Mystery and the Laws of Thermodynamics

by Feb 4, 2024Sermons

John 1:1-14

And the Word became flesh and lived among us.

Sermon preached at Heath Street Baptist Church on 4 February 2024

Good morning, I bring with me greetings from the community at All Saints’ in Child’s Hill, just down the hill where the Hendon way meets the Finchley Road and Cricklewood Lane. We are what some would describe as a moderately High Anglican or Church of England Church. Smells and Bells as some would put it at our weekly service of Holy Communion. But I would also describe as unfussy and down to earth. Ewan, having been with us last week, might disagree. These things tend to be relative.

One of the highlights of my week is on Monday mornings we have a stay-and-play for babies, toddlers and their parents or carers. It is a joy, as an observer, to watch the children play and see them as they explore the space. It always amazes me how an inanimate toy or even simply an object can be transformed, through the attention of a child, into a living, breathing, sentient creature.

Before I studied theology I was an aerospace Engineer. Which means among my studies I was introduced the the laws of Thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is the study of the flow or relations between heat, work, temperature and energy. It is essential for designing everything from power plants to heating systems. I remember a lecturer saying as we set out learning the laws of thermodynamics that the first time you learn the laws you are overwhelmed by it all and can’t see how you will ever understand it. The second time you learn the laws of thermodynamics you think you understand how this works, and then the third time you learn the laws of Thermodynamics you realise you have no idea how the work but you accept that you will never understand it but that you can still use them. The mystery becomes the accepted, even desired outcome.

The prologue of John, this great poem of the incarnation which we heard this morning and which you may well have heard at least once over Christmas made me reflect on the use of language: We often think of language as being too limited in what it is able to describe, we say ‘I don’t have the words’ or  ‘there aren’t words enough’, and yet language can become more than the sum of its parts – as it does in this bit of John’s Gospel.

Mark Oakley, Poet and Dean of Southwark Cathedral, has written and spoken extensively about poetry and its relation to our faith – in his book, ‘The Splash of Words’ he writes:  ‘I have come to understand language as sacramental. This means that for people of Christian faith the placing of our spaces, the metaphors, rhythms, cadence and chosen vocabulary is as vital to the transforming of the flat world of first impressions into the interconnectivity of the kingdom of God as the placing of bread and wine on the table and pouring of water into the font.’

There is something here which is fundamental to what we call the sacraments – things like Baptism and Holy Communion, but also marriage and anointing of the sick, ordination, confirmation and holy unction. In the Church of England you may be told there are 2 sacraments, you may be told there are 7 depending on who you are speaking to. But whether you focus on two or more, whether you want to label them as sacraments or sacramentals. Each of them take something ordinary, something unremarkable. And through the prayers of the faithful they become a sign of something more profound, an embodiment of God’s presence with us and a blessing upon the faithful. In the words of Cranmer in the Book of Common Prayer, which for three centuries was the only book of prayers the Church of England used, a sacrament is an outward visible sign of an inward grace. It is understood to be made through both form and matter. Form being the words – the prayers used, and matter – that ordinary something which is transformed to be an outward sign by the grace which is being received.

When I was at Theological college we held an experimental communion service. We did these several times a year, they helped us to work through what was important in our liturgy and particularly in the sacraments. One of them which I was involved in organising was a silent service of holy communion, while the service was conducted silently, images and instructions were projected onto a wall behind the altar. But debate ensued among the organisers – surely if form was important – if the words were necessary for there to be an effective sacrament we needed to say something.  So our tutor felt it important something be said out loud, but which words did we need to include? There was much healthy and interesting debate, Would it be to include the invocation of the Holy Spirit: ‘Come Holy Spirit’ or the words that Jesus used, the words of institution, when he tells the disciples that this bread and wine are his body and his blood.

But the most memorable view of it all was from one of my more catholic colleagues, who argued that, given this was God’s own work, and as promised to us by Jesus, how could anything we did nor did not do ‘mess it up’. Which was a surprise as usually the higher they were the more of the words of the mass they demanded be said.

The reality is at the heart of our understanding we accept a certain healthy level of mystery. Not because we must suspend belief, but because, in the end, our words are unable to fully describe what God is doing. Like the students of thermodynamics, we as Christians might have set out originally thinking we were going to be able to fully explain every aspect of our faith when asked, but each time we come back to the explanation we find that though some bits are clearer, others remain stubbornly in the domain of mystery.

