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.
Showing posts with label Devil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Devil. Show all posts
13 March 2011
14 September 2008
The Secret Weapon
Informal sermon preached a Solihull 6th Scout Group Camp at Broadwater Scout Campsite, Meriden, Warwickshire on Sunday 14th September, 1.30pm.
Camp theme of “Army”.
Reading: Ephesians 6: 10-17
Very often in Christianity we are taking about love and peace and joy. So it might seem surprising that Christianity has anything to say about army camps, weapons, battles and wars. But in fact Christianity has quite a lot to say about weapons and wars, and that’s because one way of thinking about the spiritual life is thinking of it as a war.
Certainly the spiritual life can be like a war. On the one side we have God and Christ and all the angles and saints and all the hosts of heaven, and even us too, to the extent that we are managing to live in our saintly selves, following God and rejecting evil. On the other side we have the Devil and his demons and all the powers of hell, and perhaps even us too if we are rejecting God and his ways.
And what is the war between these two armies about? Well it is a war that is fought at every level. First of all it is about you and me. Are we choosing God or are we choosing the Devil? Are we choosing heaven or hell? Are we trying to become what God created us to be, or are we rejecting God and going our own way? And then it is about our families. Are they following God, or going away from God? And it is about our communities, our nation and our world. At every level this great war rages, and we need to do our part to be a good soldier of God.
Now let’s hear our reading: Ephesians 6: 10-17
So did you manage to follow that? Did you hear St Paul talking about the struggle against the spiritual forces of evil? Paul tells us to take up the whole armour of God, in order to stand firm in this great battle. He tells us to use the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith which protects us from all the arrows of the enemy. Paul tells us to take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, the word of God. And with all these weapons and all this protection we can fight well in the army of God.
But as Christians we have another weapon, a secret weapon, more powerful and more extraordinary that all the rest. This is the cross of Christ. Today, 14th September is a special day, Holy Cross Day, when we think about the cross of Christ and how it helps us in the great battle against the Devil.
When we fight in this battle, when we try to do good, when we try to love other people, when we try to walk in God’s ways and follow in his paths, we find very often that things go wrong. Very often things do not turn out as we had hoped. We find that we fail to do good. We find that we are let down by faults in us and by faults in other people. We encounter sufferings. We suffer disappointments and we can easily get discouraged. And this is exactly what happened to Jesus. Jesus spent his whole life doing good and preaching good and helping other people, and yet many people disliked him and in the end they arrested him and killed him on the cross. And at that point it looked like his life had been a complete failure. His friends had run away. He had been killed in a most horrible way. It looked like the war had been lost. It looked like the complete triumph of evil.
But on the third day God raised him from the dead. God is the source of life. Jesus is God and has life within himself. Death cannot hold Jesus. Even the very worst things that can happen, even disasters, even death, cannot keep Jesus down. He comes back with new life, new wisdom to share, new hope and with a great healing of all our broken relationships. And through the cross of Jesus we too can share in the destiny of Jesus. If we walk in the ways of Jesus we know that whatever goes wrong, what ever disasters befall, whatever deaths we die, we will continue to have life in Christ. Love is from God, and when we live in love, we live in God and death cannot hold on to us. So we can fight in the battle against evil with enormous confidence. We do not need to fear, because our secret weapon means that whatever goes wrong, whatever disasters befall, we will be alright in the end. If we follow in the way of Christ then, by his cross, we cannot lose the battle. The suffering and death of the cross make us invincible!
So let’s take courage! Let’s play our part in the great spiritual battle. Let’s struggle always for good, for the love of others. Let’s walk in the ways of God and reject evil. And when things go wrong let’s trust in the cross of Jesus, the secret weapon that wins the victory.
Camp theme of “Army”.
Reading: Ephesians 6: 10-17
Very often in Christianity we are taking about love and peace and joy. So it might seem surprising that Christianity has anything to say about army camps, weapons, battles and wars. But in fact Christianity has quite a lot to say about weapons and wars, and that’s because one way of thinking about the spiritual life is thinking of it as a war.
