Sermons and Prayers

God becomes human - the incarnation

2011-12-24T23:30:00.000Z

Sermon for Midnight Mass – Christmas Eve 2011 - St Mary's Lapworth

I spent much of the summer of 1987(?) at the Diocese of Southwark’s retreat house. It is known as Wychcroft and is near to Blenchingly in Surrey. I knew the place well because I had worked there for a year between school and university, but in the summer of 1987(?) I was hardly fit for work. I feeling very delicate because I was still recovering from a serious personal crisis, which had really knocked me for six in the previous year. I was also feeling delicate at that time because I girl who I liked and wanted to get to know better had just made it quite clear that she did not want anything to do with me! So altogether I was in rather a sorry state and was feeling very unsure of myself.
Well, in the middle of that rather confused summer I received a visit from a university friend. He was indeed a really good friend. He set aside a whole day to come and see me from London. I collected him from the train station and on the way home we ran some errands for the House. He met the people I was staying with. He shared our meals with us. We went for a walk – it really is a beautiful place to walk round – and he saw all the places where I used to do my work. He listened to me as I bemoaned all my troubles, and he helped repair a broken shelf in my room. In the evening I drove him back to the station and he caught the train back to London.
And afterwards I was left with an extraordinary sensation of peace. I was so grateful that he had come to visit me where I was, and had really seen and shared in all the joys and sorrows of my life at that moment. I felt understood and supported, and much more able to really be myself. It wasn’t that my troubles had gone away or that anything had been fixed or solved, but somehow I definitely felt encouraged and supported and I felt more able to face the world and get on with my life. Above all, as I said, I felt at peace.
Well this is the action of a really good friend. Someone who is prepared to set aside his own agenda to spend time with you, who is prepared to share with you all the good things and the bad things about your life. Someone who is prepared to stand with you and suffer with you, when things are tough, who is not going to run away, embarrassed, because he just doesn’t know what to say or because he can’t fix your problems.
In some ways there is something very natural about this. Hopefully we all have friends who are like this. (Or at least we all have friends who can be a bit like this on a good day!) Hopefully we ourselves are good friends to other people and behave like this with other people too. But although it is something very natural, there is also something very spiritual going on here. There is something about this kind of friendship, this kind of behaviour, that teaches us about God’s love for us. Especially it teaches us about God’s love for us in sending us the baby Jesus at Christmas time.
God loves for us is not just the distant, well meaning love of a God who is far away and utterly transcendent. No, God in his great love for us, wants to come to us, to be like us, to spend time with us, to share with us the experience of a human life and a human death here on earth. At Christmas we remember that God was prepared to set aside his power and his glory and become a human being. God took on human flesh and becomes an ordinary man, with all the limitations and vulnerabilities that implies. Today we celebrate Jesus as a new born baby, and this is an extraordinary mystery. The great and mighty God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, came among us completely helpless and dependant, just like any other human baby. And of course Jesus grows up, just like any other child of his time. He learns his father’s trade, and becomes a carpenter. He really shares with us the human experience, with its joys and its sorrows, its highs and its lows. And although Jesus, as God, cannot go against God and so cannot sin, Jesus does share with us fully in experiencing the pain and separation that arises from sin, from our sin, from our going against God, our hiding from God, our rejection of God. Indeed it is this human condition of sin, of rejection of God, that ultimately causes us to reject Jesus, and have him killed on a cross. And God in Jesus did not shirk from this. Truly Jesus did experience all the suffering and pain that arises through sin, truly he shared the full measure of the human experience, not just the good bits, not just the pleasant bits.
We call this mystery the incarnation. God takes on flesh, becomes incarnate, so as to share completely in the human condition. It is truly a mystery; we will never completely get our heads around it. But if we ponder it well, if we seek to draw close to Jesus in prayer and if we seek to imitate him in our lives, then certainly, with time, we do come to understand this mystery better. We start to see its huge value and its huge implications. We start to understand our salvation, first of all personally, then for our communities, our nations and ultimately for the whole world; the whole of creation.
In particular we can start practising love, in the way that God loves us, when he becomes human. We can try to live for other people in this same way. We try to be ready to share experiences with them, to stand by them through good experiences and bad. We try to think about their legitimate needs and concerns, and we make them our needs and concerns. And this can be very costly. Just as God had to set aside his greatness and power to become human, so we often have to set things aside or let go of our own thoughts and feelings if we are properly to take on board the thoughts and feelings of others.
This way of loving is very characteristic of the New Testament. St Paul says “To the Jews I became a Jew, in order to win the Jews...to those outside the law I became as one outside the law ...so that I might win those outside the lew. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have becme all things to all people that I might by any means win some.” (1 Cor 9: 20-23)
I have heard this way of loving describing as “Making yourself one”, being “one” with the other person. It has the quality of empathy; walking in the shoes of the other. And certainly this way of loving has extraordinary effect. It creates an understanding and fellowship that leads to unity. It allows and helps people to be who they are, to be the people God created them to be. It therefore brings peace and harmony, and aligns things with God’s will. Of course it can be very costly; it cost Jesus his life. But such costs are generously repaid by God, by the God who raised Jesus from the dead.
So this Christmas let’s remember God’s love for us in becoming human and let’s try to love others by “making ourselves one” with them.

Resurrection hope

2011-11-13T10:30:00.002Z

Sermon for Remembrance Sunday -13th November 2011

Readings: Ezeikeil 37: 1-14, John 15: 9-17

My wife and I have visited several Cemeteries of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in France. It is a very sobering experience. I am always struck by the sheer number of graves; row upon row of white stones. And we are reminded that a great sacrifice has been made; a very great human cost has been paid. There is a great sense of loss, of young lives that have passed away. And then we drive away, and it seems that we have not gone half a mile before we pass another cemetery and once again we are confronted with row upon row of white stones; many, many soldiers that have died.
And perhaps these feelings of sacrifice and loss tell us something about what Ezekiel was feeling in his extraordinary vision that we heard about in our first reading. Ezekiel was writing in the sixth century BC at a real low point in the history of the Jewish people. They had been utterly defeated by the Babylonians. Zion had been overpowered; Jerusalem had been destroyed. The temple had been desecrated and looted and many Jewish bodies lay scattered over the ruins of Jerusalem, with no-one to bury them. The survivors of the onslaught, had been taken away into exile in Babylon, where life was miserable. It was here that the Psalmist wrote, “By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion” (Ps 137). But among this pitiful remnant of his chosen people, God placed the prophet Ezekiel. And through Ezekiel God had a message for his chosen people and the message was this. The exile would not last for ever, it would come to an end. God would send his people back to Jerusalem. They would rebuild its temple and restore its walls. Although they felt utterly defeated and broken, God would restore them and make them whole once again. This is the primary meaning of Ezekiel’s vision – just as God brought back to life many, many dried bones scattered in a arid valley, so he would breathe new life into the people of Israel. He would restore them to wholeness and bring them back to Jerusalem and Judea.
But beyond its primary, meaning Ezekiel’s vision points us towards the resurrection of the dead. God say, “And you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves O my people.” In fact this is one of the earlier prophecies of the resurrection of the dead, but such prophecies become more common over the following centuries, and then in Jesus it becomes a clear promise (e.g. John 5: 25-29 or 6: 40, 1 Corinthians 15: 20-end, I Thess 4:13- end), signed sealed and delivered by the resurrection of Jesus himself from the dead; a resurrection in which we are all called to share. Now, it has to be said, the resurrection of the dead does remain one of the most strange and mysterious aspects of the Christian promise. The promise is that at the end of time there will be the trumpet call of God announcing the second coming of Christ. This is followed by the resurrection of the dead and then by the last judgement. Our resurrection bodies will have a spiritual quality and will not be subject to corruption and decay like the bodies we know at present. Personally I find that I cannot get my head round this. I can’t really understand how the resurrection of the dead can come about scientifically or in history, but it remains a key part of my Christian hope; something to look forward to at the end of time. And it is deeply, deeply integral to the Christian faith, and to the way we think about people who have died. Every time we recite the apostles creed we are reminded that we believe in “the forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” The hymn “O Valliant Hearts” that we have just sung talks of those who gave their life in war, who lie in those great cemeteries I was talking of earlier, await the last clear trumpet-call of God. The hymn is clear that by linking their sacrifice with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, they too will share in the resurrection of Christ.
This great resurrection is the result of a sharing in the resurrection life of Christ. It is brought about by abiding in Christ, and by having Christ abide in us. Especially it is brought about by sacrificial giving. In our gospel Jesus said, “Abide in my love – if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love... this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this; that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Well this is what Remembrance Sunday is all about; remembering before God those who have laid down their lives for us. It is the supreme act of love; the supreme act of giving. We have everything to be grateful for, and everything to hope for, in the resurrection of Jesus.
And this sacrifice, this gift, this great act of love, calls out to us encouraging us too to live better lives, to be more giving towards others, more generous towards others, more ready to make sacrifices for others. In our present society it is rare that someone is asked to give up their life for another person, but time and time again in our daily lives we are called to do smaller things for others; to give help with the washing up, to give time and attention, to be patient with someone infuriating, to forgive someone who has wronged us...
So as we mark solemnly the great sacrifices made by so many for us today, let’s seek to be ready to make the sacrifices for others that daily life demands of us. And let’s do so believing that love and sacrifice is not in vein. On the contrary it is precisely the way that we come to share in the great resurrection of Jesus.

2011-09-11T20:49:00.002+01:00

What has happened to Sermons and Prayers?

I am sad to say that I have not managed to post a sermon to this blog since Lent 2011. This is because something has changed in the way I preach. I used to write all sermons out in full, and this made it easy to post them on the blog. However since Lent I have found myself preaching without notes, or at most with just a full bullet points. It seems to me that, when I preach in this way, I communicate much better with the congregation because I am actually talking to them rather than reading. Also I think I am much more dependent on the Holy Spirit this way, and I am sure that that is a good thing! I do find that preaching this way I am less accurate and I probably miss points out and repeat myself a bit, but it is still worth it because I am sure that more is communicated.

The sad thing is that I am left with no sermon text to post on the blog. I have felt sorry about that for a while. So one time recently I did try to write a sermon out in full, but then I found it changed a lot in the actual preaching and really needed a complete re-write.

So although I still produce a sermon every Sunday (sometimes two!) I can’t post them to the blog. Hopefully the situation will develop and a way round this will be found. I would love to video sermons and post them on Youtube, but we are not at that point yet!
Fr Patrick, 11th September 2011

The Revd Patrick Gerard
Rector of Baddesley Clinton and Lapworth
Diocese of Birmingham
Church of England

Church as Family

2011-04-03T09:45:00.001+01:00

Mini Sermon preached at 9.45am Holy Communion service (BCP) at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton on Sunday 3rd April 2011. Also preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist at St Mary’s Lapworth.
Mothering Sunday
Readings: Col 3: 12-17 Luke 2: 33-35

In the reading from Colossians, Paul presents the church as he would like it to be; its an image of a church as “family”.
There are many different images of the church: “Institution”, “Boat”, “Hospital”, “net”... and each of them emphasises particular qualities, and ways of behaving which are important to the church.
But it seems to me that in our present times it is very important to emphasise the importance of church as “family”.
This emphasises some of the values Paul mentions: compassion, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, above all love.
How much does our world need these values?
How different they are from what we see on telly!
Actually it is the opposite values that make for dramatic, eye-catching telly – cruelty, arrogance, pushing forward, wanting things now. In the case of these values you have something to look at. Looking at someone being meek or patient is less eye-catching. Consequently our TV tends to celebrate and promote these bad qualities.
Also the power of TV pushes our politicians and leaders away from the true values. A prompt and effective intervention, comes over so much better on a TV News report than patience and meekness. An eye catching initiative or gimmick gets so much more publicity than humility.
I believe that this has affected our society in a very bad way. We fail to value properly and celebrate properly the things that are really good for us: compassion, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, love.
In the church we really need to promote and celebrate these values.
It is with these qualities that Love typically heals and resolves difficult situations, and it takes time. Usually these are the qualities that families and the church need to use to overcome their problems. The dramatic intervention is so often damaging in the longer term.
We often associate these true values (compassion, humility, meekness, patience) with Motherly Love, but actually they are essential to all Love. Fatherly Love might emphasis structure and discipline, but if this is not underpinned by compassion, humility, meekness and patience then it loses all meaning. It is no surprise that our society also struggles to formulate structure and discipline in a way that people find helpful and constructive.
So let’s resolve anew to live by compassion, humility, meekness and patience. Let’s bear with one another, forgive one another, and above all let’s seek to grow in love. Let’s promote these values in our families and in our society, first of all by our example, but also by our words, for our good and for the good of all the people around us. Amen.

The stream of living water

2011-03-27T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am Choral Mattins at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 27th March 2011. Other versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton’s 3pm Evensong.

Third Sunday in Lent – Year A

Readings: Ps 95 Exodus 17: 1-7 John 3: 5-42

About three times a year Bishop David calls together all the clergy of the diocese to the cathedral for a “Bishop’s Study Day”. We had one such study day ten days ago on St Patrick’s Day. The topic was Pilgrimage and the main speaker was Bishop Lindsay Urwin. Now Bishop Lindsay is an interesting character within the Church of England. In 1994, at the young age of 39 he was made Bishop of Horsham, a Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Chichester. He looked destined for great things, but in fact he never progressed from Horsham. It is possible that his very traditional views on women’s ordination made it difficult to appoint him as a diocesan bishop. Anyway in 2008 he resigned as Bishop of Horsham and took up the post of Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, based in Walsingham, a small and rather remote village near the north coast of Norfolk.
Now I don’t know how much you know about Walsingham? The shrine to our lady there goes back to the eleventh century, and a Saxon noblewoman called Richeldis. Richeldis was a window known for her good works, care and generosity towards the people around her, for her deep faith and for her particular devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus. In 1061, five years before the Norman Conquest, Richeldis had a vision in which she was taken by Mary to the tiny house in Nazareth where the angel Gabriel had told Mary to expect the child Jesus. Mary asked Richeldis to build a replica of this house of the Annunciation in Walsingham. Mary showed Richeldis where to build the house by making water spring up from the ground. Now there are various miracles and strange stories associated with all this (not to mention some confusion and uncertainty), but certainly a house was built and certainly it became an important centre of pilgrimage visited by many people including several generations of kings and queens of England. Then in 1538 King Henry VIII had the whole place destroyed. It wasn’t under the 1920’s that the Shrine started to be redeveloped by the Church of England.
Now as he was telling us all this, Bishop Lindsay focused on the spring of water that Mary had used to indicate the position of the holy house. He pointed out that springs of water are very often a feature of Marian shrines. Certainly I know that this is the case in Lourdes, France, where a new water spring was an important feature of St Bernadette’s visions of Mary in 1858, and I know it is true of other Marian shrines too. Bishop Lindsay comment was that it was very typical of Mary to draw attention to Jesus. A spring of water is indeed a powerful reminder of Jesus, who in our New Testament lesson today said that the water he gives a person, becomes in them a spring of living water, welling up to eternal life.
And this image of Jesus as giving a spring of living water, water that forever quenches thirst, is an image that goes very deep. It is very mysterious and worthy of being pondered at length. It resonates with many other themes in John’s gospel and in the wider scriptures.
For example, in John 6: 35 Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. No one who come to me will ever be hungry, no one who believes in me will ever thirst”. There is this same theme of thirst being quenched by Jesus. It is as though Jesus sustains the life of believers, just as bread and water sustain our earthly lives. Jesus takes this even further, perhaps making a link to the Eucharist, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day, for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” (John 6: 54)
Also in John 7: 37-38 Jesus cries out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, let anyone who believes in me come and drink”. John refers to a scripture [what scripture?] “from the heart shall flow streams of living water.” This explanation reminds of us of the blood and water that streamed from Jesus’ side when he was pieced on the cross (John 19: 34), and also the river of life that rises up from the throne of God and from the lamb, and flows through the recreated New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation (22:1). John also states that Jesus is talking of the Holy Spirit when he talks of streams of living water (John 7: 39) and indeed we often think of the Spirit as the sustainer of life.
But in our New Testament lesson there was another explanation of God’s gift for sustaining life, as bread and water sustain us when we are hungry or thirsty. When the disciples ask Jesus to eat something, he says that he has food they don’t know about. He says, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me.” So Jesus himself is stained by doing the will of the Father in heaven.
And in so many ways this is true for us too. It is by doing what God wills for us that we grow into what God has created us to be. It is by doing God’s will for us, that our particular way of serving the people around us is revealed. This is where our true identity is found; it is revealed in doing God’s will.
So as we think of Jesus as the stream of living water, welling up to eternal life, so let us focus on doing God’s will in our lives, moment by moment, day by day and so let us be sustained by Jesus, who is himself sustained by doing the Father’s will. Amen.

Born from above

2011-03-20T09:45:00.000Z

Sermon preached at 9.45am Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton’s on Sunday 20th March 2011. A shorter version of this sermon was preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth
Second Sunday of Lent – Year A

Readings: Romans 4: 1-5 & 13-17 John 3: 1-17

Jesus conversation with Nicodemus is very famous
- He was a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews, perhaps the only such leader who really believed in Jesus
- Came to Jesus by night, because of fear
- Nicodemus crops us throughout John’s gospel
o He is argues that Jesus should be given a hearing, when Pharisees plot his arrest (7: 45-52)
o He is perhaps the example of a leading Jew who did believe in Jesus but dare not admit it (12: 42)
o At the death of Jesus he brings myrrh and aloes for his burial (19: 39)

Jesus gives him a hard time by talking of being born from above, or born again.
Nicodemus tries to flush out what Jesus means by being “born from above”
Jesus confirms that he does not mean a physical re-birth, but rather being born of “water and the Spirit”.
So just as a human person must be born of the flesh, and physically grow up, so that person must also be born of the Spirit and grow up in the Spirit, and come to maturity in the Spirit. Jesus says that this is essential to enter the kingdom of God. It is as though it is our life in the Spirit that enters into the kingdom of God, while out earthly body rots in the ground.

Now in the Church we associate “being born through water and the Spirit” with baptism – the moment when the life of the Spirit begins within us in a characteristic Christian way. This birth is certainly an essential step, but it is also essential that this life in the Spirit must grow and develop and reach its full stature. The fathers of the church always talk about baptism as essential for salvation.

So what is it that is essential for salvation?
- To be Baptised?
- To be born of the Spirit?
- to believe in Jesus? – as is often repeated in John’s gospel
- to live by faith – as Paul tells us in our epistle today

Sometimes there can be anxiety of this point.
- Perhaps you met Christians who ask “have you been born again?”
- Perhaps you have met Christians who scramble to get a new born baby baptised for fear that it might die un-baptised

Well to seek salvation is clearly a good thing, but I we are meant to get anxious about it. Salvation is God’s gift, freely given. We have to learn to trust God and to have faith in his love for us. First and foremost we must believe that God wants our good, wants our salvation and, one way or another, God will secure that salvation if we just do our part, and respond positively to the invitation of God. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4: 18).

Neither should we think of salvation as a tick list:
“I just need to be baptised, then I am saved”
“I just need to be born again, then I am saved”
“I just need to believe in Jesus, then I am saved”
“I just need to lead a good life, then I am saved”
The truth is that all these things go together and grow together in our spiritual lives. Everyone is different and God calls people in different ways. Many are baptised as babies and then need to grow into their faith. Other come to Christ differently and in certain ways might already be fairly mature as Christians before they are baptised. Some Christians emphasise faith in God, others emphasise the importance of living a good life and of loving our neighbour. But ultimately all these things go together and build on each other. Ultimately all are important, all our signs of each other. The Christian who emphasises faith, but has no love is clearly lacking (1 Cor 13: 2). The Christian who knows the scriptures but does not know Christ is clearly lacking (John 5: 39-40). The person who responds positively to Christ, but who has not be baptised or “born from above” clearly is lacking, as Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus shows.

So as we think of our salvation, let’s not worry about specific tests to determine if we are saved or not saved. Rather let’s seek to make progress in all the different aspects of the Christian life so that we can grow up into our salvation (c.f. 1 peter 2: 2) in a balanced way. Certainly, if we are not baptised then we should seek baptism. If we were baptised as babies then we should seek Confirmation, taking our personal ownership of our baptismal promises. Certainly we should seek to grow in faith and trust in God. We should seek to build our personal relationship with Jesus through prayer, by reading the gospels and by living as Jesus commands. Similarly we must live by the Spirit. Above all we must seek to grow in love for God and for our neighbours, because ultimately it is on love that the saved the unsaved are separated (Matt 25: 31ff). Amen.

Temptation and testing

2011-03-13T11:00:00.001Z

Sermon preached at 11am Coral Mattins at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 13th March 2011. Shorter versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton’s 3pm Evensong.
First Sunday of Lent – Year A

Readings: Ps 32 Gen 2: 15-17 & 3: 1-7 Matt 4: 1-11

Many thanks to all those who participated in yesterday’s churchyard working party. Hopefully you will notice some of the fruits of the work as you leave church today. Those who have been to one of these the working parties will know that one of the most enjoyable aspects is the food that Vera puts out at lunchtime. Yesterday there were two excellent soups, crusty bread (both brown and white) and butter. There were baked potatoes and several different choices of filling; chilli, or cheese or tuna mayonnaise or spaghetti in sauce. Well it was all very excellent and I had seconds of the soups (spicy parsnip), plenty of bread and a very large baked potato, with two fillings. And after that, really, I was more ready for a nap than for more work in the churchyard. Someone said, “Hay Vera, with all this good food you are making us eat too much.” Vera said, “Well I don’t actually force people to eat it!” Well no, perhaps I am not actually forced to eat too much, but somehow with so much good food readily available the odds are stacked me. It is an example of temptation; a temptation I am not good at resisting.

What is temptation?
It is the danger that we trade in God’s hopes and plans for us, for something less, something outside of his will for our lives. It might be something that our appetites suggest to us (like food) or something suggested to us by doubt, or pride or envy ...
In the Christian tradition we often see the three biggest seducers as money, sex and power. E.g.
- Cheat on tax return or expenses for the sake of money
- Cheat on a spouse for the sake of sex
- Uncharitably highlight the failings of others (perhaps a colleague at work) for the sake of power
There is nothing wrong with money, sex and power in themselves. They are all gifts of God which can and should be used to build up his kingdom. But experience suggests that they have particular power to lead us into temptation. The Christian tradition highlights counteracts this by emphasising the importance of poverty, chastity and obedience, most noticeably in the vows taken by monks in the Benedictine tradition.

So in situation of temptation are situations where we are in danger of getting our priorities wrong. We are in danger of choosing some created thing that we desire (perhaps money, sex or power) over God’s desires for us, over God’s will for our lives, over the goodness that God wants to give us. Very often we are tempted to trade in something spiritual for something more tangible. Very often we are trading in a long term benefit for something more immediate. And if we give in to temptation then we go against God’s will, we sin, we damage our relationship with God and with others, we jar against God’s goodness to us and sooner or later this inevitably causes sufferings to ourselves and to others.

Two scripture readings today are stories of temptation.
Adam and Eve fall – traditional theology sees this as disastrous for the whole human race, the source of our Original Sin; the source of our clouded understanding of the things of God and our tendency towards sin. And this fault is finally made good by Christ in his death and resurrection. As we heard in our NT Reading, Christ passed through temptation without sin. He was always true to God, he always rejected the devil.

Notice the role of the devil in both stories. Bible is full of examples where God deliberately allows the devil to cause problems for people as some kind of test, as a means of proving their worth:

God must have allowed the serpent (the devil) into the Garden of Eden.
In our NT reading the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness specifically to be tempted by the devil.
In the book of Job, God specifically allows the devil to torture Job.
Jesus understands this. He says occasions for stumbling must come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes (Matt 18:7, Luke 17: 1). God, in his goodness and love, allows us to be tested and tempted, but that woe betides the tester or tempter. So often Satan tests us, perhaps with crushing under pain and adversity, perhaps with the wrongful fulfilment of desire, perhaps through our complacency and arrogance, perhaps by misrepresenting to us the things of God, as he misrepresented the scriptures to Jesus in our reading today.

Why does God allow trials or tests of this sort? Why is the devil allowed anywhere near us? (Especially as we are taught to pray “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil (i.e. from the evil one”)
These are deep mysteries – part of God’s love for us – perhaps so that we can share in, and make our own contribution towards the overcoming of evil???
With these tests or trials the dominant biblical image is gold or precious metal refined in the fire (Ps 66: 10, Is 48:10, 1 Peter 1: 6-7)
Tests which God allow both reveal how pure we are and help to build up that purity further.

Or we might fail. If we do we are in trouble, but we are also in good company. Jesus said to Peter “Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat” (Luke 22: 31) and indeed Peter, in his fear and confusion, denied Jesus three times. This must have caused Peter, and the other disciples great distress; to be alienated from Jesus at the time of his death. But after the resurrection Jesus restored Peter by three times saying “Peter – do you love me – feed my sheep” (John 21: 15ff)

When we fail we have to throw ourselves back on the mercy of God. We have to ask for forgiveness and start again in our Christian endeavour. Note that we have to start again in grace, not in our own strength, or we will fail again. We have to build up the presence of Christ within us by being honest about that failure, by accepting the pain it causes ourselves and others (rather than pretending the pain is not there) and by giving thanks to Christ for the pain that he accepted in his death on the cross, which has conquered sin and death, and by which we can be restored.

So let’s live our temptation well, hopefully being purified like silver in the fire, but if we fail let us seek forgiveness, growing in our knowledge of our dependence on God and in our thankfulness to Christ for his redemption. Amen.

Avoiding the broadcast message

2011-03-06T09:45:00.000Z

Sermon preached at 9.45am Holy Communion at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton on Sunday 6th March 2011. A shorter version was preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist at St Mary’s Lapworth.
Sunday Next Before Lent – Epiphany 9 - Year A
Readings: 2 Peter 1: 16-21 Matthew 17: 1-9

Mainly notes

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury has many gifts and talents, especially as an academic theologian. However, it would seem that Public Relations, or particularly handling the media (newspapers and TV) is not one of his strengths. He has a message to proclaim, but most of what is attributed to him in the newspapers appears to have been carefully selected and edited to make him look stupid, to annoy people and to cause them to despair.
Most of the “blame” for this must fall on the media, who are always under financial pressures, and see it as their job to find racy stories that sell newspapers. Truth, fairness and developing the discernment of their readership are much lower down their list of priorities.
But perhaps there is something intrinsic to the gospel which makes it resistant to the mass media broadcast message. Certainly Jesus often seems reluctant to publicity about his significance. I am always amazed by his instructions in today’s gospel reading, when he tells Peter, James and John not to tell anyone about the transfiguration until after he has been raised from the dead.
Why would Jesus do this? Why, if he wants his gospel to spread to the ends of the earth, would he not publicise the evidence of its greatness?
Jesus “has form” on this telling people not publicising greatness (especially in Mark’s gospel)
e.g. Devils driven out (Mk 1: 34)
Man healed of leprosy (Mk 1: 44)
Two blind men healed (Mt 9:30)
Also when Devil suggest “shock and awe” strategy of throwing himself off the temple (Matt 4: 5-7) Jesus rejects this as a specific temptation from Satan.
Why does Jesus take this approach?
Perhaps “shock and awe” is a rather domineering approach, not sufficiently respectful of people freedom????
Perhaps if people everyone knew clearly that Jesus was the messiah then his message would get completely lost behind Jewish people’s expectations about what the Messiah could and should be doing??? Perhaps he would not be tolerated by Herod (c.f. Herod’s father’s massacre of the innocents in Matt 2) or the Romans???
After the resurrection it seems OK to publicise Jesus’ greatness.
e.g. Peter’s testimony as an eyewitness in 2 Peter , read today.
John’s testament “we have beheld his glory” John 1: 14
Very significant the Jesus’ glory is seen in the transfiguration
- Points to his glory at the end of time
- Points to the second coming of Christ, which apparently will not lack publicity – the trumpet will sound, the angels gather, the son of man will ride on the clouds and all eyes will see him.
- Points to Jesus’ divinity
Tranfiguration suggests Jesus is the fulfilment of the law (represented by Moses who brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai) and the prophets (represented by Elijah).

But Jesus’ reluctance to engage in a broadcast message highlights the importance of passing the gospel on through personal relationships, from one person to the next. More like Chinese whispers, than like a big announcement. By and large the gospel spreads in this way, rather than through TV shows or newspaper articles. Makes us think of how we pass on the gospel through our personal relationships.
- Witness must be through our lives before it is words
- Perhaps we don’t need to articulate the gospel itself, just invite people to come to church with us or offer to pray for them
- Back to church Sunday in September
Let’s be mindful of our responsibility in passing on the gospel through our personal relationships, through family and friends, by always seeking their good, loving them as Christ does. Amen.

Seeing first the kingdom of God

2011-02-27T11:00:00.001Z

Sermon preached at 11am Choral Mattins at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 27th February 2011. A shorter version was also preached at 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton, 3pm Evensong.

Second Sunday before Lent, Epiphany 8 (CofE provision) – Year A

Readings: Ps 136: 1-9 Genesis 1: 1-23 Matthew 6: 25-34

Notes only

Creation story from Genesis might have shortcomings as a scientific account of creation, but it makes some important theological points.
First of all – creation comes about through the will of God
“You pour out your spirit and they are created” as the psalmist says.
Secondly - creation is good, in harmony with the will of God. At every step God stands back and says “it is good”.
But if God’s creation is good, where does evil comes from? This is a great mystery, which theologians struggle with. God did create evil. But God gives angels and humans freewill. They really do have freedom to choose, and they can choose to go against God and against his will. This is what evil is – rebellion against God.
Somehow, we don’t quite know how, evil as been sown in amongst the good of creation. The story of Adam and Eve and the fall is one account of this. But Jesus also tells the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt 13: 24-30, 36-43) where the master sows good seed, but an enemy comes and sows tares among the wheat. The separation of good from evil does not come until the end of time (see also parable of the dragnet (Matt 13: 47-50)) when God’s kingdom is realised in a more tangible way.
Thirdly humanity has a special place in creation; it’s pinnacle, created in the image of God; both male and female. God is above male and female – “he” includes both; both are in his image. We have to be very mindful of the special dignity of each human being, created in the image of God.
Then in NT lesson from Matthew Jesus teaches us not to have anxieties about the everyday necessities of life. “Seek first the kingdom of God, and its righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you as well.” So we need to seek first God’s kingdom, that goodness of creation which is separated out from evil at the end of time. We need to move in harmony with God’s will, in harmony with creation, with all that God wills, seeking always what is pleasing to God. And then all these other things are added to us as well.
The collect makes good suggestions:
- See God’s hand in all things
- recognise God’s likeness in all his children
These help us to seek first the kingdom of God.

I would like to illustrate this with a story that a man called Opus told me. It was a long time ago that I was told the story, and I might have the details wrong, but the gist of it is certainly correct.
Opus was tall and well built. He had classical good looks and was stylish in the way he dressed and wore his hair. He was probably a youth in the aftermath of the Second World War, which must have been a time of great austerity. I know he came from a large family, so there can’t have been much money around.
With the aspirations of a young man, his good looks and his strong sense of style, Opus came to realise that he wanted an electric razor. These were not readily available after the war, and were very expensive. However they often featured at the cinema, and for Opus they epitomised the glamour and sophistication of a modern lifestyle. He really, really wanted an electric razor.
Now as a young man Opus started living in a Christian community with perhaps six other young men, seeking to live a gospel lifestyle. There were many such groups about and they were related to one another. In these groups it was important not to be attached to any earthly riches, but always to be ready to give and to receive. The priority was to seek first the kingdom of God by overcoming selfishness and growing in love for the other people.
I don’t recall the details, but on one occasion Opus’s household received some gifts to share. The arrival of gifts was quite common, but what really caught Opus’s attention on this occasion was that one of the gifts was an electric razor! Of course, Opus really wanted the electric razor. However, talking with the other men in the house he realised that the razor was to be set aside someone else who was due to visit the house later that week. Opus really struggled with this. He understood that he had to seek first the kingdom of God, and he had to be ready to lose the razor, to let it go…but it was very, very hard.
In due course the visitor came, was delighted by the gift and took it away with him. The razor was gone, but it took Opus a couple of weeks to get over the resentments and frustrations that he felt about losing the razor. Finally he managed to do it; he became free of his desire, his need, for an electric razor.
Then a couple of weeks after that the household received more gifts, including two electric razors. The passionate need that Opus had felt for an electric razor had gone, but he was delighted to be given one none the less.
Then a little later he was given another electric razor, then later still another, and yet another! He started to constantly receive electric razors from the most varied and unpredictable of places. It became overwhelming. Opus felt that God was rewarding him for seeking first the kingdom of God, but the shear abundance of electric razors was also like God mocking him for the petty nature of his earlier desires. Of course electric razors did eventually became commonplace. Argos stock dozens of different models, starting at £13, and many of them are for women! Still Opus had taken the step of seeking first the kingdom of God, and God had added to him all the other things as well.

Building towards perfection

2011-02-20T11:00:00.000Z

Sermon preached at the 11am Parish Eucharist at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 20th February 20111. Shorter versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton, 9.45am Holy Communion.
Third Sunday before Lent (Septugesima)

Readings: 1 Corinthians 3: 10-11 & 16-23 Matthew 5: 38-48

Notes only

Start with story about “If someone sues for your coat, give him your cloak as well”
- the “I like your shirt” story

Our gospel readings at present come from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is very challenging!

Last week’s gospel gave us some very challenging teachings from Jesus
- he condemned all anger, lust, divorce and untruthfulness
I said in last week’s sermon that Jesus seems to set an impossibly high standard, a standard that is beyond us all.
- we might be tempted to throw in the towel, say “this is too much”
- but we must remember that we are on a journey towards the life of heaven
- we might not be ready for heaven yet, but by the grace of Christ we will be one day if we travel in the right direction
- we journey not in our own strength but in the strength of the Spirit & grace of Christ.

