Sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull at 9.15 and 11am Eucharists
Sunday 28th September 2008 – SS Michael, Gabriel and Raphael
Readings: Genesis 28: 10-17 Revelation 12: 7-12 John 1: 47-51
Today we celebrate Michaelmas, or more precisely the feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Now Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are not ordinary saints, but rather they are angels and so it is not surprising that this feast is sometimes known as St Michael and All Angels.
“And what are angels?” you might well ask. Well angels are spiritual beings which do not have bodies. They are creatures, that is to say they were created by God (Col 1: 16), but they seem to have been well established by the time that Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1, 24). As spiritual beings, angels have their own personalities and their own free will. Some angels have chosen (as we are all free to choose) to rebel against God and to try to go their own way. These we call demons and we think of the Devil, the prince of all demons, who we read about being cast out of heaven by St Michael in our second reading today (see also 2 Peter 2: 4, Jude 6). When we use the word “angel” we are generally not thinking of demons, but rather we mean spiritual beings that are good. That is spiritual being who choose to use their free will in harmony with the will of God. They choose to do God’s work. In fact, according to St Augustine, the word “angel”, which means “messenger”, is more of a job title than a description of a particular kind of being. Psalm 103 (v20) tells us that angels are “might ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word”. So angels are powerful, spiritual beings who are the messengers of God and who do God’s will.
Now if angels are spiritual beings, who can’t been seen or touched in the visible world in which we live, how do we know anything about them? How do we even know they exist? Well first of all, angels are always much closer than we think. Psalm 34 (v7) tells us that “the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them” and psalm 97 (9-16) tells us that God will deliver those who love him, sending angels to guard them and bear them up. And so we can believe that we each have a guardian angel walking always beside us and protecting us. Certainly Jesus is thinking this when he talks about children. He says, “take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my father” (Matt 18:10). And with angels always so close to us and looking after us it is perhaps not so surprising that we do sometimes meet people who have had some experience of the presence of angels, or of angels protecting them in moments of crisis.
And this certainly seems to have been the experience of God’s people over the centuries. We find that our holy scriptures are full of references to angels. They crop up in literally hundreds of places. As our readings today illustrate, they are spread throughout the bible from Genesis, the very first book, to Revelation, the last book. We find them especially at critical moments in our salvation history; when Abraham is about sacrifice his son Isaac, when Moses is called by God to set the Israelites free, when the Blessed Virgin Mary is told she is to expect the child Jesus, at the resurrection of Christ. The other place that they appear a lot in scripture in where there are visions of heaven. Our reading from Genesis and Revelation both include visions of heaven where lots of angels were seen.
It is interesting to note that it is not just the Christian scriptures that talk about angels. The Jews and the Muslims, who also worship the God of Abraham, also have a great deal about angels in their scriptures. Michael and Gabriel are mentioned in the Muslims holy book, the Koran. The Jewish Talmud has extraordinary details about many angels including Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. It describes many different ranks of angels, and the many different heights of heaven.
And what is so special about the angels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael? Well they are the only three angels to be named in the bible. Michael is the leader of the armies of God, as we heard in our reading from Revelation. Gabriel is the angel who tells Zachariah that he is to father John the Baptist, and tells the Blessed Virgin Mary that she is to mother Jesus. Raphael appears in the apocryphal book of Tobit. He heals Tobit’s eyes so that he can see again.
So that is a bit about angels, but why are angels so important to us in our Christian lives? Well firstly they are important to us because of the practical help that they can give us in our journey towards God. I am thinking here especially of the angels that are close to us all the time, guarding us and protecting us; our guardian angels. But really this is true of all angels. As the book of Hebrews puts it, “Are not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). With so much help available near at hand, we do well to grow in awareness of angels, thanking god for them and sharing with them in the praising of God.
But angels are also important because they show us something of the high court of heaven. Every now and again the scriptures give us a glimpse of the majesty, splendour and awe of heaven. We saw some of this in our scripture readings today, but it happens many times. [I particularly love the passage in Isaiah when Isaiah describes his vision of the throne of God (Isaiah 6: 1-5). There are seraphs in attendance all around singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” And the thresholds shake at their singing, and the house is filled with smoke. And then there is the moment when Jesus is born and a multitude of the heavenly host appeared before the shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace and goodwill among people” (Luke 2: 13-14).]
And the extraordinary thing is that we are called to share in this life of heaven. God wants each one of us to be part of it all. In Luke chapter 20 (v35-36) Jesus is talking about resurrection and marriage. He says, “But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection”. We are called to share in this life of heaven and in the holiness of God (Heb 3: 1, 12: 10) like the angels. We know that all this is only fully realised after the resurrection of the dead. We know that we have a long journey to walk before we get there, because we know that we are far from being angels at the moment. But despite this, there is a sense in which it is true already. If we are in Christ then we are already part of this new creation (2 Cor 5:17). And perhaps our best chance of being aware of this is at the Eucharist, where we join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven to praise the glorious name of God. In the Eucharist, Jesus shares his life with us. Truly it is a foretaste of the great heavenly banquet to which we are called (Revelation 19: 9). Let’s try to place ourselves in that reality as we receive Holy Communion today.
28 September 2008
21 September 2008
Human fairness and God's justice
Sermon 21/09/08
Preached at the Eucharist at St Catherine’s, Catherine-de-Barnes at 11am on
Sunday 21st September 2008 - Trinity 18 – Proper 20 – Year A
Readings: Jonah 3: 10 - 4:11 Philippians 1: 21-30 Matthew 20: 1-16
In 1987 I joined British Gas as employee. At that time in British Gas there used to be an annual pay negotiation. The unions would argue that gas workers should get a pay rise to give them parity with what was earned by staff in telecoms or the electricity board. The management would argue that a more appropriate comparison was with council workers and the water board, and gas employees already received more than what theses groups earned. In the end a compromise was always worked out, but to achieve this, the management and unions had to put aside their chosen comparisons and focus on what made sense for the gas industry.
