Sermon preached at 11am Coral Mattins at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 12th September 2010. Other versions of this sermon were preach at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at 3pm Evensong at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.
Readings: Ps 51: 1-10 Exodus 32: 7-14 Luke 15: 1-10
When I was in South Africa in 2006 I came across a Christian Pastor who had a particular reputation. He had been a “real lad” with a history of intimidation and violence and with links to prostitution and gambling. Then it seems that he had an extraordinary conversion experience, a moment of total repentance and turning to God. Overnight he gave up his old way of life and started living a new and more Christian lifestyle. He set up a non-denominational church and started preaching and teaching very effectively to people who were far from God. His congregation grew and his church and ministry were respected by the local Anglicans, who I was visiting.
Now probably none of us have had such a dramatic experience of repentance and conversion as that South African pastor. His is rather an extreme case of the big turn around which is required when we turn to Christ. This sort of turn around happens when people start to face up to the really big questions in life. Are we for God or against him? Are we doing our best to face God, work with him and trust him with our lives, or are we seeking to run away from him, to hide from him and ignore him? It is a bit like a tree. Is it turning its leaves towards the sun, absorbing its energy, growing and thriving, or is it hiding itself from the sun, withering and dying? Repentance here is about our fundamental choices. Are we for God or against him? Are we choosing for ourselves eternal life, or eternal death; heaven or hell?
This is the repentance that Jesus talks of in the two parables that we heard in our New Testament reading. And such repentance leads to great rejoicing in heaven because something that has been lost, is found and restored to its proper destiny.
Now I am confident that most, if not all, of us who are in church this morning have made this fundamental choice and are basically seeking to orient ourselves towards God and to fulfil his plan for us. People who are in rebellion against God usually don’t come to church, they try to avoid the things of God. Sadly our present society makes it very easy to do just that; there are very few earthly reasons or social pressures that make us come to church if we don’t want to.
But just because we in church and are basically orientated towards God, does not mean that the business of repentance and conversion is over for us. We are all of us troubled by sin, our own sin and the sin of the people around us. There is a continuous process of renewing our repentance, being forgiven of our sin and entrusting ourselves to the mercy of God. This is a lifetime’s work as Christ grows within us and as the things that Christ does not want for us fall away.
But the stories of restoration that we heard about in our scripture readings were not so much about this on-going process of repentance and renewal. Rather they were about the fundamental first choices. Are we for God or against him? And it is this more fundamental repentance that I would like to focus on today.
Sooner or later everybody has to face up to this fundamental choice. Jesus says, “He who is not with me is against me” (Matt 12: 30) and “whoever is not against you is for you” (Luke 9: 50). The thing that really forces this choice is the presence of God. The presence of God cannot be ignored, you have to go with it or run from it. Now we live is strange times, where God seems surprisingly absent from the day to day experiences of many people. Many people seem to find it easy to ignore or postpone this great fundamental choice. However I am quite sure that this is only a temporary phase in history and sooner or later we all have to face this choice. At very least, when we die we have to decide if we walking towards heaven or hell.
Now what should our attitude be towards people who appear to be in rebellion against God? I am sure that we all know people among our families and friends who appear to be in conflict with God, or working against God. Do we sit back and say, “Well that’s their choice, it’s up to them?” or do we try to bring them round to God? Well I think it is very subtle; in certain ways I think it is a bit of both.
There is a very profound sense in which this really is the choice of other people, not our choice. We have to have a deep respect for the freedom that God has granted to other people. We cannot, in all love, try to manipulate or coerce people towards God; rather we must encourage them and allow them to choose. And this can be painful, truly accepting their freedom, even when they appear to be make choices that are so destructive. It can be truly costly. But that pain is real and has to be acknowledged.
But then also there is a very deep sense in which we cannot just sit back. Moses did not sit back and say to God, “OK, gone on destroy the people of Isreal and start again.” Rather he pleaded for them to God. The shepherd did not sit back and say, “If the lost sheep wants to be found, it will come back to me.” No, he went out and searched high and low until he had found it. Likewise the woman did not think of the lost coin, “Oh, it will turn up!” rather she lit the lamp and swept the house until she found it. In fact what is very striking about all these three stories about the restoration into fellowship with God, is that in all three cases the people restored to God seem to have a very passive role. The activity is all done by others.
So there is no doubt that we are called to actively work for the good of those who appear to be in rebellion against God. I am aware of three ways in particular of doing this.
Firstly, very importantly we must pray for them. The story about Moses shows how important this is. In some ways it feels like the only real contribution we can make.