This week we have more very challenging teachings from Jesus
- do not resist the evildoer
- love your enemies
Again Jesus sets a high standard – but we must not despair.
We can think of the Journey again.
Or we can think of the slimily used by St Paul
- we are being built into a spiritual temple – a temple of the Holy Spirit
- this applies to us as individuals, and also to us collectively as church
- God is working in us to build up the temple
- it is a process that happens over time
- We need to co-operate and work on this building up because the spiritual temple endures. Earthly things fall away, we suffer loses, eventually we die, so better to invest in the spiritual temple which endures.
- We are building towards perfection – towards the life of heaven. As Jesus said in the gospel “Be Holy as your heavenly father is Holy”.

Whether we think of it as a journey or think of it as a building under construction our part is to live our day to day life in front of God seeking to grow in love for God and neighbour day by day, moment by moment. But sometimes we must ask ourselves, “What can we do?” “How can we contribute to the journey, to the building?” Lent starts in three weeks so no is an excellent time to ask these questions. Lent is traditionally the time of year for seeking to turn more fully to God.

What might be do this Lent? We could
1) Give up some luxury or pleasure (chocolate, coffee, alcohol, facebook?) in order to orientate ourselves towards God. Every time we miss the item we can remember God, and that we do it for love of him; or
2) Add some new spiritual discipline to our lives; perhaps some extra prayer or worship or bible reading or religious study. We will offer options on a Wednesday evening in church – Complain for prayer or “Explore” for study.
3) Do something practical which involves cost to ourselves for the benefit of other people. traditionally almsgiving. Could also be the giving of time or attention to someone who needs it. Could involve visiting someone who is a bit isolated, or writing to someone we are losing touch with.

So let’s start thinking now, so as to use Lent well, and to make our full contribution in the building up of the spiritual temple. Amen.

Jesus on the Law

2011-02-13T11:00:00.000Z

Sermon preached at Choral Mattins at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 13th February 2011. A shorter version of this sermon was also preached at the 8.30 Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton’s 3pm Evensong.
Fourth Sunday before Lent – Year A

Readings: Ps 119: 1-8 Ecclesiasticus 15: 15-20 Matthew 5: 21-37

One of my favourite Winston Churchill quotes relates to the time when he was appointed within H. H. Asquith’s government to be First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911. At that time there was widespread concern about the build up of German naval power, and there was a recognition that the Royal Navy would need to be strengthened if it was to retain its command of the seas. However there was political disagreement about how many dreadnought ships should be added to the navy, perhaps four, perhaps six. Then a German warship started to intimidate French shipping off Morocco, and suddenly a political consensus emerged. Churchill later summarised the debate saying, “The Conservatives wanted six; the Liberals wanted four; we compromised on eight.”
I was reminded of this story by our gospel reading today. Jesus was talking about the Jewish law and commenting on different matters, some of which were controversial at the time. The conversations would typically be about how much the Law should affect the day to day behaviour of the people. The Pharisees might say by four degrees, the Scribes might say by six degrees, but Jesus would say by eight! Jesus’ interpretation of the law always seems to go much deeper and be far more far reaching than the interpretation of other scholars at the time. In fact it seems to me that Jesus thinks about the Jewish Law in a way that is quite different from the way that scholars of the time might think of it.
It seems to me that the law given through Moses was an effort to explain what good behaviour was; what it meant to help people to be good Jews, worthy of receiving God promises to his chosen nation. But then, over time, it seems that the Law ceased to function as something pointing people towards God, but became more like a boundary defining what was, and what was not, acceptable behaviour for a Jew. During this period the number of rules increased dramatically, and things like how far you could walk on the Sabbath became very precisely defined.
It seems to me that Jesus did not think of the Law as a boundary at all. For him it was all about pointing us towards God. And for Jesus it was not just behaviours that mattered. What mattered much more was the inner attitudes and values and beliefs that drive behaviours. In the eyes of Jesus, it is essential that attitudes, beliefs, values and therefore behaviours too are orientated towards God, that they draw us towards God. Jesus wants us to know God better, to share in God’s attitudes plans and hopes, to become like God.
And this makes the Law Oh so much more demanding. The letter of the law condemns the killing of a person, but Jesus condemns even being angry with a person, or thinking of that a person is a fool or traitor. The letter of the Law condemns adultery, but Jesus condemns even lust. The letter of the Law has a procedure for divorce, but Jesus condemns divorce. The Tradition says you must not break a vow, but Jesus says don’t even make vows, but always keep your word. And in fact Jesus goes on. It gets even harder in next week’s gospel with “Love your enemies”.
What is very noticeable when we think of the Law like Jesus does, as something that points us towards God, as something which prepares us for an eternal life shared with God, is that suddenly we are completely inadequate. No anger, no criticism of others, no lust, no divorce, no parting from our word…we are all of us hopelessly inadequate because none of us can live to this standard.
What we have to accept is that we are on a journey, a journey towards God, towards the life of heaven. It is a journey and we are not there yet. We are not 100% saints yet. We certainly cannot live to the standard that Jesus expects, we are not yet ready for life in heaven. But we also need to accept that by faith in God, and by the grace of Christ, we will one day complete that journey, we will pass through different purifying experiences and God will make us ready for heaven. Ultimately, as our first reading pointed out we all have to choose between fire and water, between life and death, between heaven and hell. So really we have to choose heaven, and the quicker we make progress on the journey to get there the better it is for everyone.
So we are on the journey towards heaven, but every now and again something happens that reminds us that we still have a long way to go. Perhaps a scripture reading like today’s reminds us that we are completely inadequate. What do we do? Do we give up on the journey because it is too difficult? Do we start to hate ourselves because we know that we are sinners? No. No, we remember that God continues to love us, and we must continue to love ourselves and, like God, we must hope for and work for the very best for ourselves. We must remember that Jesus came into the world precisely to save sinners like us and to bring us to the life of heaven. So we need to confess our sin and our inadequacies and our failings to God. We need to hold them before God and see them as God sees them and become totally realistic about them. And this can be painful, it reminds us that we are not as good as we like to think we are. But, it seems to me, that pain, in conjunction with Christ’s sufferings on the cross, gives us the grace to move forward. It fills us with the desire to move forward. It assures us that we move forward in God’s strength not our own. It helps us to make progress on the journey. We realise that God’s love for us goes much deeper than our sin.
So we hear a scripture reading like today’s and when we hear all about God’s laws, let’s not think of them as a boundary, and worry whether we are inside or out. Rather let’s think of them as pointers to God and to the life of heaven. Let’s be sure that we still have a long way to go before we reach God, but let’s also have confidence that Jesus will walk with us on that journey, and that Jesus, through his death and resurrection has already overcome all our sin. The end of the journey is assured, but we still need to walk it Amen.

You are the light of the world!

2011-02-06T09:45:00.000Z

Sermon preached at 9.45 am Holy Communion (BCP) at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton on Sunday 6th February 2011. Shorter versions of this sermon were preached at St Mary’s Lapworth at 8.30am and at 11am.
Epiphany 5, Year A (Fifth Sunday before Lent)

Readings: 1 Corinthians 2: 1-12 Matthew 5: 13-20

Recently I read about an experience of a young child, we’ll call him Peter, at school in Texas. It was playtime, and Peter was playing with his friends, but the friends did not want the children from the other class to join in with the game. The Teacher on duty ticked the friends off for being selfish and asked them to play with the other children. There was an awkward pause, but Peter knew in his heart that the teacher was right, and that the generous thing to do, the loving thing to do, was to include the other children. He called out to one of them and began to involve him in the game. A few moments later he looked round, and he was amazed to see that his friends had also welcomed the children from the other class, and now all the children were playing together.
It is a very simple story, but it is a very good example about how generosity and goodness has an infectious quality; how one good deed leads to another, how if one person sets a good example, often others will follow.
I remember I had an experience of this myself a few years ago. My morning drive to work involved an awkward right hand turn. When traffic was heavy it was often necessary to drive in way that was rather pushy in order to make the right hand turn. Gradually I found that my driving style was becoming pushier and more aggressive in general because I was practising this attitude at this particular right hand turn. Then, one day, when I had just arrived at the junction and was preparing to pick my moment to go, suddenly a car on the main carriage way slowed down for me, and signalled for me to come out. I moved out straight away, and waved to the man, to whom I was very grateful. But as I drove on I found that the incident had somehow lifted my soul. Suddenly the world seemed good, and everybody was a friend and I found myself driving very courteously, and letting people out of congested side roads myself.
And it seems to me that stories like this illustrate what Jesus wants from us when he asks us to be the Light of the World. Last week we remembered Simeon in the Temple, saying that the baby Jesus would be a “light to lighten the gentiles” (Luke 2: 32) and we remembered that Jesus really adopted this understanding for himself when he himself came to say, “I am the light of the World” (John 8: 12). When I spoke about this last week I said that we needed to walk in the light of Christ ourselves, and then we, as the body of Christ, had to offer that same light of Christ to the world. Well Jesus in his statement today, “You are the light of the world” (Matt 5: 13) emphasises that second of these two points. We are called to be the light of Christ for other people, so that they me see our good works and give glory to our father in heaven.
So how do we do that in practice? How do we be the light of the world? Well let’s remember that this light does not come from us. The light that we give to the world has to be the light of Christ, shining through us. It is not as though we generate this light ourselves, rather it is about allowing the light of Christ to shine within us.
So I think it boils down to the same message as last week. First and foremost we need to walk in the light of Christ ourselves. We can’t be light to the world if we don’t have the light of Christ within us. The light that Christ gives us comes especially from his teachings and his example. We need to live by his teachings and follow his examples, so that we are filled with his light. Then it is a question letting this light shine out, and not keeping the light under a bushel. This means being open and transparent about our faith, not hiding it away in a box and only taking it out on Sundays! Above all it means being generous to others, like Peter in Texas, or like the car driver who let me out at the junction. As these acts of generosity spread, we are being light to the world. Amen.

The light to lighten the gentiles

2011-01-30T11:00:00.001Z

Sermon preached at the 11am Parish Eucharist at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth. Shorter versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley for 9.45am Holy Communion (BCP).

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

Readings: Hebrews 2: 14-18 Luke 2: 22-40

The festival we celebrate today has at least three different names, according to which aspect of it is being emphasised. Most typically we call it the “Presentation” thinking of the baby Jesus being presented in the temple. Under the Jewish Law, the Torah, the first five books of the bible, the first born of any womb belonged to the Lord and had to be presented to the priests in the temple. This is because the Lord had struck down the first born of the Egyptians at the time of the exile, and so he also claimed as his own the first born of all the Israelites and their animals; the first born were to be presented to the Lord and set aside for the Lord use. This rule about the first born applied to both people and animals, and there are several regulations (e.g. Ex 13: 1-2, 11-16, Leviticus 27, Numbers 18: 5) about it which we can read in the first five books of the bible. In the case of human babies, the rules required parents to “redeem” a first born child immediately after they had presented the child to the priests. It would cost five shekels to redeem the child. So the arrangement ended up working rather like a tax that was paid to the Temple on all first born children. I think this shows us something of the humility of Mary. You agree to be the handmaid of the Lord, and to be the mother of the Son of God. Then you have to pay a temple tax on the child for the privilege!
But in fact there was more for Mary to do than that. Under the Law (Lev 12) a woman also had to undergo the rite of purification 40 days after childbirth. The festival we celebrate today is sometimes called The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The rites of purification involved making a sacrifice for sin. The gospel tells us that Mary and Joseph made the sin offering of the poor, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons, rather than the standard offering of a lamb. (I do wonder what happened to all that gold, frankincense and myrrh!?) Again it seems to me that we are shown something of the humility of Mary who goes through these rituals even though her baby is the son of God. If we accept the Roman Catholic doctrines whereby Mary is free from sin, then there is a further irony in her being expected to make a sin offering!
So sometimes we call the festival “The Presentation”, thinking of the baby Jesus presented at the temple, sometimes we call it “The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, but we also call it “Candlemas” and we celebrate it especially with candles, or torch light processions. And the theme of candles or light comes from the words of Simeon that we heard in our gospel today. He said that Jesus would be “a light for revelation to the gentiles, and the glory of [God’s people] Israel”. Now the word gentiles means nations or peoples, and it the Old Testament it refers to all the other nations beyond the nation of Israel, all the other peoples, beyond the Jewish people. So Simeon’s proclamation that Jesus is a light for revelation to the gentiles is extraordinarily prophetic. It is a real epiphany moment. Jesus is shown, or revealed, or manifested, to be a light to all peoples and all nations. Simeon foresees that Jesus’ significance stretches far beyond Judaism and that the whole world will be illuminated by his light. And we, who have few connections with Judaism, can praise God, that through Jesus, the graces God has poured out on Israel are to benefit the whole world.
So what does it mean to us – Jesus the light to the nations, Jesus who later proclaims himself to be the light of the world (John 8: 12). Well first of all we have to “walk in the light” as the song says “Walk, walk in the light”. And the light that Jesus gives us comes especially from his teachings and example. We need to follow that teaching and imitate the example given. These teachings and examples principally tell us to love; to love God and to love our neighbours, to always grow in love. So we need to walk in the light ourselves by always loving others, always seeking the good of the others.
But then that brings us to the other side of it. As the Church we are the body of Christ. Just as Simeon could see that the baby Jesus was a light for the nations, so the body of Jesus, the church should be a light for all the nations, a light for all the peoples. We too are called to be a light for all peoples. We are called to shine with the light of love, Christ’s love for the good of others, so that they too may learn to walk in the light of Jesus, so that they too will learn to love.
So if we walk in the light ourselves, by growing in love, so we become a light to others and we help them to walk in the light and grow in love. And so the light of Jesus spreads – the light for all peoples becomes ever more visible. The prophecy of Simeon is fulfilled as Jesus becomes ever more completely the light to lighten the nations. Amen.

Jesus revealed as "Lamb of God"

2011-01-16T11:00:00.000Z

Sermon preached at 11am Parish Eucharist at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 16th January 2011. A shorter version of this sermon was also preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton’s 9.45am Holy communion (BCP).
Second Sunday after Epiphany – Year A

Readings: 1 Corinthians 1: 1-9 John 1: 29-42

The Epiphany season is all about Jesus being revealed or shown to the people, so that people can begin to understand who he really is. In last week’s gospel reading (Matt 3: 13-17) we heard the story of the Baptism of Christ, as it is described in Matthew’s Gospel. You will recall that when Jesus came up out of the water the Spirit of God, in the form of a dove descended and came to alight on Jesus. This revealed Jesus to be the Messiah, the one anointed with God’s spirit. And then you will recall that a great voice proclaimed, “This is my Son the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” A by this voice Jesus was revealed to be “Son of God”.
This week’s gospel reading came from St John’s gospel, and it records the things that John the Baptist said to his own disciples, on two different occasions when he saw Jesus walk by. And for the most part John the Baptist talks about the baptism of Jesus. He says, “I came baptising with water…that he might be revealed to Israel.” John talks about seeing the Spirit descend onto Jesus, and how significant that is. Also John specifically testifies that Jesus is Son of God. But what is very striking is the title that John the Baptist uses for Jesus when he sees him walk by. He doesn’t use the title “Messiah” (or Christ or anointed one, which mean the same thing.) He doesn’t use the title “Son of God” despite his testimony that Jesus is “Son of God”. Rather the title he uses is “Lamb of God”. We hear him say, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” And then the second time she says, “Look, here is the Lamb of God”.
This new title which John the Baptist gives Jesus, “Lamb of God”, is very mysterious. It is hard to understand but it crops up several times in the New Testament. It has been incorporated into the liturgy, and we shall hear it again, twice, just before we receive Holy Communion. So what is the title “Lamb of God” all about?
Well, in the Jewish tradition that Jesus was born into, a lamb was sin offering, used in temple sacrifices. We can read in the book of Leviticus all the detailed rules and regulations about sin offerings. If a member of the community sinned then that person had to bring a lamb to the priest. It had to be a good lamb, without blemish and valuable. The lamb would be slaughtered and the priest would take some of the blood on his finger and mark it on special parts of the altar. The rest of the blood would be poured out at the foot of the altar. The priest would cut off the fat from the lamb and burn it on the altar. Through this ceremony the person was forgiven their sins and their relationship with God and the community was restored.
So when we think of Jesus as Lamb of God, we are thinking of him as someone who was killed, so as to make good for our sin, to restore our relationship with God. Of course this is the great sacrifice that Jesus made for us, once for all time, upon the cross. And it is a sacrifice that we remember and are drawn into through our participation in the Eucharist and especially when we receive Holy Communion.
Now I don’t know about you, but I have always found talk of sacrifices very difficult. Lots of unpleasant pictures appear in my mind; the killing of animals, priests with sharp knives, blood and fire and smoke. It all seems very unpleasant and I am always very glad that that animal sacrifice is not part of our religion.
Well animal sacrifices might not be part of our religion, but in Christianity we certainly do talk about sacrifice. It is not always easy to understand what this means. When I was studying theology I was very struck to read St Augustine of Hippo’s definition of a sacrifice. He said that a true sacrifice is “any action which is designed to unite us to God.” “Any action which is designed to unite us with God.” I was amazed by this idea, and I have spent a lot of time pondering it over.
I find it very helpful because it really opens up the possibility of our daily lives being lived as a sacrifice, as an action designed to unite us with God. For example, according to St Augustine, our coming to church can be a sacrifice. Saying our prayers can be a sacrifice. Reading the bible can be a sacrifice. Anything we do with the intention of drawing closer to God is a sacrifice. And this can include so many things. In fact, if we love, it can include everything that we do. Loving our neighbour draws us closer to God. Sweeping the floor with love draws us closer to God. Listening to the teacher with love draws us closer to God. Typing on the computer with love draws us closer to God. Even resting after lunch, if it is truly done with love, draws us closer to God.
And at this point I noticed something. There is always a cost involved in a sacrifice. In Old Testament times it was the cost of the lamb. In fact the regulations in Leviticus had a special provision for people who could not afford a lamb. They were to offer two doves or young pigeons instead. But even today our little sacrifices have a cost. Coming to church costs us part of our Sunday morning. Saying our prayers costs us time and energy and requires discipline. The same is true of reading the bible. There is a cost involved in loving our neighbour. We all know how difficult it is to love people who we don’t instinctively like. Sweeping the floor with love requires that we concentrate and do it well. It requires that we are patient with the people who get in the way, or who never say thank you after it is done. Even resting after lunch, if it is done with love, requires us to be attentive to the needs of the people around us, so there is some cost however small.
But you have probably noticed, certainly I have, that whenever we try to draw closer to God, we quickly encounter limitations and barriers within ourselves. “I want to go to church, but I don’t like the service.” “I want to say my prayers but I am angry with God.” “I want to read the bible, but I can’t be bothered.” “I want to love my colleague at work but I find him so boring.” “I would sweep the floor out of love, but I just need to get it done.” “I would rest after lunch with love, but someone has upset me!”
We are all too painfully aware of the many limitations, temptations, distractions and barriers that prevent us from drawing closer to God. Sometimes they are quite overwhelming and in our own strength we can do nothing about them. But Jesus has already overcome these things. His sacrifice on the cross allows us to draw closer to God, despite our limitations and inadequacies, sometimes even because of them! So when we hit these barriers and limitations within ourselves, let us not be discouraged. Let us simply hold them before Jesus in prayer, counting on the grace of his death and resurrection to help us.
And there is no better time to do this, than when we receive Holy Communion. Through the Eucharist we remember Christ’s death on the cross and its grace is made present to us. When we receive Holy Communion we receive the presence of Jesus and that grace right inside our bodies. So, as we come up to receive Holy Communion today, let us give thanks for Jesus and for the sacrifice that he made for us on the cross. Let us offer up to Jesus all those things that prevent us from drawing closer to God. Let us entrust them to his mercy, to the great mercy of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Baptism of Christ - Making yourself one

2011-01-09T11:00:00.001Z

Sermon preached at 11am Choral Mattins at Mary the Virgin, Lapworth on Sunday 9th January 2011. Shorter versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist at Mary’s and at 3pm Evensong at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.

Baptism of Christ – Year A

Readings: Isaiah 42: 1-9, Matthew 3: 13-17

My grandfather, when he was getting married, rather boldly assumed that he would not need a ticket to get into the church for his wedding. It turned out that this rather bold assumption was wrong. He was marrying the daughter of an archbishop, and the cathedral had all its “big event” procedures in place, including ticket only entrance. My grandfather and the best man finally entered the cathedral by climbing over some railings at the back. He ripped his trousers in the process so had to cope with torn trousers all day, but then he dined out on the story for the rest of his life!
In one way it seems quite reasonable that my grandfather should not need a ticket to attend his own wedding. If he really had been unable to get in, they would presumably have noticed! People would have gone to find him.
But Jesus, when he entered this world, which he created, seemed to seek none of the special privileges which, as Son of God or Messiah, he might reasonably have expected. This lack of special treatment is especially clear in the Christmas/Epiphany season. On 1st January the church marks the “Circumcision of Christ”. Just like any other new born baby boy in Judaism, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day. In three weeks time we shall remember the “Presentation of Christ in the Temple”. Just like any other newborn, Jesus is taken to the Temple with his mother on the 40th day for the rites of purification. And in our gospel reading today, we see Jesus, just like any repent Jew at that time, coming to John the Baptist for Baptism so as to prepare for the coming Messiah.
Well, as we heard in the gospel reading, John the Baptist could see that it would be more appropriate if he, John, was baptised by Jesus. But Jesus persuades him to go along with the baptism, at least for the time being. And this obedience of Jesus, and his parents, to the normal religious rules for normal people shows us something of the great humility of the God who became human. It shows us how Jesus is completely and fully human.
And this is very important. Because somehow it is the way that Jesus, who is God, becomes like us, fully human, that opens up the possibility of us to become like him; of us coming to share in God’s own divine life.
The Baptism of Christ shows us this especially. At the baptism the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and came to rest upon Jesus. This was a sure sign that Jesus had received the Spirit. It was a reminded of the prophecy of Isaiah that we read earlier, “I have put my spirit upon him”. It reveals Jesus to be the Messiah, the anointed one of God, the one who has received God’s own Spirit. This is something very special and specific to Jesus, but ultimately we all come to share in its benefits. So, for example, at our own Baptism we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and we are strengthened in the Holy Spirit at our confirmation.
Also at the Baptism of Christ, God’s voice declares “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” This voice reveals Jesus to be Son of God. Again it echo the Isaiah prophecy, “Here is my servant…the chosen one, in whom my soul delights.” Again this is something very special and specific to Jesus, about being Son of God, but also once again it is something in which ultimately we come to share. Through our Baptism we become a new creation, like an adopted son of God, a co-heir with Christ.
So it is strange and interesting that at the Baptism of Christ, when the Holy Spirit descends and reveals Jesus to be Messiah, and the voice of the Father reveals him to be Son of God, Jesus, by the humility of his own actions is revealing himself to be completely and fully human, Son of Man as much as he is Son of God.
And this humility of Jesus, losing all the privileges of being God, in order to be fully human like us, demonstrates a very typical characteristic of Christian love, a characteristic which we are all called to practice and grow into. This is the practice being ready to let go of our own identity and our own ideas in order to fully share in the life of the person in front of us. So, for example, we put to one side what we think about a particular situation in order to hear properly what another person has to say about it. I had an experience of this recently when someone was upset about a funeral service I had conducted at the crematorium. I felt defensive and rather than listen properly I wanted to explain why the service was the way it was. I have to admit that I did do that a bit, but to the extent that I did listen properly what emerged was much more upset about the person lost than about the service. Listening properly would have helped the truth to emerge and heeling to take place.
This characteristic Christian way of loving has been described as “making yourself one” with the person beside you. It is involves temporarily setting aside our own thoughts and agendas in order to fully appreciate the thoughts and agendas of another person. It involves placing ourselves in their shoes, as though we are living their lives, with their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows. It is not an action of weakness, or about allowing others to dominate us, but it is about seeking and valuing the experience and attitudes of Jesus in a different person. It is a practice in line with St Paul, who became Jewish to the Jews, Greek to the Greeks and even weak to the weak (cf 1 Corinthians 9: 19ff) in order to love in this way. And it is a very powerful way of loving that builds shared understanding, appreciation of difference, unity and communion; real shared life. I commend it to you, but the ultimate example must always be Jesus, who put aside being God in order to be completely human.

The true light, coming into the world

2010-12-24T23:30:00.002Z

Sermon preached at Midnight Mass, 11.30pm, 24th December 2010 at St Mary’s Lapworth. Shorter versions of this sermon were also preached on 25th December at the 8.30am Said Eucharist at St Mary’s and at the 9.45am Holy Communion (BCP) at St Michael’s, Baddesley Clinton.

Readings (set III): Is 52: 7-10 John 1: 1-14

My uncle, who is not a great church goer, used to complain, “Every time I go to church, we always have the same scripture reading. There is the whole bible to choose from, but they always choose the same bit to read in the service…you know, that bit “In the beginning was the word…”. Well of course, when we worked it out, we realised that the reason he only ever got one scripture reading was that he only ever went to one service, which was Midnight mass, and at Midnight mass we do very often have that famous reading from John.
And although it is a very famous reading and is very well known, it is not an easy reading to understand. It talks about Jesus in many different ways. It talks of Jesus as “Word of God”, as the source of creation and life, and as light. It also talks of Jesus as flesh, and as Son of God. Well you will be relieved to know that I am not going to analyse all those different descriptions of Jesus today. Rather I would like to just reflect with you about Jesus as light.
Now we all know how important light is, and how difficult things can be when there is no light. When she was very young, one of our children used to be afraid of the dark. We would put her to bed at night with her bedroom door ajar, and with the landing light on, and that would be fine. But one night, our first night back after two weeks away on holiday, there was a power cut in the middle of the night. Somehow Imogen managed to notice that it was completely dark and she started screaming because she was afraid of the dark. Elaine and I woke up and tried to sort things out. I found myself completely confused. I was half awake and half asleep. I was confused about whether I was in the holiday house in France, or in our own home. I couldn’t remember where there were any candles or torches. So Elaine went to find a candle, and I went in to comfort Imogen. Anyway I made no progress in comforting Imogen, because it was dark and she was scared of the dark, so she kept on screaming and I remained in my utterly confused state, not even sure about what house I was in. Anyway eventually Elaine arrived with a candle and there was light; not a lot of light but light enough and it made all the difference. Suddenly Imogen stopped screaming, suddenly I was properly awake, and knew what house I was in and everything was fine. What a difference a little light makes!
And Jesus, the light of the world, also makes a huge difference. Without Jesus it is very unclear why we exist on this earth, how we should live, how we should respond to the people around us, how we should pray or what we should think about God, or life or death or good or evil. Jesus, by his teaching and by his example, throws extraordinary light on all these questions. He reveals God to be a father who loves us, and who has created us for an eternal good. He reveals God as present in the people around us, who we need to love and serve if God’s creation in us is to realise its potential; if the full meaning of our lives is to be revealed. And this light that Jesus throws on our lives is very closely related to Jesus as “word of God”, as God’s explanation, God’s teaching, God’s encouraging. It is like God is trying to communicate to us how we should live as human beings. How best to do that? Perhaps by words of explanation, by pictures, by diagram, The best explanation is by example, and this is Jesus the light of the world.
But Jesus is also light in the sense that light sustains life. Plants grow in the light, so without light there would be no plants and so no food for animals and so no animals. Light is fundamental to life and is associated with joy and contentment, whereas darkness is associated with death and frustration and misery. So Jesus, who is God the source of life, is also light in this sense, that life and all good things ultimately come from him.
And in the NT we think of the kingdom of heaven as a kingdom of light, and we contrast it with Satan’s kingdom of darkness. The light overcomes the darkness, and evil always tries to hide from the light, because the light exposes evil for what it is.
So my hope this Christmas is that we will all receive the light of Christ in our hearts; that we will make room for it, nurture it and allow it to grow. I hope that, by the light of Jesus, by his teaching and example, we may understand his love for us, and understand the love by which we need to relate to the people around us. I hope that the light of Christ we reveal to us our true identities, the people God created us to be. I hope that by this light of Christ shining in us, we in turn might provide light for the people around us, and help them to realise their true selves as well. Amen.

John the Baptist - the forerunner foreseen

2010-12-12T11:00:00.000Z

Sermon preached at 11am Coral Mattins at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 12th December 2010. A shorter version of this sermon was also preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist.

Advent III – Year A
Readings: Is 35: 1-10 Matthew 11: 2-11

On the third Sunday of Advent we traditionally think about John the Baptist in his role as the forerunner of the Messiah, preparing the way of the Lord. Now this role of the forerunner, the person to announce the coming Messiah, and to help people to prepare to greet him was a role that had been mapped out in prophecy long before either John the Baptist or Jesus were born. All four of the gospel writers make this point, but Matthew seems particularly keen to emphasis it and he makes several references to the different Old Testament scriptures that foresee John the Baptist.
So for example in the gospel reading that the lectionary scheduled for last week (which we did not actually use it because of the Christingle) Matthew quotes Isaiah 40:3ff “A voice cries out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God…say to the cities of Judah, here is your God.”
In the gospel reading we heard today Matthew records Jesus quoting from Malachi 3: 1ff where it says, “see I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple”
And if we had read a little further with our gospel reading today we would have heard Jesus make a subtle reference to Malachi 4: 5 which says, “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes” and Jesus affirms that this means John the Baptist.
Now when you go back and read these prophecies in their original OT context, the thing that is very noticeable is the power and glory that the prophets expect to see associated with the Messiah at his coming. Malachi describes his coming as a “great and terrible day” 4: 5). He asks, “But who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap…” (Mal 3: 2). The Isaiah prophecy says, “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all people shall see it together,” and it talks of people withering away like grass when the Lord blows upon it. (Is 40: 5ff)
And this theme of a glorious and terrible coming is also present in the Isaiah passage that we heard this morning, “Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” (Is 35: 4). And this seems to be very consistent with the message of John the Baptist in that gospel reading (which we did not have) last week. John asked the Pharisees and Sadducees, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath come?...even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees.” (Matt 3: 7-10)
Now these prophecies of the Lord coming in glory with vengeance and fire seem to contrast rather with the story of the birth of Jesus, which seems to emphasis the meekness of being excluded from the inn, the poverty of the stable, the joy, peace and goodwill of the angels’ message. So how do we make sense of this difference? Why are the prophecies about the coming of Jesus so different from his actually coming?
Well, for a first century Jew, this difference was pretty clear evidence that Jesus was not the Messiah. The Messiah was meant to establish a kingdom of justice and peace with Israel at its centre. Jesus did not do this, so he can’t be the Messiah.
Now a first century Christian would have probably responded, “Well the first coming of Jesus was all about teaching us to how to live in the kingdom of God; what are its values and its cultural norms, its laws. But the tangible and visible implementation of the kingdom, that is a matter for the second coming of Christ. That’s why we must prepare for the second coming of Christ. That’s why Advent is so important.
Well, it has been a bit of a theme for me this Advent to ask how we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ, how we prepare ourselves for life in God’s kingdom, the everlasting kingdom. And I keep coming back to two important forms of preparation. First there is the internal and invisible preparation that we make building relationship with the coming Jesus through our prayer and worship. Through prayer and worship we seek to know Jesus better, understand better his values and priorities and the specific things that he wants from us in our lives.
Then second there is the outward and visible preparation which is about how we live our lives in society, how we deal with the people around us. And here we prepare ourselves for the kingdom of God by seeking to live out its values here on earth. And so we try to see Jesus present in the people that we meet. We try to help them and serve them. We try to live according to the specific commandments of Jesus – “love one another, as I have loved you.” Now we can only do that in partial way because here on earth we are subject to sin, the sin in ourselves and the sin in the society we live in, but we can humbly hold that sin before God and use the freedom that we do have to live out the values of the kingdom of God, to live for the others, to be generous and merciful. And when we manage to live in this way Jesus’ presence within us is strengthened and grows. And through this training we become better able to live in God’s kingdom, to abide by its laws, live according to its norms and values and to express its culture. And through this, as well, sin is pushed back and obedience to God grows. Little by little we make our own small contribution to the building the kingdom of God on earth. Amen.