We know that comparison with other people is a very common way of determining appropriate pay in the working world. But we also know from today’s gospel reading that this is NOT how the kingdom of heaven works! In the parable there were some workers who had started work in the early morning, some had started at 9, some at noon, some at 3 and some at 5. At 6, when everybody finished work and was paid the landowner chose to give each one the normal full daily wage. It is very, very easy for us human beings to understand why the people who started work first thing in the morning might find that frustrating. The landowner has been very generous to some people, who started work late. Those who started early might well hope that he will be generous with them too. In fact he pays exactly what was originally agreed, which felt like a fair wage when it was agreed, but now suddenly it feels very stingy because other people have done a lot better.
But Jesus tells us that this is what the kingdom of heaven of like! The truth is that God gives out his gifts just as he pleases to each different person. We should not make comparisons between different people, because if we do we soon start to think, “It’s not fair!” And it is certainly true that on a comparative basis life can be very “unfair”. This “unfairness” is most obvious in the way people are born. Some people are born rich, beautiful and intelligent. Others are born poor, ugly and stupid. Some people are born into good families, are loved by their parents and grow up secure and happy. Other people are born into miserable family situations and grow up believing that nobody is out to help them and everybody is out to exploit them. But “comparative unfairness” is not just about birth. As we grow up, some people land good jobs, and buy into the housing market just before a housing boom. Other people struggle with jobs and get caught in negative equity traps on their mortgages. Some people enjoy good health, some people have poor health and some people die young from accidents or terrible diseases.
And religious gifts are not dished out equally either. Why should God have a “chosen people”? Are they any better than the rest of us? Why did God choose the Blessed Virgin Mary to be “blessed among women” (Luke 1: 42)? Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem and not in Catherine-de-Barnes?
If we think in comparative terms we can quickly start to see God as very unfair. We can even start to feel resentful or indignant towards God. But of course we know we should not think about God in this way. So why is it that God seems so completely unconcerned about fairness from a human perspective? Well this is something of a mystery which we need to ponder over time. But there is a big difference between the justice of God, and our human notions of fairness, especially comparative fairness. I would like to set out a few pointers to help us ponder the mystery.
First of all there is something very personal about our relationship with God. Each of us is completely unique. Each of us is loved by God in a way that exactly and perfectly matches our uniqueness. For each of us God has a plan, a route to eternal life, and this plan, this journey is very specifically ours; nobody else can walk the journey for us, nobody else can experience God in exactly the same way as we do. So the challenge for each one of us is not to grumble about the gifts that God has evidently given to other people, but rather to discover and make the most of and to rejoice in the gifts that God has specifically given to us personally.
Secondly, in the Church, the body of Christ, the community of Christian people the gift that God gives to one person is not solely for the benefit of that person but is for the benefit of the whole community. We all need to use our gifts for the benefit of the others. The one who can welcome, should welcome on behalf of us all. The one who can pray well should pray well on behalf of us all, the one who can make tea and coffee should do it for us all. We need to develop a culture of giving, of sharing. When we get to heaven I suspect that we will find that our gifts and good fortunes will be so perfectly shared among us that we will not pause to worry about which individual God originally gave them to.
Thirdly, as human beings we are created for eternal life. The time we spend on this earth is relatively brief, and although things might seem unfair in this earthly life they might look very different over all eternity. Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven, blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled, blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh,” (Luke 6: 20-21). St Paul teaches that the sufferings of this present life are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed (Romans 8: 18) and Peter preaches that after we have suffered for a little we will be restored, supported, strengthened and established by God (1 Peter 5:10).
Fourthly it was through his passion and death that Christ reconciled us to God. When we approach our sufferings in fellowship with Christ in his sufferings then they become immensely valuable. Through fellowship with Christ in his sufferings we can hope for fellowship with Christ in his resurrection and new life. Even if some people seem to suffer more than others in this life, we should not assume that they are less blessed. In fact the opposite might be true. Surely Jesus suffered greatly, and surely he is greatly blessed.
And I believe that we can use these four pointers to align our own lives with the kingdom of heaven, and to make our communities more like heaven. In particular we make our own contribution by seeking to walk the path that God has planned for us personally, discovering all its beauty and potential. We should not worry, but rather should rejoice, if God appears to have given other very attractive looking paths to other people. And we must also work on that culture of giving. The good things we have been given are given to us for the benefit of all. We need to be generous in giving and in receiving. Let’s not be too proud or ashamed to share in the good things that God has given to others. Rather, let’s give thanks and rejoice when this happens, because we start to make earth look more like the kingdom of heaven that Jesus described.
Preached at the Eucharist at St Catherine’s, Catherine-de-Barnes at 11am on
Sunday 21st September 2008 - Trinity 18 – Proper 20 – Year A
Readings: Jonah 3: 10 - 4:11 Philippians 1: 21-30 Matthew 20: 1-16
In 1987 I joined British Gas as employee. At that time in British Gas there used to be an annual pay negotiation. The unions would argue that gas workers should get a pay rise to give them parity with what was earned by staff in telecoms or the electricity board. The management would argue that a more appropriate comparison was with council workers and the water board, and gas employees already received more than what theses groups earned. In the end a compromise was always worked out, but to achieve this, the management and unions had to put aside their chosen comparisons and focus on what made sense for the gas industry.
We know that comparison with other people is a very common way of determining appropriate pay in the working world. But we also know from today’s gospel reading that this is NOT how the kingdom of heaven works! In the parable there were some workers who had started work in the early morning, some had started at 9, some at noon, some at 3 and some at 5. At 6, when everybody finished work and was paid the landowner chose to give each one the normal full daily wage. It is very, very easy for us human beings to understand why the people who started work first thing in the morning might find that frustrating. The landowner has been very generous to some people, who started work late. Those who started early might well hope that he will be generous with them too. In fact he pays exactly what was originally agreed, which felt like a fair wage when it was agreed, but now suddenly it feels very stingy because other people have done a lot better.
