“THE SONS OF
ANAK” – a
sermon for the end of the university term
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A sermon preached |
From "Where the Wild Things Are” Maurice Sendak
33And there we saw the
giants, the sons of Anak,
which come of the giants:
and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers,
and so we were in their sight (AV)
A new statue has
been erected
on Hampstead Heath –
it is made of metal and is a very simple
uncomplicated depiction of a table and a chair.
But the sculpture is 30 feet high –
so people on the heath
do not sit at the table,
but picnic under its shade…
A taste of Lilliput
in London.
And those walking beneath the table
on a hot summer’s day
might be forgiven for feeling
like grasshoppers in the grass.
The
passage we read from the Book of Numbers
is about giants and grasshoppers.
The
passage didn’t make it into the Lectionary –
but it seemed an appropriate story for the end of term -
- and also for the day on which many people
are to be ordained as Methodist Ministers
in the South West of England.
Indeed,
it speaks to all those who are reaching the end
of one part of life’s
pilgrimage
and looking forward to the next stage.
It’s
part of the story of how the Children of Israel
finally reach the edge of the Promised Land.
And they send a reconnaissance party to suss out the land.
The spies come back and say
“Do you want the good news or the bad news?
The good news is that the Promised Land is flowing with milk and honey.
The bad news is (Numbers
13:33)
“There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, ..
and we were in
our own sight as grasshoppers,
and so we were in their sight.”
And so
the Israelites fall to debate –
those who say they don’t want to face the giants,
and Caleb, who says they should trust God and go on.
Now I
daresay the spies were guilty of a fair degree of poetic licence –
both with regard to the rivers of milk and the bit about the grasshoppers -
but we get the point.
They were talking about a potential future
with the promise of seriously good things
and the threat of seriously bad ones.
And put
simply like that,
we
recognize the universal human predicament.
Facing the future –
whether we are finishing a University course
or just beginning a new day -
always seems to involve a mixture of exciting hope and possibility
but also the frightening challenge and threat.
Geoffrey of Monmouth –
writing one of the earliest histories of this country in the 12th
century –
told how the Ancient Britons conquered these islands
which had previously been occupied by Gog Magog and
giants of old.
And if we
now know that those giants never literally existed,
we know that the giant of evil did exist
in this and every land from early times –
and continues to live among us in dark Satanic mills.
And so 600 years after Geoffrey of Monmouth
William Blake still needed to call us to
build “Jerusalem on England’s Green and
Pleasant Land”
has within her the potential to flow with milk and honey
or be the abode of giants.
Our God
given gifts –
gifts of science, medicine, engineering and so forth –
can be the means of providing milk and honey for all –
“Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in Heaven”
But we
also know that for all our skills and ability
we can just as easily - perhaps more easily -
find our land peopled with ogres and giants
who continue to terrorize the weak and vulnerable.
Thomas Browne – writing a little before Blake –
described the human race as
giants in wealth but pigmies in humanity.
More recently American General Bradley
in a speech at the end of World War II said
“We have grasped the mystery of the atom
and rejected the Sermon on the Mount...
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
We know more about war than we know about peace,
and more about killing that we know about living."
Meanwhile in this country in 1942
Beveridge was outlining the tenets of the welfare
state –
if we were not only to win the war but also win the peace,
he said, we needed to conquer what he called the five giants –
the giants of squalor, idleness, want, disease and ignorance.
We might
feel as we approach the G8 next week
that the giants are still fit and well and living on planet earth –
and that they have cornered the market in milk and honey.
Of course
we have a tendency
to see the big evil things as external to us –
but in fact the giant of evil is often
a way of depicting our own flawed nature –
be it as a nation or as individuals.
One of the best loved children’s picture books ever
written
is Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” –
the little boy Max has been naughty
and is sent to bed without any supper because –
his mother says – he is a wild thing.
In bed he dreams that he is in a forest
with huge hairy fearsome monsters, the wild things.
They are monsters who immediately threaten to devour Max.
“They have fangs and claws and horns and goggle eyes,
huge …heads…and they bristle and snap and roar”
But Max is a match for the wild things,
and he becomes their King, the King of the Wild things.
They go cavorting in the forest,
Max and these huge hairy beasts.
Finally at the end of the story,
the wild things fall asleep, and Max decides to return home.
Back home, he finds all is well -
he is no longer a wild thing –
indeed his mum has supper ready for him after all –
and [final page turn] “it was still hot”. 1
It’s a
brilliant book because
it turns the old Jack and the Beanstalk story on its head –
the little boy is not simply a victim of the wild things –
he actually has within himself the potential to be a ravenous giant –
unless of course he chooses to return like the prodigal
and partake of the feast of bread and warm milkin his
parents’ home ….
There are
always evil monsters outside us, and within us –
the question is always: how do we deal with them?
So the
Israelites had to decide –
do we run or do we go forward to fight them, trusting in God??
Most of
the Israelites want to run:
only Caleb counsels going forward
In the
end, the counsel of fear wins the day –
and the Israelites backtrack into the desert.
It was
actually – according to the story –
another 40 years before the Israelites reached the Promised Land.
And as a reward for his faith Joshua says to Caleb
(now an old man) “You
can pick which part of the land you want”
And Caleb asks for
In other words, he chose that piece of land inhabited by the Giants.
He has such trust & faith in God
he fears no giant in the land provided God is with him.
And so we
come to the end of another academic year –
and for some this means a key point on life’s journey,
with a parting of the ways and decisions for the future to be made
Though of course for all of us,
in one way or another we face a new beginning –
for is not every day the first day of the rest of our life?
And what
will we do???
Well
there is good news and bad news –
The bad
news is that the giants are still around -
giants of doubt and fear,
giants of poverty and sin,
giants within us and giants without,
and to
the world they look fearsome indeed.
But here
is the good news – God is no grasshopper –
he holds you and me and whole world in the palm of his hand –
so try looking at the giants of evil from God’s perspective –
Yes, they
still roam the land –
and
sometimes we will suffer at their hands –
but
though they may win a battle or two (and leave us bloodied),
they
cannot win the war –
the
war between life and death, love and hate, hope and despair.
For
ultimately, whatever the morrow brings,
we do
not need to fear those who can merely kill the body
when
our immortal soul remains safe in God’s hands;
we do
not need to fear anything
when
we have a Lord who sees every sparrow fall,
and
will ultimately care for and guard and protect every child of his.
John Bunyan’s Pilgrims on their journey through life
come to
and there they are imprisoned by
Giant Despair –
a rather henpecked giant under the
thumb of his wife –
but nonetheless able it seems to kill
Christian with ease.
He tells them that in 10 days they are to die –
but then Christian remembers he has a
key called promise
which will open every door in doubting
caste
and so they make their escape and
continue towards the City of
So a final word at the end of another
University year -
God has guided you thus far on
your journey –
so never fear what the morrow may bring.
For the Lord is with you,
and he who has brought you safe
through the desert ways
will not let you go –
So follow the vision of a world
in which every land and every
place flows with milk and honey.
Settle for nothing less.
And may God go with you!
1
See Marina Warner,
“No No the Bogeyman”, Chatto
1998 p.148