Isaiah and the coming Messiah

2010-12-05T09:45:00.000Z

Sermon preached at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton at 9.45am Holy Communion (BCP) on Sunday 5th December 2010. A shorter version of this sermon was also preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist at St Mary’s, Lapworth.
Advent 2 – Year A

Readings: Isaiah 11: 1-10 Matt 3: 1-12

There is a tradition that on the second Sunday of Advent we reflect especially on the prophets, who foresaw the coming of Jesus, many centuries before he was actually born. Now there were many prophets spoke of the coming of a great Messiah. Messiah means anointed one. Now the kings of Israel were not so much crowned as anointed with oil, so Israel certainly expected the Messiah, the anointed to be a great king, like King David or King Solomon from Israel’s glory days, which were about 1000 BC.
As I said, many prophets spoke of the coming of the great Messiah, but it is probably the book of Isaiah that is the richest source of these prophecies, and it is no surprise then that we often read a great deal of Isaiah in Advent, as we look forward expectantly to the coming of the Lord.
Now Isaiah the prophet was writing in the eighth century BC, but the book of Isaiah contains a lot of later material from the sixth century BC presumably included by followers of the Isaiah tradition. The Messiahanic prophecies run through the whole book. The passage that we heard today if probably from the earlier period (although different scholars have different views). It is one of the classic prophecies of about the Messiah and it is very helpful text to reflect on in Advent. Let’s have a look at what the passage tells us to expect in Jesus.
“A shoot shall spring from the stock of Jesse”. Well Jesse was the Father of King David, so we are told to expect a Messiah who is a descendent of King David. This also fits well with God’s promises to David in 2 Samuel 7 and repeated in the Psalms (e.g. Psalm 89).
“The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him” We are told that the messiah will have the Spirit of God, he will somehow be particularly close to God and walk in relationship with God.
We are told the messiah will have the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel and might. The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. In the Christian tradition these “seven” qualities have become known as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. (There are also the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5) I don’t know if you were counting, but I only listed six gifts of the Holy Spirit. Well apparently the Vulgate Latin bible had two expressions for “fear of the Lord”, one of which was usually translated at piety, so that makes seven.
Then the text gives us several qualities of the messiah, which we might associate more with the second coming of Christ than with his first coming. It tells us he will be a judge, and will judge with integrity. He will judge by righteousness, rather than by outward appearances. His judgement will bring justice for the meek and the poor. It will being death and downfall for the wicked.
And then we hear a description of the kingdom where the Messiah reigns. It will be a kingdom of justice and peace. The wolf will lie down with the lamb, the lion will eat straw like an ox. It is like a return to the perfection of the garden of Eden, before sin entered the world and where where everything seems to have been vegetarian. Humanity it seems lives not only in perfect harmony with God, but also in perfect harmony with nature and the environment. “The infant will play over the hole of the adder, and the baby put his hand in the vipers nest, but hurt or harm will be done on the Holy mountain of the Lord”. It seems that even the snake, who caused all that trouble in the garden of Eden, has somehow be brought safely and peacefully into the Messiahanic Kingdom.
So, Advent is about preparing for the coming of the Lord, both the baby who comes to us at Christmas time, and the great king and judge who comes to us at the end of time. And how do we prepare for his coming?
Well last week I made two suggestions. The first was to prepare by improving and developing our life of prayer and worship. I said that through prayer and worship start a relationship with Jesus, that means we are not at first base when he comes. It is as though we are pen-pals or internet friends who meet in real life for the first time. Well it seems to me that this suggestion is very consistent with what Isaiah says. He emphasises that those qualities of the Messiah to do with wisdom and insight, knowledge and fear of the Lord. Prayer and worship is a critically important way into these gifts of the spirit. They are gifts; we can’t just grow them ourselves, but we can ask for them, and seek them through prayer and worship, and this is pleasing to God and it encourages him to share with us wisdom and knowledge, as we grow to know him better and contemplate his ways.
Also last week I suggested that to greet Jesus well, we need to be accustomed to greeting him in all his different faces in the people who we meet in the different circumstances of our life. And just as we meet many different kinds of people, so more likeable, so less so, so there are many aspects to the character of Jesus, some towards which we feel drawn, some of which feel less attractive. But they are all Jesus, we need to learn to love them all. Well again I think this has great consistency with what Isaiah says. Isaiah talks of the Messiahanic Kingdom of justice and peace. We need to prepare ourselves to be good citizens of that kingdom. It is what we are called to, the destiny towards which we must move. And to live in that kingdom we must live by justice and peace. To be just means to treat people right; to give them their proper due, to afford them the dignity that God affords to them, to recognise the image of God in their creation. Of course this is much easier if they are also being just to us, but just as God always takes the initiative in love, is always the first to love, so we need to learn to be the first to love, being just to others even before they are just to us.
So, as we think about the prophets preparing the way for the Messiah, and as we give thanks to God for the Isaiah tradition in particular, so we can continue our preparations for meeting with Jesus. We can continue to develop our life of prayer and worship so as to grow in the knowledge and love of God, to grow in wisdom and understanding and the fear of the Lord. Similarly we can practice being good citizens of the coming kingdom of God by becoming ever more just in our treatment of other people, by properly honouring and respecting God’s creation in them. Amen.

Preparing to meet Jesus

2010-11-28T15:00:00.000Z

Sermon preached at 3pm Evensong at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton on Sunday 28th November 2010. Different versions of this sermon were also preached at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at 11am Coral Mattins.

Advent Sunday - Year A

Readings: Is 2: 1-5 Matt 24: 36-44

(Note form only)

Advent is about expecting the coming of Jesus, about preparing to meet him.

1) Preparing to welcome baby Jesus at Christmas
- preparations might include decorations, presents, food
- we think about this more in second half of Advent

2) Preparing for the Second coming of Christ
- we think about this especially on Advent Sunday, and first part of Advent.
- our scripture readings focus on this
- Isaiah talking of the word of the Lord & instruction going forth from Jerusalem. The whole world wants to learn, and walk in the Lords ways, because the Lord is King. Wars end.
- In the gospel Jesus emphasises that the Son of man will come at an unexpected time, like a thief in the night. Christian tradition teaches us to stay awake, be vigilant, expect this coming always.

3) Meeting with Jesus when we die – might also think of this

How do we prepare for the coming of Jesus? – it is a bit awkward because we don’t know when, and we don’t know what it will be like.

It reminds me of the Downton Abbey TV series and a scene involving Carson the Butler.
Its 1914 and a telephone has been installed in the house for the first time.
Carson sits in front the telephone apprehensively preparing for the first moment when it must be used.
He practices answering the telephone.
He finds himself speaking to the operator.
terrible shock – Carson very abrupt – all a bit unsatisfactory.
However Carson spoke good English, clearly and slowly.
It is quite clear that with a little more experience he will cope very well with the telephone.

Waiting for Jesus has some of that same apprehension and uncertainty/awkwardness.
Can be scary.
How can we make prepare well to greet Jesus when he comes/ when we meet him?
How can we make sure that we good at the language of heaven, just has Carson had spoken good English loud and clear.

Well one way is through pray and worship. If we are well accustoming to speaking to Jesus through prayer and worship, then that is a good start to the relationship when he comes to meet us. It is like when pen-pals, or people who met on the internet, actually meet in real life. The experience is different, but there is already a relationship to build on. It is a very good start, but it is not everything.

There is another important aspect to preparing to meet Jesus.
Jesus said “What you do to the least you do to me”
“You can not love God, who you can’t see, unless you love the brothers who you can see”
A big part of our relationship with Jesus concerns the way that we treat Jesus in the people we meet. When we meet Jesus in other people, do we respect him, honour his dignity, treat him well, go out of our way for him, serve him, love him?

The scriptures present to us Jesus in may ways. Sometimes he seems rich with lavish gifts (Wedding in Cana). Sometimes he is poor and famished (as when tempted in the wilderness). Sometimes he is loved by crowds who sing hosanna, sometimes hated by crowd who cry “crucify”. Sometimes he seems a fearsome judge, sometimes a merciful redeemer, sometimes as a great king, sometimes as a refugee, or criminal crucified on the cross.

So in our daily lives we meet many different kinds of people, rich and poor, intelligent and less gifted, foreign and local, rejoicing or suffering, well known or strangers. Jesus is present in them all. How do we respond to Jesus in all these different kinds of people? Do we love him and serve him? Do we deny that he is there, or try to avoid him? Perhaps we kid ourselves thinking, “Yes, but it will be much easier to love Jesus himself than to love all these different people.” Well I am not sure. The historical Jesus was a Jew by culture, more than a Christian. He was from the middle-east. He didn’t speak English. In short he was very, very different from us and could be quite a challenge for us to love. Welcoming people who are very different is always a challenge. Finding the right way to love them, help them, serve them, work for their good is also a challenge. However it is crucial practise for any meeting with Jesus. Jesus will be well aware of how we have treated him in other people.

So to prepare to meet Jesus let’s build our relationship with him. Let’s do this through prayer and through worship, but above all let’s do it by trying to find Jesus in the people we encounter through our daily lives, and trying to help and serve him. If we can do this well then we know that there will be great joy when we finally meet Jesus face to face. Amen.

Christ the King

2010-11-21T11:00:00.000Z

Sermon preached on Sunday 21st November 2010 at the 11am Parish Eucharist at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth. Other versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at the 9.45am Holy Communion (BCP) at St Michael’s, Baddesley Clinton.
Christ the King – Year C
Readings: Col 1: 11-20 Luke 23: 33-43

I was recently producing a new service booklet for a “Family Eucharist” with David and Mal Suggitt. One of the things that tried to do was to find small and appropriate illustrations to put against each section of the service. So by the Scripture Reading we put a picture of the bible, and by the Peace we put a picture of a Dove. When I looked at the first draft of the service book I was very interested in the picture that David and Mal had selected to put next to the Gloria. Now we are all very familiar with the Gloria, which is a hymn of praise to God in his glory: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth”. The Gloria is especially appropriate for the festival of Christ the King because it emphasises the glory of Jesus, seated at the right hand of God the Father; “You alone are the Holy One. You alone are the Lord. You alone are the most high, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in the Glory of God the Father.”
Now the picture that the Suggitts had placed next to this was a picture of Christ on the Cross. It is a picture in which Christ’s body seems to radiate glory, but it is nevertheless a picture of him dying on the cross. Look out for it when we next have a Family Eucharist. The next one is coming up with Epiphany on 2nd January. Now it does seem to be a very strange way of celebrating the glory of Christ: to depict him dying on the cross. Strange it may be, but it is a choice that resonates deeply with the tradition of the church.
So, for example, we see something of that strange contrast in the choice of our scripture reading for today in this year C of the lectionary. Today is the last Sunday of the Church’s year. We think about Christ in his triumph at the end of time. We celebrate Christ the King, Christ in his Glory, Christ in whom all things hold together, who comes to have first place in everything (as our epistle put it). And yet the gospel reading is the story of the crucifixion! The crucifixion! Not so much a moment of glory and a moment of pain and insult, shame and disaster.
But if we look carefully at our gospel reading, beyond the crucifixion, there are clear pointers to Christ the King, to Christ in his glory….

[From this point, bullet points only]

Reference to Jesus as “King of the Jews”
- reminder of Pilate’s questions to Jesus during his trial (John 18: 33-38)
- “my kingdom is not of this world” (or not yet anyway!)

Penitent thief’s comment “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom”
- Jesus responds positively seeming to affirm his kingdom in heaven

In John’s gospel (12: 23-28) Jesus talks of the hour of his crucifixion and his glory as though they are almost the same thing. Certainly they are closely linked. The crucifixion leads to the glory.

I recently saw an old film from VE day – 1945. A triumph was achieved. There was great joy and women from London were dancing in the streets. It seemed a very purified joy, without the negative aspects of triumphalism, that seeks to dominate others.
Purified no doubt by the sufferings of the blitz and losing sons/husbands/sweethearts through the war.

Close link between suffering and glory gives us hope to us in our own trials and sufferings – be they small or large
- we try to live them with Christ, like Christ on the cross
- we shall also be with Christ in his glory
- New Testament frequently links suffering to glory
o Rom 8: 17-18, 2 Cor 4: 16-17, Col 3: 3-4, Heb 2: 9-10, 1 Pet 5:10
- We are called to share in the glory of Jesus – share his throne Rev 3:21

So we try to live our sufferings well, with love for Jesus in the moment of his sufferings.
We have a special opportunity in the Eucharist
- where we celebrate Jesus’ death and rising to glory
- bring to the Eucharist our sufferings small and large
- through the Eucharist share them with Jesus in his passion
- Jesus then shares with us his life, his body and blood

So commend to you sharing with Christ in his sufferings and in the glory of his kingship, especially through the Eucharist.

Remembrance and Commitment

2010-11-14T10:30:00.001Z

Sermon preached on Sunday 14th November 2010 at the 10.30am Remembrance Day service at St Mary’s, Lapworth and at 3pm Evensong at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.
Remembrance Sunday

Readings: Isaiah 32: 1-2 & 12-18 John 15: 9-17

Getting ready for Remembrance Sunday has caused me to have a good hard look at the services that we use, and the things which typically happen on Remembrance Sunday. And it seems to me that a Remembrance Sunday service usually hinges around two key Acts; an Act of Remembrance and an Act of Commitment. Certainly in our service today we have these two key Acts, and I would like to spend a moment now, seeking to understand them better; the Act of Remembrance and the Act of Commitment.
First of all, our Act of Remembrance. In our Act of Remembrance we are above all remembering people who have died in war; especially those people who have given their lives for the freedom and security of this nation. The older ones among us might remember specific people who died in the second world war. Many of us however cannot remember specific people, but we can certain allow ourselves to be reminded of the great sacrifices of war. We might think of the trenches of the First World War, of the mud, the barred wire, the shelling, the gas, the rats, the machine guns, the fear and the periodic moments of great slaughter. We might think of the injured and lame, those returning home with shell shock or physiological trauma. But above all we remember the people who died, and as a solemn reminder of the people from Lapworth who died, we read their names out during the Act of Remembrance.
And then what does this remembering do for us. What emotions might it generate in us? Well certainly there is sadness and a sense of loss. Certainly there is a recognition that a great price has been paid by a great many people. Hopefully we can identify with those people a little so that we feel some of their loss as our own loss. And perhaps we have some other more difficult emotion, guilt or anger, which we need to work our way through. But through our remembrance, we are seeking to arrive at a sense of deep and profound gratitude. A solemn sense of thanksgiving for the great price that has been paid for us, and the great benefits won for us; for the freedom and security that we enjoy in this country.
And hopefully this pattern of remembrance and thanksgiving will be familiar to us. It is the basic pattern of our church services, especially the Eucharist, is a remembrance of Jesus, a remembrance of his passion and death and a thanksgiving for all the great benefits that he has won for us.
Then we come to our Act of Commitment. This is about our personal response. As we remember the great sufferings that have been bourn for us and the great benefits that we have received from others how do we respond? The Act of Commitment that we make together today in church encourages us to respond by being generous to others, as we have received. It encourages us to work for the service of God and humanity, to work for the relief of the needy and the building of peace. And as we make that Act of Commitment today, I hope that we will think not only about the international scale where relief of the needy is conducted through Oxfam or Christian Aid and the quest for peace by the United Nations, but also we will think about our families and the people we know locally. How do we work for the relief of needs and for peace amongst the people who we know? Locally the needs are less likely to be about food and housing and more likely to be about companionship, belonging and sense of community. How do we work for peace locally? Well it is about always seeking to build relationships with other people that are ever deeper, stronger, more trusting and modelled on God’s love for us.
And again we have a familiar model in how to do this; Jesus, who commands us to love one another, as he has loved us. And by his life Jesus showed us what it meant to love others, to work for their good. Today we heard Jesus explain that the person with the greatest love is the one who is willing to pay down life for his friend. Jesus was willing to do this, and he did this because he knew that love has a value that endures, even through death.
So as we make our act of Remembrance, let’s solemnly remember those who have died and the great sacrifices made for us. Let’s seek to arrive at a profound attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving for what we have received. Then in our Act of Commitment, let’s renew our resolve to work for better relationships locally, and for the renewal of our nation and ultimately for renewal in the whole world. Amen.

Remembrance at the Eucharist

2010-11-14T08:30:00.000Z

Sermon preached on Sunday 14th November 2010 at 8.30am Said Eucharist at St Mary’s, Lapworth.

Remembrance Sunday

Readings: Isaiah 32: 1-2 & 12-18 John 15: 9-17

Our reading from Isaiah this morning outlines a pattern that we see many times in the history of Israel in the Old Testament. The pattern goes like this: things go well for Israel and she prospers and grows, but then she starts to forget about God and trust in her own abilities and powers. She becomes over confident and there is a fall, sometimes a catastrophic fall with the whole country laid waste. But some seemly insignificant remnant of Israel survives the disaster, and through it is purified and draws closer to God. God pour out his spirit on this remnant, which starts to grow and to flourish once more, but hopefully purer and closer to what God ultimately wants.
And this pattern is by no means unique to Israel. The great wars of the 20th century had an effect somewhat like this on the societies of Western Europe. Whole sections of society perished and many old ways of life passed away. But after the disaster of the wars, quite quickly new life appeared and started to flourish. Today we remember with solemn gratitude those who have died in war and we give thanks for the freedom and security that they have won for us and for this nation.
And we see something of this pattern lived out by Jesus. Jesus was free of sin himself, but this did not protect him from the sin of others. As his ministry develops, he was eventually completely overtaken by the forces of evil. His passion and death appear to be the ultimate disaster; God who created everything is crucified by his creation. But this is not the end. God pours out his spirit! There is the resurrection. Jesus receives a new life, more wonderful that the life he had before; a life that is stronger than death.
This is the pattern that we act out in the Eucharist. Following Jesus’ command to “do this in remembrance of me” we are confronted with (perhaps even share in??) his passion and death by sharing in his broken body and blood outpoured. We express our solemn gratitude and thanksgiving for all the benefits that Jesus has won for us, through his passion and death. Above all, through the Eucharist, we receive an outpouring of Jesus’ resurrection life through which we can grow and flourish.
So as we receive communion today, let’s give thanks Jesus who died for us, and for those who have died for our nation in war. Let’s seek to receive new life and to flourish in ways that are worthy of the gifts we have received.

Becoming Saints

2010-10-31T11:00:00.000Z

Sermon preached at 11am Parish Eucharist at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth on Sunday 31st October 2010. A shortened version of this sermon was also preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at 9.45am Holy Communion (BCP) at St Michael’s, Baddesley Clinton.
All Saints’ Sunday – Year C
Readings: Ephesians 1: 11-23 Luke 6: 20-31

So today we are celebrating All Saints Day, transferred from Monday 1st November and on Tuesday 2nd November we shall be remembering All Souls Day. So today we remember people who have died and who are holy, close to God and who dwell joyfully in the fullness of God’s presence. Then on Tuesday we remember all other people who have died with good will towards God but who we hesitate to think of as Saints.
Let’s think about this more carefully using the metaphor of a journey. We think of the Christian life as a journey towards God. The journey ends (or better: reaches fulfilment) when we come to share in the life of the Trinity in heaven. Walking the journey towards heaven is therefore about drawing ever closer to God. Christ is both the “the way” we must follow, the road, and the shepherd who leads us along it. As we draw closer to God we understand him better. We learn his ways and we learn to move in harmony with them. It is about being freed from sin, so that we can stand in the presence of God. It is about becoming pure in heart, so that we can see God.
Or we can use the metaphor of healing. As humans we were created in the image of God, and made good. Yet, somehow, we have been diseased by sin and our humanity has been compromised. We are now in a process of recovery. Healing is about overcoming sin and developing truly and fully into the human being that God created us to be. Christ is the both the healer and the example of perfect humanity to which we aspire. We can think of the church as the hospital in which we are treated and in which we convalesce. As we listen to the doctor in hospital, so we listen to God in the bible. As we receive medicines in a hospital, so we receive sacraments in the church. As we might receive surgery in hospital, so God sometimes cuts open and reorders our earthly lives. As physiotherapy or occupational therapy might prepare us for life outside the hospital, so the situations we face in our earthly lives prepares us for the life of heaven.
Or we might use the metaphor of an apprenticeship or professional training. Earthly life is a training ground in which we learn the skills that we need to live the life of heaven. Qualification in the trade is like attaining to the norms of heaven. Christ is the teacher, our trainer, and we seek to become like him. As trainees read their manuals, so Christians study the bible. As trainees get day-release in college, so Christians come to church once a week. As trainees listen to and copy the expert, so Christians listen to Christ and copy him.
Whichever of these metaphors we use, it is important to see our earthly lives as process of becoming more Christ-like, more God-like. This process is God’s work in us. When we remember “All Saints” we are thinking of people who have died and in whom this work of God shows a certain completeness or fulfilment; people who are ready and fit to be good citizens of heaven. When we think of “All Souls” we think or people who have died for whom this process of becoming holy is still work in progress. And if we think of the people who we have known who have died, probably most of them are more holiness-in-progress rather than holiness-realised, and so we especially remember them on All Souls day.
Now I said that this process of becoming holy is “God’s work in us”. It is important that we remember that, because we can only progress by God’s grace. We can’t achieve holiness in our own strength! But we certainly do have a part to play. It is crucially important that we respond positively to God’s love for us. We need to co-operate with God’s grace in our lives. We need to want the things that God wants for us. The desire for holiness must grow within us. We need to pray for this. We need to order our daily lives, our days and our minutes, according to God’s will and purpose for us.
And this process of becoming holy, of becoming saints, is very important and often we don’t take it seriously enough. Do we think of ourselves as saints in the making? Do we think of ourselves as drawing ever closer to God? Do we think of ourselves as recovering from sin and becoming perfect, as our heavenly father is perfect? Do we think of ourselves saints in training? Well we can and should think of ourselves in this way. Ultimately we must go to heaven or hell; we are either with God or against him. It seems to me sensible to walk firmly and boldly towards God and towards the life of heaven!
And it has to be said that we Christians can often seem woefully negligent in this respect. We tend to drift along wanting to think of ourselves as “good people” but not as “holy people” or saints. I was interested to read something [“Finding Happiness” by Christopher Jamison, London: Weidenfield & Nicolson 2008] about the seven deadly sins. Apparently at one stage there were eight deadly sins. The one that somehow got lost is “acedia” which means spiritual carelessness or apathy. Certainly acedia seems a terrible problem for many Christians in these present times.
So let’s not suffer from this spiritual apathy of acedia. Let’s be attentive to God’s work in us. Let’s want it and pray for it. Let’s co-operate fully with it. Let’s thirst for the life of heaven. Let’s trust in its goodness and power. As Paul said in our reading today, “…may you know the hope to which [Christ] has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints”. In this way we can make progress on the journey, we can be healed and made whole, we can be trained up for the life heaven, and these are things of everlasting value. They are real riches. Let’s be keen to receive them!

Give to the most high, as he has given to you

2010-10-24T11:00:00.001+01:00

Sermon preached at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth at 11am Coral Mattins on Sunday 24th October 2010. A shorter version of this sermon was preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at Evensong at 3pm St Michael’s, Baddesley Clinton.
Last Sunday after Trinity (Also Bible Sunday) – Year C

Readings: Ecclesiasticus 35: 12-17, Luke 18: 9-14

(outline notes only)

I now put Sunday scripture readings in the Parish Magazine.
- people can read them before or after worship
- this helps the scriptures to sink into our hearts

But maybe people had trouble finding Ecclesiasticus
– deuterocanonical / apocrypha book
- There are 7 such deutrocanonical books (plus bits of Daniel and Ester)
- they are in Greek Septuagint version of Old Testament (used by early church)
- they are not in Hebrew Bible (put together by 1st century Jews)

What books are included in the bible is called the “Canon”. Canon means ruler for measurement, a standard, an authority. The Canon is the list of books which the church regards as authoritative, which are treated as Holy Scripture.

Disputes about the Canon mainly settled at Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which took the Greek Septuagint to be the Old Testament. At Reformation, Luther and reformers took the Hebrew Bible to be the Old Testament. Seven books left in an ambiguous state. Protestant Bibles sometimes include them in “The Apocrypha”.

It is interesting to reflect on bible history on Bible Sunday. Note that we often think of the church gaining its authority from the bible, which sets its standards and norms. But it is also true that the bible gets its authority from the church, which wrote the NT and defined the Canon.

The key text today from Ecclesiasticus 35:

Give to the most high as he has given to you.
Be generous
For the Lord repays – sevenfold.

Giving, generosity – Paula Gooder (lay canon biblical scholar at Birmingham Cathedral described the ethic of giving/generosity as the central ethic of the NT.
Not thinking just of financial giving, or even gifts like those we exchange at Christmas
Rather thinking of living for the good of other – loving the other person as I love myself.
More routinely than money or gifts, the things that we are called to give might be:
a smile
encouragement
give the time necessary to deal properly with people
give real attention when listening
give forgiveness
give help making use of our knowledge, skills or experience
give by being patient with someone who is exasperating
Generosity with time and money and gifts, is also part of this. Note that everything that is given, is given always for the good of the other.
(Sometimes the good of the other demands us to give something that they may not like – give a child a good telling off, give food to a drunkard rather than money or drink. Our attitude is still one of giving – still working for the good of the other – not judging or criticising or dominating.)

Now if we are to give generously we have to have the ability to give.
You can’t give what you don’t have.
We must have first received from God, and from others before we have anything to give.
Ideal situation – we are always receiving and always giving – cycles of mutual giving.

How can we build up that those healthy cycles of receiving and giving. How can work towards a position where we freely give all the time.
- practice generosity, it’s a virtue, a skill that grows with practice
- develop our awareness and our trust in God’s giving to us
- use prayer and mediation to build our awareness of God’s love for us
- use thanksgiving to be more aware of God’s love for us
- meet with other Christians in worship, in groups and socially to receive
- hold our shortcomings and our needs before God in prayer
- don’t hide them away, or pretend not there.
- if possible discuss them with other Christians
- remember the promises of God, e.g.
- give and there will be gifts for you – a full measure shaken down and overflowing (Luke 6: 38)
- Peter said – what about us who have left everything to follow you. (Mark 10: 28ff) Jesus said – what you have given up for me and for the gospel, you will receive 100 times as much in the present age and in the future age – eternal life.

Example of the gifts of God – I remember cycling round Lapworth years ago thinking it would be a lovely place to live. I had forgotten that – but lo and behold – I now live here!

Being made clean

2010-10-10T11:00:00.001+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am Coral Mattins at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth on Sunday 10th October 2010. A shortened version was also preached at the 8.30am Eucharist.
Trinity 19, Proper 23 – Year C

Readings: Ps 111 2 Kings 5: 1-3 & 7-15c Luke 17: 11-19

On Fridays, which is my day off, I always try to get in a round of golf. And usually I have a shower immediately afterwards. I like the feeling of clean skin and clean clothes and I feel refreshed and renewed. And if for some reason I don’t have a shower I usually regret it. I feel sweaty or dirty and I worry that I smell. I worry that my skin is a mess. And I think these feelings are very common. I think many of us like the feeling of clean, fresh skin after a bath or shower.
So let’s spare a thought for people with leprosy. It is a terrible disease whereby the skin dries and cracks and nerve endings lose their feeling, such that it becomes all too easy to damage limbs, without even noticing. Leprosy causes a deterioration in the skin, such that even young people start to look very old. Nowadays there are excellent treatments available for leprosy and it need not be a problem. Sadly there are still places in the world where because of war, or poverty or organisational failures leprosy is still a problem, but in the time of Jesus it was a significant problem, with lepers often expected to live in isolated colonies outside the towns, where they would not infect anyone else.
Now our scripture readings today were about people who were healed of leprosy. Their skin and their flesh were made clean. The terrible disease was cleared away. And what an extraordinary joy that must have been. First of all, the joy of having a nice clean wholesome skin, the skin which I appreciate after a shower, but how much more so after recovering from leprosy! Secondly the end of isolation, the end to the fear of infecting anyone with whom the leper interacts, restoration to a normal life with family and friends in society. Thirdly the knowledge that the disease has gone, a sudden and new expectation of a healthy future; deliverance from a slow and isolated decline towards death. What a joy for the healed leper! What a joy!
Now let’s think about Naaman, and how he came to be cured of his leprosy. I always love the image of Naaman arriving with his horses and chariots and all his servants and attendants, and his letter from the king and all his gold and silver. And all this huge and glorious entourage draws up outside Elijah’s house, which was no doubt a very small and simple shack. The contrasts are stark. Naaman and Elijah live by very different values. Naaman no has to go through quite a process and has to learn many things before he can be healed.
First of all he has to learn something about not putting too much trust in earthly resources. All those horses and chariots and attendants and gold count for very little in front of Elijah, the simple man of God. God is not going to heal Naaman because he is “impressed”. God’s healing is a simple gift to the person who asks consistently and waits patiently.
Then there is a lesson in humility. Elijah does not even come out to greet this great man, this commander of armies. Naaman receives a simple message through a servant. Even the greatest of men are not great in front of God, their creator, redeemer and sustainer.
There is a lesson about simplicity. Naaman expected great theatricals. He expected the prophet to call upon the name of God, and wave his hands over the infected skin. But God’s healing is not about signs of outward show. Usually it is quiet, natural and unassuming. It does not make great TV. It is often overlooked by newspaper.
Then there is a lesson about not trusting in our strength. “If the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it?” How much more should you do something simple? In a way God’s healing would be easier to accept if we somehow earned it through hard work, or bravery or skill. We might feel we had some entitlement to it if we did this. But God’s healing is not like that. It is a simple gift. We cannot earn God’s favour through our own efforts, rather our own efforts must work in harmony with the grace that we have received from God.
And closely linked to this, there is a lesson about obedience. Washing in the Jordon might seem rather irrelevant to the problem in human eyes, but this is what God asked for, and this is what made Naaman clean. We need to trust in God and walk in the ways that he suggests if we are to be made clean.
Then there is a lesson about the greatness and oneness of the God of Israel. “Are not the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” Well no, in this case we are talking about the God of Israel, and Naaman was asked to wash in the Jordon, the river of Israel.
So by the time that Naaman got down to the river Jordon and washed he had already been through quite a process. Much healing of his attitudes had already taken place. Pride was overcome by humility, outward show by simplicity. Trust in earthly resources or his own human strength was replaced by trust in God. Following human reasoning was replaced by obedience to God. Belief in a vague notion of God was replaced by trust in a specific and personal God; the God of Israel. With all this healing already completed it was probably a very small thing for God to add the healing of the leprosy.
Then if we think about the ten lepers and Jesus, what did they have to do. Well quite simply they placed themselves in front of Jesus, in front of God, and asked for him to mercy on them. They respected the limits of their condition by keeping their distance. leprosy was very infectious. They were obedient to what Jesus suggested. And one of them came to give thanks afterwards. Actually it is probably a bit hard to blame the other nine for not giving thanks. To show yourself to the priest was the standard procedure after recovering from leprosy. The priest would declare you clean, and you could re-enter society. But the one who came back was a Samaritan. Because he was not a Jew he would not have access to a Jewish priest. Therefore he came back to Jesus, who perhaps he recognised as the great high priest, and said thank you. I suspect that the other nine were still trying to find a priest who would see them!
So what about us? What should we do when we come to God for healing, when we come to be made clean. And I am not thinking only of physical illnesses, but also of our spiritual failures, our sins, the disorders in our lifestyles, the hurts and resentments that we carry, the baggage of our past which constrains us. All these things are things which we can and should bring to God for healing. Like the ten lepers we must present ourselves in front of God, humbly acknowledging our condition and asking for mercy. Let’s not put our trust in our own strength, or in earthly resources, but rather put our trust in God who made us and loves us and who has great future envisaged for us. Let’s hold our problems before him in trust. Let’s be obedient to his suggestions, and let’s be confident in the wholeness and healing he wants to share with us.

Faith the size of a mustard seed

2010-10-03T09:45:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at 9.45am Holy Communion (BCP), St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton on Sunday 3rd October 2010.

Trinity 18, Proper 22 Year C

Readings: 2 Timothy 1: 1-14 Luke 17: 5-10

Sermon in notes only.

Jesus comments are challenging
Focus on comment on faith - faith the size of a mustard seed can uproot the mulberry tree (or Mountain - Matt 17:20, 21:21, Mark 11:23)

Not literal, but figure of speech
- faith does not have physical size
- Jesus did not do it
- no saint has done it

Rather the point is - nothing is impossible for God

About God’s purposes (not our purposes)
Miracles are always
- building the kingdom of God
- promoting the gospel
- saving humanity

God seems very restrained in use of shock and awe powers
Sometimes used:
- deliverance from Egypt
- resurrection of Jesus
- feeding of five thousand
- healing miracles
But often resisted
- Jesus usually refused to “give signs” and gets frustrated when asked.
- it was temptation of devil “cast yourself off the pinnacle of the temple”

Why is God so standoffish in this sense? Why not use shock and awe?
- perhaps because he wants real human participation
- wants to promote, not undermine, human work, prayer and contribution
- like wise parents who don’t always intervene to tie a shoelace, but allow a child to struggle with it and so to learn.

So the human contribution to the fulfilling of God’s purposes is very important
– we all have a part to play
– we can find this overburdening, impossible, demoralising even
– need faith
– but for God nothing is impossible. THIS IS THE POINT
– we play our part, then trust God, let him act.
– must not trust too much in our own strength.
– must accept that God’s purposes are greater than our own
o we often don’t understand how God is working

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Is 55:9)

Example – a marriage brake down situation is recovered and healed through prayer, acceptance and open sharing of the situation.

The right attitude is beautiful summarised by what we heard Paul say to Timothy:

“join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace.”

[drawing heavily on Word of Life “Faith the size of a mustard seed” by Chiara Lubich - March 2010]

Michaelmas

2010-09-26T15:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at 3pm Evensong for the Patronal Festival at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton. (Partly based on sermon from 28/09/2008.)
Sunday 26th September 2010, Michaelmas

Readings: Daniel 10: 4-end Rev 5

Today is our Patronal Festival. We are celebrating St Michael, to whom this church is dedicated. St Michael’s day is 29th September, and in the CofE we tend to call it St Michael and all angles. And this is because, rather un-typically for a saint, Michael is angel.
“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? Well, in the history of religious experience they have been extremely important, and this is recorded in many places in our scriptures. For example, 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.
There are hundreds of references to angels in our scriptures. 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 readings from Daniel and Revelation today both described visions of heaven where 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.
There might be lots of reference to angels in the bible, but only three angels are ever named. These are Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. 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.
But what about Michael? What is his specific role? Well Michael seems to have a specific role as an Archangel, and as one who confronts the spiritual forces of evil. We heard about that in our reading from Daniel, as he fought against the prince of Persia. This is the only place where Michael appears in the Old Testament. It is a difficult passage for bible translators, apparently written in poor Hebrew and with inconsistencies between the various ancient sources. We might wonder who the man in white linen is. Biblical commentators are reluctant to provide a clear answer. There are parts of the description, like the golden belt, that make him sound like Jesus or at least a “Son of Man”, from Revelation 1: 13-15. Other things make him sound like God’s messenger, the angel Gabrielle. And it seems that some of these prices, like the prince of Persia, are evil angels to struggle against, but it all remains very mysterious.
Our second reading, Revelation 5 was more generally about heaven. Every now and again the scriptures give us a glimpse of the majesty, splendour and awe of heaven. This happens many times in the scriptures, especially in books like Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation, and they are always full of angels. I particularly like the passage in Isaiah when Isaiah describes his vision of the throne of God (Isaiah 6: 1-5), with seraphs singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts”. And we must not forget the moment when Jesus is born and a multitude of the heavenly host appeared before the shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2: 13-14).
And these glimpses of heaven are very valuable to us, because, remarkably, 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).
So angels like Michael are good role models for us. Their obedience to God’s will, and co-operation with purposes show us the way to heaven. So, let’s thank God for our patron Michael, and let’s seek in this place to follow his example, and so to walk the journey to heaven.