But Jesus tells us that this is what the kingdom of heaven of like! The truth is that God gives out his gifts just as he pleases to each different person. We should not make comparisons between different people, because if we do we soon start to think, “It’s not fair!” And it is certainly true that on a comparative basis life can be very “unfair”. This “unfairness” is most obvious in the way people are born. Some people are born rich, beautiful and intelligent. Others are born poor, ugly and stupid. Some people are born into good families, are loved by their parents and grow up secure and happy. Other people are born into miserable family situations and grow up believing that nobody is out to help them and everybody is out to exploit them. But “comparative unfairness” is not just about birth. As we grow up, some people land good jobs, and buy into the housing market just before a housing boom. Other people struggle with jobs and get caught in negative equity traps on their mortgages. Some people enjoy good health, some people have poor health and some people die young from accidents or terrible diseases.
And religious gifts are not dished out equally either. Why should God have a “chosen people”? Are they any better than the rest of us? Why did God choose the Blessed Virgin Mary to be “blessed among women” (Luke 1: 42)? Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem and not in Catherine-de-Barnes?
If we think in comparative terms we can quickly start to see God as very unfair. We can even start to feel resentful or indignant towards God. But of course we know we should not think about God in this way. So why is it that God seems so completely unconcerned about fairness from a human perspective? Well this is something of a mystery which we need to ponder over time. But there is a big difference between the justice of God, and our human notions of fairness, especially comparative fairness. I would like to set out a few pointers to help us ponder the mystery.
First of all there is something very personal about our relationship with God. Each of us is completely unique. Each of us is loved by God in a way that exactly and perfectly matches our uniqueness. For each of us God has a plan, a route to eternal life, and this plan, this journey is very specifically ours; nobody else can walk the journey for us, nobody else can experience God in exactly the same way as we do. So the challenge for each one of us is not to grumble about the gifts that God has evidently given to other people, but rather to discover and make the most of and to rejoice in the gifts that God has specifically given to us personally.
Secondly, in the Church, the body of Christ, the community of Christian people the gift that God gives to one person is not solely for the benefit of that person but is for the benefit of the whole community. We all need to use our gifts for the benefit of the others. The one who can welcome, should welcome on behalf of us all. The one who can pray well should pray well on behalf of us all, the one who can make tea and coffee should do it for us all. We need to develop a culture of giving, of sharing. When we get to heaven I suspect that we will find that our gifts and good fortunes will be so perfectly shared among us that we will not pause to worry about which individual God originally gave them to.
Thirdly, as human beings we are created for eternal life. The time we spend on this earth is relatively brief, and although things might seem unfair in this earthly life they might look very different over all eternity. Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven, blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled, blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh,” (Luke 6: 20-21). St Paul teaches that the sufferings of this present life are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed (Romans 8: 18) and Peter preaches that after we have suffered for a little we will be restored, supported, strengthened and established by God (1 Peter 5:10).
Fourthly it was through his passion and death that Christ reconciled us to God. When we approach our sufferings in fellowship with Christ in his sufferings then they become immensely valuable. Through fellowship with Christ in his sufferings we can hope for fellowship with Christ in his resurrection and new life. Even if some people seem to suffer more than others in this life, we should not assume that they are less blessed. In fact the opposite might be true. Surely Jesus suffered greatly, and surely he is greatly blessed.
And I believe that we can use these four pointers to align our own lives with the kingdom of heaven, and to make our communities more like heaven. In particular we make our own contribution by seeking to walk the path that God has planned for us personally, discovering all its beauty and potential. We should not worry, but rather should rejoice, if God appears to have given other very attractive looking paths to other people. And we must also work on that culture of giving. The good things we have been given are given to us for the benefit of all. We need to be generous in giving and in receiving. Let’s not be too proud or ashamed to share in the good things that God has given to others. Rather, let’s give thanks and rejoice when this happens, because we start to make earth look more like the kingdom of heaven that Jesus described.
Justice of God
Thought for parish pew slip
Sunday 21st September 2008 - Trinity 18 – Proper 20 – Year A
Readings: Jonah 3: 10 - 4:11 Philippians 1: 21-30 Matthew 20: 1-16
Our scripture readings today are about people getting what is rightfully due to them. This is the justice of God.
Our Old Testament lesson tells us about Jonah, who had been sent to tell the people of Nineveh of a great disaster that God was planning to inflict on their city. The people of Nineveh repented of their wickedness and changed their ways. God was pleased and decided not to destroy the city. Unfortunately Jonah saw this as a major loss of face and was angry with God. God taught Jonah a lesson to make him understand how much God cares for Nineveh and its people.
In his letter to the Philippians, St Paul ascribes great value to the privilege of suffering for Christ. This has been Paul’s path and it has led him to an extraordinary confidence in God, such that he is equally happy to carry on living or to die and be with Christ.
In our gospel reading some workers who have received a just wage feel they have been treated unfairly compared to other workers who have received a generous wage. The rewards of the kingdom of heaven might be just or generous, but it is not for us to make comparisons. Converting the good things others have is always a problem (e.g. Exodus 20: 17).
Sunday 21st September 2008 - Trinity 18 – Proper 20 – Year A
Readings: Jonah 3: 10 - 4:11 Philippians 1: 21-30 Matthew 20: 1-16
Our scripture readings today are about people getting what is rightfully due to them. This is the justice of God.
Our Old Testament lesson tells us about Jonah, who had been sent to tell the people of Nineveh of a great disaster that God was planning to inflict on their city. The people of Nineveh repented of their wickedness and changed their ways. God was pleased and decided not to destroy the city. Unfortunately Jonah saw this as a major loss of face and was angry with God. God taught Jonah a lesson to make him understand how much God cares for Nineveh and its people.
In his letter to the Philippians, St Paul ascribes great value to the privilege of suffering for Christ. This has been Paul’s path and it has led him to an extraordinary confidence in God, such that he is equally happy to carry on living or to die and be with Christ.
In our gospel reading some workers who have received a just wage feel they have been treated unfairly compared to other workers who have received a generous wage. The rewards of the kingdom of heaven might be just or generous, but it is not for us to make comparisons. Converting the good things others have is always a problem (e.g. Exodus 20: 17).
