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.
Showing posts with label Eucharist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eucharist. Show all posts
16 January 2011
14 November 2010
Remembrance at the Eucharist
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.
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.
23 August 2009
Receiving eternal life
Sermon preached at St Alphege Church, 9.15am Eucharist
Sunday 23rd August 2009, Trinity 11, Proper 16, Year B
Readings: Joshua 24: 1-2a & 14-18 Ephesians 6: 10-20 John 6: 56-69
One of the great themes of John’s gospel is "Eternal Life". In John, chapter 10, Jesus says, “I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). And this great theme resonates throughout John’s gospel (indeed it resonates throughout the whole New Testament), but it is especially intense in the passage that we heard as our gospel reading today.
But before we look at the gospel let’s pause for a moment to reflect on what John means when he talks about eternal life. Certainly he is looking at life that goes far beyond the 70 or 80 years that we might hope for as an earthly life. He speaks of eternal life, the life that survives death, the life that endures for ever. And we are not talking here of a life of monotony, a dreary life, like a prison sentence to be endured. We are talking of the fullness of life in all it beauty and all its wholeness. Elsewhere in the gospel he describes it as the life that is the light of humanity (John 1: 4), the life which is like a rich harvest (c.f. John 4: 36), the life free from condemnation (John 5: 24), the life which never perishes (John 10: 28), the life that comes with the knowledge of God (John 17: 3). Perhaps by “knowledge of God”, we might understand, “full relationship with God”.
And today’s gospel reading is especially concerned with how we receive this eternal; life that Jesus wants to share with it. It is concerned with where it comes from and what we have to do to get it! And we need to be careful to understand what it means to receive this life. Eternal life is something that comes to us from God. It is something we share in when we abide in God and God in us. It is not something that we can ever own in our own right, independent of God, as though we held legal title to it. Rather it is something that God continually gives to us, continually tops us up with, like water being poured onto a garden every evening, throughout a long dry summer (not that we have had much experience of long dry summers recently!). We receive this life from God by grace, as God’s own free gift to us. When our relationship with God is strong we can gain a sense of assurance that God will pour out this life for us, but it always remains God’s to pour out.
So if that it means to receive eternal life, then how do we do it? What can we do to help to help the process, to receive this life that God wants to pour out to us. Well, in the short passage of scripture that we read for our gospel today Jesus gives us at least three direct descriptions of where this life comes from.
First of all Jesus says, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. … The one who eats this bread will live forever.” Well there are many different interpretations of what Jesus means here, and probably, to a greater or lesser extent, many have truth within them. However, it seems to me very natural and obvious to think that Jesus is talking about the Eucharist at this point. Certainly it is true, coming to the Eucharist is a practical and very physical way of receiving the life of Christ within us. And it is important to come regularly. Just as a garden needs to be watered regularly if it is to grow and bear fruit, so we need to come regularly to the Eucharist to be refreshed in the eternal life, and to grow and bare spiritual fruit.
The second description of where eternal life comes from occurs when Jesus says, “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is useless.” This is a reminder that we all need to be born again in the Spirit. Just as, physically, we are born as babies and need to grow up into mature human beings, so, spiritually, we must be born of the spirit and grow up to be mature spiritual being, saints, ready to lay aside our earthly flesh and to live the life of heaven. We associate being born in the spirit with baptism, when we receive the Holy Spirit and begin our journey of faith within the Church.
“It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is useless.” This phrase also reminds us to give proper attention to our spiritual lives, setting aside time for prayer and meditation. Devoting time to our spiritual life may appear to be unproductive use of time, but it is the spirit that gives life. We might manage to stay alive in the flesh for seventy or eighty years, but sooner or later the flesh passes away and at that point we depend completely on our spiritual life.
The third description of where eternal life comes from arises when Jesus says, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” We have to receive the words of Jesus and if we receive them then we receive both spirit and life. How do we receive the words of Jesus? Well we have to listen to them prayerfully, and allow them to sink into us, and to challenge us and transform us. Above all we have to allow them to affect our attitudes and behaviours, so that we live our lives in accordance with the words of Jesus. At the heart of the words of Jesus we must remember the commandment that he gave us which he described as new and as his own. “Love one another, as I have loved you”. This is the characteristic attitude and behaviour of people who have received the words of Jesus. Inwardly we seek to receive the words of Jesus, and outwardly we practise the behaviours of love. By this we receive the spirit and life of Jesus. Jesus grows within us, and we move towards maturity in the spiritual life.
[There is in fact a forth description of how eternal life come to us comes when Peter says to Jesus, “You have the words of Eternal Life”. There is much that could be said about this wonderful acclamation of peter, but in a way he is not adding very much to what Jesus has already said. Jesus has just said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life,” So let’s focus on the three descriptions made by Jesus; there is already more than enough there.]
So, to summarise. Jesus wants to share his eternal life with us. He wants to give us this gift. How do we receive it? Well first in the Eucharist we receive Christ’s life within ourselves, his very body and blood. Secondly we receive eternal life from the Spirit. We give thanks for our baptism, but we must also take good care of our spiritual lives, making sure that we set aside time for prayer and meditation. Thirdly we receive eternal life from the words, the commands, of Jesus, when we let them enter into us and transform our ways of thinking and behaving. [And the most central word or commandment of Jesus is “Love one another as I have loved you.” This should grow to become our central attitude, our characteristic behaviour.] And although eternal life is entirely God’s free gift, as we grow in this way we can start to hope for a sense of assurance, a profound knowledge and trust, that God is indeed sharing his life with us, and that he will indeed continue to do so for all eternity. Amen.
Sunday 23rd August 2009, Trinity 11, Proper 16, Year B
Readings: Joshua 24: 1-2a & 14-18 Ephesians 6: 10-20 John 6: 56-69
One of the great themes of John’s gospel is "Eternal Life". In John, chapter 10, Jesus says, “I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). And this great theme resonates throughout John’s gospel (indeed it resonates throughout the whole New Testament), but it is especially intense in the passage that we heard as our gospel reading today.
But before we look at the gospel let’s pause for a moment to reflect on what John means when he talks about eternal life. Certainly he is looking at life that goes far beyond the 70 or 80 years that we might hope for as an earthly life. He speaks of eternal life, the life that survives death, the life that endures for ever. And we are not talking here of a life of monotony, a dreary life, like a prison sentence to be endured. We are talking of the fullness of life in all it beauty and all its wholeness. Elsewhere in the gospel he describes it as the life that is the light of humanity (John 1: 4), the life which is like a rich harvest (c.f. John 4: 36), the life free from condemnation (John 5: 24), the life which never perishes (John 10: 28), the life that comes with the knowledge of God (John 17: 3). Perhaps by “knowledge of God”, we might understand, “full relationship with God”.