Reversal of fortunes

2010-09-26T11:00:00.001+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am Coral Mattins at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth. A shortened version was preached at the 8.30 Said Eucharist.
Sunday 26th September 2010, Trinity 17, Proper 21 – Year C

Readings: Amos 6: 1a, 4-7 Luke 16: 19-31

I don’t know if you ever saw the TV game show, wheel of fortune? In it a great big wheel was spun and would come to rest on a certain number of points, and contestants would need to solve word puzzles to win the points, and eventually prizes. There was certainly skill involved, but a great deal also rested on the spinning of the wheel and how fortunate or unfortunate contestants were. And fortunes could change very dramatically and suddenly. A contestant could lose everything if the wheel came to rest on “Bankrupt”.
Well the idea of a wheel of fortune can be traced back to Roman times or before. Under the Roman version, somewhere in the heavens, the Goddess Fortuna spins her wheel, and as it goes round so the earthly fortunes of human beings are raised up or fall away. Individuals and nations grow in prosperity and power, or fall down, as Fortuna spins her wheel. People on earth might think that their success or failure is down to their good or bad behaviour, down to their skill or lack of it in handling of situations, and this might even be true superficially, but at the deepest level everything is driven by Fortuna and her wheel.
The wheel of fortune is particularly well known in mediaeval art and literature. Dante and Chaucer both write about it. By this time the idea has been somewhat Christianised. Fortuna is not so much a Goddess, but rather and angelic power who fulfils God’s will, rising up the material fortunes of some, bringing about the downfall of others. If we look at history, it is extraordinary how many things work together to bring about the raising up of empires and nations, and their subsequent falling away. We might think of the ancient Egyptian civilisations, which gave way to the Greeks and then to the Romans. We might think of the British Empire, which rose up so powerfully in the 19th century, and fell away so dramatically during the 20th. We might think of American power and influence which has been overwhelming since the Second World War, but which now seems undermined by debt and individualism, whilst the Chinese seem to be in the ascendancy. Or we might think of individuals, some seem to accumulate extraordinary wealth, and some seem to lose it. The fortunes of someone like Michael Jackson seemed to surge forwards and upwards like a boat inevitably raised up on a rising tide, but then later they fall away just as surely as a moored boat sinks down on a falling tide.
So why is it that the idea of a wheel of fortune was so attractive to the artists and writers of medieval times, who were so often very profoundly Christian. Well perhaps part of the reason is scripture readings like those that we heard today. Amos was active as a prophet in 8th Century BC. At that time the 12 tribes of Jacob were divided such that 10 of them formed the northern kingdom of Israel around Samaria and two of them (Judah and Benjamin) formed the Southern Kingdom of Judah, around Jerusalem. Amos was addressing himself to the Northern Kingdom. His massage was that the nation should reform itself and prioritise justice for the poor above wealth and affluence. He said that if Israel did not do this, then disaster would strike. Israel would be defeated by the Assyrians and taken off into exile. And this is exactly what came to pass a few years after the death of Amos. The Assyrians conquered Israel in 722BC, sending all the top people in society into an exile from which there was no return.
Amos’s message in our reading today was basically, “Alas for those who are rich and comfortable; they shall be the first to be taken into exile.” There is a powerful theme of reversal of fortune. Those who are fortunate now will become slaves in a foreign land.
And that reversal of fortunes theme is also strongly present in our reading from Luke. Lazarus who suffers terrible poverty and poor health on earth, finds comfort in heaven in the bosom of Abraham. By contrast the rich man who had an extravagant lifestyle on earth finds himself tormented in Hades when he dies. When he asks Abraham for mercy, Abraham explains the reversal of fortunes to him.
Luke, it seems, especially rejoices in the reversal of fortunes theme. Like the other gospel writers he talks about the last being first and the first last. But in a month’s time we shall read Luke’s own distinctive versions of the beatitudes. Like Matthew he records “blessed are the poor, the hungry and those who weep”, but unlike Matthew he also records, “woe to you who are rich, or full now or laughing”.
Now for those of us who live in a pretty well-to-do corner of a very well-to-do nation this reversal of fortunes theme makes rather uncomfortable reading. Because we comfortable now, does that mean that we are destined to be uncomfortable in the future? Well, we cannot know, but if God’s providence does work anything like a wheel of fortune then we certainly can’t rule that out.
Now I mentioned God’s providence. What do I mean by that? I mean the way that God orders all the affairs of creation to bring about his purposes. God is all powerful, so we know that everything that happens, be it good or bad, must be either willed or allowed by God. And God wills or allows these things to happen out of love for us, for our good, to help us to walk the journey to heaven. Now someone might say, “How could a loving God allow my granny to die such a terrible death?” Well this is a great mystery, but by faith we believe that God either willed this or allowed it for his reasons, which we might not understand, but they are reasons of love. They are reasons that work for the good of the granny and for the good of others. They are reasons that help them put aside earthly things and reach for the kingdom of heaven.
So God’s providence can feel a bit like a wheel of fortune. Sometimes it can feel great, and good things happen to us for no apparent reason. Sometimes it can be really tough, terrible things happen and there seems to be no reason why. So how should we respond to this? Well the important thing is to trust always in the providence of God; to trust that God is working his purposes out, and to trust that he is doing that for our good, and for the good of all people. Often we cannot see why, or how, but we must learn always to trust in God through good things and bad. And people who are very spiritually mature learn to thank God for all things, the good and the bad, because they see in all things the opportunity to grow closer to God, to grow in holiness, to reach fulfilment.
So I commend this way of thinking to you. When things go well and life is great don’t praise yourself for your own achievements or merit, but rather give thanks to God and praise him for his goodness. Similarly when things go badly and you suffer and struggle don’t necessarily assume that you have done something wrong or made mistakes. Rather trust God and try to work with him. Try to see things as God sees them, and learn the lessons he teaches, because all things work for good for those who love God. (c.f. Rom 8: 28). Amen

The Church and wider society

2010-09-19T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at the 11am Parish Eucharist at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth on Sunday 19th September 2010. Other versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton’s for the 9.45am Service of Holy Communion.

Context: Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain 16th-19th September 2010
Readings: 1 Tim 2: 1-7 Luke 16: 1-13

Our scripture readings today are about living out our Christianity within wider society. In 1 Timothy Paul tells us to make prayers and supplications for all people, not just for Christians. He asks us to pray especially for rulers and those in high position in society. He asks us to live our Christian lives in a quiet and peaceable way, with dignity. He emphasizes that God wills salvation for all people, and that the ransom that Christ paid on the cross was for all people. These are pointers towards the way in which church should fit in with the wider society around it.
Then the parable that Jesus tells is about our economic relationships with one another. It is a parable that biblical scholars often struggle with. It can be helpful to think of the rich man as a shrewd and exacting, absentee landlord, rather than thinking of him as God. Luke himself offers three different interpretations at the end of the parable. It is all to do with how we handle money and wealth, and our economic relationships with the people around us.
In this country, for well over 1000 years, Christianity has been the religion of almost everybody. Our culture and language have been profoundly influenced by Christian values which are foundational to political and legal system. But since the 1960s there has been a change. Immigration has introduced significant religious minorities, especially Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus, and this has disturbed the Christian consensus. And then there has also been a drift towards secularization, such that in the 2001 census about 20% of the population preferred to describe themselves as Atheists or Agnostics rather than as belonging to a major world religion. And this secularization has also affected many of the 72% of the population who chose to describe themselves as Christian. Most of the population still think of themselves as Christian, but most of them seldom come to church and all too easily they pick up behaviours and attitudes which are much more influenced by secular experience than by the teaching and example of Christ.
So as practising, worshiping Christians in this country we find ourselves in a minority position in society. And this feels like a new and frightening experience. There can even be is a temptation to panic! But actually this is not a new experience at all. In the first three hundred years of the churches life, Christians were always a religious minority, sometimes tolerated, sometimes persecuted by the wider society and the Roman empire. Because of this experience, there is a great deal of wisdom in the New Testament and in the writings of the early church to help us to understand and cope with this situation of being a Christian minority.
And I think more than anything else, this is what the Pope has been talking about during his current visit to Britain. I have learned than it is very important with religious leader to read the actual text of their speeches rather than the bits that the media pick out. The media prioritise the items that might boost audience figures or newspaper sales. Consequently they focus on anything controversial, and on anything to do with sex, and this means that we get a very distorted view of our religious leaders if we only follow what is reported in the papers or on TV. Because of this I spent a lot of time yesterday looking at the full text of the speeches made by the Pope, and I have to say I found it very interesting, especially on this point about how Christians and wider society should relate to each other. So what has the Pope been talking about?
Well first thing that is very striking, is the very wide variety of people who the Pope has been talking to. There have of course been speeches and sermons aimed directly at the Catholic faithful, as we would expect, but there have also been speeches aimed specifically at children, young people, non-Catholic Christians, the Archbishop of Canterbury, people from other religions, the Welsh, politicians and leaders of civic society and one speech directly addressed to Her Majesty the Queen.
And what comes over, first and foremost, is a deep love and appreciation of British culture and the things that Britain has contributed to the world stage, to the whole family of humanity. The British heroes mentioned include St Edward the Confessor, St Margaret Queen of Scotland, the venerable Bede, St Thomas More, William Wilberforce, David Livingstone, Florence Nightingale and John Henry Newman, a Birmingham man who appears to be a personal hero of the Pope’s. The British Parliamentary and legal system, so influential throughout the world was also singled out for praise.
Another thing that comes over is the Pope’s appreciation of the Christian heritage in English culture. He often refers to the buildings in which he speaks and points out how profoundly Christian they are in their origins. For example he spoke about the Holy Rood (Crucifix) of Holyrood Palace and the angels on the Ceiling of Westminster Hall. He points out just how deeply and profoundly our society has been affected by Christianity. He urges us not to forget that, and not to marginalise the voice of the church.
The pope talks about the role of the church in a multi-faith society. He emphasises that it is not the role of the church to set political policies. He accepts that it is not even for the church, alone, to set down the moral framework that should underpin a sound political system. Rather he urges people to recognise that the church has a very important contribution to make to a wider discussion of the common moral framework. He emphasises that democracy must be underpinned by moral principles that are more solid and enduring than social consensus or public opinion. He sees the churches role as a participant in this dialogue about moral foundations, helping to purify and refine such principles. He emphasises the importance of political processes working for a common good. He emphasises the importance of a continuing dialogue between different kinds of people, for the common good.
The Pope also appeals for a proper respect for the moral consciences of individuals and of organised religion. Basic freedoms such as the right to follow your religion and to assemble for worship are very important. He advocate respect and openness between people of different religions. Dialogue is all important, from the simple dialogue of living side by side to the more complex discussions on principles. Without these freedom, respect and norms, religion cannot play its proper role in the public square, and he sees the contribution that religion has to make as vital.
Anyway, I have found it all very encouraging. I hope that the Pope’s visit will refresh and enliven Christianity in this country, and will help it contribute constructively to the life of the whole nation. Amen.

Repentance - the findamental choices

2010-09-12T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am Coral Mattins at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 12th September 2010. Other versions of this sermon were preach at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at 3pm Evensong at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.

Readings: Ps 51: 1-10 Exodus 32: 7-14 Luke 15: 1-10

When I was in South Africa in 2006 I came across a Christian Pastor who had a particular reputation. He had been a “real lad” with a history of intimidation and violence and with links to prostitution and gambling. Then it seems that he had an extraordinary conversion experience, a moment of total repentance and turning to God. Overnight he gave up his old way of life and started living a new and more Christian lifestyle. He set up a non-denominational church and started preaching and teaching very effectively to people who were far from God. His congregation grew and his church and ministry were respected by the local Anglicans, who I was visiting.
Now probably none of us have had such a dramatic experience of repentance and conversion as that South African pastor. His is rather an extreme case of the big turn around which is required when we turn to Christ. This sort of turn around happens when people start to face up to the really big questions in life. Are we for God or against him? Are we doing our best to face God, work with him and trust him with our lives, or are we seeking to run away from him, to hide from him and ignore him? It is a bit like a tree. Is it turning its leaves towards the sun, absorbing its energy, growing and thriving, or is it hiding itself from the sun, withering and dying? Repentance here is about our fundamental choices. Are we for God or against him? Are we choosing for ourselves eternal life, or eternal death; heaven or hell?
This is the repentance that Jesus talks of in the two parables that we heard in our New Testament reading. And such repentance leads to great rejoicing in heaven because something that has been lost, is found and restored to its proper destiny.
Now I am confident that most, if not all, of us who are in church this morning have made this fundamental choice and are basically seeking to orient ourselves towards God and to fulfil his plan for us. People who are in rebellion against God usually don’t come to church, they try to avoid the things of God. Sadly our present society makes it very easy to do just that; there are very few earthly reasons or social pressures that make us come to church if we don’t want to.
But just because we in church and are basically orientated towards God, does not mean that the business of repentance and conversion is over for us. We are all of us troubled by sin, our own sin and the sin of the people around us. There is a continuous process of renewing our repentance, being forgiven of our sin and entrusting ourselves to the mercy of God. This is a lifetime’s work as Christ grows within us and as the things that Christ does not want for us fall away.
But the stories of restoration that we heard about in our scripture readings were not so much about this on-going process of repentance and renewal. Rather they were about the fundamental first choices. Are we for God or against him? And it is this more fundamental repentance that I would like to focus on today.
Sooner or later everybody has to face up to this fundamental choice. Jesus says, “He who is not with me is against me” (Matt 12: 30) and “whoever is not against you is for you” (Luke 9: 50). The thing that really forces this choice is the presence of God. The presence of God cannot be ignored, you have to go with it or run from it. Now we live is strange times, where God seems surprisingly absent from the day to day experiences of many people. Many people seem to find it easy to ignore or postpone this great fundamental choice. However I am quite sure that this is only a temporary phase in history and sooner or later we all have to face this choice. At very least, when we die we have to decide if we walking towards heaven or hell.
Now what should our attitude be towards people who appear to be in rebellion against God? I am sure that we all know people among our families and friends who appear to be in conflict with God, or working against God. Do we sit back and say, “Well that’s their choice, it’s up to them?” or do we try to bring them round to God? Well I think it is very subtle; in certain ways I think it is a bit of both.
There is a very profound sense in which this really is the choice of other people, not our choice. We have to have a deep respect for the freedom that God has granted to other people. We cannot, in all love, try to manipulate or coerce people towards God; rather we must encourage them and allow them to choose. And this can be painful, truly accepting their freedom, even when they appear to be make choices that are so destructive. It can be truly costly. But that pain is real and has to be acknowledged.
But then also there is a very deep sense in which we cannot just sit back. Moses did not sit back and say to God, “OK, gone on destroy the people of Isreal and start again.” Rather he pleaded for them to God. The shepherd did not sit back and say, “If the lost sheep wants to be found, it will come back to me.” No, he went out and searched high and low until he had found it. Likewise the woman did not think of the lost coin, “Oh, it will turn up!” rather she lit the lamp and swept the house until she found it. In fact what is very striking about all these three stories about the restoration into fellowship with God, is that in all three cases the people restored to God seem to have a very passive role. The activity is all done by others.
So there is no doubt that we are called to actively work for the good of those who appear to be in rebellion against God. I am aware of three ways in particular of doing this.
Firstly, very importantly we must pray for them. The story about Moses shows how important this is. In some ways it feels like the only real contribution we can make.
Secondly we must continue in loving them. This does not mean saying they are right when they are wrong, or good when they are bad. However it does mean keeping the avenues of communication open. It means respecting them fully as children created by God. It means wanting their good, and having an attitude of service to bring that good about.
Thirdly we can living our own lives, in full harmony with God an example to show what is possible and how these things work. If people can look at our lives and see how obedience to God brings good outcomes, fulfilment and happiness, then we give witness to the advantages of God.
So, with regard to people who seem far from God, I would like to commend these three approaches to you; pray for them, love them and live good lives which can be an example to them. In this way we do all our part to bring them back to God. Amen.

Nunc Dimittis

2010-09-09T14:30:00.000+01:00

Homily preached at the funeral of Major General George Lewis.
2.30pm on Thursday 9th September 2010, at St Mary’s Lapworth, followed by burial in the churchyard at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.

Reading: Luke 2: 27-33

The scripture reading that the family have chosen for this funeral comes from the story of the presentation of the Jesus is the temple. The baby Jesus, 40 days old, is brought to the temple by his parents. In the temple there is the holy man, Simeon, who has be promised by God that he will not see death before he has been The Lord’s Messiah. When Simon sees the baby Jesus he takes him in his arms and says the hymn of praise to God which we call the Nunc Dimittis, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace…”. This canticle, the Nunc Dimittis, we use at Evening Prayer and funerals. Those opening words, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace” as especially appropriate for funerals.
But re-reading these words in the context of this particular funeral I was very struck by the word Servant. “Lord lettest now thy servant depart in peace”. I only met George once, but I was struck by his attitude of service. He unquestionably held high office, both in the Army and in industry, but it seemed to me that he believed that the high office had to be held and administered as a service to God and to other people; above all as a service to the nation. This is what gave the roles value and made them important and relevant.
Now sadly servant leadership seems somewhat out fashion in our nation at present. People nowadays seem to seek high office to secure high pay, or personal power and influence. It is my hope that we will look to people like George to remember the importance of leadership as a service to God and to others.
The other thing that is striking when you read the Nunc Dimittis in the context of a funeral is that Simeon describes the baby Jesus as “The light to lighten the gentiles”. Jesus is the light for everybody, for all the nations. George’s coffin stands before the Pascal Candle, which is the symbol of Christ’s risen life in the church. And that light of the risen life of Christ is what we are all about in a Christian funeral. We are reminded that Christ conquered death. He has an eternal life that is stronger than death, and which renews everything. Jesus wants to share this new resurrection life with each of us, we are all called to share in it. And this is what gives us hope.
But how do we do that in practice? How do we come to share with Christ in that resurrection life? Well, in my opinion, anything that we do to build shared life with Christ makes a contribution here, and is important. Above all our baptism is important. We are baptised into the death and resurrection of Christ. We seek to be joined with Christ through the experience of earthly death, and by this we can also hope to be joined with him in the experience of resurrection life. Receiving Holy Communion is important; Christ shares his own body and blood, his very life, with us. Living according to God’s word is important. Jesus says that those who hear and keep the word of God are his mother and brother and sisters, they are his family, the people with whom he shares his life.
So as we say good-buy to George, let’s give thanks for his witness of servant leadership and life lived in accordance with the purposes of God. Let’s give thanks for the example that Graham spoke about earlier. And let’s also give thanks for Christ who always wants to share life with us. And like George, let’s seek to build a shared life with Christ, because the life that Christ shares is stronger than death. Amen.

Prayers for Patronal Festival at St Mary's

2010-09-06T11:00:00.000+01:00

The following prayers were written for the Patronal Festival at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth celebrated on 5th September 2010. (Birthday of Blessed Virgin Mary, transferred from 8th September.) The prayers were used at an 11am "Family Eucharist" service, and were read by teenagers.

Heavenly Father,
We thank you for this church of St Mary’s.
We thank you for Mary our Patron.
We pray for the grace to live like Mary;
always trusting in the word of God
and living our lives according to the word of God.
Lord in your mercy
here our prayer.

Heavenly Father,
We pray for the world that you created.
We thank you for the beauty of nature
and for all the joys of life.
We pray for people who suffer at this time.
We remember especially people affected by floods in Pakistan.
May they be saved from their problems
and know your love and care.
Lord in your mercy
here our prayer.

Heavenly Father,
We pray for this parish of Lapworth.
We thank you for its beauty, prosperity and its peace.
We pray for those in particular need of our prayers,
especially….
May they trust always in your love,
and my they know your wholeness and healing.
Lord in your mercy
hear our prayer

Heavenly Father,
We pray for those who have gone before us
on the pathway to heaven.
We pray for....
who have died recently.
We pray for all who mourn their loss on earth.
We thank you for the fellowship we share with the church in heaven
with Mary and all the angels and saints.
May death be for us all a gateway to this most blessed life.
Merciful Father
Accept these prayers…

"hating" for God

2010-09-05T09:45:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton for 9.45am Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) on Sunday 5th September 2010.
Trinity 14, Proper 18, Year C

Readings: Philemon 1-21 Luke 14: 25-33

Outline Notes Only

Gospel reading needs some explanation
- Jesus always says love others, but here he says “hate”

Similar sayings of Jesus:
Luke 9: 57-62 - what Jesus says to people who want to follow him.
let me first go and bury my father - let the dead bury their own dead
let me say good-buy to family – no one put hands to the plough and turns back is fit

Luke 9: 23-26
followers must take up your cross – he who wants to save his life will lose it

Matt 10: 34-39
I have come not to bring peace but the sword

So what is Jesus saying…

Cost of following Jesus is total, - required to “give up all your processions”

Man who builds the tower
The king who sizes up his army.

Processions seems to include family bonds – must come second to the bond with Christ

Examples – Mary, St Frances, experience

Priorities – God first, family bonds second

Even those who are called by God to exercise earthly power often have to have an experience of letting those things go, in order to put God first. Experience of losing.

Philemon as an example, lost his slave, but later returned to him, differently

Wisdom of losing life in order to find it.

Summary – let’s get our priorities right, God in the first place, all else second.
Let’s be ready to lose things for the sake of God, confident that God has other gifts to give us, higher, purified and more refined.
Above all let’s trust God, who created us and gave us all that we have. He has our good at heart and other good things that he wants to give us.
Amen

Humilty - the antidote to pride

2010-08-31T11:39:00.002+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am Parish Eucharist at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 29th August 2010. Other versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton, 9.45am.
Trinity 13, Proper 17, Year C.

Readings: Hebrews 13: 1-8 & 15-16 Luke 14: 1 & 7-14

In the early 1950s the Ford Motor Company was brimming with confidence and flush with cash, following the success of the Ford Thunderbird. The management set about developing a whole new car with a whole new network of marketing dealerships. They hired all the best people to work on the design. They created a huge and elaborate marketing campaign. They named the car “Edsel” after the son the company’s founder and they invested millions in the launch. But after all the hype had died down, it became clear that American public didn’t really like the Edsel, and would not buy it. The car was a terrible commercial failure and was withdrawn in its third year. The company lost millions of pounds on the project. The name Edsel became associated with failures in marketing, and a famous “how not to do it” case study for MBA (Master of Business Studies) students. The old maxim, “Pride comes before a fall” comes to mind.
And in more recent times there has been another extraordinary example of “Pride comes before a fall” in the business world. In 2007 big banking appeared to a business of extraordinary power and wealth, and the banks were ever bigger and braver in what they took on. Yet by October 2008 many of the world’s biggest banks appeared insolvent, and there is no doubt that without a massive government intervention, most if not all of them would have failed.
The parable that Jesus told in our gospel reading today also has a “pride comes before a fall element”. At that time the custom at wedding banquets was to have the places graded from the places of highest honour, up high and near the host and bride and groom, down to the places of least honour, lower down and further away. Jesus pointed out that choosing to sit in a seat of high honour was inviting a fall. Someone more honourable that you might arrive later, and you would have to give up your seat. And because all the seats were no occupied you would find yourself moving to the lowest seat, while everyone is watching. Instead Jesus recommends a more humble strategy; choose for yourself the lowest seat so that the host might call you up higher.
Well we live in a much less hierarchical society today, but issues about the highest places have not gone away. We hear of film studios in terrible fights with film stars about the order in which names appear in the credits. I regret to say that I have heard even of clergy processions, where none of the clergy are willing to lead the procession out, because by tradition it is always the most senior clergy who occupy the back of the procession.
It is people’s pride that causes difficulty in these situations. Pride is the vice of self-importance; thinking of ourselves as above other people or above God. We often associate it with arrogance and self-sufficiency. Of course the word pride can denote good things. We encourage people to take pride in their work, in their appearance, their neighbourhood, in their nation. These attitudes are important and contribute to our self esteem. They show that we value the good gifts that God has given us, and want to fully play our part in realising their full potential. Pride only kicks in as a problem when we start to value to ourselves higher than other people, or our own nation more than other nations.
The antidote to pride is the virtue of humility. Virtues are attitudes and habits that are good. Vices are attitudes and habits that are bad. We all need to practice good attitudes and behaviours so that they become habitual, they become virtues. Virtues grow by practice, and by the grace of God, which we should ask for. So humility is a virtue, but what is humility all about?
Well I think that humility is ultimately about being completely and utterly realistic about who we are, and who other people are. It is not humble for a student who has just got a string of A stars at GCSE to say, “Oh I’m not that clever really.”; that’s just unrealistic. It is humble for that student to thank God that they have been blessed with certain talents, to recognise the support they have received from their school and from their family, and recognising that these good gifts are given by God not just for our good, but for the good of others too. Being humble means seeing ourselves as God sees us and of course, God sees us through the eyes of love; God loves us immensely. We must remember that we were created and are sustained by God, we owe everything to him. God sent is own son to die for us and to redeem us. For God we are most definitely “worth it”! And of course God also sees our many frailties and sins and vices, but God sees beyond them, knowing that when we turn to him he forgives us, and heals us and make us whole. So seeing ourselves as God sees us, and loving ourselves as God loves us, means having a very high opinion of ourselves, but it also means having a very high opinion about other people, because we know that God loves them, just as he loves us.
Now prayer is very good discipline for growing in humility. When we pray we place ourselves before God and hold ourselves in our relationship with God, and this really does help us to know who we are and to have the right attitudes. First of all pray is a humbling experience because it is difficult, and we don’t really know what we are doing. As St Paul says (Romans 8: 26) we do not know how to pray as we should, but we depend on the Holy Spirit to pray for us.
And then the things that we do in prayer help us with humility. We say prayers of adoration, praising God for his greatness. This reminds us how very great God is and what a very small cog we are in the mighty universe of God’s creation. In our prayers we make prayers of confession. We hold before God our sins and failures, and this is necessarily very humbling. It reminds us that we are completely dependent on the mercy of God. Also in our prayers we give thanks to God for the good things he gives us. This too reminds us that all the good things we have are gifts from God and not products of our own hard work or cleverness. In prayer we also learn to thank God for the difficult things that come our way, the things we would not choose for ourselves, but by thanking God for them we come to see them as part of God’s love for us, part of his plan for our lives.
So today I would like to commend to you humility as a virtue, a good habit and attitude; humility as the utterly and totally realistic assessment of ourselves, as we are seen by God. I would also like to commend to you prayer, as a way of growing in humility. Amen.

Deliverance on the Sabbeth

2010-08-22T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am Coral Mattins at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth on Sunday 22nd August 2010. The sermon was also preached at the 8.30am Eucharist (shortened) and at 3pm evensong at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.
Trinity 12, Proper 16, Year C

Readings: Ps 103: 1-8 Is 58: 9b-14 Luke 13: 10-17

Our family have just come back from a holiday on the west coast of France, and very nice it was too; a real opportunity to rest and relax and catch up with ourselves. And the holiday was particularly welcome because it came at the end of a very intense six month period which has involved a house move and a very steep learning curve on being responsible for two parishes. So it was very lovely to go away with the family and to enjoy the food and the wine and countryside and sunshine and the beaches. It was also lovely to catch up properly with the Dawson family, who we traditionally go on holiday with.
And one of the things that I love about holiday is having the time and energy to get involved in things that I normally would not get involved in at all. For example, at one point we found that all the adults joined in one of the children’s games, a game called “guard”, which is a rather sophisticated version of hide and seek. In the car we listened to an audio book called “the book thief”. One of the Dawson teenagers was reading Dante’s Divine Comedy (in English!), and I became very interested in this. And I found these new experiences very refreshing, renewing and enlivening. It reminded me of the importance of rest in our daily lives and especially of the importance of the Sabbath, the day of rest. And we got two rather contrasting takes on the Sabbath in our scripture readings today.
The Jewish-Christian tradition tells us that from the very creation of the world, God set aside one day of the week to be holy, and to be a day of rest. In the Genesis account of creation God made the world in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. In the Ten Commandments he similarly asked his people to observe the seventh day, Saturday, as the Sabbath Day, a day of rest, holy to the Lord. It was a day especially when the Jewish people were asked to remember the Passover, when Moses lead them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and delivered them from Pharaoh’s army. The keeping of the Sabbath on a Saturday was always an important part of the covenant, the deal between God and his people, and of the Jewish Law, but in the sixth century BC, when the Jewish nation was in exile in Babylon is became a crucially important part of the Jewish identity. Observing the Sabbath became and important part of what it meant to be a Jew. The reading that we heard today from Isaiah was probably written just after this period, as the nation was seeking to re-establish itself in Jerusalem following release from exile. In the reading it is clear that keeping of the Sabbath is central to the covenant. Through Isaiah, God gives various teachings on how the Sabbath should be observed. As is typical of Isaiah, the great wisdom of these commands from God are presented in a most beautiful and poetic way. The two final verses of this passage are worthy of much reflection and meditation in their own right. I have been reading these teachings of v13 in different translations of the bible, and it is quite striking how different the different translations are. Brief translations of the Hebrew seem to struggle to pin down what God is saying here. The gist of it seems to be that the Sabbath a day when you should:
- not pursue your own pleasure, but rather the pleasure of God
- not pursue your own interests, but rather the interests of God
- not pursue you won affairs, but rather the business of God
- not focus on human words and tittle-tattle, but rather on the word of God
And this is surely very good guidance, not just for the Jewish observance of the Sabbath on a Saturday, but also the Christian observance our holy day on a Sunday.
By the time of Jesus, observance of the Sabbath had become very central to Jewish identity. It had become bound up with lot of very detailed rules and regulations about what Jews could and could not do on the Sabbath, how far they could walk, what tasks were allowed and what were forbidden. The notion of a day for God’s purposes rather than human purposes had become somewhat obscured by all these rules, and Jesus kicked out against them. The story we heard today is one of three stories in Luke’s gospel where Jesus performed healing miracles on the Sabbath (also 6: 6-11 and 14: 1-6). On all three occasions this was controversial; healing was a task not allowed on the Sabbath. And what does Jesus say? How does he justify himself? Well in today’s story he says, “It is legitimate on the Sabbath to take an ox or an ass to water, how much more appropriate is it to deliver a woman from the power of Satan?” It seems that the Sabbath is a particularly appropriate day for good to triumph over evil, for healing to triumph over decay, for life to triumph over death.
And perhaps this is why, in the life of the early church, Sunday, rather than Saturday came to be observed as the holy day of God. Sunday is the day of our Lord’s resurrection. It is the day when Jesus conquered death and hell. It is the first day of the week, which is the start of creation, but it is also the eighth day, the beginning of a new creation, of the restoration and renewal that comes about through Christ’s death and resurrection, through Christianity and the Church. So it is very appropriate that in the Church we observe Sunday as God’s holy day. Sunday is a particularly appropriate day for Christians to celebrate the Eucharist, in which we remember the great Passover of Jesus in his death and resurrection, just as the Jews remember the Passover of their deliverance on a Saturday. It is a good day to live out the teachings of Isaiah:
- not pursue your own pleasure, but rather the pleasure of God
- not pursue your own interests, but rather the interests of God
- not pursue you won affairs, but rather the business of God
- not focus on human words or title-tattle, but rather on the word of God
And perhaps this pricks our conscience a bit? Perhaps we are guilty of treating Sunday like any other day? Perhaps on Sundays we should be doing less, resting more, worshiping more and devoting our attention more to our families and close friends. Well probably this is true, but we must not be too hard on ourselves as individuals because it is the whole of society that is called to live the Sabbath, not just the churchy few. When the 10 commandments were given it was made very clear that the Sabbath meant rest for work for all, including children, servants, animals and even foreigners living among the Israelites. This means we also have to try and help all of society to live the Sabbath well and to enjoy a day of rest. Now in this country we know that with Sunday trading and the like, the tide has rather flowed against this in recent years, but if we all play our own part, faithfully in front of God, who knows, perhaps the tide will change again, perhaps sooner than we think. Amen, let it be.

Being Rich towards God

2010-08-01T09:45:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at St Michael’s, Baddesley Clinton at 9.45am Holy Communion (BCP).
Sunday 1st August 2010 – Trinity 9 – Proper 13
Adapted versions of this sermon were preached at St Mary's, Lapworth at 8.30am and 11am.