14 September 2008
The Secret Weapon
Informal sermon preached a Solihull 6th Scout Group Camp at Broadwater Scout Campsite, Meriden, Warwickshire on Sunday 14th September, 1.30pm.
Camp theme of “Army”.
Reading: Ephesians 6: 10-17
Very often in Christianity we are taking about love and peace and joy. So it might seem surprising that Christianity has anything to say about army camps, weapons, battles and wars. But in fact Christianity has quite a lot to say about weapons and wars, and that’s because one way of thinking about the spiritual life is thinking of it as a war.
Certainly the spiritual life can be like a war. On the one side we have God and Christ and all the angles and saints and all the hosts of heaven, and even us too, to the extent that we are managing to live in our saintly selves, following God and rejecting evil. On the other side we have the Devil and his demons and all the powers of hell, and perhaps even us too if we are rejecting God and his ways.
And what is the war between these two armies about? Well it is a war that is fought at every level. First of all it is about you and me. Are we choosing God or are we choosing the Devil? Are we choosing heaven or hell? Are we trying to become what God created us to be, or are we rejecting God and going our own way? And then it is about our families. Are they following God, or going away from God? And it is about our communities, our nation and our world. At every level this great war rages, and we need to do our part to be a good soldier of God.
Now let’s hear our reading: Ephesians 6: 10-17
So did you manage to follow that? Did you hear St Paul talking about the struggle against the spiritual forces of evil? Paul tells us to take up the whole armour of God, in order to stand firm in this great battle. He tells us to use the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith which protects us from all the arrows of the enemy. Paul tells us to take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, the word of God. And with all these weapons and all this protection we can fight well in the army of God.
But as Christians we have another weapon, a secret weapon, more powerful and more extraordinary that all the rest. This is the cross of Christ. Today, 14th September is a special day, Holy Cross Day, when we think about the cross of Christ and how it helps us in the great battle against the Devil.
When we fight in this battle, when we try to do good, when we try to love other people, when we try to walk in God’s ways and follow in his paths, we find very often that things go wrong. Very often things do not turn out as we had hoped. We find that we fail to do good. We find that we are let down by faults in us and by faults in other people. We encounter sufferings. We suffer disappointments and we can easily get discouraged. And this is exactly what happened to Jesus. Jesus spent his whole life doing good and preaching good and helping other people, and yet many people disliked him and in the end they arrested him and killed him on the cross. And at that point it looked like his life had been a complete failure. His friends had run away. He had been killed in a most horrible way. It looked like the war had been lost. It looked like the complete triumph of evil.
But on the third day God raised him from the dead. God is the source of life. Jesus is God and has life within himself. Death cannot hold Jesus. Even the very worst things that can happen, even disasters, even death, cannot keep Jesus down. He comes back with new life, new wisdom to share, new hope and with a great healing of all our broken relationships. And through the cross of Jesus we too can share in the destiny of Jesus. If we walk in the ways of Jesus we know that whatever goes wrong, what ever disasters befall, whatever deaths we die, we will continue to have life in Christ. Love is from God, and when we live in love, we live in God and death cannot hold on to us. So we can fight in the battle against evil with enormous confidence. We do not need to fear, because our secret weapon means that whatever goes wrong, whatever disasters befall, we will be alright in the end. If we follow in the way of Christ then, by his cross, we cannot lose the battle. The suffering and death of the cross make us invincible!
So let’s take courage! Let’s play our part in the great spiritual battle. Let’s struggle always for good, for the love of others. Let’s walk in the ways of God and reject evil. And when things go wrong let’s trust in the cross of Jesus, the secret weapon that wins the victory.
Camp theme of “Army”.
Reading: Ephesians 6: 10-17
Very often in Christianity we are taking about love and peace and joy. So it might seem surprising that Christianity has anything to say about army camps, weapons, battles and wars. But in fact Christianity has quite a lot to say about weapons and wars, and that’s because one way of thinking about the spiritual life is thinking of it as a war.
Certainly the spiritual life can be like a war. On the one side we have God and Christ and all the angles and saints and all the hosts of heaven, and even us too, to the extent that we are managing to live in our saintly selves, following God and rejecting evil. On the other side we have the Devil and his demons and all the powers of hell, and perhaps even us too if we are rejecting God and his ways.
And what is the war between these two armies about? Well it is a war that is fought at every level. First of all it is about you and me. Are we choosing God or are we choosing the Devil? Are we choosing heaven or hell? Are we trying to become what God created us to be, or are we rejecting God and going our own way? And then it is about our families. Are they following God, or going away from God? And it is about our communities, our nation and our world. At every level this great war rages, and we need to do our part to be a good soldier of God.
Now let’s hear our reading: Ephesians 6: 10-17
So did you manage to follow that? Did you hear St Paul talking about the struggle against the spiritual forces of evil? Paul tells us to take up the whole armour of God, in order to stand firm in this great battle. He tells us to use the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith which protects us from all the arrows of the enemy. Paul tells us to take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, the word of God. And with all these weapons and all this protection we can fight well in the army of God.
But as Christians we have another weapon, a secret weapon, more powerful and more extraordinary that all the rest. This is the cross of Christ. Today, 14th September is a special day, Holy Cross Day, when we think about the cross of Christ and how it helps us in the great battle against the Devil.
When we fight in this battle, when we try to do good, when we try to love other people, when we try to walk in God’s ways and follow in his paths, we find very often that things go wrong. Very often things do not turn out as we had hoped. We find that we fail to do good. We find that we are let down by faults in us and by faults in other people. We encounter sufferings. We suffer disappointments and we can easily get discouraged. And this is exactly what happened to Jesus. Jesus spent his whole life doing good and preaching good and helping other people, and yet many people disliked him and in the end they arrested him and killed him on the cross. And at that point it looked like his life had been a complete failure. His friends had run away. He had been killed in a most horrible way. It looked like the war had been lost. It looked like the complete triumph of evil.
