Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood – Day 38 – Maundy Thursday
To Read:
“Owl” said Pooh. “I have thought of something.”
“Astute and Helpful Bear,” said Owl.
Pooh looked proud at being called a stout and helpful bear, and said modestly that he just happened to think of it. [If] you tied a piece of string to Piglet, and you flew up to the letter-box, with the other end in your beak, and you pushed it through the wire and brought it down to the floor, and you and Pooh pulled hard at this end, and Piglet went slowly up at the other end. And there you were.
“And there Piglet is,” said Owl. “If the string doesn’t break.”
“Supposing it does?” asked Piglet, really wanting to know.
“Then we try another piece of string.”
This was not very comforting to Piglet, because however many pieces of string they tried pulling up with, it would always be the same him coming down; but still, it did seem the only thing to do. So with one last look back in his mind at all the happy hours he had spent in the Forest not being pulled up to the ceiling by a piece of string, Piglet nodded bravely at Pooh and said that it was a Very Clever pup-pup-pup Clever pup-pup Plan.
“It won’t break,” whispered Pooh comfortingly,
“Because you’re a Small Animal, and I’ll stand underneath, and if you save us all, it will be a Very Grand Thing to talk about afterwards, and perhaps I’ll make up a Song, and people will say ‘It was so grand what Piglet did that a Respectful Pooh Song was made about it!’”
Piglet felt much better after this, and when everything was ready, and he found himself slowly going up to the ceiling, he was so proud that he would have called out “Look at me!” if he hadn’t been afraid that Pooh and Owl would let go of their end of the string and look at him.
“Up we go!” said Pooh cheerfully.
“The ascent is proceeding as expected,” said Owl helpfully. Soon it was over. Piglet opened the letter-box and climbed in. Then, having untied himself, he began to squeeze into the slit, through which in the old days when front doors were front doors, many an unexpected letter that WOL had written to himself, had come slipping.
He squeezed and he sqoze, and then with one last squze he was out.
Happy and excited he turned round to squeak a last message to the prisoners.
“It’s all right,” he called through the letter-box.
“Your tree is blown right over, Owl, and there’s a branch across the door, but Christopher Robin and I can move it, and we’ll bring a rope for Pooh, and I’ll go and tell him now, and I can climb down quite easily, I mean it’s dangerous but I can do it all right, and Christopher Robin and I will be back in about half an hour. Good-bye, Pooh!” And without waiting to hear Pooh’s answering “Good-bye, and thank you, Piglet,” he was off.
(The House at Pooh Corner – In Which Piglet Does a Very Grand Thing)
From the Scriptures:
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
(Hebrews 2v14-15)
To Reflect:
“And there Piglet is,” said Owl. “If the string doesn’t break.”
“Supposing it does?” asked Piglet, really wanting to know.
“Then we try another piece of string.”
This was not very comforting to Piglet, because however many pieces of string they tried pulling up with, it would always be the same him coming down;
It was in July 1985 that I was the most frightened. I was vicar of St Andrew’s Church, Standerton in the then South-Easter Transvaal. The South African Apartheid government was increasing its pressure on Desmond Tutu who was then, as Bishop of Johannesburg, was my Diocesan Bishop. To support Desmond the Archbishop of Canterbury had sent Bishop Keith Sutton to South Africa to stand in solidarity with him. Keith and Desmond led a large open-air church service in Kwa-Thema township which I was determined to attend to show support for my beloved bishop and friend. On the day of the service a nationwide curfew was pronounced and only essential travel was permitted. On the road outside Standerton I was stopped at a Military Roadblock and questioned by an army officer as to why I was travelling. I replied that I was a vicar going to a church service, he cautioned me about the possibility of ‘terrorists’ being abroad, and let me go on my way. What made it frightening was that all the time we were speaking a teenage conscript, compelled to complete ‘National Service’[1] in the Apartheid army, was standing on the right front corner of my car. He had his FN rifle raised to his shoulder, with the safety catch off, and pointed it directly at my head. His trembling finger resting on the trigger instead of around the trigger guard…
This was not the only time since I have been in Holy Orders I have been threatened with a fire arm but it is the one when I prayed the deepest and hardest. Fear is a terrible thing. It can cripple people completely. Forcing them into inaction or flight it is why it is one of the most effective tools in the armoury of oppressive regimes all over the world. My personal coping mechanism in these times of fear was to use a prayer from the Science Fiction novel Dune. The Litany against Fear saw me through many a time of confrontation with the army and arrest by the police;
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past,
I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
(Frank Herbert – Dune)
I know not if Piglet was in the habit of praying but if he was I hope he had resources such as this as he faced the fear of several pieces of string failing and it. ‘always being the same him coming down.’ Bravery is much easier when you suggest, as do Pooh and Owl, that someone else takes the risk.
Fear sucks the life out of you. Fear freezes you. Fear belittles you and empties you of any sense of self-worth or empowerment. Fear invoked by a religion is, of all fears, perhaps the most pernicious.
Remember my picture of God I had during my adolescence that I described earlier in these reflections? The angry old man with a beard; a God who is ‘out to get you’? Time and time again I find faithful people brow-beaten by ear thrust upon them by soldiers masquerading as shepherds. The Good News cannot involve fear or coercion in any way or form at all. Read again the words of the hymn written by the great missionary Francis Xavier;
My God, I love Thee, not because
I hope for heav’n thereby,
nor yet for fear that, loving not,
I might forever die.
But for that Thou didst all mankind
upon the cross embrace;
for us didst bear the nails and spear,
and manifold disgrace;
Today’s Scripture reading, written in the light of the events of the next few days, needs to be shouted from rooftops. Our Beloved made his throne the Cross of Calvary so that He might;
…free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
(Hebrews 2v15)
Our Beloved died that we might be free from fear! Knowing this we can rejoice in the knowledge that the death of our Beloved banishes fear and we are able to live life in all its fullness because ‘There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear’ (1 John 4v18)
To Pray:
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.
For though from out our bourne of time and place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson – Crossing the Bar)
To Do:
1) What frightens you the most? Give it to our Beloved sometime in the next few days and aim to leave it in God’s care.
2) Though we have nothing to fear about death nonetheless all of us will die. Before the end of this year write (or review) your will in the light of the knowledge that our Beloved does indeed hold the whole world in His hands.
(P.S. The Church of England provides a free will writing service which is available at https://www.churchofengland.org/our-faith/lasting-gift-your-church/writing-your-will)
Please Note: These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Twitter as @SuffolkVicar, and on my public Facebook page Rev Andrew Dotchin
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Acknowledgements:
Text from ‘Winnie the Pooh’ and ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ by A.A. Milne copyright © The Trustees of the Pooh Properties.
Line illustrations copyright © The Estate of E.H. Shepard.
Colouring of the illustrations copyright © 1970 and 1973 The Estate of E.H. Shepard and HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Prayers are from ‘The Little Book of Prayers’ edited by David Schiller copyright © David Schiller 1996: Workman Publications.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
These Reflections, ‘Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2024
[1] The second most frightening time in my life was when attending a meeting of the End Conscription Campaign when I was supporting one of the 6th Form students at St Martin’s School, Rosettenville where I had just been appointed as their chaplain.
Suffolk Vicar 