Readings: Col 3: 1-11 Luke 12: 13-21

If we wanted to retell the parable of today’s gospel in a more contemporary setting and with a sharper cutting edge we might say something like this.
There was once a man who owned a business in the city. And the business did well and generated plenty of cash. And the man said to himself, “What should I do, I have got more money than I can spend,” then he said, “I’ll do this, I’ll sell my house in the city and buy a bigger one just outside the city. I’ll store up my money in my house, because house prices always rise, and quite soon I shall be able to retire. I’ll be able to relax, eat drink and take lots of holidays. But they day before he retired God said to him, “You fool! This very night you life is being demanded of you, and all this wealth you have accumulated, what good will that do you?
We are all familiar with that great tragedy of people who die either just before or just after they retire. We often think, they have worked so hard, and really deserve a good retirement, and yet it seems that God has other plans for them. And I have to say that very often this particular tragedy does seem to affect people with a particular role in serving the community; clergy. school teachers, politicians. But hopefully, if they have served the community well, if they have managed to focus their lives on the benefit of others, then they will be well prepared for the kingdom of heaven, well prepared to serve and be served in the heavenly realm. And if this is the case, who are we to think that an earthly retirement might be better for them than the heavenly blessings.
But what about the man in our story, who has not thought about serving other people? In fact the story does not even mention a wife and family so it does seem that he thinks only of himself, of his own wealth, or his own desire to relax, eat drink and be merry as the parable says. Well God’s words to him are, “You fool!” – “You have invested all your energy in earthly wealth, and tonight I am transferring you to the heavenly realm where you have invested nothing.” – “You fool”.
The man in our story is a bit like the arrogant management consultant who transferred all his personal wealth into Railtrack shares, just before they spectacularly lost all their value in 2001. He put all his eggs in one basket, and the basket collapsed. The man in our story put all his resources into earthly wealth and then died. But, as Jesus said, “a man’s life does not consist of the abundance of his processions.” Jesus ends the parable by saying, “so it is for those who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich towards God.” Elsewhere in the gospels Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steel, but store up for yourselves treasurers in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steel, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6: 19-21).
We got exactly the same message from St Paul in our epistle reading today, “…seek the things that are above…set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things of that are on earth…”
So how do we, “seek the things that are above?” How do we make sure that we are rich towards God? How do we build up treasure in heaven? How do we invest in our eternal future, remembering that our 70 or 80 years on earth is quite short compared to the eternity for which we are created? How do we invest in assets that will pass the ultimate “stress test” of death?
Well, paradoxically, we do it by thinking not of ourselves, but of others. We do it by following the two great commandments: love of God and love of neighbour. We try to live each moment, each day, attentive to what God wants from us in the moment and that day. And typically, what God wants from us, becomes clear from the people around us. He wants us to be attentive to them, to help them, to serve them, to take them forward on their journey towards God. It is as though the wealth that we create in other people is the wealth that endures to eternity. The dynamic of heavenly wealth is a dynamic of giving, not a dynamic of accumulating.
So what about our worldly wealth? How should we think about that? Well first of all, let’s give thanks to God for it, because any wealth that we have has come to us through God’s good gift. We may have worked hard for it, but without the grace of God we would have nothing. Secondly, let’s remember that we can’t take it with us. When we die we lose it all, so the protection and security that it affords us is limited; we must enter the kingdom of heaven without it. So this means that we should use our wealth wisely and prudently, while we are on earth, in order to build up treasurers in heaven. We should be generous in giving and investing; generous, not reckless. We should seek to use our giving and investing to build relationships of trust. We want to build up other people, build up other organisations in a sustainable way. Now it has to be said that in the current environment this is very hard. Even the banks appear hardly worthy of our trust. But let’s hold the resources that we have before God, and pray for the grace to use them well. Let’s be good stewards of the gifts that God has given us, seeking to invest in others wherever we can; build relationships, build trust, find prudent ways of giving, live for God, live for others. These are the ways to build up treasure in heaven. Amen.

St James the Great

2010-07-25T11:00:00.002+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am Mattins at St Mary’s, Lapworth on Sunday 25th July 2010
Festival of St James the Great

Readings: Ps 126 Jeremiah 45: 1-5 Acts: 11: 27 – 12: 2 (Matthew 20: 20-28)

So today we celebrate the festival of St James the Great. It is only one year in seven on average that 25th July falls on a Sunday, so today is a good opportunity to reflect on St James and to get to know him a bit better.
First of all, let’s get straight who we are talking about. We are talking about James, as in James and John, the sons of Zebedee. James and John were among the first disciples to be called by Jesus. I am sure you remember the story. They were sitting in their father’s fishing boat mending their nets when Jesus came and said: “Follow me”. And they left their father in the boat with the hired men and followed Jesus. At the same time Jesus also called Simon and Andrew and said that they would become fishers of men. And in fact Peter, James and John became like Jesus’ inner cabinet. They were the ones he took with him up Mount Tabor for the Transfiguration. They were the ones who went into the room with him when he brought the young girl back from the dead. They were the ones who he took to one side with him as he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. And perhaps it is because of this very privileged position that James, son of Zebedee, held that he is often called James the Great.
Because we have to acknowledge that there were a lot of other Jameses around in the New Testament. There is James, Son of Alphaeus, who was also one of the 12. There is James, called Brother of the Lord, James the younger and James, writer of the New Testament book. It’s not completely clear to the scholars if those James are all the same person, or two people or three or perhaps even four different people. But anyway we are not talking about them, we are talking about James, brother of John, son of Zebedee, one of the Lord’s three closest companions.
I have already mentioned some of the New Testament stories about James but I have not mentioned the most famous story. This is the story where the mother of James and John asks Jesus if her two sons, James and John might sit at his right and his left in his glory. Jesus says, “You don’t know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I will drink, or be baptised with my baptism?” “We can” they boldly responded. “Very well,” said Jesus, “The cup that I drink, you shall drink, and my baptism will be your baptism, but to sit at my right and my left is not mine to grant, it is for those to whom it has already been given.”
It was perhaps rather brave or perhaps foolhardy to say to Jesus, “Yes, we can drink your cup, yes, we can be baptised with your baptism.” By his “cup” Jesus probably meant his passion and death, as he did in Gethsemane when he prayed “Father, take this cup away from me! Yet not my will but your will be done.” After James and John had been so enthusiastic about Jesus’ cup, a martyrdom always seemed possible. As we heard in our reading from Acts, James was indeed martyred, probably about 44AD, by the sword. There is a tradition that he was beheaded by King Herod in person.
But the interchange with Jesus was very important because it lead to Jesus’ explanation of what leadership must be like in the church. Jesus explained that in worldly circles masters lord it over their servants, but it must not be like this in the church. Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, for the Son of Man came to serve, not to be served and to give his life as a ransom for many.
And this model of servant leadership has been crucial in the church and in Christian society ever since. Of course we often fail to live up to it, and certainly our leadership in our society today seems to be completely tied up with money and power and have very little to do with service. However there have been powerful moments of witness.
For example, in the sixth century there was an uncomfortable power struggle between the Patriarch of Constantinople (traditionally seen as the second most important bishop in the church) and the Bishop of Rome, traditionally seen as the first. The Patriach gave himself a new title: Ecumenical Patriarch – Patriarch of the whole church. Pope Gregory the Great was under pressure to respond, and he adopted the title Servant of the Servants of God. What is more, is he managed to live his papacy in that reality. A crucially important point was made.
So what does servant leadership mean? It doesn’t usually mean that we expect our archbishops and popes to do the washing up and to wait at table. It is very symbolically important when they do these things, but if they were to do them all the time then they would not be doing their jobs. What we do hope for and expect, and what we should certainly try to live out when we are in positions of leadership ourselves, is that the office is to be used and powers exercised for the benefit of all the people, not for the benefit of the leader in question. The bishop must act for the benefit of all the people of the diocese. The headmaster must work for the benefit of all the people in the school; the Chief Executive for the benefit of the whole company. And, just as a waiter must be attentive to the needs of the person he serves, and a good waiter will even anticipate these needs, so a good leader must be attentive to the needs of those that are led.
Personally I think we need to have a special sensitivity to St James and to servant leadership in this church. We know that before the reformation there was an altar in the south aisle dedicated to St James. So the saint was important in this place, but the link has been lost. And in fact the situation is even more dramatic at Baddesley Clinton. That whole church was originally dedicate to St James, but at some time that was changed to St Michael. So once again an important link to the saint has somehow been lost. Now I am not suggesting that we should rush to reinstall an altar to St James, but I do think we need to recognise and honour aspects of this saint, with whom we have had these links. So servant leadership would be one aspect of that, which of course applies especially to Rectors, wardens and PCC members. Another aspect is being willing, perhaps even in a foolhardy way, to drink the cup that Jesus drinks and to share his baptism. Most of us are not called to full martyrdom, but a willingness to share sufferings with Jesus is important, as we were discussing last week. And a third aspect would be to be a good disciple of Jesus, responding to his “follow me” and seeking to be especially close to him as James was. I think if we can live well these three aspects we will honour St James well, and altars that we have lost, or dedications we have changed will matter far less. Amen.

Prayer for St James' Day

Almighty God, remember your church, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. We pray for all bishops and all leaders in your church. By their example may we follow close to Jesus. May we continue always in the apostles' teaching and in the fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayer. We make our prayer through the same Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Jesus our Friend

2010-07-18T11:00:00.001+01:00

Sermon preached at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth at 11am Parish Eucharist
Sunday 18th July 2010 – Trinity 7, Proper 11
Other versions of this sermon were preached at St Mary’s 8.30am Eucharist and at the 9.45am Eucharist at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.

Readings: Col 1: 15-28 Luke 10: 38-42

In our gospel reading today we hear about Jesus staying with his friends Martha and Mary. Martha and Mary, together with their brother Lazarus get mentioned several times in the gospels. They lived at Bethany, which is just outside Jerusalem. It seems that they were very particular friends to Jesus and Jesus visited them a lot. Especially Jesus was there during the week leading up to his passion. That week Jesus would spend the daytime in the temple preaching to the crowds. Nobody could try to arrest him while there were crowds of people were listening to him. But at night Jesus would retreat to the safety of Bethany, well away from the chief priests and religious authorities.
And when we look at our gospel story, we do get the impression that Martha and Mary were very comfortable around Jesus. We are told that Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. Sitting at the teacher’s feet and listening; this is the typical behaviour of a “disciple” in the first century. It is not how a woman would normally behave, or how a host would normally behave. It seems that Mary was very comfortable around Jesus and felt able to behave very freely. Martha, whose behaviour was much more conventional, also felt comfortable enough around Jesus to raise a rather awkward point with him: “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself.” And Jesus’ response is full of love for both Martha and Mary. He acknowledges that Martha is worried and distracted by many things, when only one thing is needed. But he also commends Mary for choosing the better part and affirms that she should be allowed to keep it.
Let’s think about our friends for a moment. Who are our friends? What is it about those particular people that make them our friends? Well I think different people might have different answers, but I think friends are people who you are really comfortable spending time with. Probably they are people who you already know very well, and you don’t have to take a lot of trouble getting to know them. Probably they are people who you can say things to, without fearing that they might judge you, or misunderstand you, or get upset or angry.
And of course we are all invited to have Jesus as a friend. Jesus, the friend of tax collectors and sinners can be our friend too. Jesus is someone who walks alongside us through thick and thin, someone to show us the way, someone with whom we share the joys and sorrows of this earthly life, someone in whom we can confide our deepest hopes and our fears. Jesus is the ultimate friend, ever present, ever faithful, ever true. Jesus our friend shares with us encouragement, understanding and joy. He is with us always, until the end of the age (Matt 28: 20)
But what do we need to do, to develop our friendship with Jesus? Well, in John 15 Jesus speaks about the new commandment which he gives his followers, to love one another, and then he says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15: 14). So loving one another is certainly important if we want to be a friend of Jesus. Similarly in Matt 25 Jesus says, “What ever you do to the least, you do to me.” So being good to other people is the key to being good to Jesus. But it seems to me that prayer is also terribly important here. Just as we must talk to our friends, if they are really to be friends, so we must prayer to Jesus if we want to know his friendship and rejoice in it. And through these prayers we can stay in the company of Jesus all day. We might pray, “Lord, help me through this situation, which is a bit awkward,” or “Lord, give me grace to deal with this person, who can be so difficult,” or “Lord, help me to do this task well, for you, even though it’s so boring.”
Sharing our day with Jesus can certain help us to become more aware of our friendship with Jesus, but it seems to me that there is one thing, above all others, that really makes friendships grow, and that is sufferings shared. The people with whom we have shared difficult situations, people who have supported us in our troubles, or who we have supported. These tend to be our best friends. Remember the friends you were thinking of earlier. My guess is that, with many of them, there will have been some suffering shared, or a falling out and later reconciliation. Experiences like these give confidence that your relationship can withstand future difficulties. Often, it is the sharing of sufferings that really draws people together.
And the same is true in our experience with Jesus. From Colossians today we heard St Paul say that he rejoices in his sufferings because he sees them as his contribution, added to Christ’s great contribution, for the sake of the church. Sharing sufferings with Jesus really draws us close to Jesus. And of course the passion and death of Jesus brought about reconciliation and renewal and new resurrection life. So too, when we share our sufferings with the sufferings of Jesus they too can start to have these effects, for us and for the people around us.
And we have a particular opportunity to do this today in the Eucharist. Jesus said of the Eucharist, “Do this in remembrance of me” (e.g. 1 Cor 11: 24-25) and that act of remembrance makes present in our consciousness today the passion and death of Jesus which happened 2000 years ago. So as we come to receive communion today, let’s bring to Jesus our sufferings, small all large, caused by us or by others, and let’s share our sufferings with the suffering of Jesus in the passion. This will draw us closer to Jesus and draw our sufferings closer to his love which heals and reconciles and renews.
And so may we always be good friends with Jesus, the ultimate friend. Amen.

The commandments of God

2010-07-11T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am Mattins at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth
Sunday 11th July 2010 – Trinity 6, Proper 10 Year C
Other versions of this sermon were preached at St Mary’s at 8.30am Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton at 3pm Evensong.

Readings: Deuteronomy 30: 9-14 Luke 10: 25-37

Recently my wife bought a new mobile phone. She had been without a phone for a couple of days, so when it arrived she was very excited to see it. It arrived at a very busy moment, but Elaine was very keen to get it going, so we rushed rather to assemble it. In the rush we gave only the scantiest attention to the manufacturing instructions, and misunderstood the one thing that we did read. This meant that we put the SIM card in upside down, and in so doing managed to damage it. The result was a further two days with no phone, while we got hold of a new SIM card from the service provider.
The incident reminded me that it is important to use equipment in line with the way it has been designed. Seeking to use it in other ways results in poor performance and could even result in accident or injury. I was reminded of one of my friend at school who was trying to lever the top of a can of paint, using not a screwdriver, but a chisel! The result was quite a nasty injury.
And of course we human beings have been made and designed for a particular purpose, a particular destiny. And it is a very high purpose and destiny, higher than we can possibly imagine. We are made in the image of God, to share in the eternal life that God himself lives out in within the Trinity. This is a great and wonderful thing. I am not sure whether we will ever comprehend how wonderful it is.
But to realise this purpose, this destiny, we have to live our lives in accordance with the maker’s instructions. We have to live according to the purposes for which we were designed. And this is all about following the commandments of God; walking in God’s ways; living according to God’s word; following God’s will for our lives. The importance of this can hardly be overstated, but it was really powerfully stressed in our Old Testament lesson today. Moses was speaking to the Israelites as they come to the end of their forty years in the wilderness and as they are about to enter the Promised Land; the land flowing with milk and honey. Actually Moses makes a great long speech; we only caught a very small part of it in our Old Testament lesson, but the deal is this, the covenant is this. God says to the Israelites, “Be my people, obey my laws, keep my commandments and I will make you prosper in the Promised Land. But you have a clear choice. If you don’t obey my laws and follow in my ways you will not last long in the Promised Land.” So it is obey God and prosper, or ignore God and perish.
And the importance of obeying God and keeping his commandments comes up time and time again in scripture. Jesus says, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” (John 14: 15) and he says, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt 19: 17) and he says, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt 7: 21).
And what are the commandments of God? Well we heard the summary of all the commandments in New Testament lesson today; “Love God and love your neighbour” and then, in the story of the good Samaritan, we heard a beautiful illustration of what it means to love our neighbour; how it means helping them in practical ways, and looking out for their good.
So to realise God’s great plan for us, to fulfil all the good things that God wants for us, we need to follow God’s will for our lives, we need to live by the commandments of God and by the teaching of Jesus. And these commandments and teachings are all about love. The commandments are about educating us in what love means or requires of us in different situations.
And I want to put in an aside about “obedience”. In our contemporary western society the word “obedience” is often presented with rather negative connotations, as though it is about allowing ourselves to be dominated by other people, or about being fitted as a round peg into a square hole, or about failing to be true to our innermost instincts and desires. Well we need to re-educate ourselves to remember that obedience to God is always a thoroughly good thing; it is the good thing. It is precisely the way that we walk the walk towards heaven. It is the way we realise God’s creation in us. It’s the way that we allow God to form us and develop us so that we become what he has created us to be. So obedience to God is always a good thing, and obedience to God often (not always, but often!) requires obedience to other human being or human institutions; to a spouse, to a boss, to the law of the land, to a bishop or priest even. It is often through these people that we understand what God wants from us. And let’s remember that obedience to God is always about love, not wishing washing feelings, but the profound and mysterious love of God, which always seeks the good of the other.
I want to finish by re-reading the Collect for today, the sixth Sunday after Trinity because it does seem to summarise so much of this, so beautifully:

O God, who hast prepared for them that love thee
such good things as pass man’s understanding:
Pour into our hearts such love toward thee
that we, loving thee above all things,
may obtain thy promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (Book of Common Prayer)

Ministries and Grace

2010-07-04T09:45:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at 9.45 am at St Michael’s, Baddesley Clinton
Sunday 4th July 2010, Trinity V, Proper 9 – Year C
Other versions of this sermon were preached at 8.30am and 11am at St Mary's Lapworth.

Readings: (Gal 6: 7-16) Luke 10: 1-11 & 16-20

My daughter, Caroline, has just returned from a school trip to Snowdonia. It was a week of outdoor pursuits, including gorge walking and climbing Snowdon. In preparation for the trip both our family and the school worked quite hard to ensure that Caroline had all the appropriate kit. As she set off on the trip, with her hiking boots and carefully packed backpack we were confident that she had the things she needed for the different outdoor activities. And just to confirm that all the preparations had paid off, she sent us a text message from the top of Snowdon.
But what a contrast there is between our attitude in kitting Caroline out, the attitude that Jesus had when sending out disciples ahead of him to prepare the ground in the towns and villages that Jesus himself expected to visit. Far from kitting the disciples out, Jesus seems to tell them not to take things with them. Jesus tells them to “carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.” If we had read Matthew’s account (Matt 10) we would also have heard Jesus tells the disciples to take no money (not even coppers), no spare tunic and no staff.
Why would Jesus give such instructions? Surely it would be better if the disciples were properly kitted out for their missionary journey?
Well we can only speculate. It seems to me that Jesus wanted to make sure that the disciples were trusting completely in God, rather than trusting in their own skills, talents and resources. This attitude of complete trust and dependence on God is very healthy especially for people who are engaged in God’s work. If you have no resources of your own, but depend completely on what God gives you, then you have no choice but to stay focused on doing God’s work.
And it worked! The seventy returned with joy saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us.” Clearly the seventy had worked many miracles of healing. Jesus said, “See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you.” So it seems that the disciples extraordinary trust in God, going out on their mission with no more than the clothes they were wearing, resulted in extraordinary graces and powers to work great miracles. And this was a cause of great rejoicing. But notice the comment of Jesus: “do not rejoice at this…but that your names are written in heaven.” The significant thing is not that the disciples have extraordinary powers, like comic book superheroes, but rather that this is evidence that they share in the life of heaven, the eternal life in the presence of God.
And this pattern of extraordinary dependence on God, and extraordinary earthly powers is by no means unique to this story about the 70 disciples. At the very end of Mark’s gospel (Mark 16: 17) Jesus says, “These are the signs that will be associated with believers; in my name they will cast out devils, they will have the gift of tongues, they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick who will recover.” And in the Acts of the Apostles there are lots of stories of the disciples performing healing miracles and of Paul, being unharmed by the bite of a deadly snake.
And in the history of the Church, this story has many resonances. St Francis was deeply struck by precisely this very story, which we heard from the gospel today. He felt called by God to live it out for himself in a very literal way. Francis went on to live in radical poverty, in complete dependence on God and on the gifts of other people. And as we know Francis developed an extraordinary ministry and demonstrated all kinds of miraculous powers, including healing and exorcism.
But what about us? We are ordinary Christians of the 21st century; ordinary believers. Are we too called to this life of radical dependence on God; this life where we go about with no more than the clothes we wear? Are we, too, to receive powers to heal diseases and tread on scorpions and snakes? Well some of us are called by God in a radical way, for example by giving up everything, and going to live in a monasteries or a convent. But probably, for most of us, God does not call most of us to a ministry like that. For most of us our ministries will be much smaller and simpler things; caring for our families, talking to our neighbours, visiting or offering a lift to an elderly person. We might also be called to specific ministries to help in the church, perhaps through a role on the PCC. Or perhaps we are called to a ministries to the wider community. Sometimes we are called to support particular communities groups, or to serve on their committees and help them to play their part in serving the whole community.
The important thing is to be very attentive to what God wants from us; by what ministry he wants us to serve other people. God always supplies the grace needed for the ministries to which he calls us. If the ministries are small then perhaps the grace need not be so big, but if we live our ministries well then perhaps God will call us to bigger things, and give us bigger graces. But we must be attentive to what God wants from us, because it all starts with what God calls us to do.
But we must not deceive ourselves into thinking that we can escape from our radical dependence on God. We all need to build and develop out trust in God, who created us and loves us. Sooner or later any earthly thing that we put our trust in must fail us. Eventually we must all face death. In death we lose all our earthly processions, even our clothes, even our body. In death our utter dependence on God is revealed. Let us pray that by that time we will have learnt to trust completely in God, and let us pray that, like the 70 disciples, we may rejoice to discover that our names are written in heaven. Amen.

Following Jesus to become like Jesus

2010-06-27T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at St Mary’s Lapworth at 11am Mattins
Sunday 27th June 2010 – Trinity 4, Proper 8, Year C

Readings: PS 77: 11-end 2 Kings 2: 1-2 & 6-14 Luke 9: 51-end

In our gospel reading we heard about people following Jesus. Some of them said to Jesus, “I will follow you” and to some of them Jesus said “Follow me”. And the people who follow Jesus were called disciples, and the business of following Jesus we call discipleship.
Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that there were just 12 disciples of Jesus. Actually there were lots of disciples, and also lots of women, who followed Jesus. But there were 12 disciples who (Mk 3: 14) Jesus designed apostles and who would often call aside and speak only to them. But there were clearly lots of people who Jesus seemed to trust with his message. In Luke 10 he sends 72 people in pairs on ahead of him to the towns which he planned to visit. At the end of John chapter 6 we read that many of Jesus’ disciples were put off by Jesus’ teaching “I am the bread of life” and started to go away. Jesus asked the 12 if they were going to leave too, but Peter said, “Lord, to whom can we go. You have the words of eternal life.”
So Jesus had many disciples, and different ways he also calls each one of us to be disciples, that is followers of Jesus. And I think we have to grow in appreciation and respect for all the different ways in which Jesus calls different people. Some are called to follow him very directly and personally, through a life of intense prayer. Some are called to follow him primarily through practical service to family and friends and to the church. Some are called to follow him through painful or tragic situations. Some people seem called to follow Jesus indirectly, through relationship with people who are closer. And at different times in our lives all of these different experiences can come to the fore ofr each one of us. So the key thing for each one of us is to follow Jesus in the specific way that he asks us to follow him in each present moment of our life. We follow him by seeking to do the will of God, and following the commandments and teaching of Jesus (which are about loving God and our neighbours) in the way that Jesus asks of us right now.
And why do we want to follow Jesus? Because Jesus leads us in the way that leads to eternal life. Those words of Peter really do sum it up, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of Eternal life.” (John 6: 68). Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14: 6). Jesus is life, the eternal life, and he wants to share that life with us. But, as well as truth, Jesus is also the way to that life, the route we must walk to find the life. It is walking that way, the way of Jesus, moment by moment, day by day, that slowly draws us closer to Jesus the truth and the life. And this happens because as we walk the journey Jesus grows within us. We become like little Jesuses. We become like the one who we follow.
There was a lovely example of this in our Old Testament lesson. Elisha was the servant to Elijah. He was a true disciple of Elijah. He followed Elijah, leaned from him and ultimately became like him. It seems that when Elijah went up to heaven Elisha inherited his spirit. Certainly he was able to perform the miracle of parting the waters of the river, just as Elijah had done. Certainly he went on to become a great prophet in his own right. Well we too when we follow Jesus, start to become like Jesus. Jesus said, “A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. (Luke 6: 40). So we seek to become like Jesus our teacher. And I think it is rather shocking how completely like Jesus we ultimately become. Jesus, when is putting James and John straight for wanting the best seats in heaven, still confirms to them that, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.” We follow Jesus even through these difficult things and certainly we ultimately share in Jesus’ glory (e.g. 2 Thess 2: 14).
Jesus is very clear about the cost of discipleship. Ultimately it costs us everything, nothing can be held back. In our gospel reading today Jesus seems deliberately provocative and uncompromising in his call. To one man who wants to follow him, he says “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus emphasizes that the journey he calls us to takes us away from home. For some people that can mean literally leaving home to travel, but for all of us it means leaving the comforts of our old ways of thinking and being, and walking always towards our home in heaven. The New Testament tends of think of us as strangers and pilgrims on earth, walking towards our real home in heaven. (e.g. 1 Peter 1: 17, Heb 11: 13 ff). Then there are two other people who want to follow Jesus, but they want to go back and say good-buy to their old lives first, which seems after all a simple matter of politeness, but for Jesus it is not radical enough. He wants to see a bold, decisive and immediate choice to follow Jesus.
And if Jesus seems to be unreasonably demanding here, let’s remember other assurances that he gives about discipleship. He also describes his yoke as easy and his burden light. In the long term I am sure that this is true. Avoiding the call of Jesus might seem easier in the short term, but the lives that we develop independent of God never really work and eventually they can only fall apart. In the long term it is much easier to build our lives in conformance with God, because these lives have an eternal future.
So, as we spend some moments reflecting on our discipleship, let’s try to be radical in our choice of Jesus. Let’s try to follow what Jesus wants from us moment by moment, day by day. Let’s joyfully follow Jesus the teacher, and by the grace of God, let’s become small Jesuses active in our world today. In this way we can be sure that we are using our lives well, both in this world, and by journeying towards Eternal life. Amen

Putting on Christ, like a garment

2010-06-20T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at St Mary’s, Lapworth at 11am Eucharist
Sunday 20th June 2010 – Trinity III, proper 7

Readings: Gal 3: 23-29 Luke 826-39

Recently my daughter Caroline was in a dance show, so I went along to watch her dance. The show was based on a book called “Peter Pan in Scarlet” which has been written in 2006 as an official sequel to the story of Peter Pan, the little boy who has adventures in Neverland, and who never grows up.
Now the story of Peter Pan ends when Peter Pan’s arch enemy, the evil pirate Captain Hook is defeated by Peter and falls into the jaws of a crocodile. Peter Pan in Scarlet is all about Peter Pan, who carries on living in Neverland, wearing the scarlet robe that was formerly worn by Captain Hook. And as the story develops Peter Pan slowly takes on more and more of Captain Hook’s personality. He becomes angry and selfish and difficult. His gang of friends, “The Lost Boys” find him harder and harder to live with. Peter begins to dream the dreams of Captain Hook and to take on his desires, and all this because he is wearing Captain Hooks cloak. Peter Pan’s situation gets worse and worse until he realises the problems the cloak is causing him. He casts off the cloak, and from that point, although Peter has become very ill, everything starts to get better. The premise is that somehow, by wearing someone’s clothes you slowly become that person.
So in what way is that true? Last night we had a very enjoyable curry night to raise money for the charity “Warwick in India”. I wore the Indian clothes that I bought eight years ago in New Delhi. Did wearing Indian clothes make me more Indian? Well I don’t know? I certainly felt more Indian. And certainly, if I was more Indian, I would wear Indian Clothes more.
Well this all seems like the realms of fairytales. But in our epistle reading today Paul said, “As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ”. And Paul is forever using this idea of putting on things which are good, like we might put on clothing, in order to make ourselves good. When we get up on a morning we have to choose the clothes to put on. In the same way we can start each day by choosing our attitudes and behaviours for the day. In different parts of the New testament Paul tells us to put on the armour of light (Rom 13: 12), the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 13: 14), the imperishable, immortal body (1 Cor 15: 53), the whole armour of God (Eph 6:11, see also 1 Thes 5: 7) and the new self, the new man ( Eph 4: 24 Col 3: 10). It seems that Paul is always urging us to put on good things, holy things, good behaviours as we would put on clothes. These things might be external to us, they might come from God rather than from our own nature, but they have a positive effect on us, slowly changing us into something better. And Paul often talks about Christians as being changed and transformed. He says that we are transformed into the likeness of Christ (2 Cor 3: 18). Eventually, wearing these good things like clothes, they make us Christ like. Paul says, “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2: 20).
Equally Paul is always telling us to put aside bad things; to lay aside the works of darkness (Rom 13: 12). This is important because the opposite can also happen. If, when we get up in the morning, we choose to put on evil things and bad behaviours then evil grows within us. In our gospel reading we heard of a man processed by many demons. He was in a most terrible state, completely under the control of his demons, but Jesus still managed to heal him.
In the church we are all Saints and we are all Sinners. We all have Christ within us, especially since our baptism, but we also all have a tendency to sin, to rebel against God. Paul is urging us always to cloth ourselves in the Saint. Always live by the Saint, adopt the attitudes of the saint, the behaviours of the Saint, to think of the good of others, like the Saint. And this is important, because the Saint who grows within us has a future that is eternal and blessed. It can only get better. When we choose to live in the Sinner then we are building for ourselves a future that is in opposition to God. This might seem easy in the short term, but in the end it can only perish and decay and die.
And of course it is not just in the morning that we have to choose to live by the Saint. We have to do it in each present moment of our lives. It is the behaviours and attitudes that we are choosing right now in the present moment that have an effect; not our good aspirations for tomorrow. When I was training for Advanced Driving Test I often found that I had my hands in the wrong position on the steering wheel. As soon as I noticed, I would put my hands back in the right position and carry on. And sometimes this was really hard, I just felt that I could not be bothered. But the more I did it, the more natural it became to me and now I find it easy, instinctive even. Well in the same way I try to train myself always to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and to live each moment in the Saint. And over time that too becomes for natural and instinctive.
But what about the times when we just can’t do it? What about the times when, like the demoniac we are dominated by unruly forces within us and we can only choose behaviours which are bad and destructive. Or perhaps the problem is with the people around us, or the society we live in, and we find ourselves constrained towards violence and injustice. Well, in my opinion, this happens all the time and the key thing is to continue to live in the Saint, even when the Sinner is in control. Jesus, in his passion and death, seemed to be overpowered by the forces of evil. It seemed that they had overcome him completely and killed him. But Jesus’ cry went up to heaven. God revealed the Resurrection; new life for Jesus and defeat for evil. So, where the Sinner is in control in our lives, living in the Saint means sharing with Jesus in the experience of passion and death. It is painful and humbling, but where our cry rises to heaven united with the cry of Jesus, there God breaks the power of evil and gives new life.
So let’s be clothed in Christ. Let’s choose always the attitudes and behaviours of the Saint. And let’s practice this in each present moment of our lives, because practice makes perfect!

The Golden Thread

2010-06-13T11:00:00.001+01:00

Sermon preached at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth at 11am Mattins
Sunday 13th June 2010 – Trinity II, Proper 6, Year C

Readings: Ps 32, 2 Samuel: 11: 26- 12: 10, 13-15, Luke 7: 36 – 8: 3
Flower festival in Church.

Our readings give us two stories of sin and repentance.
In our Old Testament lesson we heard the middle part of the story of David and Bathsheba, the beautiful wife of Uriah the Hittite. And it is a pretty salacious story, well worth reading in full starting from 2 Samuel chapter 11. Basically David commits adultery with Bethsheba, gets her pregnant and then goes to great lengths to try and cover this up. The cover up fails, so David assigns Bathsheba’s husband Uriah to what amounts to a suicide mission in one of Israel’s battles. Uriah is killed and David takes Bethsheba as a wife and she bares him a son. The prophet Nathan confronts David with his sin. David repents, the Lord forgives, but nevertheless says that David’s new son will die on account of David’s misdeeds. The son becomes ill, so David enters into an intense period of fasting and pleading with God. After seven days the child dies. David gives up his fast and carries on with his life, restored in his relationship with God.
Then in our gospel reading we heard about the sinful woman who washes the feet of Jesus with her tears, dries them with her hair and anoints them with expensive ointment. The text suggests that this woman may have been Mary Magdalene, but it is far from clear and biblical scholars spend a lot of time debating whether or not it was her. But the point is that Jesus says she loves him a lot because she has been forgiven a lot, and her tells her to go in peace. Elsewhere Jesus says that, just as the doctor comes for the benefit of those who are sick, not those who are well, so he, Jesus, comes for the sinners more than for the righteous people. These words of Jesus are very reassuring to us as we become aware of all our own sins and inadequacies.
So what do we mean by sin? Well sin is rebellion against God. Sin is turning away from God, refusing his love, and setting our own agenda and priorities independent of God. And sin causes damage. God created us in love, and sets before us a journey towards fullness of life in heaven. He wants to bring his creation in us to fulfilment, he wants our good, he wants to share the life of heaven with us. When we rebel against God and go our own way, we put all these good things in jeopardy. Like David and like Mary Magdalene we have to repent and return to the Lord, and seek to walk the path that he sets before us. We have to give up on our own ideas and do the things God wants of us.
And just as we might use a sat-nav to guide us on a journey here on earth, so we should listen to that still, small voice of our conscience to guide us on our spiritual journey towards heaven. Sin is like making a mistake on the journey, doing something different from what the sat-nav says. Sometimes we might make a mistake and perhaps it is not very serious. The sat-nav immediately re-computes the journey and takes us via a slightly different route. We might loose a little time and energy, but the consequence is small. Sometimes we can make a serious mistake and find ourselves heading in altogether the wrong direction. The sat-nav probably blares out at us, “turn around as soon as possible, turn around as soon as possible.” In the same way our conscience tells us when we are going against God. It calls us to repent, turn around and accept God’s love, to trust in him and his plan for our lives. But however badly we go wrong, the sat-nav can always recomputed our route and find a way to take us to our destination. In the same way our conscience can always lead us back towards the destination that God has planned for us.
And we must not underestimate the depth of God’s mercy. Sometimes we are aware that we have made so many mistakes. Our journey has been endlessly disrupted by failures and wrong turns. We look back over our lives and it is like looking at the underside of a tapestry riddled with lose ends and knots and with no clear pattern. But just occasionally God allows us to catch a glimpse of the front side of the tapestry, the side that is visible from heaven. Suddenly we can see a clear pattern. Suddenly we realise that despite all our stumbling and failings, a beautiful tapestry has been created. And as we look back at this tapestry that our lives have woven we see that it is consistently held together and made good by the love of God, by his mercy, by his perseverance, by his willingness to suffer for us in Jesus. God is the ultimate master craftsman. His love is like a mysterious golden thread running through every part of the tapestry, making everything good. Even our mistakes have somehow been woven into the design by this mysterious golden thread.
Now I think that this is most beautifully illustrated in the flowers of this flower festival. The theme is Deus Caritas Est; God is Love. And each of the 34 arrangements illustrates some different aspect of God’s love, from the most spiritual (the fruits of the spirit) to the most practical (documents and treasurers in the antique chest). And if you look carefully you will see winding its way through the whole collection a golden thread. Often the golden thread is very fine, and hardly visible, sometimes it is thicker and clearer. But it is always there, always strong enough, and it binds the whole collection together in a beautiful harmony, like the heavenward side of the tapestry of our lives.
So do have a look at the flowers before you leave church today. See if you can see the golden tread that runs through all the arrangements. And as you look think about the love of God as it runs through our lives. And let’s try always to live our lives in harmony with God’s love, co-operating with all that he does in our lives and working with him to weave the most beautiful tapestry for our own good and the good of those around us. Amen.