And today’s gospel reading is especially concerned with how we receive this eternal; life that Jesus wants to share with it. It is concerned with where it comes from and what we have to do to get it! And we need to be careful to understand what it means to receive this life. Eternal life is something that comes to us from God. It is something we share in when we abide in God and God in us. It is not something that we can ever own in our own right, independent of God, as though we held legal title to it. Rather it is something that God continually gives to us, continually tops us up with, like water being poured onto a garden every evening, throughout a long dry summer (not that we have had much experience of long dry summers recently!). We receive this life from God by grace, as God’s own free gift to us. When our relationship with God is strong we can gain a sense of assurance that God will pour out this life for us, but it always remains God’s to pour out.
So if that it means to receive eternal life, then how do we do it? What can we do to help to help the process, to receive this life that God wants to pour out to us. Well, in the short passage of scripture that we read for our gospel today Jesus gives us at least three direct descriptions of where this life comes from.
First of all Jesus says, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. … The one who eats this bread will live forever.” Well there are many different interpretations of what Jesus means here, and probably, to a greater or lesser extent, many have truth within them. However, it seems to me very natural and obvious to think that Jesus is talking about the Eucharist at this point. Certainly it is true, coming to the Eucharist is a practical and very physical way of receiving the life of Christ within us. And it is important to come regularly. Just as a garden needs to be watered regularly if it is to grow and bear fruit, so we need to come regularly to the Eucharist to be refreshed in the eternal life, and to grow and bare spiritual fruit.
The second description of where eternal life comes from occurs when Jesus says, “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is useless.” This is a reminder that we all need to be born again in the Spirit. Just as, physically, we are born as babies and need to grow up into mature human beings, so, spiritually, we must be born of the spirit and grow up to be mature spiritual being, saints, ready to lay aside our earthly flesh and to live the life of heaven. We associate being born in the spirit with baptism, when we receive the Holy Spirit and begin our journey of faith within the Church.
“It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is useless.” This phrase also reminds us to give proper attention to our spiritual lives, setting aside time for prayer and meditation. Devoting time to our spiritual life may appear to be unproductive use of time, but it is the spirit that gives life. We might manage to stay alive in the flesh for seventy or eighty years, but sooner or later the flesh passes away and at that point we depend completely on our spiritual life.
The third description of where eternal life comes from arises when Jesus says, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” We have to receive the words of Jesus and if we receive them then we receive both spirit and life. How do we receive the words of Jesus? Well we have to listen to them prayerfully, and allow them to sink into us, and to challenge us and transform us. Above all we have to allow them to affect our attitudes and behaviours, so that we live our lives in accordance with the words of Jesus. At the heart of the words of Jesus we must remember the commandment that he gave us which he described as new and as his own. “Love one another, as I have loved you”. This is the characteristic attitude and behaviour of people who have received the words of Jesus. Inwardly we seek to receive the words of Jesus, and outwardly we practise the behaviours of love. By this we receive the spirit and life of Jesus. Jesus grows within us, and we move towards maturity in the spiritual life.
[There is in fact a forth description of how eternal life come to us comes when Peter says to Jesus, “You have the words of Eternal Life”. There is much that could be said about this wonderful acclamation of peter, but in a way he is not adding very much to what Jesus has already said. Jesus has just said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life,” So let’s focus on the three descriptions made by Jesus; there is already more than enough there.]
So, to summarise. Jesus wants to share his eternal life with us. He wants to give us this gift. How do we receive it? Well first in the Eucharist we receive Christ’s life within ourselves, his very body and blood. Secondly we receive eternal life from the Spirit. We give thanks for our baptism, but we must also take good care of our spiritual lives, making sure that we set aside time for prayer and meditation. Thirdly we receive eternal life from the words, the commands, of Jesus, when we let them enter into us and transform our ways of thinking and behaving. [And the most central word or commandment of Jesus is “Love one another as I have loved you.” This should grow to become our central attitude, our characteristic behaviour.] And although eternal life is entirely God’s free gift, as we grow in this way we can start to hope for a sense of assurance, a profound knowledge and trust, that God is indeed sharing his life with us, and that he will indeed continue to do so for all eternity. Amen.
12 July 2009
The Liturgy of the Word
Sermon preached at 11am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull
Sunday 12th July 2009, Trinity 5 (Proper 10) Year B
Special Theme – The Liturgy of the Word
Readings: Amos 7: 7-15 Ephesians 1: 3-14 Mark 6: 1-13
As you hopefully already know, we are now making preparations for Back to Church Sunday on 27th September. Back to Church Sunday is a national initiative, particularly supported by Birmingham Diocese, whereby each of us who come to church is encouraged to invite back to church someone who used to attend church, but who, for one reason or another, has not attended for a while. The idea is that for that particular Sunday we make it as easy as we possibility can for people to come back. We invite them personally, we offer to travel with them, or meet them outside church, we sit with them and do our best to make them feel welcomed and at home. Hopefully each of us have already began to think about who we might invite back. Hopefully we have already begun to pray for them, and perhaps even tipped them off that we will be inviting them in September. And this is something that we can all take part in. Even if we are not in a position to invite anyone back, we can still support the initiative through our prayers and through our efforts to welcome back comers when we meet them in church.
There will be more practical preparation for back to church Sunday later in the summer, for example with invitation cards. But in the meantime, across the whole parish, we want to make a good spiritual preparation by reflecting on the question “Why go to church?” The more profoundly we feel and understand the reasons for coming to church, the more naturally and authentically we shall be able to encourage others to come back to church. We are tackling this question of “Why come to church?” by looking at the four main parts of the Eucharistic service, seeking to grow our understanding of their significance and relevance. The 9.15am congregation are approaching this through monthly Teaching Eucharists, but at this 11am Eucharist we are covering this theme in the month of July, with four separate sermons; one for each of the four main parts of the Eucharist. Last week Fr Andrew spoke about the Gathering Rite. This week I shall be talking about the liturgy of the Word. The sermon will be slightly longer than usual, and there will be a summary of the main points available on a handout as you leave church.
So let’s think about the Liturgy of the Word. Have a look at your service booklet. You can see on page n the Gathering Rite ends and the Liturgy of the Word begins. We start with scripture readings, then we have a hymn, a gospel reading, a sermon, we say the creed, and conclude with the intercessions on page m.
When we come to church we hope to have some kind of encounter with God through our worship. God is present to us in several different ways in our worship, but the two most important of these are in the sacrament, when we receive it, and also in the Word of God, when it is proclaimed to us. This second one is what the liturgy of the word is primarily about. It is about listening to the scriptures read to us in worship and through them encountering God, understanding him better, drawing closer to him and wanting to live our lives more in accordance with his teaching.
So we say that God is present to us in the reading of the scriptures in Church. At the end of the reading we say, “This is the Word of the Lord” because we are hearing God speak to us through the scriptures. Now I just want to clarify that a little. As Christians we don’t, for example, make the same claims about the bible as Muslim’s make about the Koran. The Muslims say that the Koran is literally the words of God, dictated to the prophet Mohammad. For the most part the bible is not like that. There are some parts of the Old Testament where a prophet says, “Thus says the Lord our God…” to introduce some direct message from God. We also know that Jesus is divine, so the words of Jesus do come directly to us from God. But most of the bible is written by frail and fallible human beings who are recording some aspect of God’s relationship with humanity. And it is that relationship between God and humanity, between God and ourselves which becomes enlightened for us when we listen to the scriptures in worship.
