Faith and Fairytales

Radio 4 announcement: 

Time now for Sunday Worship, which is part of our Radio 4’s collection exploring Fairytales. Our service is led by Reverend Luke Aylen, who meets us at the doors of Hereford Cathedral.

Rev Luke Aylen

Good morning and welcome to Sunday Worship. I’m Luke Aylen. 

I’m just approaching the gorgeous Hereford Cathedral. The Cathedral and its small medieval city punctuates the rural landscape of the Welsh Marches, which inspired the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Shire and C.S. Lewis’s Narnia. This area’s long history and political and economic significance derives from its liminal location between England and Wales, where diverse cultures, powers and folklores have long mixed or clashed.

Our worship today will be a sort of quest, a spiritual pilgrimage, through the weird and wonderful ways in which folklore, fairytale, myth and mystery weave together with the Christian faith–and the spirituality, evocative spaces and priceless treasures of the Cathedral. 

As a priest-theologian and fantasy author, I am fascinated by the big questions of life, humanity and morality, which are so significant in both faith and fairy tales. 

In our spiritual adventure through the curious intersections of fairytale and faith, we will join people, ancient and modern, in marvelling at the mystery and majesty of God and the curious logic of the Kingdom of Christ. 

MUSIC: He who would valiantly be - Worcester, Hereford and Gloucester Cathedral Choirs

Blessed City: Hymns from Worcester ℗ 2010 Griffin Records Released on: 2010-06-08

Rev Luke Aylen

That was He Who Would Valiant Be, featuring the Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester cathedral choirs.

I’m entering the Cathedral via the north porch, where I’m meeting the Revd. Canon James Pacey, the Cathedral’s Chancellor. 

Rev Canon James Pacey

God of the journey,

Be for us our companion on the walk,

Our guide at the crossroads,

Our breath in our weariness,

Our protection in danger,

Our resource on the journey,

Our shade in the heat,

Our light in the darkness,

Our consolation in our discouragements,

And our strength in our intentions.

So that with your guidance we may arrive safe and sound at the end of the journey and enriched with grace and virtue we return safely to our homes filled with joy.

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

MUSIC - Instrumental Piece 1 [Sequentia and Barbara Thornton]

Rev Luke Aylen

And so, like countless pilgrims before us, we cross over the threshold into the main body of the Cathedral. There’s something other-worldly about the main sanctuary. The architecture and atmosphere all work together to inspire awe at the majesty and mystery of God: the eye is drawn upwards to the soaring windows and delicate vaulted ceiling high above; the ancient stones stand witness to a near-millenia of worship; and the very air feels saturated with the lingering prayers of countless people. 

It’s an invitation to open the eyes of one’s heart to the spiritual world, that is never really separate from the material one, but which, in our rushing and racing through life, we rarely pause to acknowledge.

Let us pray: 

Gracious God,

Lead us from our mundanity into your mystery,

Open our hearts and minds to things unseen,

Fill us with a sense of awe and wonder at you. 

MUSIC - O choruscan lux stellarum Hoildegard von Bingen [Sequentia, Barbara Thornton]

O choruscans

lux stellarum,

o splendidissima specialis forma

regalium nuptiarum,

o fulgens

gemma, tu es ornata

in alta persona

que non habet maculatam rugam.

Tu es etiam socia angelorum

et civis sanctorum.

Fuge, fuge speluncam

antiqui perditoris,

et veniens veni in palatium regis.

O sparkling,

starry light,

O special, splendid form

of royal marriage,

O flashing

gem, you are adorned

in high nobility,

with neither spot nor blemish marred.

You are the angels’ partner

and a citizen with saints.

Flee, flee the den

of the ancient destroyer,

and coming, come into the palace of the King.

Rev Luke Aylen

That was ‘O choruscan lux stellarum’, or ‘O sparkling,

starry light’ by Music by Hildegard Von Bingen, who was a remarkable 10th century German Benedictine abbess and polymath. It feels very apt here, as it stirs the same sense of entering into the unknown and otherworldly realm of the divine. 

James and I have stepped out of the main body of the church and into a different part of the labyrinthine Cathedral complex, into the New Library Building. 

We’ve already passed a few curiosities that look like they belong more in a fairytale than a cathedral: there’s a stained glass window with a dragon in it, being slain by the formidable St Margaret the Martyre. The tomb of a knight, complete with an extra leg! But they’re not what we are here for. We’ve come to see something particularly special, a famous treasure of the Cathedral. 

Rev Luke Aylen and Rev Canon James Pacey discuss.