Widow of Nain

2010-06-06T09:45:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached for 9.45 Holy Communion (BCP) at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton
Sunday 6th June 2010, Trinity 1 (Proper 5) Year C

Readings: Gal 1: 11-24 Luke 7: 11-17

Bullet Points Only

Some particular features of this miracle (the widow of Nain)

- nobody asked Jesus to do it, it is complete gift done from his own initiative
o God’s free gift

- But what made Jesus do it
o considerable number of people with the widow
o the cry to heaven goes up
o people are drawn in by love, to love more
o examples I have experienced

- Jesus’ motivation is compassion
o contrast many of Jesus’ miracles are in response to faith
o seem to be aimed at building up faith (although he asks for secrecy)
o in fact this miracle seems to have the effect of building faith

- What is overcome is death – biggest obstacle
o but the son will die again

The miracle looks back – parallels to Elijah and the widow’s only son (1 Kings 17: 23)
- gave him to his mother
- a great prophet has arisen
Miracle looks forward– build up to the question from the followers of John the Baptist
“Are you the one who is to come”
- Miracles show power of Jesus over nature – sickness, death and devils
o these things are ultimately overcome by Jesus
- miracles are pointers to the kingdom of God
- point to the new heaven and the new earth of Rev 21
o no longer any crying or sadness or pain or death

How do we respond
- allow our faith to grow
- solidarity with those who suffer – in prayer and support
- trust Jesus, the one more powerful than death

Sharing in the glory of God

2010-05-30T09:45:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton at 9.45 Holy Communion on Sunday 30th May 2010 - Trinity Sunday – Year C
A shorter version of this sermon was preached at St Mary’s Lapworth at 8.30am.

Joke for Trinity Sunday – The angel Gabriel asks God, “This creation idea…are you really sure about it?” God replied, “Well I’m kind of in three minds about it.” I liked that one which comes from the Revd Kate Stow, curate at St James the Great in Shirley.
Of course on Trinity Sunday we reflect on the great mystery of one God in three persons, Father Son and Holy Spirit. In theology we think of these three persons as being of the same substance or essence. Every time we say the creed we are reminded of Jesus “Being of one substance with the Father”. We also think of these three people being so perfect and complete in their unity that we can only talk of their being one God.
And this is a deep mystery. We should not worry if, as mere human beings, we struggle to understand the inner workings of the life of God. Do we understand the inner workings of our computer or microwave oven? Probably not, but this does not stop them from being useful and important to us. Well we are certainly not going to understand the inner workings of God, but oh he certainly is important to us.
But our gospel reading does provide some indications about how this perfect unity of three divine persons comes about. It seems that everything they have and think is shared. Jesus says of the Holy Spirit, “He will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears….he will take what is mine and declare it to you…all that the Father has is mine…” So the things that the Spirit declares to us are they from the Father or from the Son or from the Holy Spirit? Well we can’t really answer that question because it seems that they are shared. They are held in common. They are forever being given back and forth between the three persons of the Trinity.
We human beings find sharing things very difficult, but sharing is an extremely important discipline for us to practice. Until recently my two daughters shared a bedroom. They had to have rules about who went to bed when, and who was responsible for different parts of the floor space, and when musical instruments could be practised. But then there had to be flexibility because having a friend round or working on some project might need a change in the rules. There has to be trust. Both must feel that their priorities are being taken seriously by the other. It requires generosity, to take on board the needs and desires of the other; to be ready to let go of our own ideas for the sake of the other.
Certainly we see this generosity is God. Jesus seems to do everything for the father. He accepts the Father’s will even in Gethsemane, where it so obviously costs him everything. Yet the Father also gives everything to Jesus. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me” Jesus declares in Matt 28: 18. This continual giving of one to the other and back again is an important characteristic of the unity of God. It means that everything is shared.
Then when I read today’s scripture readings I was very struck by St Paul’s words, “We boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God”. So this sharing within the life of the Trinity is not just about God, it is also about human beings; us!” We hope to share in the glory of God! This could easily seem to be an outrageous claim; as preposterous as it is presumptuous. Who can share in the glory of God, but God alone? And yet the New Testament is quite clear that God wants to share his glory, his unity, his life of mutual self giving with us. Two Sundays ago our gospel was from John 17, and Jesus prayed to the Father for all his followers saying, “…the glory you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one and we are one.” So we are called to share in the glory of God, and to share in the unity of God. And actually this is not a presumption hope because it comes at a cost. What Paul actually says is, “We boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings…” because suffering leads to endurance, character and hope. Elsewhere the New Testament is very clear that this full sharing includes both sufferings and glory (e.g. Romans 8: 17, 1 Peter 5: 1)
So let’s learn to trust in the great destiny to which God calls us. Let’s prepare ourselves to share in the glory of God, to share in the mysterious unity of the Trinity. Let’s practice sharing with our brothers and sisters because this is an excellent preparation. When sufferings come, let’s seek to live them as a sharing in the sufferings of Jesus. Let’s pray that God will help us to grow in generosity, so that we can draw closer to this life of God. Amen.

Pentecost and the Tower of Babel

2010-05-23T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached on Sunday 23rd April 2010 at 11am at St Mary’s Lapworth. Other versions of this sermon were preached at 8.30am at St Mary’s, 3pm at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton and at 6.30pm at Solihull School Chapel.
Pentecost – Year C

Readings: Ps 104: 24-end Genesis 11: 1-9 Acts 2: 1-21

Our two scripture readings today are a kind of mirror image of each other. The story of the Tower of Babel is a story about sin, which leads to the scattering of peoples, their disempowerment and confusion in their language. The story of Pentecost is a story about co-operation with the plan of God, which leads to the gathering and unifying of peoples, the breakdown of language barriers and great power at work amongst the disciples.
So let’s think about the Tower of Babel. The people, who were all of one people with one language said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and lets us make a name for ourselves, otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
And so what it about this that was so sinful? What was it that God found so objectionable? Well above, the sin was pride. Rather than acknowledge their dependence on God, the people wanted to see themselves as self sufficient and to set their own agenda independent of God. They wanted to build a great tower to rise to the heavens and so to place themselves above God. They wanted to make a name for themselves, to be famous, to place themselves above other people who would look up to them and praise them. But pride is in fact a terrible trap. No one can be self sufficient but God alone. If God hides his face people are troubled. If God takes away their breath, then they die. No one can take forward plans and agendas independent of God. The plans and agendas that succeed, that deliver benefits in the longer term, are plans and agendas that are blessed by God, that come about through co-operation with God and by obedience to God’s will. And its seems to me that these people of Babel knew that their plans were ill-founded, were not based on God’s will. Deep down they knew this, and because of it they suffered from fear. They feared that they might be scattered abroad on the face of the whole earth. Fear is not a good thing. We are called not to fear, but rather to trust in the God who is love. “True love casts out fear” as St John teaches (1 John 4: 18). And it is interesting how God responded to the pride and self sufficiency of the people of Babel. The Lord did the very thing that they feared. He scattered them abroad over the whole earth. And he did this by confusing their language so that they could not understand one another. He split them into different peoples and nations and he took away all their power. They never finish building their city.
And it is very interesting to read the story of the Tower of Babel alongside the story of Pentecost, because Pentecost is the mirror image of the story; the very opposite thing happens. The disciples gather in the upper room, as Jesus commanded them, so they are acting in obedience to God. They have just passed through the experience of the death and resurrection of Jesus. They have learnt that they can trust Jesus, even when he seems utterly helpless, dying on a cross. The disciples have been witnesses to the resurrection, and know that it is God who is the giver of life. They know that with God not even death is to be feared. And so God pours out his Holy Spirit among them, and they have this extraordinary experience with a violent rush of wind and divided tongues of fire resting on each one of them. And whereas at Babel people’s languages were confused and they were scattered abroad into different peoples and nations, so with the gift of the Holy Spirit, disperse peoples were gathered into one. There was a remarkable gift of language such that everyone understood the disciples in their native tongue, whatever their background. If we had read to the end of chapter 2 we would have heard that all the disciples in Jerusalem were gathered together and had all things in common, like one family. We would also have read of the great power received by the disciples and of the great wonders and signs were worked by the apostles (Act 2: 43-45). Later St. Paul would declare that in Christianity, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3: 28). Just as sin dispersed people and divided them at Babel, so at Pentecost the Holy Spirit united people and brought them together.
And so what about us? What does this mean for us now? Well clearly we need to free ourselves from the behaviours and attitudes of Babel, and model ourselves on the disciples at Pentecost. So first of all we need to guard against pride. We should not seek to put ourselves above God or above other people. Instead we must see ourselves and other people as different parts of God’s one creation, called to live in harmony with one another, as many sons and daughters of one heavenly Father.
Then we must not try to be self-sufficient, in a way that seeks independence from God. Rather we must know our need of God, and of his Holy Spirit. We should put our hope in God, and in Jesus who conquered death. Nowadays, as at Babel, it is all too easy to place our hopes in human achievements. There has been much human progress; scientific, technological or economic. These things can certainly be good; medical progress for example has brought us great benefits. But these things cannot save us. They cannot prevent death, or unify us, or heal the problems of the world. These bigger goals depend on the action of God. And if scientific or technological progress is pursued outside of God’s plan then God might once again choose to scatter and divide and to deprive these things of all their power.
But rather we are called to maintain the attitudes and behaviours of Pentecost, so that God will pour out his Spirit upon us. Perhaps we might even experience the rushing wind or tongues of fire, but if even if we don’t we can certainly experience the great power of God’s Spirit, his healing, reconciling and unifying force, his gifts of understanding, and being understood. And as our Psalm suggested, where God sends forth his spirit we can witness his creative powers because new things are brought into being and as the face of the earth is renewed. I hope that this is what things will be like here in this place! Amen.

Living for unity

2010-05-16T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth
Sunday 16th May 2010, 7th Sunday of Easter - Year C
Adapted versions of this sermon were also preached at 8.30am and also at St Michael’s, Baddesley Clinton at 9.45am.

Readings: Acts 16: 16-34 John 17: 20-end

Last Thursday was the feast of the Ascension and we celebrated that in church. The Ascension is when we remember Jesus finally leaving the earth, 40 days after his resurrection, and going to heaven to sit at God’s right hand. It is a time when we think of Jesus on the throne of heaven in all his glory. We think of his final triumph through all his trials and difficulties. We remember the words of the psalmist “The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps 110).
And the theme of the Ascension is still with us in our service this morning. There are several references to the Ascension in our hymns today. See if you can spot them! But also there things about our gospel reading, which are relevant to the Ascension. As we think about Jesus leaving this earth, so we find the need to focus on the last things that Jesus said to us before he left. And this is why our gospel reading is significant. It is sometimes described as Jesus’ “last will and testament” or his “priestly prayer”. It is the last words that Jesus says in John’s gospel before his arrest, his passion and death.
Actually these words are part of a prayer to God. And it can be hard to understand. God the Son is praying to God the Father. God is praying for God. We humans shouldn’t be too surprised if we struggle to understand it all! But it is very interesting what Jesus prays for. One of the things he prays is “Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory…” So Jesus recognises that he is returning to the glories of heaven, and wants to share those glories with us. And this is part of our Christian hope. Our life is a journey towards this great destination that Jesus wants for us, to see his glory, share his life in heaven. And we know that the journey might be long and difficult and we need to grow and develop in love, and we might need to be purified in all kinds of painful ways, but ultimately we are called to this great destiny in heaven with Christ in glory.
But the main thing that Jesus prays for is unity. First of all he prays for his disciples. Then for all those who will believe in Jesus because of witness of the disciples. So that is you and me. It is the whole church. And his pray is, “that they all may be one” and he repeats this several times in different ways. “That they all may be one.” Jesus is praying for unity among his followers. He is praying for unity in the Church.
Now we all know that unity can be very difficult. Church Unity can be especially difficult to achieve. Since the eleventh century the Church has suffered a big division between the east and the west. Since the sixteen century there has been a division between Protestants and Anglicans and the Catholics. But then it always seems that there is scope for new divisions, even within our own denomination, the Anglican Communion and the Church of England. We only have to think of questions to do with women bishops, women priests, and homosexuality to know that there are a huge range of things that can easily divide us. And if we think of our local church communities there is always scope for division. Perhaps this congregation may have be spared much division, but my former parish in Solihull suffered terrible conflicts and divisions over women priests in the mid-1990s. And then even in the smallest unit of the church our families, our marriages, there is scope for division. We all know how easily problems can occur and how difficult it is to live in unity.
And yet Jesus prays for unity, not just in marriages, or in local church communities, but for the unity of the whole church. Well this might seem completely impossible; a total pipe dream. And I think for human beings alone unity is impossible. But it is not impossible for God, and it is what God wants. Unity for human beings is achieved as a gift from God.
So how do we receive this gift? How do we put ourselves in the right position to be blessed in this way? Well I think we get some clues from the rest of Jesus’ prayer. Jesus prays, “…may they all be one. As you Father are in me, and I am in you…” So this being united is about being “in” the other. This means positioning ourselves in the other person, mindful of their needs, their priorities, their legitimate aspirations. It means empathising with them and making their hopes our own. We try to serve the good that we see in the other person, doing our best to recognise them as God created them to be, with all their good qualities, and also do our best to ignore the things we don’t like, or that are bad about them. And this approach needs to be mutual. Jesus is in the Father, but the Father is also in Jesus. This two way giving certainly contributes to unity. In two weeks time it will be Trinity Sunday and we will be thinking about the perfect unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and this complete giving of each to the other is important to that unity.
But Jesus’ prayer continues further. “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us”. “May they also be in us.” So we are called to be in God, to share in that self giving of the Father to the Son and the Son to the Father. But we need to be “in” God. We need to be attentive to God, through prayer, to listen to him and also to act according to what he wants from us. We have to be obedient to God’s will, to the path that he sets before us, so that we can walk forward and develop in line with his creation in us. To do this maybe we have to let go of some of our own devises and desires. Perhaps he have to lose some of our own ideas in order to be in God. But this being in God is part of the experience of unity.
Now when we dwell together in unity it is a very refreshing and renewing experience. The Psalmist says, “How good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity. It is like precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard…” (Ps 133). I believe that this experience of unity on earth is a preparation for heaven. It is a preparation for that glory that Jesus wants to share with us in heaven, a foretaste of heaven. So let’s seek to live “in” the other, and “in” God to experience unity and to prepare ourselves for heaven. Amen.

Bluebell Service at St Michael's

2010-05-09T15:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at the annual “Bluebell Service”, 3pm Evensong at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.
Sunday 9th May 2010 – 5th Sunday after Easter

Readings: Psalm 8 Gen 1: 26-31 Phil 4: 4-7

Well obviously I am the new rector and I am very new, and I am still learning what we are about here in the Parish of Baddesley Clinton, and in this church of St Michael’s. And although I recognise that I still have lots to learn about this place it does seem to me that one of the things that we are about is harmony with nature. We have this beautiful church building, in this beautiful setting, surrounded by bluebells. And many people have worked very hard over very many years to maintain all this and to keep that harmonious balance between nature and our human needs for order and purpose.
And sometimes people say, “Yes, but would it not be more beautiful still if humans never got involved and it was just nature.” Well if that was the case then we would have no church building, no grass mowing, no bulb planting. It probably would still be beautiful, but it would not reflect our legitimate human needs. And our bible reading today made it quite clear that in both the Christian and Jewish understanding, human beings are encouraged by God to work with nature to bring about good human outcomes. Human beings are made in the image of God. We reflect God’s own nature and God encourages by God to be master of creation, to work with God on his creation to make it more beautiful and to meet our human needs.
Now the key phrase here is “in harmony with God’s creation”. When we do things in harmony with God and his creation then the outcome is beautiful, and hopefully that is what we see reflected here around us.
But the trouble is we know that human intervention in nature is not always guided by harmony with God. Sometimes it is driven by greed, or arrogance or selfishness and the results are very ugly. And as we meet today we have very aware of a huge oil slick in the Bay of Mexico, arising from human activity and which threatens to do enormous damage to nature. And we all have to be very humble about this, because we know that we all live western lifestyles which are very hard on nature and very demanding on the world’s resources.
When we think about harmony with nature, one of the saints who has most to teach us is St Francis of Assisi. He lived outdoors in extreme poverty. His carbon footprint must have been as low as they come. He celebrated all aspects of nature, writing the great canticle “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”. St Francis emphasised that all created things ultimately want and need to move in harmony with their creator. He is famous for preaching to the birds and to the fish. His followers thought he had completely lost it, but he preached to them nevertheless, and they appeared interested and then dispersed when he had finished. Francis rebuked himself for never having preached to the birds before!
Well, here at Baddesley Clinton I am not preaching to birds or fish, but I am almost preaching to bluebells. The nice thing about preaching to bluebells is that if there is a breeze then they nod gently up and down, as though they agree and appreciate what is being said. Not many congregations do that, or at least not when I am preaching, they don’t! But this not of agreement also reminds me of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who when approached by the Angel Gabriel gave her agreement, “Be it unto me according to thy word.” And the blueness of bluebells is another reminder of Mary, who has to be the ultimate example of co-operating with the creative power of the creator.
So as we go from here, let’s give thanks for the beauty we experience. Let’s seek to build on that beauty by living lives in harmony with the will of the creator. And let’s remember the example that we have in St Francis and also in Mary, and let’s say our yes to God, like a bluebell nodding in the wind.

Growing in Faith

2010-05-09T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am Coral Mattins at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth.
Sunday 9th May 2010 – Easter 6 Year C

Readings: Psalm 67 Acts 16: 9-15 John 14: 23-29

When I read the scripture readings to prepare for this service, the thing which really struck me was the way that Lydia’s conversion was described in our reading from Acts. It said “The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul”.
What struck me was that it was the Lord who opened her heart.
We might think he was down to Paul. He had a great reputation as a preacher and spokesperson. We might think that with his wise and eloquent words he converted her.
Or we might think it was down to Lydia. Clearly she was extraordinary woman; head of a household and owner business dealing in purple cloth. Perhaps this very able woman was able to discern the wisdom in what Paul said, and to discover its truth?
But no, the scripture does not put Lydia’s conversion down to her own wisdom, nor does it put it down to the skill of Paul as a preacher. Rather the text says, “The Lord opened her heart”. And for me, this was a very powerful reminder that faith, ultimately, is a gift from God. God chooses to give this gift in accordance with his own purposes and that is down to God, not down to human beings. But we also have to remember that God wants to give us this gift of faith. That is why he sent Jesus, and caused the Church to grow. God wants to give us this gift of faith. It is more a question of how we receive it. How do we put ourselves in the right disposition to receive this great gift that God wants to share with us?
So let’s think about our faith? What is our own faith like? Is it big or small, or hidden? Do we sometime worry that it might not be their at all? I think that most of us experience faith as though we are a large plant pot full of mouldy black compost with a little accord hidden somewhere in the middle of it. And most of the time we are very aware of a lot of back and mouldy compost, which we might think of as doubt, and we hardly aware at all of the little acorn, which is, after all, very small. But that is not the whole story, because the acorn has the power to grow. And if it is looked after and watered and put in the sunlight then it will grow. And over time it will grow and grow and grow. And the roots can smash through the pot and grow down into the earth, and the whole thing can grow up into a great big oak tree. And after three hundred years people come along and say, “What a big and beautiful tree”. They don’t even think about the plant pot or the compost anymore. Perhaps some fragments of pot remain buried deep down among the roots somewhere, but they don’t matter anymore. We’re talking about an oak tree, not a plant pot.
So let’s think of ourselves as like the plant pot once again. We should not be too worried if there appears to be awful lot black mouldy compost – doubt – around. Growing up with doubt, in us and around us, is part of the Christian experience. Neither should we be too worried that the acorn – faith - seems very small, and may not even be visible. It may be small, but the important thing is that it is alive and it has the potential to grow.
[Now, an important aside. Although the acorn is small, we must identify ourselves with the acorn, because that is where the life is. The compost is dead and decaying. It is the acorn that has the long term future. So although our faith is small, and maybe hidden, we must live by it and allow it to guide our lives. We have to choose life. We have to live in our new self, not our old self, as St Paul says (Rom 6: 6, Eph 4: 22-24, I Col 3: 9-10). If we don’t choose life (the acorn) but instead choose to live by our doubt (the compost) then we are choosing rottenness and decay. There becomes a chance that the acorn will be overcome and will itself die and itself turn to compost. No, we have to choose life.]
Now in order to grow the acorn is completely dependent on sunlight and water. Without these things it can only die. In the same way our faith is completely dependent on God, on the presence of God in our lives and on our relationship with God. It was God who moved Lydia’s heart to believe. So, if our faith is so dependent on God, what can we do? How can we play our part? Do we just have to sit around and wait for God to act, or is there anything we can do? What is the contribution that we can make?
Well I think our gospel reading is very helpful here. Jesus says, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my father will love them, and will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14: 23). So keeping the word of Jesus is the key way to have God come and dwell with us. Just two verses earlier Jesus said something very similar, “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” So once again Jesus emphasises that the important thing that we need to do is to follow the commandments of Jesus, to live by his teaching. And if we do this then God will come to us, and Jesus will reveal himself to us, and in this way our faith can grow. And so what we need to try and so is set up a self-reinforcing cycle of growth for our faith. We follow the commandments of Jesus as best we can and try to live by his teaching, so God comes to us more and Jesus reveals himself to us more, so we understand his ways better follow his teaching with greater consistency and aptitude, so God comes to us even more, and Jesus reveals himself even more, and so we get even better at following his teaching…and so our faith grows and grows and becomes like a great oak tree, something really big and solid that we can depend on and that we see us through times of crisis and difficulty.
So our part is to follow the teaching of Jesus, to keep his word, to live by his commandments. And what is that teaching? What are those commandments? Well Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God, and the second commandment was to love our neighbour. Then at the last supper Jesus gave us a New Commandment which he described as his own (John 13: 34, 15: 12) to “love one another as I have loved you.” So following the teaching of Jesus is all about growing in love for others. This is our specific contribution. This is what we must do to make our faith grow. Amen.

Material from Institution Services

2010-05-05T18:30:00.000+01:00

On 5th May 2010 the Bishop of Birmingham instituted me as Rector of Baddesley Clinton and Lapworth. Here is some material from the two services of institution.

Lapworth - Symbols of Ministry

A bible is presented
Representative: Patrick, receive this bible. Be among us as one who preaches the Word,
All: Together, by God’s grace, may we know God’s Word and live by it

A chalice and paten is presented
Representative: Patrick, receive this chalice and paten. Preside among us at the Eucharist
All: Together, by God’s grace, may we grow in communion with Christ

A candle is presented
Representative: Patrick, receive this candle. Pray for us and for the whole community.
All: Together, by God’s grace, may we grow in prayer and in the knowledge of God

Water is presented
Representative: Patrick, receive this water. Be among us as one who baptises.
All: Together, by God’s grace, may we know the gifts we receive in baptism and bring them to fulfilment.

A white stole and a purple stole are presented
Representative: Patrick, Receive these stoles. Mark with us our weddings and our funerals, our joys and sorrows.
All: Together, by God’s grace, may we walk the journey of life and arrive safely at our heavenly home.

The oil of healing is presented
Representative: Patrick, receive this oil. Be among us as a priest of reconciliation, sharing God’s forgiveness and healing.
All: Together, by God’s grace, may we know our need of God and dwell in Christ’s peace.

A school governors’ manual is presented
Representative: Patrick, receive this school governors’ manual. Nurture our families and young people.
All: Together, by God’s grace, may we be blessed with children at our worship, and welcome them as Jesus did.

A church register is presented
Representative: Patrick, receive this church register. Help us to honour our past and to build our future.
All: Together, by God’s grace, may our community grow in love and reveal God’s plan.

Prayers for the Institution at Baddesley Clinton

Let us pray:

We give thanks before God today for this institution service.
We give thank for the Parish wardens, and for all who have worked for this moment in so many different ways. We thank God for the new relationship established today, between Parish and Rector. We pray for grace to live well in that new relationship so that church and parish may be strengthened.
Lord God, your apostles appointed presbyters in each church, and prayed over them with fasting and entrusted them to the Lord. We entrust to you this new ministry in Baddesley Clinton. May it always be enlightened by your Spirit, and exercised for your Glory. May your people be well served through it and the life of your church taken forward. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

We pray for this parish church, for all who worship here and for the church community. We pray for those to whom this community ministers, remembering the Parish, the local community, the National Trust House and all its visitors. We remember before God the village of Baddesley Clinton, and all who live there. Especially we remember the church of St Francis in the village and the Poor Clare Sisters.
Heavenly Father, your son Jesus taught us to love one another, as he loved us, giving his life for us. Help us to love each other in the daily life of this parish. Help us each to exercise our different roles for the good of the whole community. May the love we have for each other witness to Jesus who we follow, so that your glory may be revealed. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen

We give thanks for, and pray for all those who support this parish. We thank God for Mr John Walker, the Patron and we pray for him. We give thanks for Bishop David, praying for him, and for Andrew his chaplain, for their ministry and for the whole diocese. We pray for our Deanery, remembering especially at this time of change our outgoing and incoming Area Deans, both of them David.
Almighty God we praise you for the communion that we share with the church in heaven, with the saints, with St Michael our heavenly Patron and with all the angles. Train us, Lord, in your ways, that our earthly lives may reflect our heavenly calling. And at the last bring us together with your whole Church to the joys of the heavenly banquet, that all creation may give thanks and praise to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayers for the institution at Lapworth

Let us pray.

We give thanks before God today for our Parish and for this institution service.
We give thank for the churchwardens, and for all who have worked for this moment in so many different ways. We thank God for the new relationship, between Parish and Rector, established today. We pray for grace to live well in that new relationship so that the body of Christ may be built up and so that we may come to the maturity of the full stature of Christ.
Lord Jesus Christ, by the measure of your grace each of us has received gifts, that the church may be equipped for ministry. Look on us today, as a new Rector is instituted. We thank you for the gifts received. May we speak the truth in love. May we grow in every way into you, our head. And may we each use our gifts so that the whole body of the church can be built up in love. In your name we pray. Amen

We pray for this parish church. We give thanks for its beauty and its beautiful location. We pray for all who worship here and for the whole church community. We remember before God those to whom this community ministers, thinking especially of the village of Lapworth, the church school, and the many local clubs and societies. We pray for the Lees chapel and for the Coptic church and for the whole of our community.
Heavenly Father, your son Jesus taught us to love one another, as he loved us, giving his life for us. Help us to love each other in the daily life of this parish. Help us each to use our different gifts for the good of the whole community. May the love we have for each other witness to Jesus who we follow, so that your glory may be revealed. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen

We give thanks for, and pray for all those who support this parish. We thank God for Merton College Oxford, the Patron. We pray for Fr Simon, the chaplain, and his ministry in that college. We give thanks for Bishop David, praying for him, and for Andrew his chaplain, for their ministry and for the whole diocese. We pray for our Deanery, remembering especially at this time of change our outgoing and incoming Area Deans, both of them David.
Almighty God we praise you for the communion that we share with the church in heaven, with Mary the Virgin, our heavenly Patron and with all the angles and saints. Train us, Lord, in your ways, that our earthly lives may reflect our heavenly calling. And at the last bring us together with your whole Church to the joys of the heavenly banquet, that all creation may give thanks and praise to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Moving on...

2010-04-05T12:03:00.003+01:00

I have a new appointment. I am to be Rector of Baddesley Clinton and Lapworth. These are two small parishes on the South Eastern edge of the Diocese of Birmingham, Church of England. Easter Sunday was my last Sunday in the Parish of Solihull. My family and I are very grateful for the many good wishes and gifts we received and the good send-off. We move house in Easter Week. The Bishop of Birmingham is coming to perform the institution services at Baddesley Clinton and Lapworth on 5th May 2010.
So I don't need to prepare another sermon until the 9th May!

The Resurrection of Christ - working out the implications

2010-04-04T11:00:00.001+01:00

Sermon preached at 11am Eucharist on 4th April 2010 at St Alphege Church, Solihull. A shorter version of this sermon was also preached at the 8am Eucharist.

Easter Day – Year C
Readings: Acts 10: 34-43 1 Corinthians 15: 19-26] Luke 24: 1-12

I was born into a clergy family in Yorkshire. And it was not just my Dad who was a clergyman; my Grandad, Great-grandad and many other family members were also clergy. Perhaps because of this older people in my Dad’s congregation would ask me, “And are you going to follow in your father’s footsteps?” As a little boy I found this a very strange question and I always said “No!”. As I got older I became clearer about this “No”. It seemed to me that our family was so deeply involved in the life of the church that it had lost it perspective on what the church looked liked from the outside. It no longer understood quite why the church was relevant or what it offered to wider society. A more detached perspective was required. I thought my uncle had a good model. He was not ordained and worked in a bank. He was involved in his local parish church and was PCC treasurer. This pattern of involvement in church life as a lay-man seemed good to me. As I married Elaine, and as children came along this was the model we lived to very happily for many years.
Then, although I did not understand it at the time, things started to change in the second half of 1999. The first thing was a new curate at St James in Shirley, where we worshipped. I was very impressed by Peter Babington (now incumbent in Bournville) who was young, in touch, spiritual and had much that was very useful to say to the church. Later however, as I got to know him better, I discovered that he was from an extraordinary clergy family. He was something like the 13 generation in an unbroken line of clergy stretching back to Elizabethan times. I realised that it was possible to come from a strong clergy family and has something relevant to say to the church!
The next thing was a Remembrance Sunday service that both Elaine and I were involved in. After that Elaine asked me when I would be ordained, but I just laughed it off because I felt no sense of called, and without a calling the idea was ridiculous.
The, just before Christmas 1999 I had a dream, which suddenly, for me, was a clear sense of calling. Suddenly it was clear that this was what God wanted from me. The route to heaven that God wanted me to walk, was the route of ordained ministry. This was quite a surprise, but I welcomed it and felt very securely at peace, despite certain negative feelings that I had, for example about the financial implications.
Anyway that sense of call lead to something of a change of direction. It led to a period of discernment with the Church or England which seemed to say “Yes” and then “No” and then “Yes” again. It led to training, to ordination and then to this curacy, for which I am so grateful.
But the reason for telling you this story is to illustrate the point that God’s purposes are worked out of time, and very often we do not see or understand quite what God is doing or why. It takes time for us to understand and take on board what God is up to. The full implications of the work of God take even longer to work out. And I think that this is particularly true of the great and extraordinary work of God that we remember today; the resurrection of Jesus.
I am always struck by the great contrast between the joyful and confident celebration of Easter, which we proclaim in our church liturgies on Easter Morning and the far more delicate and unresolved emotions that we read about in our gospel accounts of the resurrection of Christ. We start our Easter services by saying, “Christ is risen – he is risen indeed! Alleluia.” But in the gospel account that we read from St Luke this morning the women who encountered the empty tomb were described as “perplexed”, “terrified” and “bowed to the ground”. The women’s story was considered an “idle tale” by the apostles. The nearest the women get to a positive affirmation of the resurrection is remembering the words of Jesus, that he would rise again on the third day. The closest that the apostles get is Peter’s amazement at what has happened when he sees the tomb.
In Luke’s account we have to read on to the evening of the first day of the week before there is any clear communal understanding that Jesus is risen. And it is not until Jesus has appeared in the midst of them all and has scolded them for their unbelief, that we arrive at the feeling of joy which is the great mark of Easter. It is clear that our Easter liturgies in church skip rapidly over, what was for the women and for the apostles a rather a difficult day of confusion, realisation and acceptance, before finally developing into a moment of profound joy when they met the risen Christ.
And it seems that it took a long time for the church to work out all the full implications of Jesus’ resurrection. Our reading from Acts shows another great moment of realisation. Peter realises that the salvation that comes from the resurrection of Jesus is not just for the Jews, but for all people who fear God and who do what is right. And even today we might think of the church as continuing to discover, and live out further the full implications of the resurrection of Jesus.
But this process of working out the implications of the resurrection is not just for the whole church. It is also for smaller Christian communities, for parishes, for families and for individual Christians. We, each of us, are engaged on a journey of discovery in which we slowly grow in our understanding and knowledge of God. Gradually we understand the resurrection more, and gradually we base our lives more and more securely upon it.
So what can we do to help ourselves with this process? How can we better understand the implications of the resurrection and come to live them out better in our day to day lives? Well, two thoughts come to mind.
Firstly it seems to me that to properly live out the implications of the resurrection we first need to live well our Good Friday moments. And we get an opportunity to do this in each of the many sufferings, small and large, which cross our path in our day to day life? Every time something hurts us, or disappoints us or leaves us feeling let down. These events give us the opportunity to share sufferings with Christ; to see in our sufferings a connection with the great suffering of Christ of on the cross. And like Christ on the cross we try to continuing to love and forgive through the suffering, and to continue to trust in God. It is by sharing sufferings with Christ that we also come to share in his resurrection life. And this is a journey of discovery does take time and has it confusing and perplexing moments. But the journey leads to the risen Christ, and with him everything becomes clear and real joy is shared.
Then the second thought is that it is presence of the risen Christ that makes the difference. The disciples may have been told that Jesus was risen, but really it only started to make sense once they had met the risen Christ. And we can think of an apostle like Thomas, for who that encounter was delayed, and belief was delayed. So it is crucial that we put ourselves into environments where we encounter the risen Jesus. It is important to gather in church, in the name of Christ, so that Christ will be present among us. It is important to encounter Christ in the word proclaimed, in the scriptures. We need to meet with Christ present in the Eucharist and be nourished by him. In all these ways we encounter Christ and it is Christ who helps us to understand and work out for ourselves the implications of his resurrection.