Now typically we have three readings; one from the Old Testament, one from the epistles and a Gospel reading. So first of all we have an Old Testament reading. The Old Testament makes up about three quarters of our current day bibles. It is the old Jewish scriptures, written in Hebrew that Jesus himself would have been familiar with. It is sometimes called the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament is littered with themes and ideas that recur and are further developed in the New Testament. For example, this morning we heard about the prophet Amos and his plumb line to keep the people of Israel upright and true. Amos caused tension with his prophecies against the king, Jeroboam. This same theme is repeated with John the Baptist in today’s gospel reading. John the Baptist comes proclaiming a message “make your paths straight”, and he too gets into trouble (indeed loses his life) for criticising the king. We might say that Amos is in some sense a precursor of John the Baptist, or to use the technical theological language, a “type”.
Our Old Testament readings are therefore important because they set out understandings about Jesus and the Church in the context of our salvation history; in the context of God’s relationship with the Jews. When I was studying at theological college I bought a big bible that shows cross references between different parts of the bible. I have to say that I was shocked to see how heavily the New Testament draws on the Old Testament. There are references to it everywhere.
After our Old Testament reading we have a New Testament reading, typically from the epistles. The epistles were letters written by the apostles to different churches or church leaders in the first century. They therefore provide essential teaching about how we are to think and behave in the church. For example, today we read a wonderful hymn of praise from Ephesians, which sets out for us the many blessings we have received and will receive through Christ.
Have a look at the lectern from which the scriptures are read. There is an eagle perched on a ball. The ball represents the world, and the eagle represents the word of God. The eagle is a symbol of strength and renewal (Is 40:31) and it spreads itself over the world, like the word of God. An eagle is also the symbol of St John the Evangelist, responsible for 5 of the 27 books in the New Testament.
But the climax of the Liturgy of the Word is the reading of the gospel, and when we read the gospel we use a completely different symbolism. First of all we highlight this part of the liturgy with as much ceremony as possible. We have music for Alleluias or a gradual hymn and many people are involved and sometimes we even have incense. Above all we have a procession which re-enacts certain aspects of the incarnation. In the incarnation God comes down from high heaven to dwell with us mortals on earth, and to bring the good news (the gospel) to us. In the gospel procession the book of the gospels is carried down from its elevated place at the front of church, or on the altar, into the body of the church. We try to read the gospel from the very middle of the church, from the midst of all the people. We are acting out, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1: 14).
As the gospel is announced we are all invited to sign ourselves with a cross three times, once on the forehead, once on the lips and once on the heart. This indicates that we want the gospel (the good news) to be forever on our minds, on our lips and on our hearts. Now I have to admit that, until recently, I never used to make hand signals like this, or make the sign of the cross during worship. Since I have started making them however I have been impressed by how they help me to connect with what is going on. Previously I was participating with my ears and my mind as I listened and my voice, as I said the responses. Now I also participate with my body as I make the signs, and this is a fuller participation. I am more drawn into what is happening as the gospel is read, so I commend these signs to you.
The high point of the Liturgy of the Word comes at the end of the gospel reading, when the proclaimer lifts the book up high and says, “This is the gospel of the Lord.” The moment is analogous to the elevation of the sacrament and great amen at the end of the Eucharistic prayer.
This high point is followed by the sermon, and we all know has the potential to be a real low point! But the purpose of the sermon is to help us to understand the scripture readings, to help us to welcome them into our hearts and transform us. A good sermon will help us to see the relevance of the scriptures and to live out the gospel message in our daily lives. Obviously the success of a sermon depends the skill of the preacher, but it is all too easy to underestimate the role of the congregation in the delivery of a good sermon. If the congregation listen with hope and love to the preacher, rejoicing with the preacher in what is good, and suffering with the preacher in what is bad, then Jesus can be present (c.f. Matt 18:20) and can communicate, despite the preacher’s inadequacies.
After the sermon we have the creed, which is a simple reminder of the fundamental points of the Christian faith into which we were baptised. The creeds give us a solid rock on which all our Christianity can be built. If our Christianity is consistent with the creeds then we can’t go too far wrong. If we start to forget the creeds or to ignore them then the risk of building our lives on unsure foundations starts to increase. One day a crisis will come, and everything that is not built on the solid rock of the teaching of Jesus will fall away. It is good to remind ourselves of the creeds each week.
The final part of the Liturgy of the Word is the intercessions; the prayers. These prayers are in part a response to the encounter with the word of God. Hopefully the encounter has encouraged us and moved us forward and we want to rededicate ourselves to God in prayer. But the prayers are also a preparation for the Liturgy of the Sacrament, which is about to begin. We lay before the Lord our prayers confident that by the great sacrifice of Jesus that the Eucharist recalls, they may be purified and made acceptable and desirable to God. The word “intercede” means to plead to someone on behalf of someone else. Most of the time, in intercessions, we are praying for other people. Most noticeably we pray for people who are sick or who have died, or those who have asked for our prayers. Of course we can and should pray for ourselves, but we must recognise that our prayers for others are more generous and more purified and therefore more beneficial in front of God.
So that, in a nutshell, is the Liturgy of the Word. Hopefully as we understanding the liturgy better we will find it easier to engage with what is happening and be drawn more fully into the encounter with God. I am sure that worshiping well ourselves will prove to be the best possible preparation as we come to invite others to worship with us on Back to Church Sunday. Amen.
Sunday 12th July 2009, Trinity 5 (Proper 10) Year B
Special Theme – The Liturgy of the Word
Readings: Amos 7: 7-15 Ephesians 1: 3-14 Mark 6: 1-13
As you hopefully already know, we are now making preparations for Back to Church Sunday on 27th September. Back to Church Sunday is a national initiative, particularly supported by Birmingham Diocese, whereby each of us who come to church is encouraged to invite back to church someone who used to attend church, but who, for one reason or another, has not attended for a while. The idea is that for that particular Sunday we make it as easy as we possibility can for people to come back. We invite them personally, we offer to travel with them, or meet them outside church, we sit with them and do our best to make them feel welcomed and at home. Hopefully each of us have already began to think about who we might invite back. Hopefully we have already begun to pray for them, and perhaps even tipped them off that we will be inviting them in September. And this is something that we can all take part in. Even if we are not in a position to invite anyone back, we can still support the initiative through our prayers and through our efforts to welcome back comers when we meet them in church.
