Dear Friend
Today we celebrate the life of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury in the latter half of the 10th century. It was a good time for the church, Dunstan achieved a revival in monastic life in England and the King at the time, Edgar, was known as ‘Edgar the Peaceful/peaceable’. It was, in fact, a time of growth after a time of some chaos.
The reading for Dunstan is taken from Exodus 31 (verses 1-5):
2 The LORD spoke to Moses: See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: 3 and I have filled him with divine spirit, with ability, intelligence, and knowledge in every kind of craft, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, in every kind of craft.
God, reminding Moses of the gifts that have been given to Bezalel who was obviously a keen craftsman.
The reason I have chosen to bring this to your attention today is because I am reminded of the revival in the use of craft skills, knowledge and ingenuity that is taking place at the moment, while we are still finding things to do with our time (for those of us who are stuck at home at present) and finding ways of reusing items to take the place of things we would usually just nip out and purchase. You may or may not have heard about the small ‘army’ of people who have got out old sewing machines and are making scrubs for hospital, care home and hospice staff to cover the shortages in PPE, often out of old bed sheets, curtains etc – and fantastic things like this are happening up and down the country. People using the skills and expertise they have to ‘fill the gap’ while we are struggling as a country. Look at the amount of music that is being played on Thursday evenings, the arts on offer through the internet, the creative ways in which television drama is now being written and filmed.
We all have skills from God that enable us to appreciate at least some element of the arts, whether that is homespun (cooking and sewing and gardening) or slightly more ‘highbrow’. We are, thanks to God, a people that can learn, applying our talents to new areas. Bezalel certainly applied the gifts he had been given to help God’s mission – he was in charge of building the Ark of the Covenant, and was key in building the tabernacle as God’s people went into exodus.
There are two points of reflection we can all take from this. Firstly, how have we applied the gifts God has given us during this time? Have we grown as individuals and developed those gifts for the betterment of God’s people? And secondly, have we put ourselves in a position where we will be able to develop the Kingdom at the end of this, as Dunstan was able to do under King Edgar? We may not wish to rebuild monastic life in England (although I applaud if that is your aim!), but we should be better placed to achieve something. Maybe these are points we could dwell on as we approach the Feast of the Ascension this Thursday.
A prayer for today: Lord, as St Dunstan used the gifts you gave him and as Bezalel used his, may we too follow in their footsteps and make the most of this day and the gifts you have given us. We remain thankful for your generosity and trust that we, in our turn, might pass that on and play our part in multiplying that generosity in some small way, as you determine. Amen.
With every blessing Linda