Sense Making Faith - Lent 2009

Earlier this year I went to a see a band called Spiritualized at Manchester Academy.  Spiritualized are interesting for a number of reasons, one of them being that the lead singer Jay Spaceman had a serious illness and during that illness was hospitalized.  During that illness he was in a coma, moving in and out of life, until eventually recovering to release the new album ‘Songs from A & E’.

As the gig drew to a close the band got louder and louder until for about 10 minutes there was a continuous explosion of sound and light.  People started to cover their ears as the sound enveloped us.  As we were leaving my wife said to me, ‘Do you think that was meant to be an experience of a coma?’  The sound was so powerful it was disorientating, so powerful that we felt a level of detachment from the 500 or so other people in the room.

As I’ve reflected on the power of sound I’ve also found myself pondering about the noises that Christ heard on that journey into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday.  The cries of praise and the sounds of support - an expectant crowd praising their saviour.  I imagine that the noise was overwhelming.  As I write this post, on Maunday Thursday, I am aware of the same crowd making very different noises…I imagine that this noise was also overwhelming.

There is a story in the Bible about a prophet called Elijah.  Elijah is sat in a cave feeling suicidal, whilst in the cave God tells him that he is about to pass by and so to go outside.  Elijah goes outside and a strong wind passes by, followed by an almighty earthquake and then by a fire.  The sound of the these three must have been overwhelming for Elijah…but the Bible tells us that God was not in any of these.  Finally after this explosion of sound, there is the ‘sound of sheer silence’.  It is in this sound of sheer silence that Elijah hears the voice of God.

Spiritualized, the crowds that greeted Jesus, the sound of the fire, earthquake and wind offer an unusual level of sound intensity.  Sound is rarely that intense and often simply background noise that we don’t really focus on.  Let me suggest that you spend some moments now listening to those sounds around you, it maybe traffic passing by or perhaps it is the chattering of voices.  Whatever the noises listen to them and appreciate them, they are the normal soundscape of your life.  In the normal and ordinary, the extraordinary will be found if we seek and remain attentive.  It is in the ordinary that we will hear the still small voice of God.

Listen again to the Revd John Macaulay’s sermon on the Sunday Worship website. Later this week, Ben Edson, the leader of a Fresh Expressions church in Manchester, will share his Journey into Hearing.

Last New Year’s Eve, I, along with many other people, went to a party.  The party had just started and a friend of mine arrived with a strange selection of food and a package of pink tablets.  I asked what the tablets were and he replied that they were Miracle Fruit Tablets.  Intrigued, I asked what the miracle was?  He had seen them on a television programme (see here) and told me that the tablets changed the taste of everything that you ate. So we sat down at a table, cracked the tablets open and started our taste bud challenge. 

Within 10 minutes I was sucking on a lemon, amazed at how sweet it was and drinking Guinness, which tasted like chocolate! My taste buds had been fooled.  However, after about 30 minutes I wanted a glass of wine. I poured myself a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and took a sip.  It was repulsive and so I had to wait until the effects of the Miracle Fruit Tablets had worn off before I could drink again.  After chatting with friends, we all agreed that whilst it was fun to suck on lemons we did actually prefer our usual sense of taste.  

I missed my sense of taste during these moments and, once back, I relished the return of normal taste.  As I have reflected on taste and read the story of the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus ate with his disciples, I have started to wonder how the meal tasted?  Did the thought of what was to come prevent Jesus from eating the Passover meal?  Or as he ate the meal did it remind him of God’s faithfulness in the past and hence reassure him of God’s faithfulness in the future.

The meal was one full of many tastes, such as bitter herbs symbolizing the harshness and sharpness of the slavery in Egypt or Charoset, a sweet brown pebbly mixture reminding the Israelites of the mortar used to build the storehouses in Egypt. Many different tastes, all telling a different aspect of an important story.  This was a way of remembering a story vital to the Jewish people, different tastes that remind them of different parts of their collective story.  Taste can serve to evoke powerful memories.

I wonder if different tastes evoke powerful memories for you?  As a Christian, if my eyes were covered and I were given a sip of wine and some bread it would remind me of that last supper that Jesus shared with his disciples.  A taste that reminds me of a meal shared by the Son of God with his closest friends.  A taste that contains within it a story that has changed the world.