There will be more practical preparation for back to church Sunday later in the summer, for example with invitation cards. But in the meantime, across the whole parish, we want to make a good spiritual preparation by reflecting on the question “Why go to church?” The more profoundly we feel and understand the reasons for coming to church, the more naturally and authentically we shall be able to encourage others to come back to church. We are tackling this question of “Why come to church?” by looking at the four main parts of the Eucharistic service, seeking to grow our understanding of their significance and relevance. The 9.15am congregation are approaching this through monthly Teaching Eucharists, but at this 11am Eucharist we are covering this theme in the month of July, with four separate sermons; one for each of the four main parts of the Eucharist. Last week Fr Andrew spoke about the Gathering Rite. This week I shall be talking about the liturgy of the Word. The sermon will be slightly longer than usual, and there will be a summary of the main points available on a handout as you leave church.
So let’s think about the Liturgy of the Word. Have a look at your service booklet. You can see on page n the Gathering Rite ends and the Liturgy of the Word begins. We start with scripture readings, then we have a hymn, a gospel reading, a sermon, we say the creed, and conclude with the intercessions on page m.
When we come to church we hope to have some kind of encounter with God through our worship. God is present to us in several different ways in our worship, but the two most important of these are in the sacrament, when we receive it, and also in the Word of God, when it is proclaimed to us. This second one is what the liturgy of the word is primarily about. It is about listening to the scriptures read to us in worship and through them encountering God, understanding him better, drawing closer to him and wanting to live our lives more in accordance with his teaching.
So we say that God is present to us in the reading of the scriptures in Church. At the end of the reading we say, “This is the Word of the Lord” because we are hearing God speak to us through the scriptures. Now I just want to clarify that a little. As Christians we don’t, for example, make the same claims about the bible as Muslim’s make about the Koran. The Muslims say that the Koran is literally the words of God, dictated to the prophet Mohammad. For the most part the bible is not like that. There are some parts of the Old Testament where a prophet says, “Thus says the Lord our God…” to introduce some direct message from God. We also know that Jesus is divine, so the words of Jesus do come directly to us from God. But most of the bible is written by frail and fallible human beings who are recording some aspect of God’s relationship with humanity. And it is that relationship between God and humanity, between God and ourselves which becomes enlightened for us when we listen to the scriptures in worship.
Now typically we have three readings; one from the Old Testament, one from the epistles and a Gospel reading. So first of all we have an Old Testament reading. The Old Testament makes up about three quarters of our current day bibles. It is the old Jewish scriptures, written in Hebrew that Jesus himself would have been familiar with. It is sometimes called the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament is littered with themes and ideas that recur and are further developed in the New Testament. For example, this morning we heard about the prophet Amos and his plumb line to keep the people of Israel upright and true. Amos caused tension with his prophecies against the king, Jeroboam. This same theme is repeated with John the Baptist in today’s gospel reading. John the Baptist comes proclaiming a message “make your paths straight”, and he too gets into trouble (indeed loses his life) for criticising the king. We might say that Amos is in some sense a precursor of John the Baptist, or to use the technical theological language, a “type”.
Our Old Testament readings are therefore important because they set out understandings about Jesus and the Church in the context of our salvation history; in the context of God’s relationship with the Jews. When I was studying at theological college I bought a big bible that shows cross references between different parts of the bible. I have to say that I was shocked to see how heavily the New Testament draws on the Old Testament. There are references to it everywhere.
After our Old Testament reading we have a New Testament reading, typically from the epistles. The epistles were letters written by the apostles to different churches or church leaders in the first century. They therefore provide essential teaching about how we are to think and behave in the church. For example, today we read a wonderful hymn of praise from Ephesians, which sets out for us the many blessings we have received and will receive through Christ.
Have a look at the lectern from which the scriptures are read. There is an eagle perched on a ball. The ball represents the world, and the eagle represents the word of God. The eagle is a symbol of strength and renewal (Is 40:31) and it spreads itself over the world, like the word of God. An eagle is also the symbol of St John the Evangelist, responsible for 5 of the 27 books in the New Testament.
But the climax of the Liturgy of the Word is the reading of the gospel, and when we read the gospel we use a completely different symbolism. First of all we highlight this part of the liturgy with as much ceremony as possible. We have music for Alleluias or a gradual hymn and many people are involved and sometimes we even have incense. Above all we have a procession which re-enacts certain aspects of the incarnation. In the incarnation God comes down from high heaven to dwell with us mortals on earth, and to bring the good news (the gospel) to us. In the gospel procession the book of the gospels is carried down from its elevated place at the front of church, or on the altar, into the body of the church. We try to read the gospel from the very middle of the church, from the midst of all the people. We are acting out, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1: 14).
As the gospel is announced we are all invited to sign ourselves with a cross three times, once on the forehead, once on the lips and once on the heart. This indicates that we want the gospel (the good news) to be forever on our minds, on our lips and on our hearts. Now I have to admit that, until recently, I never used to make hand signals like this, or make the sign of the cross during worship. Since I have started making them however I have been impressed by how they help me to connect with what is going on. Previously I was participating with my ears and my mind as I listened and my voice, as I said the responses. Now I also participate with my body as I make the signs, and this is a fuller participation. I am more drawn into what is happening as the gospel is read, so I commend these signs to you.
The high point of the Liturgy of the Word comes at the end of the gospel reading, when the proclaimer lifts the book up high and says, “This is the gospel of the Lord.” The moment is analogous to the elevation of the sacrament and great amen at the end of the Eucharistic prayer.
This high point is followed by the sermon, and we all know has the potential to be a real low point! But the purpose of the sermon is to help us to understand the scripture readings, to help us to welcome them into our hearts and transform us. A good sermon will help us to see the relevance of the scriptures and to live out the gospel message in our daily lives. Obviously the success of a sermon depends the skill of the preacher, but it is all too easy to underestimate the role of the congregation in the delivery of a good sermon. If the congregation listen with hope and love to the preacher, rejoicing with the preacher in what is good, and suffering with the preacher in what is bad, then Jesus can be present (c.f. Matt 18:20) and can communicate, despite the preacher’s inadequacies.
After the sermon we have the creed, which is a simple reminder of the fundamental points of the Christian faith into which we were baptised. The creeds give us a solid rock on which all our Christianity can be built. If our Christianity is consistent with the creeds then we can’t go too far wrong. If we start to forget the creeds or to ignore them then the risk of building our lives on unsure foundations starts to increase. One day a crisis will come, and everything that is not built on the solid rock of the teaching of Jesus will fall away. It is good to remind ourselves of the creeds each week.
The final part of the Liturgy of the Word is the intercessions; the prayers. These prayers are in part a response to the encounter with the word of God. Hopefully the encounter has encouraged us and moved us forward and we want to rededicate ourselves to God in prayer. But the prayers are also a preparation for the Liturgy of the Sacrament, which is about to begin. We lay before the Lord our prayers confident that by the great sacrifice of Jesus that the Eucharist recalls, they may be purified and made acceptable and desirable to God. The word “intercede” means to plead to someone on behalf of someone else. Most of the time, in intercessions, we are praying for other people. Most noticeably we pray for people who are sick or who have died, or those who have asked for our prayers. Of course we can and should pray for ourselves, but we must recognise that our prayers for others are more generous and more purified and therefore more beneficial in front of God.