Rev Luke Aylen

It’s an image also celebrated by the psalmist in Psalm 19, which we will hear now sung by Hereford Cathedral Choir.

MUSIC: Psalm 19 - Hereford Cathedral Choir

The Psalms of David Volume 1, Priory Records

Luke Aylen and Amy Scott Robinson

We are moving now deeper into the library building, into one of my favorite places, the evocatively named chained library. 

In the middle ages, books were so valuable that they were literally chained to the shelves. Hereford Cathedral’s 17th-century Chained Library is the largest to survive with all its chains, rods and locks intact.

If you’ve seen the Harry Potter films, it’s like the forbidden section of the Hogwarts Library.

We will be reading from the earliest and most important book in the library shortly, but first I’ve come to eavesdrop on Amy Scott Robinson, a Christian Folklorist and traditional story teller who’s running a workshop with children from the Cathedral school. 

Storytelling workshop.

MUSIC: Blessed Assurance - Choir of Methodist Central Hall

The Heart of Methodist Worship, Priory Records

Rev Luke Aylen and Amy Scott Robinson

Luke: Amy, I really enjoyed listening in on your workshop and learning about the logic of fairytales. You’ve picked our Old Testament reading, Proverbs 30:21-23. 

Why does this passage resonate with you?

Amy:

The passage is a list of four things that ‘make the earth tremble’, but each one sounds like the plot of a fairytale. As a storyteller, it’s fascinating to me that these little plots might make the earth tremble. Why - what does the writer of Proverbs mean?

Reading

Proverbs 30:21-23

Under three things the earth trembles;

under four it cannot bear up:

a slave when he becomes king,

and a fool when glutted with food;

an unloved woman when she gets a husband,

and a maid when she succeeds her mistress. 

Amy Scott Robinson

The four things listed in the passage all upset social order: a servant becoming a king, a maidservant replacing her mistress. Perhaps the writer of Proverbs says that the earth trembles because these things suggest anarchy; it could be an image of foolish, unprepared people being put in charge, and that feels dangerous. But the four things are also the plot of hundreds of folktales. In a fairytale, don’t we expect the maidservant to end up marrying the prince, or the fool to end up outwitting the king? 

And those things resonate with two important passages of the New Testament: the Magnificat and the Beatitudes. We hear that in the kingdom of God, the hungry are fed, the humble are lifted up, the rich are sent away empty and the kingdom belongs to the poor. So perhaps this little list of folktale plots that make the earth tremble is looking forward to a coming kingdom where our expectations can be reversed. 

In a fairytale, we expect the servant to become king. We have other expectations too, for example we expect there to be a rescue. When I was telling the story to the children just now, they all knew that I hadn’t really got to the end when the giant swallowed the girl - if the heroine hasn’t come out on top, then it’s not the end yet!

And when Jesus tells us things about the Kingdom of God, he’s asking us to have those expectations about being part of it. When he says, ‘The kingdom of God belongs to the poor’, for example, that really should affect the way that we see poverty, both how we experience it and how we treat other people experiencing it.

Rev Luke Aylen

You've got me thinking about a classic fairytale theme, that also comes up often in Jesus’ stories: treasure! When Jesus told stories about treasure, it’s either worth everything or worth nothing at all - the story subverts what people expect. That's a bit like fairytales isn't it?

Amy Scott Robinson

Exactly! The kind of treasure that catches the hero’s eye early in the story is highly likely to lead into a trap, or pop like bubbles, or turn to dust. But the kind that is gained at the end of the story - in a rags to riches type of story, for example - is solid, lasting and probably overwhelming in sheer quantity. 

That’s the kind of treasure that is stored in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus tells a parable about a rich fool who builds huge barns for his grain but dies that night - he can’t hold on to his earthly treasure. But then Jesus also tells parables about finding treasure in a field or finding a pearl of great price and selling everything to gain it. 

In the logic of the kingdom of God, treasure is all about valuing things differently. We’re told to value the kingdom of God above all else, but we’re also told that God values us above all else - so much that he gives up everything to gain us, his treasure.

This is where the logic of the folktale and the logic of the kingdom can help us to tell a new story that contradicts the stories the world tries to tell us. 

Amy, you mentioned the Magnificat, the song of Mary. Let’s listen to a musical setting of these famous words sung by the Hereford Cathedral Choir, in which the mother of Jesus proclaims the greatness of God and rejoices in God’s great reversals of the values of the world. 