But on the third day God raised him from the dead. God is the source of life. Jesus is God and has life within himself. Death cannot hold Jesus. Even the very worst things that can happen, even disasters, even death, cannot keep Jesus down. He comes back with new life, new wisdom to share, new hope and with a great healing of all our broken relationships. And through the cross of Jesus we too can share in the destiny of Jesus. If we walk in the ways of Jesus we know that whatever goes wrong, what ever disasters befall, whatever deaths we die, we will continue to have life in Christ. Love is from God, and when we live in love, we live in God and death cannot hold on to us. So we can fight in the battle against evil with enormous confidence. We do not need to fear, because our secret weapon means that whatever goes wrong, whatever disasters befall, we will be alright in the end. If we follow in the way of Christ then, by his cross, we cannot lose the battle. The suffering and death of the cross make us invincible!
So let’s take courage! Let’s play our part in the great spiritual battle. Let’s struggle always for good, for the love of others. Let’s walk in the ways of God and reject evil. And when things go wrong let’s trust in the cross of Jesus, the secret weapon that wins the victory.
Holy Cross Day
Preached at 10.00am Eucharist at St Helen’s Church, Solihull.
Sunday 14th September 2008, Holy Cross Day.
A shorter version was also preached at 8am at St. Helen's.
Readings Numbers 21: 4-9 Philippians 2:6-11 John 3: 13-17
I am sure that you have heard the phrase “Touch Wood” many times. I often hear it when I go visiting. People say something like, “Well the doctor has told me that I should be OK now, so I am really grateful for that, touch wood!” and then they look around for something wooden to touch, and they usually find something and touch it. And then they might say something like, “Well, I’m sorry…I shouldn’t be doing these supposititious things in front of you, should I?” Sometimes it seems that people have no problem with being superstitious, so long as they are not superstitious in front of the vicar (or curate)!
I spent a few minutes yesterday searching the internet for the origins of the phrase “touch wood” and I have to say I did not find anything very enlightening. However there are some intriguing references to an extraordinary series of events which happen around 325 AD. This was a very exciting period in the life of the Church. After three centuries of often brutal persecution by the Roman Empire, suddenly Rome had a Christian emperor, Constantine. Suddenly, far from being persecuted, the Church was in great favour with the state. At this time, the emperor’s mother, Helena, who we now call St Helena, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When she went to see the place where Jesus had died and had been buried she was disappointed to find nothing but a pagan Roman temple on the site. You will recall that, as punishment for the Jewish rebelion, the Romans had completely destroyed Jerusalem and sent the Jews away in 70AD. The Roman temple was built to remind people who was in charge.
Helena ordered that the temple be demolished an excavations started to see what, if anything, remained from the time of the death of Jesus. As they dug, they found what they soon came to believe to be the tomb of Jesus and nearby they found buried three wooden crosses, including the inscription plate from Jesus’ crucifixion. This was of course very exciting. It was clear to the people involved that the three crosses were those of Jesus and the two thieves, but it was not clear which cross was which. This was resolved by bringing in a very sick lady, who in an atmosphere of intense prayer, was touched by the wood of each of the three crosses in turn. As soon as she was touched by the third cross, she was miraculously healed. This was taken as conclusive proof that the third cross was indeed the “True Cross”, the cross on which Jesus died. The True Cross quickly became one of the most important relics in Christianity, known for its healing qualities, and many legends and myths grew up around it. Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre over the whole site. It was completed in 335 AD, and it was dedicated over a two day festival on 13th and 14th September. People would come to venerate the cross on which Jesus died, and to this day we reserve 14th September as Holy Cross Day, a day for the veneration and remembrance of the cross of Jesus. The idea of healing by "touching wood" still resonates down the ages.
Now in this parish we often have some form of veneration of the cross on Good Friday. I don’t know what your practice is here, but at St Alphege we have a wooden Crucifix and one by one we come up before it. Some people kiss it, some bow reverently before it, some pray quietly. But whatever we do outwardly with our bodies and with a material wooden cross only has really value if it corresponds to what we are doing spiritually and inwardly in our relationship with Jesus dying on the cross.
The cross is absolutely central to our faith. Only two weeks ago in our gospel reading we heard Jesus say to us, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt 16: 24). In our gospel reading today Jesus was clear that, as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent on a pole, so Jesus must be lifted up, in order to bring eternal life to those who believe in him (c.f. John 3:14). And the reason that the cross is so important to Christianity is because the death of Jesus is so very closely linked to his resurrection. The new life, joy and fulfilment of the resurrection come about precisely because Jesus died on the cross.
As Christians we are always called to grow in our love for Jesus. We might find it very easy to love the baby Jesus born at Christmas time, or Jesus the wise and merciful teacher who drew great crowds. But we are also called to love Jesus on the cross; Jesus treated as a criminal, Jesus humiliated and dying, who feels himself forsaken even by God.
And I would like to suggest that we have an opportunity to do this every time any kind of suffering crosses our path. Every time we suffer a disappointment, every time someone is rude to us, every time we encounter pain, every time we become aware of faults in ourselves or in others, these are moments when we need to love Jesus dying on the cross. In each of these sufferings we can, through prayer, find a link to Christ, suffering on the cross and we can try to love him.
And this is not easy. We are usually more keen to avoid suffering, than to see and love the suffering Christ in sufferings. But Jesus did not avoid suffering. Even though he was God, he was humble enough let go of his equality with God, to become human and to walk willingly into a most horrifying human death (c.f. Phil 2:6-8). In the face of suffering Jesus did not run away, but rather he loved. He continued to love throughout his passion, even forgiving his executors.
So when encounter suffer, in ourselves or in others, let’s first of all try to find a link to the sufferings of Jesus on the cross. Then let’s try love the suffering Christ in that situation. Sometimes love will show us things we can do to alleviate the sufferings. Sometimes, like Mary watching Jesus die on the cross, we can do nothing but just stand there. Either way, the important thing is to love.
