Civic Service – 28.10.07 – Genesis 1.24-31; Matthew 13.31-33: Revd. Canon Dr. Alan Winton

It always feels good to sing that great patriotic anthem ‘Jerusalem’, and you might agree with me that it feels particularly good after the disappointment of last weekend when English pride took a bit of a dent. Hopes had been flying high, only to be dashed on the rugby field by the strength and skill of South Africa and on the Grand Prix circuit by the speed and expertise of the Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen. I suppose the English rugby team had had their day of deserved success four years ago and it was not to be repeated, and somehow I suspect Lewis Hamilton’s day is yet to come – at least, I do hope so.

The poem ‘Jerusalem’, written by William Blake in 1804, only became a hymn during the First World War when the composer Hubert Parry was asked to put the poem to music at a time when every effort was being made to stimulate patriotism and stiffen the resolve of the nation for the task of winning the war.  Over the years it has become a much-loved hymn, sung and owned by many different groups. To the Women’s Institute it is an unofficial anthem, and at one time or another it has been used by each of the main political parties: I gather it was used by Atlee in his 1945 Labour Party election campaign and has often been sung at Conservative Party conferences, and indeed some people would like to see it replace our current national anthem.

But the patriotism of the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ is not an uncritical patriotism. One writer spoke of it as expressing “a revolutionary message calling on people to rise up”, but rise up against what?    The first verse of the hymn draws on the ancient legend that Jesus came to England at some point in the years between the age of 14 and 30.  But Blake’s rhetorical answer to all the questions he raises in the first verse of the hymn seems to be a resounding no.  Jesus’ feet did not walk in this land, the holy lamb of God was not seen on these shores and the divine countenance did not look down upon our hills, nor indeed was Jerusalem builded here.  By contrast, the second verse seems to express the Romantic hope and vision that the new Jerusalem could be founded here: he expresses an idealistic expectation that a better society could be formed in the land and among the people that he clearly loves, he makes clear his resolve to work ceaselessly for this new Jerusalem.

But many interpreters have drawn attention to the one specific target of Blake’s patriotic criticism, the “dark Satanic mills”. Blake wrote at the beginning of the industrial revolution, and seems to have seen the mills that were springing up around the country as the enemy of his green and pleasant land. They represented many of the things he opposed: commercialism and the unchecked advance of science at the expense of the England’s rural heritage and settled human communities. On this interpretation, the revolutionary message of the poem is a call to rise up against the march of industrialisation that is blighting the country, the landscape and the people of England, and is a call to resist the destruction of the England he loved.

Now when we read Blake’s poem or sing his hymn today we stand at the other end of this slice of history. We look out on a post-industrial landscape today, and with some irony observe how the radical poets of the last twenty or thirty years have often opposed the destruction of the very industry that so upset Blake – the radical poets of a generation ago were actually opposing the closure of the steel mills and coal mines that was decimating the working population of many parts of industrial Britain.
 
But today we face a new challenge to the creation of an earthly Jerusalem, a new spectre haunts England’s green and pleasant land not unrelated to the source of Blake’s earlier disquiet. And today’s patriotic English man or woman must also be prepared to speak a word of criticism and raise a similar alarm. Not industrial dark Satanic mills, but the source of a deep unease today is clearly the often unseen greenhouse gases, the massively increased amounts of carbon in the atmosphere, leading to the phenomenon of what has come to be called accelerated climate change.

Of course, we know that the climate constantly goes through cycles of change, but today the majority of scientists around the world have come to recognise that human activity is accelerating this change at a far quicker pace than we have ever seen, with dangerous and damaging consequences. The poet or the politician who wishes to follow in the tradition of Blake’s critical patriotism must engage with this new challenge to England’s green and pleasant land.

As many of you will know, this is a subject dear to the heart of the congregation here at St. Mary’s, and many people in this community of Welwyn have been prepared not simply to talk about, to pray about, or to moan about the subject, but they have put their money where their mouth is, they have shown real commitment and given generously so that St. Mary’s has become the first church in this country to have an environmentally friendly Ground Source heating system to heat our new Church House and this ancient church in which you sit today.

Through relatively simple technology – the same science that has been operating fridges in our homes for many decades – energy in the form of heat is taken out of the soil and through three heat pumps is used to heat the water for a new underfloor system in the new building, and an old-fashioned water based system of radiators in the church.  Through the use of green electricity to run the heat pumps, our carbon footprint has been reduced by just over 40 tons a year, which represents a reduction of well over 90%.  Ours is a tiny step on the journey that we face as a community, as a nation and as a world but it seems to me that in this, as in many challenges that we face today, tiny steps are important.

There is an argument that is often wheeled out which says that there is no point in doing anything to address the dangers of accelerated climate change unless other people also act. Unless we tackle, for example, the problem of China, where new power stations are being opened every week to provide energy for their own industrial revolution; unless we do something to stem the unchecked expansion of international air travel; unless we find a solution - and it will need a creative mind to tackle this problem - of the noxious and damaging substances emitted by cattle in our farmer’s fields. Of course we have to try to address these questions on a global scale, but the small gesture like the one made by the people of the parish of Welwyn is also of vital importance.

Our reading today from Matthew’s Gospel paints two pictures of the peculiar wisdom of God’s Kingdom in the teaching of Jesus. The mustard seed is the tiniest of seeds and yet from this small beginning grows a tree in which the birds of the air can find a home; and the tiny speck of yeast is the essential ingredient in causing the dough to rise so that a healthy loaf can be baked. In both cases Jesus is speaking about the tiny start from which God’s kingdom can grow. In Jesus’ thinking and in God’s kingdom, one person’s act of generosity or courage can have an impact far beyond anything we could imagine. One community’s commitment to do something to address the dangers of accelerated climate change can have a ripple effect from which something significant can grow. And we have already had a considerable number of inquiries from other churches and organisations who want to learn from what has been achieved in this community in Welwyn.

Taking practical steps to address the challenges of accelerated climate change continues to be on our agenda here at St. Mary’s and I hope it will be at the top of your agendas in the councils that you lead. I don’t know about the specifics of the policies that your councils are pursuing, but this is surely one of the key challenges we face and one that needs visionary and courageous leadership. A beginning has been made but there is surely still scope for someone to be the first to take that radical step to address these issues on a scale not yet seen? And to use Jesus’ inspiring imagery, it might just be the tiny speck of yeast that leavens the whole loaf, the tiny mustard seed from which a huge tree can grow. And incidentally I think William Blake would applaud you for practising the sort of critical patriotism that we so desperately need today. Amen.