May I start by saying

how pleased

I am

to see you this morning.

 

For you see,

Wednesday past

was big bang day.

 

And for those of you

not keeping up

with the news

in atomic physics,

this was

a very special day indeed.

 

Because it was the day

the 27 kilometre long

atom smasher

in Switzerland

was switched on.

 

And costing

40 billion pounds,

this ring

is in some places

12 stories high

or deep

as it buried 300 metre underground.

 

Now with this device scientists

are hoping to find

the god particle

the very first matter

in the brand new universe

a smidgen

after creation.

 

However, powering up

this machine

had possible dangers.

One very unlikely outcome would be

it could create

a black hole

and suck the whole world into it.

 

Another is the chance

of making strange particles - whatever they might be – which in turn

would start

a chain reaction

turn us all

to strange goo!

 

Well, as I am standing here doing my usual

Sunday routine

surrounded

by the flow

of peppermints

down below –

I must assume

life goes on as usual.

 

And that is reassuring.

 

Yet strangely

not as reassuring personally as the existence

of the Ten commandments.

 

Let me explain.

 

To the ancient pagans

the world

was full of happenstances and disasters

which they usually

ascribed to

some deity or other.

 

Their lives were indeed

full of inexplicable

black holes

and a worrying strangeness with little certainty

in between.

 

And it was for those times, that God created

the ten commandments.

 

Because when we think about it

the Decalogue

is all about certainties; certainties

as to how we should behave and certainties

about how God

will behave towards us.

 

As an outcome

humans discovered

in the commandments

not just certainties

for their people

and communities

but also for themselves

as individuals.

 

In other words,

they could safely

found their lives

on them

and know

that they have spiritual, social

and physical wellbeing.  

 

Now is that not good news for a today

where many people

again

feel threatened

by chance

and cannot grasp hold

of personal certainty.

 

And this finding

of certainty starts

with God’s demand

we worship him.

 

For by that

he is saying that

we are more than

just physical bodies

but are spiritual beings

as well.

 

And as a result,

we are reminded

that in God

we are not limited

to the time limits

of our bodies

but have

the opportunity

for life eternal.

 

And it is this

spiritual dimension

that is a key

to clearing away

so many uncertainties

in every life

particularly those

that have become transfixed

on physical decline.

 

Those who can no longer find hope

in only

what they can touch

and see.

 

But this certainty

of having spiritual being

has also

a greater dimension.   

 

For without the promise

of eternal life

what would be the point

of any moral behaviour.

 

What would be

the value of love,

heroism and altruism.

 

Why bother

with the beautiful things that makes us human

when sustaining

one’s personal existence was all that mattered because

that was all there was.

 

Why indeed risk

what Brother Roger,

the founder

of the ecumenical Taize community did.

 

For in 1940,

although a Swiss citizen,

he moved to France

with the conviction

that he should assistance

 people going through

this ordeal of invasion.

 

The small village of Taizé, where he settled,

was quite close

to the demarcation line dividing France in two:

it was well situated

for sheltering refugees fleeing the Nazis.

 

It was here that

he purchased

a very modest house

to shelter the refugees.

 

Now during this time, Brother Roger,

despite his deep seated Christianity,  

chose to go into the forest to pray alone

because wanted none

of his guests

who were mainly Jewish

or agnostics

to feel ill-at-ease.  

 

However, in the autumn

of 1942,

he warned

that their activities

had been found out

and that everyone

should leave at once.

 

So until the end of the war, it was in Geneva

that Brother Roger

began to develop

a common life

with his first brothers.

 

They were able to return

to Taizé in 1944.

 

Such bravery

could only have come

from the certainty of having spiritual being

under the command

and promise of God.

 

 

For Roger himself wrote:

 

 “Right at the depth

of the human condition,

lies the longing

for a presence,

the silent desire

for a communion.

 

Let us never forget

that this simple desire

for God

is already

the beginning of faith.”

 

 

 

 

However Roger

also wrote about

why he started his community.

 

For he said -

“Since my youth,

I think that I have never lost the intuition

that community life

could be a sign

that God is love,

and love alone.

