Worthy Farm. The fields, the fence, the green hills turning blue as the tents spread over them.
People on a journey together. People coming together from different directions to one place. And the disciples, people setting out on a journey, in different directions, not with tents, not even with a bag or a spare shirt. Labourers to the harvest. People setting out into the fields.
Journeying and staying.
William Langland.
In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne,
I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were,
- he gets dressed for the road and he sets out to see wonders.
Ac on a May morwenynge on Malverne hilles
Me bifel a ferly, of Fairye me thoghte.
He lies down to sleep by a stream and he dreams
That I was in a wildernesse, wiste I nevere where.
In the east, high up, near the sun, a triple tower on a hill, the home of Truth. Below, a dungeon in a deep dark valley.
A fair feeld ful of folk fond I ther bitwene --
Of alle manere of men, the meene and the riche,
Werchynge and wandrynge as the world asketh.
Middle Earth.
The people of God in the wilderness are looking for the Land. The disciples are setting out to bring people news of a kingdom. The people at the Festival are looking for all sorts of things; for something different, away from the ordinary. A man covered in mud from head to foot, wearing nothing but a loincloth; coming back to the tent to say thanks, and not being recognised; quite likely, a few days later, back to work in a suit and tie. Temporary, muddy, but a kind of transformation. Whereas the people in Langland's field - and maybe they are most like us - aren't looking for anything in particular, they're just getting on with things. Most of them aren't expecting much.
The Land is elusive. They're on the brink, about to cross the river. Or they're in exile wondering what went wrong. Or they're back, but it's still wrong, under foreign occupation. So in Jesus' time; and Jesus, living in the Land, talks about the kingdom of God. A kingdom of fields, fish, trees, seeds, the persecuted, the poor in spirit, yeast in bread, buried treasure, children, feasts, vineyards. Some people will hear the news of this kingdom, and some will reject it, and when people reject it, he says, shake the dust of that place off your feet: but all the same tell them the kingdom has come near.
Do we live in the kingdom, or in the field full of folk? Or both?
Both.
Are we setting out, or making camp, or hoping that finally we can settle down?
On the way.
Emmaus.
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