MUSIC: Magnificat in G Major - Hereford Cathedral Choir

Magnificat In G · Hereford Cathedral Choir and Roy Massey, Praise Be 

Rev Luke Aylen and Jennifer Dumbelton

Hello Jennifer. You have a very interesting role here at the Cathedral as the Librarian. I bet many librarians would love to boast they have a chained library! Thank you for having us. We have before us another great treasure of the Cathedral, what is it?

Our Gospel reading this morning is from Matthew 13:44-46. Jennifer, has kindly found it in the Hereford Gospels for us. Which is impressive as it has no chapter and verse numbers and it’s in latin! 

Since, my latin is non-existent, Amy has agreed to read it to us. 

Amy Scott Robinson and Jennifer Dumbelton

Matthew 13:44-46.

Simile est regnum caelorum thesauro abscondito in agro: quem qui invenit homo, abscondit, et prae gaudio illius vadit, et vendit universa quae habet, et emit agrum illum.

45 Iterum simile est regnum caelorum homini negotiatori, quaerenti bonas margaritas.

46 Inventa autem una pretiosa margarita, abiit, et vendidit omnia quae habuit, et emit eam.

____________

‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Rev Luke Aylen

James, thank you for allowing us to explore the treasures of the Cathedral. As we bring our service to a close, do you have any final reflections?

Rev Canon James Pacey

We are a world driven by story.

Story is at the heart of our society and at the heart of being human: it’s how we’re entertained and how we’re informed. It’s how we make sense of where we’ve come from and where we’re going. It’s how we come to understand and appreciate our place in the world. The rich stories of fairytales are a way of understanding the human condition – they tell us about the great journey of life, of heroes and villains, of expeditions and adventures. As a Christian I believe there is no greater journey than following Jesus.

As Christians, our story is rooted in Jesus’ story. As a cathedral and Christian community, what we yearn for above all else is to draw people into his story, to help them receive that story in fresh and new ways and then to help them identify where, just maybe, his story is at work in their own individual stories.

We are blessed in this place to be custodians of two remarkable treasures: the Hereford Gospels and the Mappa Mundi. Like the maps, quests and hidden treasures that populate so many fairy tales, they invite us on a journey of discovery. Yet unlike the treasures sought by fairy-tale heroes, their value lies not chiefly in themselves but in what they reveal. The Hereford Gospels tell the story of God's saving love in Christ; the Mappa Mundi situates our own story within God's purposes for the world. Both point beyond themselves to the treasure of which Jesus speaks: the kingdom of heaven.

And so may we, like the merchant in today's Gospel, seek that treasure above all else. May we, like the merchant searching for the pearl of great price, never cease to seek the treasure of God's kingdom; and may we find our place within the great story of his love for the world. As we turn to prayer, may that story shape our hearts, guide our steps, and draw us ever closer to Christ.

So we pray:

Gracious God, great maker of our world,

We bring before you your broken and breaking world;

Look with compassion on your people in their sorrow,

Heal within us the sins that separate us from neighbour and you,

Forgive us our wanton violence and selfishness,

And stir up in us a fresh vision of the treasure that is your love,

That amid the passing riches of this world

We may hold fast to that which endures,

Setting our hearts on the treasures of heaven,

Where Christ reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

One God, now and for ever. Amen. 

And the Lord’s prayer: 

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours

now and for ever.

Amen. 

Rev Luke Aylen

With these wonderful fairytale themes in our minds, it feels appropriate that our final hymn is "When a Knight Won His Spurs" by Jan Struther, set to a folk melody harmonized by Vaughan Williams. 

MUSIC: When a knight won his spurs - Salisbury Cathedral Choir

Great Hymns from Salisbury, Priory Records

Rev Luke Aylen

Playful words, but a powerful prayer: 

Let faith be my shield and let joy be my steed

'Gainst the dragons of anger, the ogres of greed;

And let me set free with the sword of my youth,

From the castle of darkness, the power of the truth.

Amen

I’m back at the doors of the Cathedral, looking out. As we come to the end of this quest but continue our own spiritual adventures, seeking after the treasure that neither moths nor dragons can destroy, let me close with a traditional Irish pilgrim blessing: 

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Amen.

Radio 4 closing announcement: 

Sunday Worship came from Hereford Cathedral. The presenter was the Reverend Luke Aylen, with contributions from the Revd. Canon James Pacey, Amy Scott Robinson, Jennifer Dumbleton and the children of Hereford Cathedral School. The producer was Abi Thomas. This programme is part of our collection exploring fairy tales here on Radio 4 and you can hear more from both Luke and Amy during a special week of the Daily Service on Radio 4 extra at 9.45 each morning this week.