Passiontide

2010-03-21T10:00:00.000Z

Preached at St Helen’s Church, Solihull at 10am Eucharist on Sunday 21st March 2010.
A shorter version of this sermon was also preached at the 8am Eucharist at St Alphege.

Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year C – Passion Sunday

Readings: Isaiah 43: 15-21 Philippians 3: 4b-14 John 12: 1-8

Today we enter Passiontide, and we start our slow build up towards the key days of our Lent and Easter observances. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week. Then later that week we remember the all important days; Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Day.
Every year in the Church we repeat the great rituals of Holy Week to remind ourselves of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is the central story of the Christian faith, and this annual remembrance helps us enter into the story ourselves and make it our own. And it is this entering into the story ourselves which I think is the key point. Our Holy Week rituals and liturgies help us to draw close to Jesus in his passion, death and resurrection. We are seeking to participate with Jesus in his experience, so that it becomes part of our lives, part of our own story. And ultimately this changes everything, we are converted, everything is transformed within us.
No we can’t pretend that drawing close to Jesus in his passion and death is an easy or enjoyable thing to do. It might even seem un-natural. It is easy to think, “I don’t want to participate in this story. The passion and death of Jesus is all about violence, pain and death. It is horrible and I don’t want to get involved with it!” We all feel the desire to minimise suffering and avoid death, and there is something very natural and human about that. But this is not what Christianity is about. Christianity is absolutely about the death and resurrection of Christ. We are baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection (Romans 6). At every Eucharist we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11: 26). And we do this because of the resurrection. We do it because Christ’s life is stronger than death, Christ’s love overcomes hated, hope in Christ overcomes fear. So in Christianity we are not afraid to engage constructively with suffering, pain and death because we place our hope in the resurrection of Jesus.
Let’s think about what Paul had to say about this in the reading from his letter to the Philippians, which we heard today. Paul has come to value Christ so highly that all the good things he had before (all the things for which many people probably envied him!) no longer count for anything. He says, “I have suffered the loss of all things, and regard them as rubbish, in order that I might gain Christ.” Knowing Christ is like the precious pearl. You know the parable; a man finds a pearl of extraordinary value, and he sells everything he has in order to buy the pearl, because he recognises the unsurpassed value that it has.
Then Paul says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I might attain the resurrection of the dead.” Paul wants to share in the sufferings of Christ because, somehow, it draws him into the resurrection of Christ.
And this is the invitation to us too, to share in the sufferings of Christ so as to share in his resurrection. And how do we do that? Well, I believe we have an opportunity to do that every time a suffering crosses our path. Perhaps someone is rude to us and we feel hurt? Perhaps we are hurt by something we’ve seen on the telly; the victims of an earthquake, or an unjust situation? Perhaps we are mindful of our own sin and inadequacies? Perhaps we have been put in a difficult situation at work? Perhaps we face a major suffering; a serious illness, a bereavement or death? Spiritual experts suggest that when we face a suffering, any kind of suffering, we can pray “Jesus, help me to see you, the crucified Christ, in this small suffering of mine. Help me to love you in your great suffering, through this small suffering of mine.” And by sharing sufferings with the crucified Christ in this way we find, somehow, that the risen Christ shares his resurrection life with us. And this has immense value. This is the precious pearl.
Once again, we can’t pretend that this is easy. It requires a very mature Christian attitude, and the support of other Christians who understand it. But I have to say that, in so far as I have managed to live it, I have found it to be profoundly true and immensely helpful. My moments of suffering and loss have, in the end, been precisely the moments which have led me deeper into Christ. And there has been renewal and new life and a realisation that my Christianity stands on a foundation much deeper and firmer and stronger than I ever imagined. And as I repeat this experience more often, I start to have more and more confidence in it. I start to really trust in it, and I realise that no human problem can really threaten Christianity, because Christ, through his cross has already conquered the world.
So how can we make a start on this experience? How can we get going? Well Passiontide and Holy Week is a real opportunity. Let’s use our church services to draw close to Christ as he passes through his passion and death and onto resurrection life. Also at St Helen’s this year we are setting up a Holy Week Meditation in the St Helen’s chapel, a little like the labyrinth of previous years. Let’s all come and spend time at that mediation, to draw close to Christ in passion, death and resurrection. And then, thirdly, let’s make use of the big and small sufferings of our everyday lives, and find in them as a precious link to the great suffering of Christ on the cross, who we need to love.
And by sharing with Christ in his sufferings, like St Paul, we somehow(!) receive a sharing in his resurrection life. And this is the pearl of great price, so precious that everything else starts to appear worthless.

Teaching Sermon - Easter Triduum - Good Friday

2010-03-07T09:15:00.000Z

Sermon preached at 9.15am and 11am Eucharists in St Alphege Church, Solihull
Third Sunday of Lent – Year C

Teaching Eucharist – The Easter Triduum – Good Friday

This Lent we have a series of teaching Eucharists which aim to help us to grow in our appreciation of the really important liturgies (church services) of Holy Week. Fr Patrick talked about Palm Sunday, and then last week Fr Tim started to talk about the Triduum, the three big services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Eve. He spoke about Maundy Thursday. This week I am talking about Good Friday. But it is important to remember that these three liturgies hang together, like one Triduum liturgy in three separate parts.
And through these liturgies we seek to draw close to Jesus as he walks through the extraordinary events of his passion death and resurrection. The key word here is participation. By talking part in these liturgies we try to share with Jesus in the experience of his passion, death and resurrection. We try to enter into that experience of Jesus so that it becomes part of our lives, part of our own story. And ultimately this changes everything, we are converted, everything is turned round, and we start trying to live our own lives as part of the life of Jesus, as part of the body of Christ, the Church.
Now someone might object; “But I don’t want to participate in this story, especially not on Good Friday. The crucifixion is about violence and pain and death. It is horrible and I don’t want anything to do with it!
Well I think this is a mainstream way of thinking in the society in which we live. Certainly we all feel the desire to minimise and avoid suffering, but this is not Christianity. Christianity is absolutely about the death and resurrection of Christ. We are baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection (Romans 6). At every Eucharist we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11: 26). And we do this because of the resurrection. The good news is that Christ life is stronger than death, Christ’s love overcomes hated, hope in Christ overcomes fear. So in the church we are not afraid to engage with suffering and death, because precisely these events of Holy Week that we re-enact in the Triduum. Precisely through this experience, Jesus has shown us how to make suffering and death the gateway to forgiveness, restoration and eternal life.
So through the Good Friday liturgy we are seeking to participate with Christ in his death. And it is devastating! Everything falls apart. Everything is torn away. The liturgy is stark and shocking. The church is stripped bare before it even starts. And then right at the start there is another powerful symbol of devastation. The service starts in complete silence. Let’s watch a clip of that, in silence and then discuss it.
[video clip – 40 seconds]
So what happened there? [Priests prostrate before the altar]
And what does this express? [abasement, dependence on God, shock, our fallenness, devastation]
So the Good Friday liturgy starts in this way and then we have the collect, or opening prayer. And that is the end of the Gathering rite.
And why is the gathering rite so brief and minimalist? [Continuation of yesterday]
After the Gathering Rite we have the ministry of the word. And this is dominated by the reading of the passion from John’s gospel. We always read John’s passion of Good Friday. On Palm Sunday we read one of the passion narratives of Matthew, Mark or Luke in a three year cycle.
And reading the passion narrative is a powerful reminder of the story. And to help us to enter into the story we start standing for the final part, and when we reach the moment of Jesus’ death we all bow or kneel.
In this church we have a homily and the special Good Friday intercessions. Then we come to the veneration of the cross. Now I have another video clip here of the cross arriving and the start of the veneration of the cross, so let’s watch this.
[video clip – 1 minute 20 seconds]
Now first of all I would like to talk about the music. We just heard the choir beginning the singing “The Reproaches”. Now these reproaches are a very ancient Good Friday text. They are words that Jesus could have said from the cross, “My people, my people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me?” And Jesus asks this question many times, and he intersperses it with all the good things that Jesus has done for his people, and the evil with which we have repaid him. And of course there is no answer that can be made. It is clear that we are sinners, and our sin has driven Christ to the cross, Christ who has done nothing but good for us. There is no answer that can be made, and the cumulative effect of listening to all these reproaches is, once again, devastating.
Now what about veneration of the cross? What are we doing? Well we all get the opportunity to come forward and stand before the cross. And once again the liturgy is stark and shocking. We place ourselves right in front of the image of the crucified Christ, and there is no escape. There is no proper response that can be made. Many of us choose to bow, or to kiss the cross, or even kiss the feet of the image of Christ on the cross. And why do we do this? Well, through our little carved image of Christ on the cross we seek to honour and adore Christ. And we honour and adore him precisely in the moment of his great sacrifice for us, the sacrifice that takes away our sins and restores us into fellowship with God. This is the moment when Jesus looks least lovable; his is broken and disfigured by our sins. Yet this is the moment when he wins our salvation, this is precisely the moment when we are called to love him most.
So now we come to the final part of the Good Friday liturgy when we receive Holy Communion. We don’t normally celebrate a Eucharist on Good Friday, because a Eucharist is an act of celebration, and Good Friday is the most solemn and sombre of days. However we do receive communion from the reserved sacrament which we laid to rest on the altar of repose on Maundy Thursday. And there is a very solemn ritual that we re-enact here. We take Christ, present in the consecrated bread and wine, up from the garden of repose, which represents the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went after the last supper, and we carry Him with great reverence up to the high altar, which reminds us of altar in the temple of Jerusalem; the place of sacrifice. And as we make this journey we can think of Jesus being led around after his arrest; first to Annas, then to Caiaphas, then to Pilate then to be flogged, then led out carrying his cross to be crucified at Golgotha. So let’s just watch a short video clip now of that solemn procession.
[video clip – 35 seconds]
And once we have all received communion that is more or less the end of the Good Friday liturgy. There is a brief prayer after communion and a blessing but not proper dismissal. Rather we all slip out in silence and we return for the last part of the Triduum liturgy of Easter Eve.
So that is Good Friday Liturgy. And I want to end by summarising a few of the key points:
• The Good Friday liturgy is the middle part of the Triduum. It depends on Maundy Thursday which comes before it and on Easter Eve, which comes after.
• The Good Friday liturgy is a stark and shocking liturgy. It brings us face to face with the sacrifice of Christ; the consequences of our sin. The prostration of the priests is a symbol of this.
• We read the story of the passion from John’s Gospel
• We venerate the cross, honouring Christ in the moment of his great sacrifice for us
• We receive Holy Communion, once again drawing us close to Christ in his sacrifice.
And we do all this to walk with Christ through his passion and death, knowing that this leads us on to his resurrection and renewal. And we seek to make this pattern of death and resurrection the pattern for our lives, so that everything can speak of resurrection and renewal. Amen.

Funeral homily - Jesus calms the storm

2010-03-01T12:00:00.000Z

Scripture Reading - Mark 4: 35-41
On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

The story that we have just read might have appealed to ??????, with his love of the sea and of boats. And it tells us of a remarkable event, when Jesus and his companions in their boat were threatened by a storm in the Sea of Galilee. Jesus told the wind and the sea to be calm, the storm calmed, the boat was safe and all was well. But the disciples were amazed…”Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?”
For the first century citizens of Palestine, storms at sea were symbolic of all the uncontrollable dark forces that can suddenly take hold of our life, disturb it, damage it or even destroy it. Some of these dark forces come from within us; an illness, an uncontrollable anger or desire. Some of these dark and disturbing forces come from outside us: accidents, aggressive neighbours, foreign armies (nowadays we would say terrorism). So Jesus calming the storm, significant as it was in itself, also had great symbolic importance. It symbolised Jesus’ command over all the dark forces that affect human life.
At funerals we are forced to contemplate the greatest dark force of them all: death. We know that death comes to us all. We might have success in avoiding it or postponing it, but ultimately we must succumb to its dark and mysterious power. And this was true, even of Jesus, who died a most terrible death, nailed to a cross. And for a few long hours it seemed that death had won, that there were dark powers that Jesus could not overcome. But then, on the third day, the resurrection was revealed. It became clear that Jesus had passed through death and was alive once more. What is more his body was renewed; still human and solid and real, and still bearing its wounds and capable of eating, but renewed and rejuvenated and no longer subject to death and decay.
But above all what was revealed was the opportunity for each of us to share with Jesus in this passage through death to eternal life. We, all of us, must pass through death, but we, all of us, are called to pass through it with Jesus, and to inherit eternal life.
And our baptism is important here. When we are baptised we are baptised into Christ’s death and into his resurrection. By staying close to Jesus, and follow in his ways, we can be confident through Jesus we too can overcome the dark power of death and rise to new life with him. Amen.

Becoming citizens of heaven

2010-02-28T08:00:00.000Z

Sermon preached at 8am (shortened), and 10am Eucharists at St Helen’s Church, Solihull
Sunday 28th February 2010 – Lent 2, Year C (RCL rather than CofE gospel)

Readings: Genesis 15: 1-12 & 17-18 Philippians 3: 17 to 4: 1 Luke 9: 28b-36

In our gospel reading today we heard the extraordinary story of the transfiguration. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain to pray, and while they are praying Jesus becomes dazzlingly bright and Moses and Elijah appear with him in glory and talk to him. So then there are two groups, each of three people, and it seems that the two groups experience the event in completely different ways. For Jesus, Moses and Elijah this seems to be a very normal experience. They seem to talk away completely unperturbed by the shining glory, or by the fact that two of them have been dead for centuries. But for Peter, James and John the whole experience is extremely weird and disturbing. First they are weighed down by sleep, but not actually asleep. Then Peter says things without knowing what he is saying. Then the cloud comes over them and they are terrified, and they hear the voice of God, and then suddenly everything is normal again.
So why is that for one group of three this all seems very normal, and for the other group of three it is so weird? Well it seems to me that Jesus, Moses and Elijah are all very conscious of their home in heaven. Moses and Elijah were very holy people. They have been dead a long time and must by now be completely accustomed to the heavenly kingdom and totally in tune with its ways. And Jesus of course is the Son of God, the one who came down from heaven to take on human form. Jesus has been completely at home in heaven ever since he helped in its creation!
But this is not true of Peter, James and John. They are born and brought up on earth. They might catch glimpses of the life of heaven through their scriptures or their worship or more recently through their relationship with Jesus. But despite these glimpses it is still a big shock for them to be exposed to the glory of heaven.
And so there is the life of earth with all its problems and limitations and frustrations, which we know about, and there is the life of heaven with its glory and light and perfection. And this reminds us of something that St Paul said in our epistle reading today. Paul was talking about those who live as enemies of the cross of Christ. He says their end is destruction because, “…their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven…”
And this is the great challenge. How do we live as citizens of heaven? How do we keep our minds set on heaven and not simply on earthly things? How do we use our lives to make sure that we grow into good citizens of heaven? This is a challenge because we all know that so much of our time and effort and energy every day is all tied up with very earthly outcomes.
[Let’s think about a typical day. Well in our house the alarm goes off at 6.45am and the first earthly outcome which has to be achieved is getting out of bed. Well that isn’t always easy! Then there is laying the table, making the tea, shower, shave, sorting out all the children’s issues “Can you sign my homework diary”, “I can’t find my music book”. Then, typically at about ten to eight Elaine and the children go off to their respective schools in the car and the house falls quiet. Quiet often I then manage to settle down and do some very simple spiritual reading, which does remind me that my citizenship is in heaven. But I don’t always manage that by any means! Often I have my own daily panics to sot out, the magazine article that must be in that morning, the phone call which has to be made early, or whatever…so quite often it is 8.30pm or even later before I settle down and start to say my prayers. And that is the situation for me, a priest, a full time professional religious person! How much more difficult is it for most of us whose professional lives do not encourage us to remember our heavenly home, and perhaps even discourage us from focusing on it through competitive pressures, through various stresses, perhaps even through greed, conflict or vice?]
Well I think there are three things we can do that are important here. First, we have to practice living out the laws and values of heaven in our very earthly lives. We have to do things for love of God and for love of other people. I try to get out of bed well, as an act of love for God. I try to love the family by laying the table and addressing the needs of the children. I try to love my wife by making the cup of tea. This is the great wisdom of St Teresa of Lisieux; do the simple things in life well, as love for God and love for others. [[And it doesn’t really matter if our efforts seem pathetically ineffective in terms of building the kingdom of God. Remember that when Jesus came to earth to build the kingdom of God, he got crucified. When I was working I used to find that my efforts to love others were often misunderstood; people sometimes interpreted them as weakness or tried to take advantage. I certainly never succeeded much in building the kingdom of heaven at my place of work, but through this process I believe God was able to build something of the kingdom in me.]]
Second important thing. We need a regular pattern of prayer and worship to remind us that we are citizens of heaven and to keep us grounded in the reality of God. When I look back at my life, the times when I have made progress son my spiritual journey have all been times when I have managed to sustain a regular pattern of prayer or spiritual reading, meditation and reflection. And this is so hard, in our busy lives, to make time for God. But really we have to get our priorities right. I expect many of us set aside two minutes a day, twice a day, to clean our teeth and keep them healthy because we know that we need them for seventy, eighty years. How much more time should we devote to keeping our soul healthy, which we need for eternity? Lent is a real opportunity to build up this discipline in prayer and worship.
Third important thing. We can’t do this on our own. We need the love and support and prayers and help of others. The life of heaven is all about our relationships with God and neighbour. They have to become relationships of sharing in which we give and receive. Sometimes we are too selfish to give. Sometimes we are too proud to receive, not humble enough to admit our needs and to accept the love and prayers of others. But without this sharing we don’t build communion among ourselves. We need to practice receiving, so as to receive eternal life from Jesus. So we need to share our faith, and house groups and Lent groups are an outstanding opportunity for this.
So three important things; to practice living out the values of heaven in our lives, to ground ourselves properly in prayer and worship, and to do these things together with others not on our own. These are three top tips for becoming citizens of heaven. My we all become good sharers in the eternal life of heaven. Amen.

The light for the nations

2010-02-14T08:00:00.000Z

Short sermon preached at 8am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull on 14th February 2010.
The sermon was also preached at St Michael’s, Oak Cottage, Solihull at 4pm that day.
Sunday next before Lent

Readings 1 Kings 8: 22-23 & 41-43 Galatians 1: 1-12 Luke 7: 1b-10
(RCL alternative to the normal CofE readings)

Our first reading today comes from one of the real high points in the history of Israel. King Solomon, the wise and wealthy king, is dedicating the new temple that he has built for God in Jerusalem. No expense has been spared! The temple is huge and richly decorated. The priests have moved the ark of God into the inner sanctuary of the temple, and the glory of God has filled the temple, like a great cloud. And King Solomon is standing before the altar of the Lord in the temple and he makes a great, long prayer dedicating the temple to God, and we read just a short part of that prayer of dedication today.
But the part of the prayer that we read was particularly interesting because it tells us that the temple in Jerusalem was built not just to aid the prayers of the nation of Israel but to aid the prayers of foreigners, as well! And this is very significant. Most of the Old Testament is about God’s covenant with his chosen people Israel. But every now and again, especially at key moments like this one, there are very clear reminders that God’s covenant with Israel is not solely for the benefit of Israel, but ultimately it is for the for benefit of the whole world (e.g. Genesis 12: 2-3, 18: 18, 22: 17-18, 26: 3-5, 28: 13-14 and Isaiah 40: 5, 42: 1-9, 45: 22-25, 49: 5-6, 51: 4-5, 52: 10).
And we see this same thing in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus is born and brought up as a Jew. Simeon in the temple foresaw that the baby Jesus was the “light for revelation to the gentiles” (Luke 2: 32), but much of the time Jesus clearly focused his mission on the people of Israel (e.g. Matt 10: 5-6, 15: 24). But then there are several remarkable moments, like the one in our gospel reading today, when the generosity of Jesus spontaneous pours out over people beyond the Jewish nation.
In our gospel reading we heard that Jesus was profoundly moved by the faith that he found in the centurion. Of course, the centurion was not a Jew, and as an official of the Roman Army he might easily be thought of as an enemy of the Jews, but Jesus did not hesitate to cure the centurion’s servant. He even presented the faith of the centurion as an example to Israel. There was never any suggestion that the centurion should become a Jew.
Those hints in the Old Testament that God will bless all the nations of the earth through Israel do eventually find their fulfilment in Jesus. The religion that Jesus establishes becomes a universal religion. Christianity is for all people. Everyone is called to become part of the church. Rich and poor, young and old, saints and sinners; all called.
But I think it is very helpful for us, in the Church, to reflect on the generosity of Jesus and of his love pouring out upon people beyond the nation of Israel. In the same way we have to pour out love from the Church into the world, even into the non-Christian parts of the world. In our daily lives we probably encounter many people who are nominally Christian, but who seem to have minimal relationship with the church, and may not even be baptised. We probably encounter people from other faiths beyond Christianity, and people who say they have no faith at all, who might even be hostile to faith. These people are to us what the centurion was to Jesus. Like Jesus we need to reach out to them all, to work for their good. We need to help them and serve them in all their good aspirations and to build relationships of trust with them. We need to see God’s good creation in them, and help them to see the good that we share. It’s about a having generous attitude and a willingness to give.
And it seems to me that just as the love of Jesus spilling out beyond Judaism lead to the creation of a new, bigger and broader “People of God”, so too our love spilling out beyond the visible boundaries of the Church will somehow lead to a bigger and fuller salvation. In this way the gospel really becomes “Good News” for all the world, the Church really does become the light for the nations. Amen.

Living out the Word of God

2010-02-07T08:00:00.000Z

Short sermon preached at the 8am Eucharist at St Helen’s Church, Solihull
Sunday Second before Lent, RCL readings:

Isaiah 55: 10-13 1 Corinthians 15: 51-58 Luke 6: 39-49

Our readings today include two important similes help us to understand the Word of God and the effects that it has.
First of all we had the beautiful image from Isaiah of God’s Word being like the rain. In the water cycle the rain falls from the sky and eventually it returns to the sky, by evaporation. But this does not happen without the rain watering the earth, so that plants sprout and our food grows. God says that in the same way his Word (and we think of God’s word as God’s message, especially in the coming of Jesus) goes out from God and returns to God, but this does not happen without the Word accomplishing the purposes of God and succeeding in the thing for which God sent him. And just as the rain gives life to plants and makes them grow, so Jesus brings life, eternal life to us, and makes it grow within us. Thanks be to God!
Then in our gospel reading Jesus emphasises the importance of living in accordance with his teaching, his word. He complains that we cry to him “Lord, Lord” but don’t do the things he tells us. He tells us the parable of the house built on rock and the house built on sand to show how his teaching provides a firm foundation for our lives. It is the solid rock on which we can build. Looking from the outside, focusing on the external appearances only, they probably does not seem to be much difference between the house built on rock and the one built on sand. But when the flood rises and the river bursts against them then the crisis separates what is enduring and true from what is transitory and passing.
So the words of Jesus are the secure foundations for our lives and the word of God is like the rain that allows plants to grow. So we must nurture ourselves on the word of God and allow eternal life to grow within us. It is not enough just listen to the word of God, or just read the bible, we have to put the teaching of Jesus into practice in our everyday lives. Now sometimes we struggle to link the teaching of Jesus with our everyday lives. After all Jesus did not leave clear instructions about how often we should vacuum the carpet or the best route for getting to the office in the morning, but Jesus did teach us to love. He taught us to love everyone, even the very least in society, not excluding anyone (Matt 25: 40). He taught us to love even our enemies (Matt 5: 44). He taught us to be the first to love, not waiting for the others to love us, but rather taking the initiative in love (Matt 5:46). And I think when people think about love they sometimes think about pink fluffy bunnies or a liberal sprinkling of rose petals. But these are not helpful images in helping us understand what love is all about. A better image is Jesus on the cross, dying because he has given everything for his brothers and sisters. Another image is the good shepherd, searching after the lost sheep. Another image is the father running to meet the prodigal son and forgiving him. Another image is Gandhi, seeking the good of the British, whilst insisting on Indian independence. Love is about seeking the good of the other, it is about wanting to share the life of heaven with the other person. It is about giving time, attention and resources to help the other. It is about nurture, and patience and gentleness, all the things described in 1 Corinthians 13.
So as we try to put the word of God into practice in our everyday lives, the key opportunities occur every time we encounter another person; every time someone is standing or sitting near us. What is our attitude to that person? Do we ignore them or resent them or experience them as a threat? Do we want their good, seek to help them, serve them, listen to them? It’s a real challenge, but practicing love helps us to grow in love. This is how we grow into eternal life, like plants watered by the rain. This is how we build our lives on firm foundations; foundations that will withstand even the great crisis of death. Let’s pray for the grace to practice and grow in love. Amen.

Christ and the temple in Jerusalem

2010-01-31T18:30:00.001Z

Sermon for Coral Evensong at St Alphege Church
6.30pm on Sunday 31st January 2010 – Epiphany 4
(Presentation of Christ in the Temple)

Readings: Psalm 122 Haggai 2: 1-9 John 2: 18-22

Our psalm today, and both of our scripture readings concern Jerusalem and especially the temple in Jerusalem. The temple also features strongly in the Presentation of Christ which we remember today. So I thought it might be useful to use this sermon to reflect on the temple and on its history in particular.
Israel first got seriously involved with Jerusalem round about 1000BC when King David, seemingly against all odds, captured the stronghold of Mount Zion from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5). David started to build a town there called the City of David, and he established it as the capital city of Israel. God granted David many military successes and his kingdom grew bigger and stronger. The City of David grew down the hill into Jerusalem. There was a particularly significant moment ( 2 Samuel 6) when David brought into Jerusalem the ark of God, which Moses had made during the exodus. This was a moment of great rejoicing because the ark represented the presence of God, and the people were delighted to have God present with them in Jerusalem.
The ark of God lived in a tent in Jerusalem, just as it had done in the wilderness, in time of Moses. But David was keen to build a house for the Lord to live in (2 Samuel 7, Ps 132) but the Lord spoke to David through the prophet Nathan. He said “No, you David are not to build me a house; your son will do that. But rather I the Lord will make you David into a house. I shall raise up from your offspring one who will have an everlasting kingdom, your throne will be established for ever.” Of course we think of these words being fulfilled in the birth of Jesus.
So King David never built the temple in Jerusalem, but his son Solomon did (1 Kings 6). With the wise King Solomon at the helm the kingdom is Israel really flourished. Solomon became extremely wealthily, and he spared no expense in the construction of the temple. Solomon’s temple was huge and incredibly richly decorated. There was another profoundly significant moment (1 Kings 8) when the temple had been completed. Solomon told the priests to move the Ark of God into the temple. The priests moved it, complete with its tent and all its artefacts into the inner sanctuary of the temple. And a cloud filled the temple and the glory of the Lord filled the house, and the priests could not even stand to minister there. Solomon made a long prayer dedicating the temple to the Lord, and the Lord appeared to Solomon saying, “I have consecrated this house that you have built and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time” (1 Kings 9: 3). So it was that the Lord established the temple of Jerusalem as his resting place for ever (Ps 132: 13-14).
The temple became the central to the Jewish religion. Three or four times each year the Jews would all travel up to Jerusalem to celebrate the big religious festivals. Jerusalem is about 700m above sea level, so you do literally go up to Jerusalem. And this is the experience that Psalm 122 speaks of. There is some religious festival and with great gladness the tribes of Israel all go up to Jerusalem, to the seat of the house of David. And then they enter the temple, the house of the Lord, to witness to their identity as the people of Israel, God’s chosen nation.
King Solomon’s reign was Israel’s golden age as a wealthy and powerful independent state. Towards the end of Solomon’s reign, however, and in the centuries that followed, there were persistent problems with kings and people straying from God. The kingdom became divided, and the northern Kingdom was lost to the Assyrians. However the most terrible shock came 597 BC when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem. Then, about ten years later, the unthinkable happened. The Babylonians utterly destroyed Jerusalem and the temple with it. They take most of the educated Judeans away into exile, and caused the rest of the people to flee, many of them to Samaria.
The exile was a grim period for the Judeans, but it suddenly ended in about 535 BC when the Persians conquered the Babylonians. The Jews were encouraged to go back to Jerusalem, and little by little they go back, rebuilding first the city walls, then the houses and finally, encouraged by the prophet Haggai, they rebuild the temple itself. Our first reading came from this period in the history of the temple. The rebuilt temple seems to be but a poor shadow of the temple of Solomon, but through Haggai God tells the people not to be discouraged. God will shale the nations so that their treasure will come to the temple and make it rich once more. Its new splendour will be greater than the splendour it had of old.
Over the centuries that followed the Jews continue to invest in the temple. In particular, in the thirty years or so before the birth of Jesus, King Herod the Great greatly increased the size and splendour of the temple. Herod was a puppet king, ruling the Jews under the auspices of the Roman Empire. His collaboration with Rome meant he was always under pressure from the Jews to prove his Jewish credentials, and he sought to do this by investing in the temple. By the time of Jesus the second temple was bigger and grander than ever; the glory of Solomon’s temple really had been surpassed.
This morning in church we celebrated the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. Malachi’s prophecies about the Lord suddenly coming to his temple came to fulfilment. We heard the words of Simeon, which we always have at evensong in the Nunc Dimittis. Simeon described Jesus as light … and the glory of his people Israel. It seems like a reminder of the glory of God which filled the temple at its dedication by Solomon.
Jesus has an interesting relationship with the temple. As a 12 year old his parents lose him there, but he describes it as his Father’s house. Later in his ministry he spends a lot of time there and often preaches there. He appears to resent paying the temple tax because he knows that as “Son of God” the temple exists for him (Matt 17: 24ff). The passage of scripture that we heard in our second reading today comes just after the moment when Jesus drove the traders out the temple, upsetting the tables of the moneychangers. The Jews question his authority for this, and ask for a sign. Jesus says he will “destroy this temple and in three days raise it up”. This makes no sense to the Jews who know that building the temple is a long slow business, but of course Jesus is speaking of his own body; the crucifixion and resurrection.
This link that Jesus makes between his own body and the temple is profound and mysterious. The Church too is the body of Christ. The Church too passes through death and resurrection cycles. The book of Revelation (21) talks of the wedding feast of the lamb, when the Church comes to dwell in a New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is splendid and perfect but it has no temple because “its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the lamb”.
And as for the temple in Jerusalem, well it was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD and has been more or less off limits to the Jews ever since. The temple mound has been completely restored but since the year 691 it has been dominated by Islamic sites such as the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Moque.
When we look at Jerusalem today we see an extraordinary complex situation. God’s chosen place is now sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews. The tensions felt in Jerusalem are profoundly linked to the tensions felt throughout the Middle East about the state of Israel and its security. There is a sense of waiting and of expectation. What on earth will God do next in this place? And it seems to me that the important thing for us to do is to trust God who is the Lord of history. Certainly terrible things can happen and much can be destroyed, but we must never lose trust in God and in his capacity to raise things up anew.

Jesus announces a social revolution

2010-01-24T08:00:00.002Z

Short sermon preached at 8am Eucharist at St Helen’s Church, Solihull
Sunday 24th January 2010, Epiphany 3

Readings: Nehemiah 8: 2-3,5-6,8-10 1Corinthians 12: 12-31a Luke 4: 14-21

The story we heard in our gospel reading today comes right from the very start of Jesus’ public ministry. It is the first public teaching of Jesus recorded in Luke’s gospel. And Jesus uses this occasion to announce his manifesto, to declare publicly what he is all about, what he is going to do. He says he has come, “…to declare good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives…recovery of sight to the blind…to let the oppressed go free…” Jesus is reading from Isaiah 61, but it is interesting that Jesus chooses to define his ministry in this way. We might perhaps expect him to say he has come to reconcile humanity to God, or to teach us to walk the road to heaven, or to bring about the kingdom of God. But no, Jesus chooses to emphasise the social revolution which is implicit in the gospel message. The gospel is good news for the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed.
But it is not immediately clear how this social revolution comes about. How is the gospel good news for the poor, how are the captives released? Well one suggestion has been “Liberation Theology”. This was an attempt to import some socialist and communist ideas into the gospel so as to bring about this revolution. The trouble was Liberation Theology was not always true to the whole gospel, which also urges us to respect legitimate worldly authority and demands that we love the rich as well as the poor. Liberation Theology has now mainly passed away.
It seems to me that a much more realistic, more demanding and ultimately more complete model for the Christian social revolution arises from the teaching that we heard from St Paul in our epistle reading today. The Church is the body of Christ. We are all members of this same body. When one is honoured, all are honoured. When one is hurt, all are hurt. All have different roles and purposes in the service of the whole body. Some might be thought of as higher or greater, so lower and less respectable, but we cloth with greater honour the less honourable members and afford greater respect to the less respectable. It makes no sense for the ear to try to be an eye or to worry that it is less than the eye, or for the head to reject the feet. As part of this body the poor are uplifted, the captives freed, the blind receive their sight. The churches social revolution is realised when we fully live out this reality of all being part of the body of Christ.
So it is a question of living this better, in a more complete way, and this is the road to fulfilment both for individuals and communities. So I would like to offer a few tips on living better as one body; the body of Christ.
First of all, we need to be mindful that the human body is conscious that it is one body because there is sharing and circulation. Blood flows round to all the cells, bringing oxygen and removing waste. Nerves transmit commands around the whole body and ensure that the whole body is aware of what is being sensed in one part. Well we too as church need sharing and circulation. News, good and bad, must be shared and rejoiced in or wept over together. Hopes and fears, needs and resources must all be shared and owned by all. Sharing is a key skill. It is through sharing that Christ gives to us his eternal life.
Secondly, to bring about this sharing we need to grow in the virtues. We need to be generous in giving to others. We need to be humble and simple enough to receive from others. Certainly we need patience because sharing never works out quite as we first hope. And the way to grow in the virtues is to practise, especially to practice sharing effectively.
Thirdly we need love. Immediately after this teaching Paul spends the whole of 1 Corinthians 13 talking about love. Love is patient, love is kind… the famous passage that is often read at weddings. And just as a couple need love if they are to be one family, so the church needs love if it is to be the body of Christ and to share effectively.
So these are my tips for realising the Church as the body of Christ, and realising the social revolution of the gospel. We need lots of sharing and circulation. We need to grow in the virtues. Above all we need to grow in Love. Amen.