Certainly the spiritual life can be like a war. On the one side we have God and Christ and all the angles and saints and all the hosts of heaven, and even us too, to the extent that we are managing to live in our saintly selves, following God and rejecting evil. On the other side we have the Devil and his demons and all the powers of hell, and perhaps even us too if we are rejecting God and his ways.
And what is the war between these two armies about? Well it is a war that is fought at every level. First of all it is about you and me. Are we choosing God or are we choosing the Devil? Are we choosing heaven or hell? Are we trying to become what God created us to be, or are we rejecting God and going our own way? And then it is about our families. Are they following God, or going away from God? And it is about our communities, our nation and our world. At every level this great war rages, and we need to do our part to be a good soldier of God.
Now let’s hear our reading: Ephesians 6: 10-17
So did you manage to follow that? Did you hear St Paul talking about the struggle against the spiritual forces of evil? Paul tells us to take up the whole armour of God, in order to stand firm in this great battle. He tells us to use the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith which protects us from all the arrows of the enemy. Paul tells us to take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, the word of God. And with all these weapons and all this protection we can fight well in the army of God.
But as Christians we have another weapon, a secret weapon, more powerful and more extraordinary that all the rest. This is the cross of Christ. Today, 14th September is a special day, Holy Cross Day, when we think about the cross of Christ and how it helps us in the great battle against the Devil.
When we fight in this battle, when we try to do good, when we try to love other people, when we try to walk in God’s ways and follow in his paths, we find very often that things go wrong. Very often things do not turn out as we had hoped. We find that we fail to do good. We find that we are let down by faults in us and by faults in other people. We encounter sufferings. We suffer disappointments and we can easily get discouraged. And this is exactly what happened to Jesus. Jesus spent his whole life doing good and preaching good and helping other people, and yet many people disliked him and in the end they arrested him and killed him on the cross. And at that point it looked like his life had been a complete failure. His friends had run away. He had been killed in a most horrible way. It looked like the war had been lost. It looked like the complete triumph of evil.
But on the third day God raised him from the dead. God is the source of life. Jesus is God and has life within himself. Death cannot hold Jesus. Even the very worst things that can happen, even disasters, even death, cannot keep Jesus down. He comes back with new life, new wisdom to share, new hope and with a great healing of all our broken relationships. And through the cross of Jesus we too can share in the destiny of Jesus. If we walk in the ways of Jesus we know that whatever goes wrong, what ever disasters befall, whatever deaths we die, we will continue to have life in Christ. Love is from God, and when we live in love, we live in God and death cannot hold on to us. So we can fight in the battle against evil with enormous confidence. We do not need to fear, because our secret weapon means that whatever goes wrong, whatever disasters befall, we will be alright in the end. If we follow in the way of Christ then, by his cross, we cannot lose the battle. The suffering and death of the cross make us invincible!
So let’s take courage! Let’s play our part in the great spiritual battle. Let’s struggle always for good, for the love of others. Let’s walk in the ways of God and reject evil. And when things go wrong let’s trust in the cross of Jesus, the secret weapon that wins the victory.
20 July 2008
The kingdom of heaven
Preached at St Catherine’s, Catherine-de-Barnes, Solihull at 11am Eucharist
Sunday 20th July 2008, Trinity 9, Proper 11, Year A.
A shortened version of this sermon was preached at the 8am Eucharist at St Alphege Church, Solihull
Readings Wisdom 12: 13,16-19 Romans 8: 12-25 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
(N.B. – The “Book of Wisdom” or “Wisdom of Solomon” does not appear in many standard bibles. To find it you need a bible that includes the Apocrypha, or a Catholic Edition)
One of the themes of Matthew’s gospel is the kingdom of heaven. In Chapter 13 of Matthew’s Gospel there are seven parables in which Jesus tries to explain what the kingdom of heaven is like. Today we heard the parable of the wheat and the weeds, which is quite a long parable, especially because Jesus explained it afterwards. The other six parables are very short, and we hear many of them in the gospel reading next week. But today, let’s spend a few moments thinking about the kingdom of heaven, as it is presented to us in Matthew’s gospel.