So that, in a nutshell, is the Liturgy of the Word. Hopefully as we understanding the liturgy better we will find it easier to engage with what is happening and be drawn more fully into the encounter with God. I am sure that worshiping well ourselves will prove to be the best possible preparation as we come to invite others to worship with us on Back to Church Sunday. Amen.
28 September 2008
SS Michael, Gabriel and Raphael
Sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull at 9.15 and 11am Eucharists
Sunday 28th September 2008 – SS Michael, Gabriel and Raphael
Readings: Genesis 28: 10-17 Revelation 12: 7-12 John 1: 47-51
Today we celebrate Michaelmas, or more precisely the feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Now Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are not ordinary saints, but rather they are angels and so it is not surprising that this feast is sometimes known as St Michael and All Angels.
“And what are angels?” you might well ask. Well angels are spiritual beings which do not have bodies. They are creatures, that is to say they were created by God (Col 1: 16), but they seem to have been well established by the time that Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1, 24). As spiritual beings, angels have their own personalities and their own free will. Some angels have chosen (as we are all free to choose) to rebel against God and to try to go their own way. These we call demons and we think of the Devil, the prince of all demons, who we read about being cast out of heaven by St Michael in our second reading today (see also 2 Peter 2: 4, Jude 6). When we use the word “angel” we are generally not thinking of demons, but rather we mean spiritual beings that are good. That is spiritual being who choose to use their free will in harmony with the will of God. They choose to do God’s work. In fact, according to St Augustine, the word “angel”, which means “messenger”, is more of a job title than a description of a particular kind of being. Psalm 103 (v20) tells us that angels are “might ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word”. So angels are powerful, spiritual beings who are the messengers of God and who do God’s will.
Now if angels are spiritual beings, who can’t been seen or touched in the visible world in which we live, how do we know anything about them? How do we even know they exist? Well first of all, angels are always much closer than we think. Psalm 34 (v7) tells us that “the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them” and psalm 97 (9-16) tells us that God will deliver those who love him, sending angels to guard them and bear them up. And so we can believe that we each have a guardian angel walking always beside us and protecting us. Certainly Jesus is thinking this when he talks about children. He says, “take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my father” (Matt 18:10). And with angels always so close to us and looking after us it is perhaps not so surprising that we do sometimes meet people who have had some experience of the presence of angels, or of angels protecting them in moments of crisis.
And this certainly seems to have been the experience of God’s people over the centuries. We find that our holy scriptures are full of references to angels. They crop up in literally hundreds of places. As our readings today illustrate, they are spread throughout the bible from Genesis, the very first book, to Revelation, the last book. We find them especially at critical moments in our salvation history; when Abraham is about sacrifice his son Isaac, when Moses is called by God to set the Israelites free, when the Blessed Virgin Mary is told she is to expect the child Jesus, at the resurrection of Christ. The other place that they appear a lot in scripture in where there are visions of heaven. Our reading from Genesis and Revelation both include visions of heaven where lots of angels were seen.
It is interesting to note that it is not just the Christian scriptures that talk about angels. The Jews and the Muslims, who also worship the God of Abraham, also have a great deal about angels in their scriptures. Michael and Gabriel are mentioned in the Muslims holy book, the Koran. The Jewish Talmud has extraordinary details about many angels including Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. It describes many different ranks of angels, and the many different heights of heaven.
And what is so special about the angels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael? Well they are the only three angels to be named in the bible. Michael is the leader of the armies of God, as we heard in our reading from Revelation. Gabriel is the angel who tells Zachariah that he is to father John the Baptist, and tells the Blessed Virgin Mary that she is to mother Jesus. Raphael appears in the apocryphal book of Tobit. He heals Tobit’s eyes so that he can see again.
So that is a bit about angels, but why are angels so important to us in our Christian lives? Well firstly they are important to us because of the practical help that they can give us in our journey towards God. I am thinking here especially of the angels that are close to us all the time, guarding us and protecting us; our guardian angels. But really this is true of all angels. As the book of Hebrews puts it, “Are not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). With so much help available near at hand, we do well to grow in awareness of angels, thanking god for them and sharing with them in the praising of God.
But angels are also important because they show us something of the high court of heaven. Every now and again the scriptures give us a glimpse of the majesty, splendour and awe of heaven. We saw some of this in our scripture readings today, but it happens many times. [I particularly love the passage in Isaiah when Isaiah describes his vision of the throne of God (Isaiah 6: 1-5). There are seraphs in attendance all around singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” And the thresholds shake at their singing, and the house is filled with smoke. And then there is the moment when Jesus is born and a multitude of the heavenly host appeared before the shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace and goodwill among people” (Luke 2: 13-14).]
And the extraordinary thing is that we are called to share in this life of heaven. God wants each one of us to be part of it all. In Luke chapter 20 (v35-36) Jesus is talking about resurrection and marriage. He says, “But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection”. We are called to share in this life of heaven and in the holiness of God (Heb 3: 1, 12: 10) like the angels. We know that all this is only fully realised after the resurrection of the dead. We know that we have a long journey to walk before we get there, because we know that we are far from being angels at the moment. But despite this, there is a sense in which it is true already. If we are in Christ then we are already part of this new creation (2 Cor 5:17). And perhaps our best chance of being aware of this is at the Eucharist, where we join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven to praise the glorious name of God. In the Eucharist, Jesus shares his life with us. Truly it is a foretaste of the great heavenly banquet to which we are called (Revelation 19: 9). Let’s try to place ourselves in that reality as we receive Holy Communion today.
Sunday 28th September 2008 – SS Michael, Gabriel and Raphael
Readings: Genesis 28: 10-17 Revelation 12: 7-12 John 1: 47-51
Today we celebrate Michaelmas, or more precisely the feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Now Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are not ordinary saints, but rather they are angels and so it is not surprising that this feast is sometimes known as St Michael and All Angels.
“And what are angels?” you might well ask. Well angels are spiritual beings which do not have bodies. They are creatures, that is to say they were created by God (Col 1: 16), but they seem to have been well established by the time that Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1, 24). As spiritual beings, angels have their own personalities and their own free will. Some angels have chosen (as we are all free to choose) to rebel against God and to try to go their own way. These we call demons and we think of the Devil, the prince of all demons, who we read about being cast out of heaven by St Michael in our second reading today (see also 2 Peter 2: 4, Jude 6). When we use the word “angel” we are generally not thinking of demons, but rather we mean spiritual beings that are good. That is spiritual being who choose to use their free will in harmony with the will of God. They choose to do God’s work. In fact, according to St Augustine, the word “angel”, which means “messenger”, is more of a job title than a description of a particular kind of being. Psalm 103 (v20) tells us that angels are “might ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word”. So angels are powerful, spiritual beings who are the messengers of God and who do God’s will.
