Squatting Crook of Helpringham

On the walls of Helpringham Church in Lincolnshire, the usual carved faces of haughty kings and pious dames appear on the external windows. One, however, appears to represent a different type of character. He appears to be a dastardly schemer, a shameless crook, a man crouched down in his plotting, leering at the onlooker as he anticipates his next move. Alternatively, he is squatting while his bowels move. Either way, it is not a terribly endearing or inspirational motif for the side of a parish church. Quite what the masons or their paymasters had in mind, one cannot tell.

Suffice to say, Christians comes from all shades and backgrounds. Some of us were villains and ne’er-do-wells, and even now, we are not spared the work-a-day chores and inconveniences of everyday existence. Yet this man, upon whom the carving was modelled, has been given an immortality by this sculpture, unflattering though it is. Christ often picks the ordinary, the vile and the undesirable for membership of His Kingdom. Not many of us are noble, not may of us are wise, but rather

God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.