And in this way our hearts grow. Our relationship with Jesus grows. As we share more with Jesus at his death, so we share more with him at this resurrection and we experience his reconciliation and new life in our lives. Loving Jesus in all our sufferings; this is the true way to venerate the cross.
Sunday 14th September 2008, Holy Cross Day.
A shorter version was also preached at 8am at St. Helen's.
Readings Numbers 21: 4-9 Philippians 2:6-11 John 3: 13-17
I am sure that you have heard the phrase “Touch Wood” many times. I often hear it when I go visiting. People say something like, “Well the doctor has told me that I should be OK now, so I am really grateful for that, touch wood!” and then they look around for something wooden to touch, and they usually find something and touch it. And then they might say something like, “Well, I’m sorry…I shouldn’t be doing these supposititious things in front of you, should I?” Sometimes it seems that people have no problem with being superstitious, so long as they are not superstitious in front of the vicar (or curate)!
I spent a few minutes yesterday searching the internet for the origins of the phrase “touch wood” and I have to say I did not find anything very enlightening. However there are some intriguing references to an extraordinary series of events which happen around 325 AD. This was a very exciting period in the life of the Church. After three centuries of often brutal persecution by the Roman Empire, suddenly Rome had a Christian emperor, Constantine. Suddenly, far from being persecuted, the Church was in great favour with the state. At this time, the emperor’s mother, Helena, who we now call St Helena, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When she went to see the place where Jesus had died and had been buried she was disappointed to find nothing but a pagan Roman temple on the site. You will recall that, as punishment for the Jewish rebelion, the Romans had completely destroyed Jerusalem and sent the Jews away in 70AD. The Roman temple was built to remind people who was in charge.
Helena ordered that the temple be demolished an excavations started to see what, if anything, remained from the time of the death of Jesus. As they dug, they found what they soon came to believe to be the tomb of Jesus and nearby they found buried three wooden crosses, including the inscription plate from Jesus’ crucifixion. This was of course very exciting. It was clear to the people involved that the three crosses were those of Jesus and the two thieves, but it was not clear which cross was which. This was resolved by bringing in a very sick lady, who in an atmosphere of intense prayer, was touched by the wood of each of the three crosses in turn. As soon as she was touched by the third cross, she was miraculously healed. This was taken as conclusive proof that the third cross was indeed the “True Cross”, the cross on which Jesus died. The True Cross quickly became one of the most important relics in Christianity, known for its healing qualities, and many legends and myths grew up around it. Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre over the whole site. It was completed in 335 AD, and it was dedicated over a two day festival on 13th and 14th September. People would come to venerate the cross on which Jesus died, and to this day we reserve 14th September as Holy Cross Day, a day for the veneration and remembrance of the cross of Jesus. The idea of healing by "touching wood" still resonates down the ages.
Now in this parish we often have some form of veneration of the cross on Good Friday. I don’t know what your practice is here, but at St Alphege we have a wooden Crucifix and one by one we come up before it. Some people kiss it, some bow reverently before it, some pray quietly. But whatever we do outwardly with our bodies and with a material wooden cross only has really value if it corresponds to what we are doing spiritually and inwardly in our relationship with Jesus dying on the cross.
The cross is absolutely central to our faith. Only two weeks ago in our gospel reading we heard Jesus say to us, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt 16: 24). In our gospel reading today Jesus was clear that, as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent on a pole, so Jesus must be lifted up, in order to bring eternal life to those who believe in him (c.f. John 3:14). And the reason that the cross is so important to Christianity is because the death of Jesus is so very closely linked to his resurrection. The new life, joy and fulfilment of the resurrection come about precisely because Jesus died on the cross.
As Christians we are always called to grow in our love for Jesus. We might find it very easy to love the baby Jesus born at Christmas time, or Jesus the wise and merciful teacher who drew great crowds. But we are also called to love Jesus on the cross; Jesus treated as a criminal, Jesus humiliated and dying, who feels himself forsaken even by God.
And I would like to suggest that we have an opportunity to do this every time any kind of suffering crosses our path. Every time we suffer a disappointment, every time someone is rude to us, every time we encounter pain, every time we become aware of faults in ourselves or in others, these are moments when we need to love Jesus dying on the cross. In each of these sufferings we can, through prayer, find a link to Christ, suffering on the cross and we can try to love him.
And this is not easy. We are usually more keen to avoid suffering, than to see and love the suffering Christ in sufferings. But Jesus did not avoid suffering. Even though he was God, he was humble enough let go of his equality with God, to become human and to walk willingly into a most horrifying human death (c.f. Phil 2:6-8). In the face of suffering Jesus did not run away, but rather he loved. He continued to love throughout his passion, even forgiving his executors.
So when encounter suffer, in ourselves or in others, let’s first of all try to find a link to the sufferings of Jesus on the cross. Then let’s try love the suffering Christ in that situation. Sometimes love will show us things we can do to alleviate the sufferings. Sometimes, like Mary watching Jesus die on the cross, we can do nothing but just stand there. Either way, the important thing is to love.
And in this way our hearts grow. Our relationship with Jesus grows. As we share more with Jesus at his death, so we share more with him at this resurrection and we experience his reconciliation and new life in our lives. Loving Jesus in all our sufferings; this is the true way to venerate the cross.
07 September 2008
Equality and non-discrimination
Preached at St Alphege, Solihull at Evensong 6.30pm, 7th September 2008 - Trinity 16
Readings: Isaiah 35: 4-7a Psalm 108 James 2: 1-17
This morning in church, in our observance of Racial Justice Sunday, we reflected on unjust discrimination against people from other races.
But then the theme of discrimination came up in the church news last week in a completely different way. A newly form group called “Accord” accused Faith Schools of discrimination in the selection of teachers and pupils. I found myself wondering what it means to be a faith school if it does not mean that at least some members of staff and pupils come form the designed faith. A ballet school must necessarily select people who are interested in ballet. Surely a faith school must do the same? But in the perception of people like Accord there is a particular difficulty of discrimination arsing from faith.
And then in our scripture reading today we heard St James warn against unjust discrimination against the poor.