Now if angels are spiritual beings, who can’t been seen or touched in the visible world in which we live, how do we know anything about them? How do we even know they exist? Well first of all, angels are always much closer than we think. Psalm 34 (v7) tells us that “the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them” and psalm 97 (9-16) tells us that God will deliver those who love him, sending angels to guard them and bear them up. And so we can believe that we each have a guardian angel walking always beside us and protecting us. Certainly Jesus is thinking this when he talks about children. He says, “take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my father” (Matt 18:10). And with angels always so close to us and looking after us it is perhaps not so surprising that we do sometimes meet people who have had some experience of the presence of angels, or of angels protecting them in moments of crisis.
And this certainly seems to have been the experience of God’s people over the centuries. We find that our holy scriptures are full of references to angels. They crop up in literally hundreds of places. As our readings today illustrate, they are spread throughout the bible from Genesis, the very first book, to Revelation, the last book. We find them especially at critical moments in our salvation history; when Abraham is about sacrifice his son Isaac, when Moses is called by God to set the Israelites free, when the Blessed Virgin Mary is told she is to expect the child Jesus, at the resurrection of Christ. The other place that they appear a lot in scripture in where there are visions of heaven. Our reading from Genesis and Revelation both include visions of heaven where lots of angels were seen.
It is interesting to note that it is not just the Christian scriptures that talk about angels. The Jews and the Muslims, who also worship the God of Abraham, also have a great deal about angels in their scriptures. Michael and Gabriel are mentioned in the Muslims holy book, the Koran. The Jewish Talmud has extraordinary details about many angels including Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. It describes many different ranks of angels, and the many different heights of heaven.
And what is so special about the angels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael? Well they are the only three angels to be named in the bible. Michael is the leader of the armies of God, as we heard in our reading from Revelation. Gabriel is the angel who tells Zachariah that he is to father John the Baptist, and tells the Blessed Virgin Mary that she is to mother Jesus. Raphael appears in the apocryphal book of Tobit. He heals Tobit’s eyes so that he can see again.
So that is a bit about angels, but why are angels so important to us in our Christian lives? Well firstly they are important to us because of the practical help that they can give us in our journey towards God. I am thinking here especially of the angels that are close to us all the time, guarding us and protecting us; our guardian angels. But really this is true of all angels. As the book of Hebrews puts it, “Are not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). With so much help available near at hand, we do well to grow in awareness of angels, thanking god for them and sharing with them in the praising of God.
But angels are also important because they show us something of the high court of heaven. Every now and again the scriptures give us a glimpse of the majesty, splendour and awe of heaven. We saw some of this in our scripture readings today, but it happens many times. [I particularly love the passage in Isaiah when Isaiah describes his vision of the throne of God (Isaiah 6: 1-5). There are seraphs in attendance all around singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” And the thresholds shake at their singing, and the house is filled with smoke. And then there is the moment when Jesus is born and a multitude of the heavenly host appeared before the shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace and goodwill among people” (Luke 2: 13-14).]
And the extraordinary thing is that we are called to share in this life of heaven. God wants each one of us to be part of it all. In Luke chapter 20 (v35-36) Jesus is talking about resurrection and marriage. He says, “But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection”. We are called to share in this life of heaven and in the holiness of God (Heb 3: 1, 12: 10) like the angels. We know that all this is only fully realised after the resurrection of the dead. We know that we have a long journey to walk before we get there, because we know that we are far from being angels at the moment. But despite this, there is a sense in which it is true already. If we are in Christ then we are already part of this new creation (2 Cor 5:17). And perhaps our best chance of being aware of this is at the Eucharist, where we join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven to praise the glorious name of God. In the Eucharist, Jesus shares his life with us. Truly it is a foretaste of the great heavenly banquet to which we are called (Revelation 19: 9). Let’s try to place ourselves in that reality as we receive Holy Communion today.
06 January 2008
The meaning of "Epiphany"
Preached at St Alphege Solihull at the 9.15am Parish Eucharist
Sunday 6th January 2008 – Year A
Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12
One of the Christmas presents received in our family this year was the Simpson’s movie on DVD. A few days after Christmas we sat down as a family and watched it together. Now I am great fan of the Simpson cartoons and I enjoyed the film. But I was particularly interested because in the middle of the film there is a discussion about the word “Epiphany”. By this point in the film Homer has reached rock bottom; he almost dies a lonely death in the snow and ice of a remote corner of Alaska. Then, inexplicably, he is saved by an old wise native American, mother figure. She tells him that she is going to make him have “an Epiphany”. “An Epiphany!” Homer asks, “What’s that?” “Sudden realisation of great truth,” she tells him. Well Homer is rather pig headed, and his Epiphany is some time in coming. But, eventually he realises that he has to stop thinking about himself and start helping his family and his home town. It is the turning point of the film; from that moment things slowly start to get better again, until, by the end of the film, as always happens in Simpson’s cartoons, everything has been restored to its proper state.
So, according to the Simpson’s movie, Epiphany means a “Suddenly realisation of great truth.” Apparently James Joyce also uses the word Epiphany in this way in his short stories about Dubliners. And I wonder about it. Is this really what Epiphany is all about?
We normally say that word Epiphany comes from the Greek word epiphania, which means "manifestation," or “appearance”. In the Church we associate the Epiphany with the key moments when Jesus was shown to the world. Today, on the feast of the Epiphany itself, we think of the moment when the baby Jesus was shown to the wise men from the East. After the service you might like to take a moment to look at our crib scene in St Thomas’s chapel. If you do, you will see that the shepherds have now left and the wise men have arrived and are offering their gifts to the Holy Family. And certainly this is a moment of “showing” a moment of “manifestation”. The wise men encounter Jesus. They respond by paying homage and by offering gifts. But is this, I wonder, a “Sudden realisation of great truth”?
If Epiphany is the “sudden realisation of great truth”, what is the great truth that is being realised here. Did the wise men recognise Jesus as the son of God, as the Messiah? Well we don’t know quite what they understood, we are not told. But they clearly understood that Jesus was important, worthy of homage, and worthy of the most valuable gifts. And perhaps the gifts tell us something of what they understood. Gold is a gift for a king. Frankincense is a gift for a priest, because it’s used in incense. Myrrh is a gift for one who dies. It is the bitter resin used in embalming and in incense for funerals. So the gifts suggest that the wise men had indeed understood some profound truths about Jesus.
But in the end, it does seem to me, that Epiphany is more about the “manifestation” or “appearance” of the baby Jesus on earth. It is about being shown Jesus and it is about showing Jesus to others. The encounter with Jesus does bring about many great things. It might bring about the sudden realisation of great truth, but in the gospel stories meeting Jesus more commonly brings about healing or joy, reconciliation or forgiveness, new life or new understanding.
