something
larger
00:10:30:13 - 00:10:32:18
that take us from
our pictures of God
00:10:33:10 - 00:10:34:12
to something larger
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and more
uncontrollable.
00:10:38:19 - 00:10:40:22
The worst thing
we could ever do
00:10:41:16 - 00:10:43:16
with places of
worship
00:10:44:08 - 00:10:45:22
is to suppose
00:10:45:22 - 00:10:47:11
that they are
where God
00:10:47:11 - 00:10:49:11
is contained
00:10:49:16 - 00:10:50:09
rather than that
00:10:50:09 - 00:10:52:09
they are
the passageway
00:10:52:15 - 00:10:54:15
into an
uncontainable
00:10:54:24 - 00:10:56:05
and therefore
00:10:56:05 - 00:10:58:08
quite risky
and demanding
00:10:59:05 - 00:11:01:05
larger world.
00:11:02:21 - 00:11:04:14
When we give thanks
00:11:04:14 - 00:11:06:00
for any
place of worship,
00:11:07:17 - 00:11:09:15
this chapel,
00:11:09:15 - 00:11:11:15
a Quaker
meeting house,
00:11:11:21 - 00:11:13:21
Saint
Peter's in Rome.
00:11:13:24 - 00:11:15:18
Wherever
00:11:15:18 - 00:11:17:13
we give thanks
00:11:17:13 - 00:11:19:20
that it has been
a place of passage.