So it seems like an appropriate moment to reflect around this theme of equality and non-discrimination, in the Christian understanding.
The equality of dignity of all human beings arises above all from our creation. God, in his great wisdom and love, has created human beings to share in his image and likeness (Gen 1: 26-27, 5:1 James 3:9). We are created for a great destiny; to share eternal life with God, through Christ. We are called to grow into the likeness of Christ (1 Cor 15:49, 2 Cor 3:18), the likeness of God. Whether or not people are aware of it, we are all called by Christ (John 12: 32, Matt 28:19). We are all created sons and daughters of the same heavenly father. Through Christ we have the possibility of fully realising that potential as fellow heirs with Christ, inheritors of God’s glory (Rom 8: 13-17).
So, all human beings share a common dignity. All are called to share in the life of heaven. Therefore each human being must be treated with great respect and afforded great value because of the presence of God, and the further potential presence of God in each one. And this dignity is equal among all human beings because it is one and the same dignity which is held in common; the share in the image and likeness of God.
And this has consequences in our attitude to other human beings, which are well illustrated in our reading from James this evening. We heard James emphasise that the Church must not show favouritism to the rich over the poor. He says tells us not to make distinctions among ourselves or make judgements about one another. He says that acts of favouritism suggest a failure to truly believe in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. He reminds of the beatitude, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). He grounds all this in the commandment, “Love your neighbour as yourself” and says that this commandment is broken if we show partiality. He says we should speak and act as those who are to be judged according to the law of liberty. He reminds us of the importance of an attitude of mercy, because the mercy that we show to others is the mercy that we will receive.
In the passage we read, James is particularly concerned with the poor; that there dignity be preserved (vv 3-5) and that their basic human needs for food and clothing are satisfied (vv15-17). But this need to preserve human dignity applies equally to all human beings who are likely to be discriminated against. We think especially today of people of different races, but we could also think of the very young, the very old, people with disabilities of different kinds, the uneducated, foreigners or people from different religions. As Christians we try to seek out, honour and develop this basic human dignity in all people. It is important even in people who wilfully damage the dignity of themselves or of others through greed or sex or drugs or violence or deceit or neglect. We might not agree with their actions, but we still value them as human beings and recognise that, like us, they are created by God, and like us, they are called to heaven, and like us their getting to heaven depends entirely on the grace and mercy of God.
My guess is that this understanding of the basic human dignity of all people is unlikely to cause problems for the supporters of Accord. But there are other aspects of it that they might find more difficult. In particular we must not think that our dignity as human beings a static thing. It arises from our creation as human beings who are called to share in the life of God. It is God’s call to us and his hope for us that is the source of our dignity. We are called to develop our relationship with God and to move ever closer to him. We are called to move from sin to righteousness. We are called to grow in holiness. We know that are human bodies are destined to die, but that we are called to life in the Spirit (c.f. Romans 8: 9-11).
And this call of God has consequences which sometimes are quite wrongly construed as inequalities. For example, God call is very personal to each one of us and the callings are quite different. It uniquely and precisely matches the way we have been made, our personal fulfilment and our personal contribution to the Church and to the whole body of humanity. We try to follow God’s calling for us in our everyday life in society and also in the life of the Church. As St Paul explains, “And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. … But eagerly desire the greater gifts.” (1Cor 28-31) Over time the roles we are called to move on and develop. Hopefully we mature, grow closer to God and offer better and purer service to the life of the whole Church. Paul talks about some gifts being “higher” than others, but this is not about having dominion over others, rather it is about serving others; the wider the scope of service to the whole church, the higher the gift. It is when gifts are properly used for the service of others that we are able to see most clearly that the diversity of gifts and the diversity of roles does not compromise our equal dignity as human beings.
Also this call to righteousness means that we value and celebrate our efforts to become better people, and to correspond better to God’s aspirations for each one of us. And when we try to follow God in this way it does introduce a certain tension into our life. We find ourselves trying to behave like saints, when manifestly we are sinners. This is sometimes quite wrongly construed as hypocrisy, as though it would somehow be more honest and better to fail to journey towards God and to rejoice in our inadequacies and sinfulness. Of course our own human efforts to become holy are in themselves completely futile. We fail and fail and fail again, but our efforts are still very important and significant because they express our desire to move towards holiness. As we fail and confess our sins and start again, so we create a humble space in which God’s grace and mercy is able to work, taking us forward not as we would expect, but as God has planned for us.
[The call to holiness therefore means that there are certain values, behaviours and attitudes that are helpful to us personally, to the church and to wider society. These we seek to promote. Similarly there are other approaches which are rebellious against God, unhelpful and destructive. These we would seek to move away from. What groups like Accord sometimes find difficult is that promoting certain values can feel like discrimination in favour of people who display those values and discrimination against people who don’t. Needless to say, I do not accept this. It seems to me that seeking to remove discrimination by removing values ultimately removes the very reason why we want to avoid discrimination. All sense of right and wrong, and all sense of justice disappears.
So what are the valid ways of promoting equality and non-discrimination? Well certainly it is to “Love your neighbour as yourself”. Certainly it is to recognise and rejoice in the dignity of each human being. Certainly it is to want the good of that human being, and want to help them on their journey towards God, even if they are currently very far from God. But we must not allow desire for equality to force everybody to be the same, or to exercise the same roles in society. Rather we should rejoice in diversity and encourage the people who are “greater” to focus more completely on the service of others. Neither should we allow the desire for equality to stop us from saying that certain behaviours are “good” and desirable, and others “bad” and undesirable. Rather we should redouble our efforts to promote that which is good, whilst retaining and attitude of great mercy towards those whose behaviour is “bad”.]
Readings: Isaiah 35: 4-7a Psalm 108 James 2: 1-17
This morning in church, in our observance of Racial Justice Sunday, we reflected on unjust discrimination against people from other races.