So in Epiphany tide it is good for us to ponder “How is Jesus shown to us” and “How do we show Jesus to others.” And in this parish, this very much what our Going for Growth programme is about. Through Going for Growth we hope to grow in our own personal encounter with Jesus, and also to help others to encounter Jesus, so that the church can grow. The next big step in our Going for Growth programme is called Fan the Flame. In a few weeks time we will be inviting you all to take part in Fan the Flame, which will happen on five successive Thursdays, starting on 10th April. Each of the five Fan the Flame events focuses on a different aspect of our Faith, with some teaching and reflection. There will also be lots of music in a “Songs of Praise” format.
As we prepare for the Fan the Flame event we would like to invite every member of the congregations to attend a House Eucharist during Lent 2008. The House Eucharists will give us the opportunity to share in the Eucharist together in a more homely and informal environment. The priest will lead a short reflection during the Eucharist. Afterwards, depending on host, we might have tea and coffee and a discussion about favourite hymns, and this will help us to prepare for the Songs of Praise aspect of Fan the Flame.
Lent comes very early this year. Ash Wednesday is exactly a month away, so now is the right time to start thinking about these House Eucharists during Lent. As you leave church today you will be given a leaflet all about the House Eucharists, so please do take those away and read them and think about how you might like to be involved. In particular you might like to think about hosting one of the House Eucharists. It is a wonderful thing to have the Eucharist celebrated in your home. It is a wonderful opportunity to welcome Jesus into your home; in the scripture readings, in the sacrament, in the people who come (Matt 25: 40) and in the midst of the people gathered in his name (Matt 18:20).
So during this Epiphany tide let’s think about how we encounter Jesus and how we show Jesus to others. And let’s start to think in particular about how we can do this through the House Eucharists and through Fan the Flame. Amen
Sunday 6th January 2008 – Year A
Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12
One of the Christmas presents received in our family this year was the Simpson’s movie on DVD. A few days after Christmas we sat down as a family and watched it together. Now I am great fan of the Simpson cartoons and I enjoyed the film. But I was particularly interested because in the middle of the film there is a discussion about the word “Epiphany”. By this point in the film Homer has reached rock bottom; he almost dies a lonely death in the snow and ice of a remote corner of Alaska. Then, inexplicably, he is saved by an old wise native American, mother figure. She tells him that she is going to make him have “an Epiphany”. “An Epiphany!” Homer asks, “What’s that?” “Sudden realisation of great truth,” she tells him. Well Homer is rather pig headed, and his Epiphany is some time in coming. But, eventually he realises that he has to stop thinking about himself and start helping his family and his home town. It is the turning point of the film; from that moment things slowly start to get better again, until, by the end of the film, as always happens in Simpson’s cartoons, everything has been restored to its proper state.
So, according to the Simpson’s movie, Epiphany means a “Suddenly realisation of great truth.” Apparently James Joyce also uses the word Epiphany in this way in his short stories about Dubliners. And I wonder about it. Is this really what Epiphany is all about?
We normally say that word Epiphany comes from the Greek word epiphania, which means "manifestation," or “appearance”. In the Church we associate the Epiphany with the key moments when Jesus was shown to the world. Today, on the feast of the Epiphany itself, we think of the moment when the baby Jesus was shown to the wise men from the East. After the service you might like to take a moment to look at our crib scene in St Thomas’s chapel. If you do, you will see that the shepherds have now left and the wise men have arrived and are offering their gifts to the Holy Family. And certainly this is a moment of “showing” a moment of “manifestation”. The wise men encounter Jesus. They respond by paying homage and by offering gifts. But is this, I wonder, a “Sudden realisation of great truth”?
If Epiphany is the “sudden realisation of great truth”, what is the great truth that is being realised here. Did the wise men recognise Jesus as the son of God, as the Messiah? Well we don’t know quite what they understood, we are not told. But they clearly understood that Jesus was important, worthy of homage, and worthy of the most valuable gifts. And perhaps the gifts tell us something of what they understood. Gold is a gift for a king. Frankincense is a gift for a priest, because it’s used in incense. Myrrh is a gift for one who dies. It is the bitter resin used in embalming and in incense for funerals. So the gifts suggest that the wise men had indeed understood some profound truths about Jesus.
But in the end, it does seem to me, that Epiphany is more about the “manifestation” or “appearance” of the baby Jesus on earth. It is about being shown Jesus and it is about showing Jesus to others. The encounter with Jesus does bring about many great things. It might bring about the sudden realisation of great truth, but in the gospel stories meeting Jesus more commonly brings about healing or joy, reconciliation or forgiveness, new life or new understanding.
So in Epiphany tide it is good for us to ponder “How is Jesus shown to us” and “How do we show Jesus to others.” And in this parish, this very much what our Going for Growth programme is about. Through Going for Growth we hope to grow in our own personal encounter with Jesus, and also to help others to encounter Jesus, so that the church can grow. The next big step in our Going for Growth programme is called Fan the Flame. In a few weeks time we will be inviting you all to take part in Fan the Flame, which will happen on five successive Thursdays, starting on 10th April. Each of the five Fan the Flame events focuses on a different aspect of our Faith, with some teaching and reflection. There will also be lots of music in a “Songs of Praise” format.
As we prepare for the Fan the Flame event we would like to invite every member of the congregations to attend a House Eucharist during Lent 2008. The House Eucharists will give us the opportunity to share in the Eucharist together in a more homely and informal environment. The priest will lead a short reflection during the Eucharist. Afterwards, depending on host, we might have tea and coffee and a discussion about favourite hymns, and this will help us to prepare for the Songs of Praise aspect of Fan the Flame.
Lent comes very early this year. Ash Wednesday is exactly a month away, so now is the right time to start thinking about these House Eucharists during Lent. As you leave church today you will be given a leaflet all about the House Eucharists, so please do take those away and read them and think about how you might like to be involved. In particular you might like to think about hosting one of the House Eucharists. It is a wonderful thing to have the Eucharist celebrated in your home. It is a wonderful opportunity to welcome Jesus into your home; in the scripture readings, in the sacrament, in the people who come (Matt 25: 40) and in the midst of the people gathered in his name (Matt 18:20).
So during this Epiphany tide let’s think about how we encounter Jesus and how we show Jesus to others. And let’s start to think in particular about how we can do this through the House Eucharists and through Fan the Flame. Amen
18 November 2007
Choir Sunday
Preached at St Alphege, Solihull on 18/11/07 – Second Sunday before Advent – Year C (Choir Sunday)
The sermon was preached at the 9.15 Eucharist with the boys choir interviewed and repeated at the 11am Eucharist with Girls Choir interviewed.
(Readings: Malachi 4:1-2a 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Luke 21:5-19)
Choirs Sunday gives us an opportunity for us to celebrate our different choirs and to give thanks for the contribution that they make to our worship.
