Having spent the night being woken by the sound of Storm Ciara tearing up the road outside, then by sweeping rain and house creaks, and finally by my own cough and pounding headache, I decided not to venture out today. Taking a look at the huge seas on the webcams for Brighton and Falmouth I hope my two are safely tucked up too, although I doubt it. Storms aren’t so scary when you’re in your twenties.
In an effort to clear the tubes and perhaps even doze in a chair I was up early and so managed to catch the BBC’s Sunday Worship programme. I’ve been secretly keen to go down this route in recent weeks since the excellent Dave finished the restoration of my 1962 Roberts radio - now proudly displayed atop the piano and offering the few stations it can still pick up on MW and LW.
There is a temptation to think of Sunday Worship as being a bit of an anachronism - a tiny segment of the weekly schedule, marooned in an ocean of world news and serious documentaries, clinging onto its place largely because of a commitment made in an earlier age and now followed only by housebound dotty aunts and ancient grandparents (plus, of course, those trying to escape Storm Ciara).
But in truth it isn’t. The music is more modern than anyone drawing up the religious broadcasting policy back in the day can ever have imagined. There are voices from all round the world offering thoughts and experiences. And storms, fears of spreading viruses and political divisions over Europe come straight from the morning news into the service.
This morning’s live broadcast comes from St Aldates in Oxford and the service takes as its focus the Beatitudes. These eight ‘promises’ are, for me, entirely central to the whole Christian ethic as well as underpinning the foundations of any secular moral life. Be humble and be rewarded; work to foster peace, be merciful and good times will come; grief and hunger will end in comfort. Look for a life with no apparent easy reward and the rewards will come to you, they seem to say.
These guarantees from the sermon on the mount are backed up today by very modern readers with very modern problems - loss, addiction, aimlessness and so on. Faith, they say, can move any problem, however overwhelming it may appear, into a calmer, more peaceful place. Heady stuff for early Sunday morning but inspiring nonetheless. Sit tight, my radio tells me, and the storm will pass.