Jesus was concerned with preaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven (Matt 4:23, 9:35). The kingdom of heaven requires of us repentance (Matt 3:2, 4:17). Repentance means putting God in the first place in our lives, and making sure that everything else in our lives finds its right place under God. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to pray, “Thy kingdom come”. This tells us that the kingdom of heaven something that is coming. It is not something that is already here, or at least not already here in a full and complete way. Closely related to this we pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. So the kingdom of heaven is a place where God’s will is done, and heaven is already part of the kingdom. (See also Matt 5:19 and 7:21). In the beatitudes Jesus tells us that, “Blessed are the Poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3). He also says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:10).
The kingdom of heaven is something that we should be seeking (Matt 6:33) and we need to enter it with the simplicity and humility of a child (Matt 19:14). It is impossible for us to enter if we our attached to our personal riches (Matt 19: 23-24).
So let’s think again about the parable of the wheat and the weeds. What does this tells us about the kingdom of heaven? Well certainly the kingdom of heaven is something that grows. We are told that the good seed are the children of the kingdom and they have to grow. Hopefully this is something that we all experience. The life of God within us isn’t something static and stuck, rather it is something that grows and develops and matures and eventually it completely overtakes us. One of the six other parables is the parable of the mustard seed, which starts of very small and insignificant, but grows to be great tree. It is a bit like when a child comes into the world. To start with it is very small and hidden away, and only the mother knows it is there. Then the child is born and we all know about it, but it is very small and helpless. Slowly the child grows and develops. The child goes through many different stages and makes many different demands on the parents. Over time the child becomes as big and strong as the parents and starts to take over their roles. Eventually the parents grow old and frail and then die. At this point the child inherits all their processions and has taken them over completely. So it is that the kingdom of heaven grows within us, and eventually it takes us over completely. And this is a good thing, a wonderful thing, because our sharing in the kingdom of heaven is eternal.
And what about the weed in the parable? Jesus tells us that the weeds are the children of the evil one, sown by the devil. Notice that the weeds do not come from God, they come from the enemy; the one who rebels against God. And the weeds grow up alongside the good wheat, and what is surprising to the servants in the story is how tolerant of the weeds the Master appears to be. The Master says that pulling out the weeds would be more damaging to the crop than leaving the weeds in there. It is better to let the weeds grow up with the wheat and to separate them out at harvest time. And this goes someway to towards explaining our experience of evil in the world. As we grow up in the world we experience all kinds of sufferings and difficulties which we can attribute directly, or indirectly to the evil one. But we need to be patient. God has chosen to leave those weeds in there with us, for our own good, so let’s not grumble, but let’s get on with the uncomfortable business of living alongside them. And let’s not simply think of ourselves as good wheat and other people as weeds. There is plenty that is weedy about each one of us; we all need to repent and let our good wheat grow up good and strong, and hope that by God’s grace our weedy bits will wither and die. The more they wither and die now, the easier it will be for us at harvest time. We could paraphrase our reading from St Paul; “if you live according to the weeds you will die, but if by the wheat you put to death the weeds, then you will live.”
So let’s grow up like good wheat. But let’s also be patient with the weeds. God has chosen to leave them there for our good, and let’s be grateful that more time is given for ever greater and truer repentance (c.f. Wisdom 12: 10 & 20)
Sunday 20th July 2008, Trinity 9, Proper 11, Year A.