And there is a lot to give thanks for here. Perhaps most obviously we can give thanks for Nigel, our Director of Music and for John, the assistant organist. We give thanks for the people who sing in the choirs themselves; the boys, the girls, the ladies and the men. Then there are the families who support the choir members. Most people who sing in the choirs can only do so because of the support and commitment of other family members. We can also give thanks for groups like the Friends of St Alphege Music and the Royal School of Church Music who in different ways support the ministry of our choirs. So there is lots to give thanks for.
But Choirs Sunday is also a good opportunity to reflect upon the role of music in our worship. Music enhances the worship. It adds breadth and depth helping us to enter into the liturgy in a more complete way. Music makes the liturgy more beautiful and more fulfilling. If we go home from church still humming the music, then this helps us to remain in the spirit of the liturgy as we set out on our week.
Now most of us appreciate music, but many of us are not great musicians. And this is where a good choir can really help us. The choir can help us by leading our singing. It can also enhance our liturgy with additional anthems and settings that are well beyond the musical ability of most people. And this is a wonderful thing, and we need to celebrate it.
But there is another aspect that we must not lose sight of. Worship is something that we do together. When we come together as a church community to celebrate the Eucharist, we come together as one body; the body of Christ (e.g. Romans 12:4-5,1 Cor12:17, Eph 1:23). When we share in the bread and wine of the Eucharist we are share together in the body of Christ; we are participating in the body of Christ (1 Cor 10:16-17). The body of Christ in the Eucharist strengthens, renews and enlivens the body of Christ which is the church. And so it is essential that this celebration of the Eucharist is something we do together.
Now saying that we must celebrate the Eucharist together, does not mean that we all do the same thing. Just as the many organs of a physical body have different roles, so we have different roles in the church, and different roles in the liturgy. But the key point is that all these different things must be done to help and support the worship of the whole congregation; they must be done on behalf of the whole community.
So if the choir sing for us the Sanctus, or a special anthem we don’t need to join in and sing with them, but we do need to own and participate in that part of the worship. And we do this by listening, by praying and by contemplating the heavenly mysteries through the singing.
Now someone might say, “I’d rather sing my own Sanctus: that way I am participating more in the service.” Well, that is a good starting point. But as we grow in the faith, and as we get better at worship, we need to move beyond an individualised worship which is all about I do and say. Each of us needs to develop an awareness of or own worship as part of the worship of the whole community. My worship is my contribution to the worship of the whole congregation; it’s my sharing in the worship of the whole congregation. And in most cases the worship of the whole congregation is going to be more beautiful, and bring us closer to God, if the Sanctus is sung by the choir.
And this places a huge responsibility on the choir. It is very easy for the choir to get caught up in the technicalities of singing, and keeping the music sheets in order, and to forget they are worshiping, that worship is the essential thing. The more than the congregation is aware of the choir worshiping, the easier the congregation will find it to entrust the signing to the choir. And our liturgy will be the more beautiful for it.
Now I would like to ask the boys choir to come forward. We have talked about sharing in worship together, and sharing becomes easier as we know each other better, so I thought we could end this sermon by taking the opportunity to get to know the boys choir a little better. So we can start off by getting a proper look at you!
[A brief interview follows]
Tell me, how often do you come to church?
How often to practice, and how often to a service?
And what are the best bits of the service? What are the bits you enjoy?
And what about the rest of the service? Do you manage to say the prayers and listen to the sermon?
The sermon was preached at the 9.15 Eucharist with the boys choir interviewed and repeated at the 11am Eucharist with Girls Choir interviewed.
(Readings: Malachi 4:1-2a 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Luke 21:5-19)
Choirs Sunday gives us an opportunity for us to celebrate our different choirs and to give thanks for the contribution that they make to our worship.
And there is a lot to give thanks for here. Perhaps most obviously we can give thanks for Nigel, our Director of Music and for John, the assistant organist. We give thanks for the people who sing in the choirs themselves; the boys, the girls, the ladies and the men. Then there are the families who support the choir members. Most people who sing in the choirs can only do so because of the support and commitment of other family members. We can also give thanks for groups like the Friends of St Alphege Music and the Royal School of Church Music who in different ways support the ministry of our choirs. So there is lots to give thanks for.
But Choirs Sunday is also a good opportunity to reflect upon the role of music in our worship. Music enhances the worship. It adds breadth and depth helping us to enter into the liturgy in a more complete way. Music makes the liturgy more beautiful and more fulfilling. If we go home from church still humming the music, then this helps us to remain in the spirit of the liturgy as we set out on our week.
Now most of us appreciate music, but many of us are not great musicians. And this is where a good choir can really help us. The choir can help us by leading our singing. It can also enhance our liturgy with additional anthems and settings that are well beyond the musical ability of most people. And this is a wonderful thing, and we need to celebrate it.
But there is another aspect that we must not lose sight of. Worship is something that we do together. When we come together as a church community to celebrate the Eucharist, we come together as one body; the body of Christ (e.g. Romans 12:4-5,1 Cor12:17, Eph 1:23). When we share in the bread and wine of the Eucharist we are share together in the body of Christ; we are participating in the body of Christ (1 Cor 10:16-17). The body of Christ in the Eucharist strengthens, renews and enlivens the body of Christ which is the church. And so it is essential that this celebration of the Eucharist is something we do together.
Now saying that we must celebrate the Eucharist together, does not mean that we all do the same thing. Just as the many organs of a physical body have different roles, so we have different roles in the church, and different roles in the liturgy. But the key point is that all these different things must be done to help and support the worship of the whole congregation; they must be done on behalf of the whole community.
So if the choir sing for us the Sanctus, or a special anthem we don’t need to join in and sing with them, but we do need to own and participate in that part of the worship. And we do this by listening, by praying and by contemplating the heavenly mysteries through the singing.
Now someone might say, “I’d rather sing my own Sanctus: that way I am participating more in the service.” Well, that is a good starting point. But as we grow in the faith, and as we get better at worship, we need to move beyond an individualised worship which is all about I do and say. Each of us needs to develop an awareness of or own worship as part of the worship of the whole community. My worship is my contribution to the worship of the whole congregation; it’s my sharing in the worship of the whole congregation. And in most cases the worship of the whole congregation is going to be more beautiful, and bring us closer to God, if the Sanctus is sung by the choir.
And this places a huge responsibility on the choir. It is very easy for the choir to get caught up in the technicalities of singing, and keeping the music sheets in order, and to forget they are worshiping, that worship is the essential thing. The more than the congregation is aware of the choir worshiping, the easier the congregation will find it to entrust the signing to the choir. And our liturgy will be the more beautiful for it.
Now I would like to ask the boys choir to come forward. We have talked about sharing in worship together, and sharing becomes easier as we know each other better, so I thought we could end this sermon by taking the opportunity to get to know the boys choir a little better. So we can start off by getting a proper look at you!
[A brief interview follows]
Tell me, how often do you come to church?
How often to practice, and how often to a service?
And what are the best bits of the service? What are the bits you enjoy?
And what about the rest of the service? Do you manage to say the prayers and listen to the sermon?
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