At the beginning of October in the year 1066, William the Conqueror set foot on British soil, as his army started to gather in south-east England, just a couple of weeks before the Battle of Hastings. 1066 is one of those dates that most people can remember, and it turned out to be a defining moment in British history, as William led his forces defeat King Harold's Saxon army. The rest, as they say, is history.
At a time when our relationship with Europe is under such close scrutiny, it’s worth remembering that William’s conquest of Britain started to shape our nation in ways that we still see today; our code of law and the institutions of local and national government that we take for granted, can trace their roots right back to that time.
Quite a few years ago, I was lucky enough to visit the famous tapestry at Bayeux in Normandy that tells the tale of 1066; it’s an exquisite piece of work, 70 metres long, that even includes a rather graphic illustration of King Harold losing his life at the hands of a French archer - one in the eye for the King, in every sense! But there's a character in the story who's rarely mentioned, yet who finds a place in the tapestry that adds a further layer to the narrative: William the Conqueror's half-brother was called Odo, and he was the Bishop of Bayeux. As a man of God, he was forbidden from carrying a sword so, instead, he's portrayed wielding a wooden club, with the caption in Latin, 'Bishop Odo, comforts the troops'.
Presumably his role was to encourage the soldiers to take the fight to the Saxon army, whether that was a reassuring word in their ear, or the threat of a whack with a pretty fearsome looking stick! I'm not sure any of us would have relished an encounter with Bishop Odo, even at his most comforting, but I’m reminded of the person who summed up their understanding of God as being the one who 'disturbs the comfortable and comforts the disturbed'. God’s Holy Spirit is often described as being ‘The Comforter’: the one who gives an assurance of comfort and consolation in the ups, downs and complexities of life that may confront any of us in the course of today.
Faith is not some sort of benign reassurance that everything will somehow turn out OK if we sign up to a particular creed or doctrine. Rather, having faith is a challenging reminder that, sometimes, we all need to be provoked or encouraged in our words or choices. Sometimes those decisions will affect the future of nations, the wellbeing of our families or the everyday stuff of life; and sometimes, a poke with a proverbial stick may be just what we need to focus our minds.
Bishop Odo is the one wielding the big stick of ‘encouragement’!