Secondly we must continue in loving them. This does not mean saying they are right when they are wrong, or good when they are bad. However it does mean keeping the avenues of communication open. It means respecting them fully as children created by God. It means wanting their good, and having an attitude of service to bring that good about.
Thirdly we can living our own lives, in full harmony with God an example to show what is possible and how these things work. If people can look at our lives and see how obedience to God brings good outcomes, fulfilment and happiness, then we give witness to the advantages of God.
So, with regard to people who seem far from God, I would like to commend these three approaches to you; pray for them, love them and live good lives which can be an example to them. In this way we do all our part to bring them back to God. Amen.
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
12 September 2010
31 August 2010
Humilty - the antidote to pride
Sermon preached at 11am Parish Eucharist at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 29th August 2010. Other versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton, 9.45am.
Trinity 13, Proper 17, Year C.
Readings: Hebrews 13: 1-8 & 15-16 Luke 14: 1 & 7-14
In the early 1950s the Ford Motor Company was brimming with confidence and flush with cash, following the success of the Ford Thunderbird. The management set about developing a whole new car with a whole new network of marketing dealerships. They hired all the best people to work on the design. They created a huge and elaborate marketing campaign. They named the car “Edsel” after the son the company’s founder and they invested millions in the launch. But after all the hype had died down, it became clear that American public didn’t really like the Edsel, and would not buy it. The car was a terrible commercial failure and was withdrawn in its third year. The company lost millions of pounds on the project. The name Edsel became associated with failures in marketing, and a famous “how not to do it” case study for MBA (Master of Business Studies) students. The old maxim, “Pride comes before a fall” comes to mind.
And in more recent times there has been another extraordinary example of “Pride comes before a fall” in the business world. In 2007 big banking appeared to a business of extraordinary power and wealth, and the banks were ever bigger and braver in what they took on. Yet by October 2008 many of the world’s biggest banks appeared insolvent, and there is no doubt that without a massive government intervention, most if not all of them would have failed.
The parable that Jesus told in our gospel reading today also has a “pride comes before a fall element”. At that time the custom at wedding banquets was to have the places graded from the places of highest honour, up high and near the host and bride and groom, down to the places of least honour, lower down and further away. Jesus pointed out that choosing to sit in a seat of high honour was inviting a fall. Someone more honourable that you might arrive later, and you would have to give up your seat. And because all the seats were no occupied you would find yourself moving to the lowest seat, while everyone is watching. Instead Jesus recommends a more humble strategy; choose for yourself the lowest seat so that the host might call you up higher.
Well we live in a much less hierarchical society today, but issues about the highest places have not gone away. We hear of film studios in terrible fights with film stars about the order in which names appear in the credits. I regret to say that I have heard even of clergy processions, where none of the clergy are willing to lead the procession out, because by tradition it is always the most senior clergy who occupy the back of the procession.
It is people’s pride that causes difficulty in these situations. Pride is the vice of self-importance; thinking of ourselves as above other people or above God. We often associate it with arrogance and self-sufficiency. Of course the word pride can denote good things. We encourage people to take pride in their work, in their appearance, their neighbourhood, in their nation. These attitudes are important and contribute to our self esteem. They show that we value the good gifts that God has given us, and want to fully play our part in realising their full potential. Pride only kicks in as a problem when we start to value to ourselves higher than other people, or our own nation more than other nations.
The antidote to pride is the virtue of humility. Virtues are attitudes and habits that are good. Vices are attitudes and habits that are bad. We all need to practice good attitudes and behaviours so that they become habitual, they become virtues. Virtues grow by practice, and by the grace of God, which we should ask for. So humility is a virtue, but what is humility all about?
Well I think that humility is ultimately about being completely and utterly realistic about who we are, and who other people are. It is not humble for a student who has just got a string of A stars at GCSE to say, “Oh I’m not that clever really.”; that’s just unrealistic. It is humble for that student to thank God that they have been blessed with certain talents, to recognise the support they have received from their school and from their family, and recognising that these good gifts are given by God not just for our good, but for the good of others too. Being humble means seeing ourselves as God sees us and of course, God sees us through the eyes of love; God loves us immensely. We must remember that we were created and are sustained by God, we owe everything to him. God sent is own son to die for us and to redeem us. For God we are most definitely “worth it”! And of course God also sees our many frailties and sins and vices, but God sees beyond them, knowing that when we turn to him he forgives us, and heals us and make us whole. So seeing ourselves as God sees us, and loving ourselves as God loves us, means having a very high opinion of ourselves, but it also means having a very high opinion about other people, because we know that God loves them, just as he loves us.