John’s description of the Word at the opening of his telling of the Good News of Jesus is that:
it was there at the beginning,
it is with God and it is God,
through the Word all things came into being,
It gave life and is light.
The relationship between this Word and the Wisdom described in Proverbs is undeniable as is the clear pointing back to the story of creation in Genesis, both in language and the form of the words in verse. John is making clear that this isn’t Good News about something new and unfamiliar. Some new character – but that in Jesus the invisible becomes visible as the eternal Son of the Triune Godhead becomes flesh and in his actions shows us the Father.

I always think it is worth saying, because I’ve come across it more times than I would like to remember. When we talk about scriptures as being ‘The word of God’ with a lowercase ‘w’ we are not talking about the same thing as we are when we talk about ‘The Word becoming flesh’ as in this Gospel. For the scripture are OUR words inspired by God, but often describing human experience of the world, they are full of failure and war and violence. They show the many different understandings or interpretations of what has happened, the multiple and varying eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ own life, for example. Yet that imperfect, incomplete human record is made holy and blessed like the water at Baptism or the bread and wine at Holy Communion by God’s being revealed in the scripture. Where as the Word which becomes flesh is the Word which is uttered at creation – the Word that only God truly understands but which in becoming flesh blesses us and makes us holy. This Word which was creating at the beginning and it is through this Word being revealed in flesh like us that we are made holy and blessed.

For all those who received him, who believed in his name he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God. All that we have we received from God. No matter what we have done with it, no matter how messy how undesirable we might think it has become. In Christ all things are bound together and we can all be transformed ever more into the image of God in whose image we were originally made.

The Reverend Robin Sims-Williams

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8.00am Said Eucharist
10.00am Parish Eucharist with choir and Sunday School

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Privacy Notice

Privacy Notice – General

Your personal data – what is it?

“Personal data” is any information about a living individual which allows them to be identified from that data (for example a name, photographs, videos, email address, or address). Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) and other legislation relating to personal data and rights such as the Human Rights Act 1998.

Who are we?

This Privacy Notice is provided to you by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) of All Saints’ Child’s Hill which is the data controller for your data.

The Church of England is made up of a number of different organisations and office-holders who work together to deliver the Church’s mission in each community. The PCC works together with:

  • the incumbent of the parish (that is, our priest-in-charge);
  • the bishops of the Diocese of London; and
  • the London Diocesan Fund, which is responsible for the financial and administrative
    arrangements for the Diocese of London.

As the Church is made up of all of these persons and organisations working together, we may need to share personal data we hold with them so that they can carry out their responsibilities to the Church and our community. The organisations referred to above are joint data controllers. This means we are all responsible to you for how we process your data.

Each of the data controllers have their own tasks within the Church and a description of what data is processed and for what purpose is set out in this Privacy Notice. This Privacy Notice is sent to you by the PCC on our own behalf and on behalf of each of these data controllers. In the rest of this Privacy Notice, we use the word “we” to refer to each data controller, as appropriate.

What data do the data controllers listed above process?

They will process some or all of the following where necessary to perform their tasks:

  • Names, titles, and aliases, photographs;
  • Contact details such as telephone numbers, addresses, and email addresses;
  • Where they are relevant to our mission, or where you provide them to us, we may process
    demographic information such as gender, age, date of birth, marital status, nationality, education/work histories, academic/professional qualifications, hobbies, family composition, and dependants;
  • Where you make donations or pay for activities such as use of a church hall, financial identifiers such as bank account numbers, payment card numbers, payment/transaction identifiers, policy numbers, and claim numbers;
  • The data we process is likely to constitute sensitive personal data because, as a church, the fact that we process your data at all may be suggestive of your religious beliefs. Where you provide this information, we may also process other categories of sensitive personal data: racial or ethnic origin, sex life, mental and physical health, details of injuries, medication/treatment received, political beliefs, labour union affiliation, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning sexual orientation and criminal records, fines and other similar judicial records.

How do we process your personal data?

The data controllers will comply with their legal obligations to keep personal data up to date; to store and destroy it securely; to not collect or retain excessive amounts of data; to keep personal data secure, and to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and to ensure that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for some or all of the following purposes:

  • To enable us to meet all legal and statutory obligations (which include maintaining and publishing our electoral roll in accordance with the Church Representation Rules);
  • To carry out comprehensive safeguarding procedures (including due diligence and complaints handling) in accordance with best safeguarding practice from time to time with the aim of ensuring that all children and adults-at-risk are provided with safe environments;
  • To minister to you and provide you with pastoral and spiritual care (such as visiting you when you are gravely ill or bereaved) and to organise and perform ecclesiastical services for you, such as baptisms, confirmations, weddings and funerals;
  • To deliver the Church’s mission to our community, and to carry out any other voluntary or charitable activities for the benefit of the public as provided for in the constitution and statutory framework of each data controller;
  • To administer the parish, deanery, archdeaconry and diocesan membership records;
  • To fundraise and promote the interests of the Church and charity;
  • To maintain our own accounts and records;
  • To process a donation that you have made (including Gift Aid information);
  • To seek your views or comments;
  • To notify you of changes to our services, events and role holders;
  • To send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about campaigns, appeals, other fundraising activities;
  • To process a grant or application for a role;
  • To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in a particular geographical
    area as specified in our constitution;
  • Our processing also includes the use of automated systems when you visit our website including cookies to help improve your experience when browsing our website and personal identifiers from your browsing history to enable us to assess the popularity of the webpages on our website, further information about our use of cookies is available on our website (https://www.allsaintschildshill.com/cookie-policy/)
  • Our processing also includes the use of CCTV systems for the prevention and prosecution of crime.