A shortened version of this sermon was preached at the 8am Eucharist at St Alphege Church, Solihull
Readings Wisdom 12: 13,16-19 Romans 8: 12-25 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
(N.B. – The “Book of Wisdom” or “Wisdom of Solomon” does not appear in many standard bibles. To find it you need a bible that includes the Apocrypha, or a Catholic Edition)
One of the themes of Matthew’s gospel is the kingdom of heaven. In Chapter 13 of Matthew’s Gospel there are seven parables in which Jesus tries to explain what the kingdom of heaven is like. Today we heard the parable of the wheat and the weeds, which is quite a long parable, especially because Jesus explained it afterwards. The other six parables are very short, and we hear many of them in the gospel reading next week. But today, let’s spend a few moments thinking about the kingdom of heaven, as it is presented to us in Matthew’s gospel.
Jesus was concerned with preaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven (Matt 4:23, 9:35). The kingdom of heaven requires of us repentance (Matt 3:2, 4:17). Repentance means putting God in the first place in our lives, and making sure that everything else in our lives finds its right place under God. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to pray, “Thy kingdom come”. This tells us that the kingdom of heaven something that is coming. It is not something that is already here, or at least not already here in a full and complete way. Closely related to this we pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. So the kingdom of heaven is a place where God’s will is done, and heaven is already part of the kingdom. (See also Matt 5:19 and 7:21). In the beatitudes Jesus tells us that, “Blessed are the Poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3). He also says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:10).
The kingdom of heaven is something that we should be seeking (Matt 6:33) and we need to enter it with the simplicity and humility of a child (Matt 19:14). It is impossible for us to enter if we our attached to our personal riches (Matt 19: 23-24).
So let’s think again about the parable of the wheat and the weeds. What does this tells us about the kingdom of heaven? Well certainly the kingdom of heaven is something that grows. We are told that the good seed are the children of the kingdom and they have to grow. Hopefully this is something that we all experience. The life of God within us isn’t something static and stuck, rather it is something that grows and develops and matures and eventually it completely overtakes us. One of the six other parables is the parable of the mustard seed, which starts of very small and insignificant, but grows to be great tree. It is a bit like when a child comes into the world. To start with it is very small and hidden away, and only the mother knows it is there. Then the child is born and we all know about it, but it is very small and helpless. Slowly the child grows and develops. The child goes through many different stages and makes many different demands on the parents. Over time the child becomes as big and strong as the parents and starts to take over their roles. Eventually the parents grow old and frail and then die. At this point the child inherits all their processions and has taken them over completely. So it is that the kingdom of heaven grows within us, and eventually it takes us over completely. And this is a good thing, a wonderful thing, because our sharing in the kingdom of heaven is eternal.
And what about the weed in the parable? Jesus tells us that the weeds are the children of the evil one, sown by the devil. Notice that the weeds do not come from God, they come from the enemy; the one who rebels against God. And the weeds grow up alongside the good wheat, and what is surprising to the servants in the story is how tolerant of the weeds the Master appears to be. The Master says that pulling out the weeds would be more damaging to the crop than leaving the weeds in there. It is better to let the weeds grow up with the wheat and to separate them out at harvest time. And this goes someway to towards explaining our experience of evil in the world. As we grow up in the world we experience all kinds of sufferings and difficulties which we can attribute directly, or indirectly to the evil one. But we need to be patient. God has chosen to leave those weeds in there with us, for our own good, so let’s not grumble, but let’s get on with the uncomfortable business of living alongside them. And let’s not simply think of ourselves as good wheat and other people as weeds. There is plenty that is weedy about each one of us; we all need to repent and let our good wheat grow up good and strong, and hope that by God’s grace our weedy bits will wither and die. The more they wither and die now, the easier it will be for us at harvest time. We could paraphrase our reading from St Paul; “if you live according to the weeds you will die, but if by the wheat you put to death the weeds, then you will live.”
So let’s grow up like good wheat. But let’s also be patient with the weeds. God has chosen to leave them there for our good, and let’s be grateful that more time is given for ever greater and truer repentance (c.f. Wisdom 12: 10 & 20)
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