 

Gradually the conviction took shape in me

that it was essential

to create a community

with men

determined

to give their whole life

and who would always

try to understand

one another

and be reconciled,

a community

where kindness of heart

and simplicity

would be

at the centre of everything.”

 

And in these words

is the reminder

that all humans

are also social beings.

 

Nevertheless, we cannot have certainty

in our social life

without rules.

 

And this is

the second function

of the Decalogue.

 

For it is this code

that guarantees

honest behaviour

of others to ourselves

and ours to others.

 

It ensures

each knows

what is done

is under God’s command.  

 

More to the point,

the Decalogue’s

gives the certainty

of knowing

which actions

are correct and are not.

 

And it is this certainty alone of trust and respect

and fairness

that turns solitary people into

a wholesome community rather than a chaotic goo.  

 

The sort of place when one can write of another:

 

Life’s seem more sweet that thou didst live

And men more true thou wert one.

Nothing is lost that thou didst give

Nothing destroyed that thou hast done.

 

But the Decalogue hints too at another certainty –

and it the certainty

as physical beings.

 

Because in commanding us to take sufficient rest,

God displays

his concern

for our physical needs

 

 

 

Now until very recently Sabbath observance

was one

of the great qualities

of the highland crofter.

 

Yet I often thought

that there was spin off

to this valuing

of God’s commandment.

And it was this.

 

When you are

a subsistence farmer

the temptation

to work and work

simply to be certain

of enough food

must be overwhelming.

 

Yet in trusting God

to provide

and following his law,

the crofters found

a self-protection mechanism;

a way to rest,

restore

and heal the body

ready for

another hard week.

 

So too many could learn this lesson today.

 

There cannot be 24/7 chores and work –

there must be recreation, there must be repair

and there must be

a returning

to the one

who offers all these.

 

There indeed needs

to be worship

of He who gives

not just spiritual

and social certainty

but physical certainty

as well.

 

For to do so

is to remember

that last bit

of the great commandment when it says

love  your neighbour

as yourself –

because resting in God

is the greater love

we can show ourselves.

 

Christ said –

man can not live

by bread alone.

 

But at the beginning

of Taize

they found difficulty

with cherry tart as well!

 

For once safely back

in Geneva,

Roger lost no time

working through

the rule

of the emerging community.

 

One novelty was that

meals would be eaten

in silence.

 

Yet one observer

recorded

that it was not always easy; for he remembers

one meal

where one of the participants

had brought

a large cherry tart.

 

Since the cherry-stones

had not been removed,

you can imagine the racket made by all those stones that fell on the plates

during the dessert,

in complete silence.

 

Uncontrollable laughter brought an end

to the silence that evening!

 

But it was those rules

that became

the cornerstone

of what is a beacon

for disciplined living

to a world

in much need of it.

 

Or as Olivier Clément remarked

of this model community:

 

Young people today

are tired of talk

and tired of scoffing:

they want authenticity.

 

It is no use talking

to them about communion if we cannot show them

a place

where communion is being worked out.

 

At such a place

people are welcomed

as they are

without being judged;

no one

is asked for

their doctrinal passport;

but nevertheless

no secret is made of the fact that everyone

is gathered around Christ, and that with him –

"I am the way," he said –

a way forward begins

for those who want it.

 

Well let us want

to be such a beacon

of our rule –

the commandments – today.

 

Let us demand

that world powers

meet their just demands,

let us strive

as a church

to interpret each law of God with the mercy

and wisdom

that is the hallmark of Christ’s way.

 

And as individuals

let us live in

the Decalogue certainties that we are

spiritual beings

and know the commitments which that brings,

that we are social beings and are undertaking

the duties that brings

and that we are

 physical beings

who will  live willingly

within all the restraints which that imposes.  

 

For to do so

is to thrust aside chaos,

fear and even tiredness.

 

For to do so

is to live within

the spirit of the law.

 

For to do so

is to meet

Brother Roger’s commandment

of commitment:  

 

 

So, refusing to look back, and joyful

with infinite gratitude, never fear to rise

to meet the dawn,

praising,

blessing

and singing Christ

your Lord.

 

Amen

 

 

 

Offering

 

Hymn…………….

 

It’s Personal