But then the theme of discrimination came up in the church news last week in a completely different way. A newly form group called “Accord” accused Faith Schools of discrimination in the selection of teachers and pupils. I found myself wondering what it means to be a faith school if it does not mean that at least some members of staff and pupils come form the designed faith. A ballet school must necessarily select people who are interested in ballet. Surely a faith school must do the same? But in the perception of people like Accord there is a particular difficulty of discrimination arsing from faith.
And then in our scripture reading today we heard St James warn against unjust discrimination against the poor.
So it seems like an appropriate moment to reflect around this theme of equality and non-discrimination, in the Christian understanding.
The equality of dignity of all human beings arises above all from our creation. God, in his great wisdom and love, has created human beings to share in his image and likeness (Gen 1: 26-27, 5:1 James 3:9). We are created for a great destiny; to share eternal life with God, through Christ. We are called to grow into the likeness of Christ (1 Cor 15:49, 2 Cor 3:18), the likeness of God. Whether or not people are aware of it, we are all called by Christ (John 12: 32, Matt 28:19). We are all created sons and daughters of the same heavenly father. Through Christ we have the possibility of fully realising that potential as fellow heirs with Christ, inheritors of God’s glory (Rom 8: 13-17).
So, all human beings share a common dignity. All are called to share in the life of heaven. Therefore each human being must be treated with great respect and afforded great value because of the presence of God, and the further potential presence of God in each one. And this dignity is equal among all human beings because it is one and the same dignity which is held in common; the share in the image and likeness of God.
And this has consequences in our attitude to other human beings, which are well illustrated in our reading from James this evening. We heard James emphasise that the Church must not show favouritism to the rich over the poor. He says tells us not to make distinctions among ourselves or make judgements about one another. He says that acts of favouritism suggest a failure to truly believe in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. He reminds of the beatitude, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). He grounds all this in the commandment, “Love your neighbour as yourself” and says that this commandment is broken if we show partiality. He says we should speak and act as those who are to be judged according to the law of liberty. He reminds us of the importance of an attitude of mercy, because the mercy that we show to others is the mercy that we will receive.
In the passage we read, James is particularly concerned with the poor; that there dignity be preserved (vv 3-5) and that their basic human needs for food and clothing are satisfied (vv15-17). But this need to preserve human dignity applies equally to all human beings who are likely to be discriminated against. We think especially today of people of different races, but we could also think of the very young, the very old, people with disabilities of different kinds, the uneducated, foreigners or people from different religions. As Christians we try to seek out, honour and develop this basic human dignity in all people. It is important even in people who wilfully damage the dignity of themselves or of others through greed or sex or drugs or violence or deceit or neglect. We might not agree with their actions, but we still value them as human beings and recognise that, like us, they are created by God, and like us, they are called to heaven, and like us their getting to heaven depends entirely on the grace and mercy of God.
My guess is that this understanding of the basic human dignity of all people is unlikely to cause problems for the supporters of Accord. But there are other aspects of it that they might find more difficult. In particular we must not think that our dignity as human beings a static thing. It arises from our creation as human beings who are called to share in the life of God. It is God’s call to us and his hope for us that is the source of our dignity. We are called to develop our relationship with God and to move ever closer to him. We are called to move from sin to righteousness. We are called to grow in holiness. We know that are human bodies are destined to die, but that we are called to life in the Spirit (c.f. Romans 8: 9-11).
And this call of God has consequences which sometimes are quite wrongly construed as inequalities. For example, God call is very personal to each one of us and the callings are quite different. It uniquely and precisely matches the way we have been made, our personal fulfilment and our personal contribution to the Church and to the whole body of humanity. We try to follow God’s calling for us in our everyday life in society and also in the life of the Church. As St Paul explains, “And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. … But eagerly desire the greater gifts.” (1Cor 28-31) Over time the roles we are called to move on and develop. Hopefully we mature, grow closer to God and offer better and purer service to the life of the whole Church. Paul talks about some gifts being “higher” than others, but this is not about having dominion over others, rather it is about serving others; the wider the scope of service to the whole church, the higher the gift. It is when gifts are properly used for the service of others that we are able to see most clearly that the diversity of gifts and the diversity of roles does not compromise our equal dignity as human beings.
Also this call to righteousness means that we value and celebrate our efforts to become better people, and to correspond better to God’s aspirations for each one of us. And when we try to follow God in this way it does introduce a certain tension into our life. We find ourselves trying to behave like saints, when manifestly we are sinners. This is sometimes quite wrongly construed as hypocrisy, as though it would somehow be more honest and better to fail to journey towards God and to rejoice in our inadequacies and sinfulness. Of course our own human efforts to become holy are in themselves completely futile. We fail and fail and fail again, but our efforts are still very important and significant because they express our desire to move towards holiness. As we fail and confess our sins and start again, so we create a humble space in which God’s grace and mercy is able to work, taking us forward not as we would expect, but as God has planned for us.
[The call to holiness therefore means that there are certain values, behaviours and attitudes that are helpful to us personally, to the church and to wider society. These we seek to promote. Similarly there are other approaches which are rebellious against God, unhelpful and destructive. These we would seek to move away from. What groups like Accord sometimes find difficult is that promoting certain values can feel like discrimination in favour of people who display those values and discrimination against people who don’t. Needless to say, I do not accept this. It seems to me that seeking to remove discrimination by removing values ultimately removes the very reason why we want to avoid discrimination. All sense of right and wrong, and all sense of justice disappears.
So what are the valid ways of promoting equality and non-discrimination? Well certainly it is to “Love your neighbour as yourself”. Certainly it is to recognise and rejoice in the dignity of each human being. Certainly it is to want the good of that human being, and want to help them on their journey towards God, even if they are currently very far from God. But we must not allow desire for equality to force everybody to be the same, or to exercise the same roles in society. Rather we should rejoice in diversity and encourage the people who are “greater” to focus more completely on the service of others. Neither should we allow the desire for equality to stop us from saying that certain behaviours are “good” and desirable, and others “bad” and undesirable. Rather we should redouble our efforts to promote that which is good, whilst retaining and attitude of great mercy towards those whose behaviour is “bad”.]
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