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Most of our data is processed because it is necessary for our legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of a third party (such as another organisation in the Church of England). An example of this would be our safeguarding work to protect children and adults at risk. We will always take into account your interests, rights and freedoms.

Some of our processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. For example, we are required by the Church Representation Rules to administer and publish the electoral roll, and under Canon Law to announce forthcoming weddings by means of the publication of banns.

We may also process data if it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps to enter into a contract. An example of this would be processing your data in connection with the hire of church facilities.

Religious organisations are also permitted to process information about your religious beliefs to administer membership or contact details.

Where your information is used other than in accordance with one of these legal bases, we will first obtain your consent to that use.

Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential. It will only be shared with third parties where it is necessary for the performance of our tasks or where you first give us your prior consent. It is likely that we will need to share your data with some or all of the following (but only where necessary):

  • The appropriate bodies of the Church of England including the other data controllers;
  • Our agents, servants and contractors. For example, we may ask a commercial provider to send out newsletters on our behalf, or to maintain our database software;
  • Other clergy or lay persons nominated or licensed by the bishops of the Diocese of London to support the mission of the Church in our parish. For example, our clergy are supported by our area dean and archdeacon, who may provide confidential mentoring and pastoral support. Assistant or temporary ministers, including curates, deacons, licensed lay ministers, commissioned lay ministers or persons with Bishop’s Permissions may participate in our mission in support of our regular clergy;
  • Other persons or organisations operating within the Diocese of London including, where relevant, the London Diocesan Board for Schools and Subsidiary Bodies;
  • On occasion, other churches with which we are carrying out joint events or activities.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We will keep some records permanently if we are legally required to do so. We may keep some other records for an extended period of time. For example, it is current best practice to keep financial records for a minimum period of 7 years to support HMRC audits. In general, we will endeavour to keep data only for as long as we need it. This means that we may delete it when it is no longer needed.

Your rights and your personal data

You have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

When exercising any of the rights listed below, in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your security. In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can exercise these rights.

  1. The right to access information we hold on you
    • At any point you can contact us to request the information we hold on you as well as why we have that information, who has access to the information and where we obtained the
      information from. Once we have received your request we will respond within one month.
    • There are no fees or charges for the first request but additional requests for the same data may be subject to an administrative fee .
  1. The right to correct and update the information we hold on you
    • If the data we hold on you is out of date, incomplete or incorrect, you can inform us and your data will be updated.
  1. The right to have your information erased
    • If you feel that we should no longer be using your data or that we are illegally using your data, you can request that we erase the data we hold.
    • When we receive your request we will confirm whether the data has been deleted or the reason why it cannot be deleted (for example because we need it for our legitimate interests or regulatory purpose(s)).
  1. The right to object to processing of your data
    • You have the right to request that we stop processing your data. Upon receiving the request we will contact you and let you know if we are able to comply or if we have legitimate grounds to continue to process your data. Even after you exercise your right to object, we may continue to hold your data to comply with your other rights or to bring or defend legal claims.
  1. The right to data portability
    • You have the right to request that we transfer some of your data to another controller. We will comply with your request, where it is feasible to do so, within one month of receiving your request.
  1. The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time for any processing of data to which consent was sought.
    • You can withdraw your consent easily by telephone, email, or by post (see Contact Details below).
  1. The right to object to the processing of personal data where applicable.
  2. The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Transfer of Data Abroad

Any electronic personal data transferred to countries or territories outside the EU will only be placed on systems complying with measures giving equivalent protection of personal rights either through international agreements or contracts approved by the European Union. Our website is also accessible from overseas so on occasion some personal data (for example in a newsletter) may be accessed from overseas.

Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

Contact Details

Please contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the information we hold about you or to exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints at:

The Data Controller,
All Saints’ Church
Church Walk, Child’s Hill
London, NW2 2TJ
Email: [email protected]

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

If you have any question regarding our privacy policy, please contact us.