Longing for the wedding feast

2010-01-17T08:00:00.000Z

Short sermon preached at 8am Eucharist at St Alphege Church, Solihull
Sunday 17th January 2009, Epiphany 2

Readings: Isaiah 62: 1-5 [1 Corinthians 12: 1-11] John 2: 1-11

Our readings today have a theme of celebration. They are about weddings and rejoicing. They speak of great joys to be shared, and of a party.
In our reading from Isaiah God speaks to his chosen people and tells them that God will rejoice over his people a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. God will deliver his chosen people from their desolation and forsakenness and make them to be a crown of beauty, a royal diadem in the hand of God. This Isaiah reading has the same theme as the last part of the book of Revelation where it talks about the wedding feast of the lamb. The Church is portrayed as the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, purified and made new and to be joined to the lamb, to Christ, forever. As Christians we are called to this great and wonderful destiny, the greatest of all celebrations.
Although promised, the celebration is not yet. And similarly in the gospel reading we have a wedding feast, a celebration which is struggling to happen because the wine has run out. The lack of wine is being felt, and there is a desire, a longing for more wine so the celebration can continue. And in our human lives we are so often aware of things that are lacking and inadequate. If we think about Haiti we become painfully aware of the instability and fragility of our earthly lives. We are aware of the great sufferings, and the inadequacy of any human response. And I think, to some extent at least, we all long for and thirst for the great banquet in heaven. We want to live in the New Heaven and New Earth that God is to create, free from the suffering and pain of the old world. We want to see fulfilled the wholeness, the harmony, the blessed rest of the long promised kingdom of God. And this desire is a very good thing because our desire for these things helps us to walk towards them, it help us to play our part in their realisation. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matt 5: 6).
But the gospel story is also very good because it shows how these desires are brought to fulfilment. They come to fulfilment when they are brought to Jesus. And Mary is the agent here. She brings the need, the thirst, the longing to Jesus. She also tells the servants “do whatever he tells you”. And this is the pattern for us too. We bring to Jesus our thirsts, our longings, and the needs of the world, and then we seek to do whatever Jesus tells us. Two things are required. Trust in Jesus, that he will resolve problems that are brought to him, and obedience to Jesus, such that we play our all part in the resolution.
Now an interesting aspect of this story that the need, the desire, for more wine is not presented directly to Jesus by those organising the feast; it is presented by Mary. In prayer we can, and should, approach God directly and ask him for the things we need. However we also can, and should also, approach him indirectly, through the prayers of other people, our friends, our families, the saints. And in my experience this approach through other people is often works better than the direct approach. In this approach the desire, the need, has to be owned by other people before it is presented to God. In this way the request depends on the charity of others, so it comes to God purified of some of the selfish and individualistic intentions that might accompany a direct prayer. And the granting of the prayer becomes a gift that not only helps the individual with the particular need, but also strengthens community through the sharing of needs and desires and prayers. It promotes a spirituality in which we think about others and help others, because only through others are we helped. It reminds us of the importance of praying for others people, because that is how we are prayed for. It reminds us of the importance of empathising with others people, so we know their needs and know what to pray for. It encourages us to use our time, our talents and our gifts in the service of others in the church community, because this is how we ourselves are served. And all this builds true communion; true sharing of the gifts God give us, above all in the gift of eternal life. Amen.

Baptism and the healing cycle

2010-01-10T18:30:00.000Z

Sermon for wholeness and healing service at St Helen’s Church
6.30pm - Sunday 10th January 2010 – Baptism of Christ

Rdngs: Isaiah 55: 1-11, Romans 6: 1-11, Mark 1: 4-11, Dismissal Gospel Luke 5: 12-14

At the age of 21, in my last year as an undergraduate, I had a crisis. I didn’t realise it was a crisis at the time; I just thought I was ill. I had a problem with itchy skin. If I got embarrassed, or laughed, or put under pressure or just spent too long in a hot room then my skin would start to itch. It would itch all over. There would be nothing that you could see but for me it was completely unbearable. All I could do was go outside in the cold and take my coat off. My skin would cool down and I would be fine…until I the next time. This started as a minor irritation in about November time, but by Christmas it was a major problem. In fact I really struggled to do my Christmas shopping. I find shopping pretty stressful at the best of times, and perhaps because of that I found I was especially likely to start itching in the shops, which were also very warm. I found that I could not stay in the shops long enough to get to the front of the queue to pay for the things I wanted to buy. It was very frustrating and difficult.
Anyway, I went to the doctors. The first doctor I went to realised that something psychosomatic was going on and suggested that I do some yoga. I was reluctant to do this; I was very suspicious of yoga. The second doctor I went to gave me an assortment of pills and creams and lotions. I discovered that with antihistamine tablets I could control the itching, such that I still knew when it was happening, but it was not painful and I could just about get by in my day to day life. However I knew that this was not the same as being healthy, and I did want to get better so I started looking around for ways to get better. I started going to yoga classes.
In about February a Catholic friend of mine, who with hindsight obviously had a gift for dealing with young men, started to take an interest my difficulties. He wanted me to go a see a Catholic counselling woman at the school he worked in. I was reluctant to go. I was a bit suspicious of Catholicism and profoundly suspicious of counselling. However, this man Tony, said one or two things and asked me one or two questions that made me realise that he understood far more about what was wrong with me that I did. I realised that I had to trust him and go and meet this counselling woman. Tony said to me, “Right now you are in crisis, and things are very rough for you, but one day you will look back at this and think it was the best thing that every happened to you!” Of course he was absolutely right, but I hesitated to believe it at the time.
Anyway, once I started seeing the counselling lady, she started asking me questions and very quickly she started to draw to my attention all kinds of contradictions and inconsistencies in my attitudes to life. Slowly I learned to trust her. I started to make new choices which reflected my own choices rather than what I had been taught to think of as “good”. I started to dress more expressively, to spend more money, to drink more beer, to be more independent of my parents and in many ways to behave more like a normal student. Really it was about growing up and having the courage to make my own choices. Also, through the yoga, I became more aware of my inner feelings and needs and became more able to address them. It was a very difficult process, and some of my experiments turned out to be very unhelpful, but slowly I did begin to improve. After my final exams in June I was able to rest more and this really helped. By September I had stopped itching. A year later I was well enough to get a job. A year after that I met Elaine, and a year after that we got married. I carried on seeing, Sr Clare, the counselling woman on and off for many years. I was in my late thirties before I really felt I had full recovered.
As I look back on that experience now I think of it in a way very different from how I thought about it at the time. At the time I just thought I was ill, which was true. Then later I started to think of it as a psychological crisis to do with growing up, which was also true. However more recently as I look back I start to notice the spiritual aspects of the experience. A huge part of it was about being ready to let go of attitudes and beliefs that had stood me in good stead as I grew up. For example, I had to let go of my prejudices about yoga and Catholics and counselling. I had to let go of my rather cerebral Christian faith beliefs and more ridged religious practices. I had to let go of any sense that I was a “good” Christian, or better than other people, or that I could do things in my own strength or that I could be independent, or that I could serve others without being served myself. This letting go was an experience of loss. In some ways it was like dying lots of small deaths. Then there was another part of the experience which was all to do with acceptance. I had to accept my human limitations. I had to accept my inner needs. I had to accept the inner pain that I carried and I was carrying a lot. I had to accept my need for love and my dependence on other people. I had to accept that I was a sinner in need of God’s mercy. And this process of acceptance was profoundly linked to healing, and it took a long time.
And then there was the surprise of new life and new hope which I had not been expecting. I discovered that I had a Christian faith that was deeper and more profound and more real than my earlier more cerebral faith had been. I discovered that through my prayers and my sufferings I could grow in faith and contribute to the life of the Church, even if I was not well enough to do very much. I discovered that God really did love me, and that I was much more loveable than I could ever have imagined. I discovered that I was much closer to other people, in their joys and sorrows, in their hopes and fears than I would ever have considered possible. I found healing and renewal and the ability to build a new life.
But the interesting thing is that this experience of losing and dying, leading to acceptance and healing, leading to new life and new possibilities is very like the experience of Baptism that our reading today have meditated upon.
Our OT reading was written for the Jews in the sixth century BC, at a real low point in their history. They had been conquered by the Babylonians and taken away into exile. Many of them had been killed in battle. They had lost the Promised Land, they had lost Jerusalem. The temple had been destroyed. They had lost their livelihoods and their freedom. Everything spoke of death and loss. Yet into this bitter, bitter suffering the second Isaiah proclaims a message of hope and new life. “You that have no money, come buy and eat, buy wine and milk without money and without price,” “Return to the Lord, that he may have mercy…to our God for he will abundantly pardon”.
Then we heard St Paul teaching that we must die to sin. We were baptised with Christ, baptised into his death. Our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be destroyed and we might longer be enslaved to sin. But, having been united to Christ in his death, so we will be united with him in a resurrection like his. We are called to walk in newness of life. We are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
And then we heard Marks account of the baptism of Christ. There is a losing; the Son of God submits to a moral man for baptism. There is a going down into the water, there is a moment under the water, a moment of being overwhelmed, a moment like death. Then there is a coming up out of the water, new life, an anointing with the Spirit and affirmation from the voice of the Father himself. This is indeed new life, with new possibilities.
So I hope that as we think about sickness and illness and wholeness and healing, so we will experience something of this Baptism cycle, this death of the old and the rising up of something new. I hope we shall have the courage to let go, to lose, to go through the process like death. I hope that we shall have the grace of acceptance, accepting the truth, accepting the pain, accepting reality of the situation. Then, from God, not from us, I hope we will find new things start to emerge; new life, new possibilities, new hope, new way of serving others.
And I hope that if we can practice this through the crisis of illness, so it will stand us in good stead when we come to the great crisis of death. May we accept the loss our mortal bodies and our earthly life, but may we come to rejoice in the resurrection life of Christ, the eternal life, the life free from sin and death. Amen.

Spirit driven lives

2010-01-10T08:00:00.000Z

Short sermon preached at 8am Eucharist at St Helen’s Church, Solihull
Sunday 10th January 2010 – Baptism of Christ – Year C

Readings: Isaiah 43: 1-7 Acts 8: 14-17 Luke 3: 15-17 & 21-22

In the Epiphany season we think about Jesus being “manifest” or “revealed”. Last week we focused on the baby Jesus being revealed to the whole wide world, symbolised by the wise men from far away in the East. Today we think of the revelation that occurred at the baptism of Jesus, which we heard about in our gospel reading. Specifically we think of the Holy Spirit descending onto Jesus and the voice from heaven, “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.
All four gospels tell the story of this event. Many of the details are different between the four accounts, but one thing they all agree on is that the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descended upon Jesus. And this is very significant because it reveals Jesus to be God’s anointed one, the Messiah, the saviour of Israel, the one promised from of old by the prophets.
In John’s gospel the story is told by John the Baptist. The descent of the Holy Spirit is the specific sign that John has been told to look for, and from this John knows that Jesus is the Son of God. John says, “I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel” (John 1: 31). The great revelation that we think of this week is Jesus being revealed to the Jews as the Messiah. So today I would like to spend a little time reflecting on the role of the Holy Spirit, and its links to the revelation of Jesus as Christ, which is so important to our mission.
In Luke’s gospel especially, the Holy Spirit seems to be involved in just about all the important happenings. Mary is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit when she conceives Jesus. Elizabeth and Zachariah are filled with the Holy Spirit when they make their big speeches. Jesus’ public ministry seems to be completely driven by the Spirit.
In Christianity we seek to become Christ like, to have Christ grow within us. So like Jesus we too need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and live Spirit driven lives. In John’s gospel we are told that we must be born anew of the Spirit (John 3) and we link this with our own Baptism. Just as Jesus’ received a particular anointing with the Spirit at his Baptism, which gave purpose and direction to his ministry, so we have received great gifts of the Spirit through our Baptism and Confirmation. And to make the most of these gifts we need to be true to our baptismal promises. We need to renounce evil and follow Christ. Following Christ means following his commandments, especially his commandment to love one another. So in day to day life, seeking to love other people is often the best practical route to life in the Spirit.
But there is also a prayerful side to it. We can and should seek to pray with the Spirit, who is far better at prayer than we are. St Paul says, “And the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8: 26) Jesus also tells us to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). So as we pray and as we worship let’s try to be attentive to the Spirit praying within us, and let’s try to join our prayers to the prayer of the Spirit.
And this is very important, especially as we think about mission and church growth. It was the Holy Spirit who revealed Jesus to be the Messiah at his baptism. So we should hope and expect that if we live Spirit driven lives, then Holy Spirit will reveal to the people around us Christ working in us and in the church. And it is the revelation of Christ which makes all the difference.

Revelation to the Gentiles

2010-01-03T10:00:00.000Z

Sermon preached at 10am Eucharist at St Helen’s Solihull
Sunday 3rd January 2010 – Epiphany
A shorter version of this sermon was also preached at the 8am.

Readings: Isaiah 60: 1-6 Ephesians 3: 1-12 Matthew 2: 1-12

My son, Thomas, has just turned 17 and we are just getting into all the thrills and spills associated with learning to drive. As much as anything, this reminds me of my own experiences of learning to drive when I was seventeen, which is now 28 years ago.
My first experiences of driving were with my Dad as an instructor on some remote, bleak and lonely roads in the Republic of Ireland. My Dad said that I should learn how to control the car on these isolated roads, and once I had learned control of the car it would be easier for me to make progress on other roads, where it is necessary to interact with other road users.
Well, it was all very easy to say! The truth was that I really struggled to learn how to control the car. The clutch, especially, was a massive problem. I invariably would let the clutch out either too slowly, so that nothing happened, or too fast so that the car would lurch forward in jumps, kangaroo style. It seemed to me to be completely arbitrary. I never really had any idea of what was going to happen as I let the clutch out. It was all rather painful, frustrating and difficult.
Some months later in the UK I had my first proper driving lesson with a proper driving instructor. In the first lesson we only did one thing: learning to use the clutch. The instructor explained to me what a clutch was and how it worked. He set me up on a hill start, holding the vehicle on the clutch, then he taught me to release the pressure very slightly to craw forward, or to increase the pressure very slightly to stop, or to roll back.
Well, this was such a revelation to me! Suddenly, instead of being my worst enemy, the clutch became a tool that I could use! Suddenly I felt that I was controlling the car rather than being intimidated by it. It was a real revelation; a new understanding. It was a transforming moment and a massive step forward in the process of learning to drive.
Well, today we have entered the season of the Epiphany, a season that is all about revelation and new understanding. The word Epiphany means “manifest”. God’s new work in Jesus is being shown to all the world. It is made manifest. Today especially we think about the baby Jesus being shown to the wise men. And the very significant thing about the wise men is that they were not Jews. They were gentiles, or people from “the nations”, as the Jews used to call them. They come from the East, perhaps from Persia, or Iran as we call it today. And they had understood enough from the signs in the heavens to know that something very important was happening, that a king of great significance had been born. And they came looking for him, and with the help of a star he was shown to them; he was made manifest. And they paid homage and gave their famous gifts of Gold and Frankincense and Myrrh.
Now this showing of the baby Jesus to the three kings is symbolic of the showing of Jesus to the whole world. The Jews knew that they were God’s chosen people. They thought their religion was for them much more that it was for other people. But with Jesus there is a new revelation. There is a whole new religion and it is for everybody. It is universal or catholic we say; it means it’s for everyone. We heard St Paul talking about this new revelation in our epistle reading today. He said, “In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed …the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body and sharers in the promise of Jesus Christ through the gospel.”
And this new revelation in Jesus makes all the difference. Just as my getting to know and understanding of the clutch opened up to me the possibility of driving, so getting to know and love Jesus opens up to us the possibility of drawing closer to God. Drawing closer to God is a little bit like learning to drive. There are things that we need to understand. There are some rules we need to follow. We need lots and lots of practice. Above all we need a good teacher. We need someone to say to us turn left, turn right, speed up now, slow down. The Christian life is a journey towards God, towards heaven, but we need someone who knows the way. Now that Jesus has been revealed to us we have the best possible teacher. Not only does he know the way – but he is the way!
So how do we make the most of this new revelation; this wonderful good news that we have received in Jesus, in having Jesus as our teacher? Well first of all let’s give thanks to God for giving us Jesus and for showing him to us. Let’s give thanks to God for all that we have already understood and all the different ways in which it has helped us.
Then let’s try to be very attentive to Jesus our teacher. Let’s try to live out his commandments in our everyday lives. Let’s pay special attention to the commandment which he calls “new” and his own – “love one another, as I have loved you” (John 13: 34, 15: 12). This is the key to everything. Jesus says, “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me…and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” (John 14: 21). Jesus reveals himself to those who love. So there is a self reinforcing circle here; Jesus is revealed to us, so we grow in love, so jesus is revealed to us more… Love is the key to revelation, the key to Epiphany. So let’s love, and in that way Jesus will reveal himself to us. Amen.

Children

2009-12-27T08:00:00.000Z

Thought for the parish pew slip – Sunday 27th December 2009

Readings: 1 Samuel 1: 20-22 & 24-end 1 John 3: 1-2 & 21-end Luke 2: 41-end

Our readings today offer stories in sharp contrast with our present day attitudes which encourage us to be possessive and protective of our children.
As we read of the extraordinary generosity of Hannah in giving her only child to the Lord we must remember the great struggle that Hannah endured before Samuel was conceived (see 1 Samuel 1: 1-19). We must also remember the great fruit that came from this gift. Samuel grew up to become the last of the Judges of Israel and the man who anointed David as king.
John reminds us that we are children of God. We are much more truly God’s children than anyone else’s (see also Matt 23:9). We must behave as good brothers and sisters to one another, loving each other as the Lord commanded.
Our gospel reading records a moment of great drama for Mary and Joseph when they think they have lost the child Jesus. In fact Jesus is in the temple. He does not feel lost at all; he is in his Father’s house.

Being a gift for others

2009-12-24T08:00:00.000Z

Article for the Faith Matters column in Solihull News – Christmas Edition 24/12/09

Christmas - Being a gift for others

When I was little I used to get very excited about Christmas presents. Unwrapping new toys and games was a big part of what Christmas was all about. Now I am older, I still enjoy Christmas gifts, but I am more aware of the real gift that lies at the heart of the celebration. This is God’s gift to us of his only Son, Jesus, who we remember arriving among us at Christmas time.
Jesus was a real gift to people. He healed people. He taught people. He accepted the consequences of people’s sin to the point of dying for them. He is the gift that God gave so that we might have eternal life (c.f. John 3: 16).
This Christmas we too can try to be gifts for other people. We may not have the power or wisdom of Jesus, but we can find practical ways to serve other people, loving them as Jesus loves them. We can do all our share in helping to prepare Christmas meals, and washing up afterwards. We can share the presents we receive. We can show honour and respect to the relatives who we meet at Christmas time. We can be ready to welcome people who we don’t know so well.
If we can live our lives as a gift for other people, then we are being like Jesus. Our behaviour starts to make Jesus more present in the world, as Mary did 2000 years ago. This is the way to really enter into the Christmas story. This is the way to bring peace and goodwill on earth.
May all the joy of Christmas be yours! Fr Gerard

Magnificat

2009-12-20T09:15:00.000Z

Sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull at the 9.15am Eucharist on Sunday 20th December 2009 – Advent 4 Year C. A shorter version was also preached at St Catherine's, Catherine-de-Barnes at 11am.

Readings Micah 5: 2-5a Hebrews 10: 5-10 Luke 1:39-56

If you are one of those people who simply can’t stand looking at other people’s holiday photos, then now is the moment to bury your head in your hands. As you probably know I was went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in November and I came back with 208 photos. Well, before you all run for the doors, I am not going to show all 208 to you now. I am going to show you three! So that should be pretty painless.
Here’s the first one. This is the Church of the Visitation at Ein Karem, on the western outskirts of Jerusalem. It is the site traditionally associated with Mary’s visit to Elizabeth that we heard about in our gospel reading today. Now you can’t really see it from the photo, but the site is about three quarters of the way up a steep mountain side. It seems that Zachariah and Elizabeth had two houses. One here, high in the hills, for the summer, and another one lower down in the valley for the winter. The church on the lower site is associated with the birth of John the Baptist, this church higher up is associated with the Visitation. There is also a tradition that when King Herod sent his soldiers to murder all the baby boys under two years old, that Elizabeth hid the baby John the Baptist here. The rocky hillside somehow swallowed them up and concealed them from the soldiers.
Now we have to recognise that there is a great deal of uncertainty associated with all these traditions. Many of the stories come from an ancient book called the Protevangelium of St James. The Church has never regarded this book as authoritative, and which has never been counted as one of the books of the bible. Also the archaeology is uncertain. Unquestionably, the remains of ancient churches have found on these sites, but the tradition of Christian worship here has been broken for many centuries, on three different occasions; first by the Romans, then by the Persians and then by the Ottoman Empire.
But despite the uncertainties, I found that this place did draw me into the mysteries of the Visitation. In particular I found the artwork inspiring. There was this picture in the roof vaults of a lower chapel. Look how the two women are being filled with the Holy Spirit. Also notice how the ground on which they are standing is bursting with grass and trees, while in other places it looks arid and dry.
Then there is this sculpture. Mary is on the left, in the first months of pregnancy, and Elizabeth on the right, in the last. It could all be very awkward. Elizabeth was really far too old to be pregnant, and Mary really too young. Then there is the problem that Mary is not married, and the worry of what Joseph will say when he finds out that his betrothed is pregnant. Yet despite these difficulties there seems to be a real closeness between the two women.
Our gospel reading tells us what happens when Mary arrives at Elizabeth’s house. First of all, when Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting the child in her womb, John the Baptist, leaps for joy. Elizabeth makes a big speech, declaring Mary blessed, and recognising that the child Mary carries is the Lord. She says that Mary is blessed because she believed that what the Lord had promise her would come to pass.
Then Mary makes this extraordinary speech, which we call the Magnificat. We repete it everyday in this church at evening prayer. It starts “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.” If you look at the photo again, you will see on the wall behind the sculpture lots of plaques with writing on them. Each of the plaques has the words of the Magnificat in a different language. There are dozens of plaques in the courtyard and it is quite fun to look around them all until you find the English one. When our group arrived in the courtyard an American group were also there. They found the English plaque before we did, and one of them read it out very loudly in a powerful American ascent, “MY SOUL MAGNIFIES THE LORD…”
I couldn’t help but be struck by the contrast between the way the Magnificat was being read, and what its words seem to mean. The words of the Magnificat speak of the faithfulness of God, his patience and his mercy. They speak of the lowliness of Mary and of her blessedness. Perhaps it is uncharitable to say it, but the booming voice seemed to speak of earthly power and self-sufficiency. And nowhere was the contrast stronger than where the Magnificat says of the Lord,
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent rich away empty.
And these words are such a challenge to us in the western world. We might not have the wealth of the Americans, but we do share in a prosperity which is unprecedented in history and which appears unsustainable. The words remind us that there is a complete social transformation implicit in the gospel message. We are seeking to build a world in which we administer our wealth with generosity for the good of all; we exercise our power and influence for the common good. It’s a world in which the sharing of problems and opportunities becomes so well done that it become impossible to distinguish the rich from the poor.
So how do we play our part in this social transformation? How do we build the Kingdom of Heaven? Well, first of all, let’s remember that it is God’s work not ours, so our first contribution is to do what God wants from us, nothing more and nothing less. And very often this will be very simple things; listening to the person next to us, sharing some gift, being ready to lose our own aspirations for the sake of the others. We can treat our daily lives as a training ground in which we can grow in patience and generosity and in trust in God. Certainly there will be problems and failures but if we keep on training we build up treasure in heaven. Sooner or later this has to flow over from heaven to earth and transform everything. Let’s be like Mary, blessed because we believe that what the Lord has promised will come to pass. And let’s play all our part so that it comes to pass sooner rather than later! Amen.

This is the record of John

2009-12-13T18:30:00.000Z

Sermon preached at Choral Evensong at St Alphege, Solihull on Sunday 13th December – Advent 3

Readings: Isaiah 35: 1-10 Matthew 11: 2-11
Choir Anthem: This is the Record of John by Orlando Gibbons

Before I arrived at St Alphege Church, three and half years ago, I had had very little exposure to serious church music. Well, over the last three and half years, I have had quite a lot of exposure and I am very grateful for it, and I have enjoyed it far more than I expected. And now that I have been here some time I have started to notice how certain pieces of music come round and different times of the year the Churches calendar and I start to look out for them and to enjoy them all the more.
Our anthem today is just one such example. This is the record of John by Orlando Gibbons. I find it a particularly distinctive anthem because of the very demanding countertenor solo, and we are very fortunate to be able to sing it. The composer is Orlando Gibbons, who lived from 1583-1625 and was one of the outstanding Anglican musicians of his period. Apparently his is particular known as a master of counterpoint, which is where more than one tune is being sung simultaneously by different parts. Nigel was explaining to me earlier that This is the record of John is written for five parts. There are places they are all singing different tunes, and then there are sudden contrasts when all the voices come together, as though to emphasise certain lines.
This is the record of John is a perfect anthem for the third Sunday in Advent when we think particularly about the John the Baptist and the preparations her urged for the coming of Jesus. Gibbon chose English over Latin and the words come from King James’ Authorised Version of the bible, John chapter 1, verses 19-23. These words come up in the gospel reading for Advent 3 in year B of the Revised Common Lectionary. John explains to the priests and Levites that he is not the Christ, nor even a prophet. When John is pressed to explain who he is he says, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.” Here John the Baptist is quoting from the book of Isaiah, chapter 40. In Advent we always read a great deal from the prophet Isaiah. At present the OT readings set for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer are both ploughing their way through different sections of the prophet Isaiah. At Morning Prayer in Advent we say a canticle every day based on the words that we have already heard in this service from Isaiah 35.
The reason that we read so much Isaiah in Advent is that the book of Isaiah, especially that part of it which the scholars attribute to second Isaiah, is full of promises about the coming Messiah; God’s anointed one. Second Isaiah was writing in the sixth century BC when the Jews were in exile in Babylon. They were in a very bad way, utterly oppressed, unable to help themselves and a long way from their home in Jerusalem and the Promised Land. Into this experience of desolation God speaks a message of hope. God pours out this message through the prophet Second Isaiah, but he also pours it out through other prophets like Ezekiel and Daniel. Even the prophet Jeremiah, who is all doom and gloom in the build up to the exile, starts to preach a message of consolation and hope once the worst has occurred.
When we read these prophets from the exile period, and their great message of hope, it always a little bit difficult to pin down exactly what the hope is. There is lots of promises about joy and celebration. There is a great deal about the restoration of the Jews in Jerusalem. There are lots of promises about the strengthening of the weak, the healing of the deaf the blind and the lame, the uplifting of the oppressed. The Isaiah 35 that we read today also talks of environmental miracles; the wilderness blossoming with flowers, dry deserts being filled with water so that they can grow with beautiful trees and gardens that we might normally associate with Lebanon or Carmel. Although the hopes are not always clear, it is clear that many of them revolve around this Messiah, the anointed one of God.
It is also very difficult, reading these prophets’ messages of hope during the exile, to pin down exactly when these hopes and blessings might be realised, when they might come about. Some of hopes were spectacularly realised in 539 BC when Cyrus, the king of the Medes and Persians mounted a surprise attack on Babylon. He conquered the Babylonians and promptly announces that he wants the Jews to go back to Jerusalem. This was undoubtedly an extraordinary moment, but other promises remained unfilled and the Messiah figure was still awaited.
Then, eventually, John the Baptist bursts onto the scene, preparing the way of the Lord. His ministry is a great success, with many people coming for baptism and great expectations about the Messiah. When Jesus comes to him for baptism and John recognises him as the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the one on whom the spirit of God descended (John 1: 29-36) and from this point Jesus’ ministry grows, and John’s starts to shrink. Eventually John is put in prison, and it would seem that while in prison he starts to have doubts about whether Jesus really was the Messiah. In the reading we heard today John sends his disciples to Jesus to check if he is the Messiah. Jesus doesn’t give a simple “Yes” answer, but he does point to the evidence. The after John’s disciples are gone, we hear Jesus’ testimony about who John is. Jesus describes him as the greatest of all born of women. Meanwhile John is languishing in jail, full of doubts, and is eventually beheaded. The price of being a top-dog in the kingdom of heaven is very high.
As we leave here, let’s take with us those words of John’s which we heard in the Anthem, “Make straight the way of the Lord”. Jesus is coming. We need to get ready. We need to make straight his way, so that we can enter into our hearts. Are there crooked aspects of our lives that we need to straighten out? Are their relationships where healing and reconciliation is needed? Are there hurts or disappointments that we need deliverance from, which we need to move beyond? Advent is the time for this. Advent is the time to humbly lay these things before God, to offer the pain to God, to seek his healing. We can do this in prayer. Often it becomes more real if we talk about it with someone we trust. We can do this before a priest in confession; I’m going to confession next week. Above all we need to do it before God so that we can be filled with the promise Advent and of all God’s good gifts to us in the coming of Jesus.

Preparing for the coming of Jesus

2009-11-29T09:15:00.000Z

Sermon preach at 9.15am and 11am Eucharists at St Alphege Church on Sunday 29th November 2009 – Advent Sunday, Year C.

Readings: Jeremiah 33: 14-16 I Thessalonians 3: 9-13 Luke 21: 25-36

In the summer we had a family holiday in the south of France. During the long drive back in the car we listened to an audio book. It was William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, read by William Golding himself. Our children have been studying the book in their English lessons at school. Perhaps you are familiar with the story. A group of English school boys get stranded on a tropical island. Away from civilisation they start to form their own society. Like all societies, it has its strengths and its weaknesses, its good points and its bad points. But as the story develops, the forces of evil seem to grow in strength and everything that we might think of as civilisation starts to fall apart. Democracy gives way to dictatorship, hope gives way to superstition and fear, murders are committed and respectable boys from English public schools start to behave like the worst kind of primitive savages.
The storyline suggests that it is only the pressures and benefits of civilisation itself that causes people to behave in a civilised way. It suggests that without civilisation human beings should be expected to degenerate into an animal like depravity. The story therefore presents a somewhat pessimistic assessment of the human condition.
But one has to ask the question, “Well how did civilisation come about in the first place?” At some point in history there must have been a group of people who had the opposite experience from the boys on the island, an experience in which goodness triumphed and civilisation flourished. Without such an experience there could never have been any civilisation in the first place. I asked this question recently, the last time the book was discussed around our dinner table. The answer that came back was that somehow it is precisely the triumph of evil which allows goodness to be born and to grow. This answer suggests that, had Golding’s book continued with the boys still stranded on the island, then, after the most dreadful murders had been committed, evil would have done its worst and good would have had to prevail. Civilisation would have been reborn.
I thought this was a very interesting suggestion, and there are many parallels with Christian theology. In particular it is the great triumph of evil in the crucifixion of Christ, which reveals the resurrection life and which leads to the descent of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the church, and the beginnings of the Christian society.
Or again, we might think of the many terrible martyrdoms that the church suffered at the hands of the Roman Empire in the Coliseum and the Roman Circus. Especially we might think of the thousands who died in the persecution under the emperor Diocletian starting in 303 AD. Did this mass martyrdom not somehow lead to the conversion of the emperor Constantine and the official Christianisation of the Roman Empire, starting from 313 AD?
It is indeed an intriguing thought. Evil must sometimes do its worst, and must appear to triumph, before goodness can be revealed and can flourish. In Advent we reflect on the coming of Jesus. We remember his first coming, as a baby in Bethlehem. But especially in the first half of Advent we focus on the long prophesied second coming of Jesus. And the scriptures suggest to us that the second coming of Christ will contain something of this theme of good being revealed by the apparent triumph and of everything bad. For example, the Gospel reading from Luke which we heard this morning talks of the second coming of Christ. It describes a time of great distress on earth with great confusion among the nations. It talks of people fainting from fear and of a terrible foreboding about what is coming upon the earth. But in the midst of this most terrible moment Luke tells us that people will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory and with redemption for all who have put their trust in Christ.
And there are many other scripture readings like this one (e.g. Matt 24: 9-14, 2 Peter: 3, Rev 13 and 20: 7-10) which suggest that the second coming of Christ will follow a most terrible and evil time, during which many people will be led astray.
So, what are we to make of all this?
Well first of all it is important not to be discouraged when we hear bad news. Watching the TV and reading the newspapers can be very disheartening. But our Christian hope remains solid, even in the face of bad news, or fearful events or terrible evil. In fact these things can be the very means whereby Christian hope is revealed.
And then I think we must take very seriously the advice that we read from St Paul in 1 Thessalonians this morning. Paul is expecting the second coming of Jesus imminently, and he is very concerned that people should prepare for this well. He says, “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all” (1 Thess 3: 12). He goes on to talk about holiness, and being blameless before God, but it seems that these things come from love. When we set out to do things for love of God, and love of the people around us then we are ordering our lives in accordance with the commands of Jesus, we are living the life of his kingdom and we are preparing ourselves to be good citizens of his kingdom. It is love that continues to have value when we die or when the world comes to an end (1 Cor 13: 13).
So let’s live the season of Advent well, by asking God to help us to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all. This means seeking the good of the other; trying to focus on how we serve others. Ultimately this leads to holiness, and being blameless before Christ. There is no better way of preparing for the coming of Jesus. Amen.