Now prayer is very good discipline for growing in humility. When we pray we place ourselves before God and hold ourselves in our relationship with God, and this really does help us to know who we are and to have the right attitudes. First of all pray is a humbling experience because it is difficult, and we don’t really know what we are doing. As St Paul says (Romans 8: 26) we do not know how to pray as we should, but we depend on the Holy Spirit to pray for us.
And then the things that we do in prayer help us with humility. We say prayers of adoration, praising God for his greatness. This reminds us how very great God is and what a very small cog we are in the mighty universe of God’s creation. In our prayers we make prayers of confession. We hold before God our sins and failures, and this is necessarily very humbling. It reminds us that we are completely dependent on the mercy of God. Also in our prayers we give thanks to God for the good things he gives us. This too reminds us that all the good things we have are gifts from God and not products of our own hard work or cleverness. In prayer we also learn to thank God for the difficult things that come our way, the things we would not choose for ourselves, but by thanking God for them we come to see them as part of God’s love for us, part of his plan for our lives.
So today I would like to commend to you humility as a virtue, a good habit and attitude; humility as the utterly and totally realistic assessment of ourselves, as we are seen by God. I would also like to commend to you prayer, as a way of growing in humility. Amen.
Trinity 13, Proper 17, Year C.
Readings: Hebrews 13: 1-8 & 15-16 Luke 14: 1 & 7-14
In the early 1950s the Ford Motor Company was brimming with confidence and flush with cash, following the success of the Ford Thunderbird. The management set about developing a whole new car with a whole new network of marketing dealerships. They hired all the best people to work on the design. They created a huge and elaborate marketing campaign. They named the car “Edsel” after the son the company’s founder and they invested millions in the launch. But after all the hype had died down, it became clear that American public didn’t really like the Edsel, and would not buy it. The car was a terrible commercial failure and was withdrawn in its third year. The company lost millions of pounds on the project. The name Edsel became associated with failures in marketing, and a famous “how not to do it” case study for MBA (Master of Business Studies) students. The old maxim, “Pride comes before a fall” comes to mind.
And in more recent times there has been another extraordinary example of “Pride comes before a fall” in the business world. In 2007 big banking appeared to a business of extraordinary power and wealth, and the banks were ever bigger and braver in what they took on. Yet by October 2008 many of the world’s biggest banks appeared insolvent, and there is no doubt that without a massive government intervention, most if not all of them would have failed.
The parable that Jesus told in our gospel reading today also has a “pride comes before a fall element”. At that time the custom at wedding banquets was to have the places graded from the places of highest honour, up high and near the host and bride and groom, down to the places of least honour, lower down and further away. Jesus pointed out that choosing to sit in a seat of high honour was inviting a fall. Someone more honourable that you might arrive later, and you would have to give up your seat. And because all the seats were no occupied you would find yourself moving to the lowest seat, while everyone is watching. Instead Jesus recommends a more humble strategy; choose for yourself the lowest seat so that the host might call you up higher.
Well we live in a much less hierarchical society today, but issues about the highest places have not gone away. We hear of film studios in terrible fights with film stars about the order in which names appear in the credits. I regret to say that I have heard even of clergy processions, where none of the clergy are willing to lead the procession out, because by tradition it is always the most senior clergy who occupy the back of the procession.
It is people’s pride that causes difficulty in these situations. Pride is the vice of self-importance; thinking of ourselves as above other people or above God. We often associate it with arrogance and self-sufficiency. Of course the word pride can denote good things. We encourage people to take pride in their work, in their appearance, their neighbourhood, in their nation. These attitudes are important and contribute to our self esteem. They show that we value the good gifts that God has given us, and want to fully play our part in realising their full potential. Pride only kicks in as a problem when we start to value to ourselves higher than other people, or our own nation more than other nations.
The antidote to pride is the virtue of humility. Virtues are attitudes and habits that are good. Vices are attitudes and habits that are bad. We all need to practice good attitudes and behaviours so that they become habitual, they become virtues. Virtues grow by practice, and by the grace of God, which we should ask for. So humility is a virtue, but what is humility all about?
Well I think that humility is ultimately about being completely and utterly realistic about who we are, and who other people are. It is not humble for a student who has just got a string of A stars at GCSE to say, “Oh I’m not that clever really.”; that’s just unrealistic. It is humble for that student to thank God that they have been blessed with certain talents, to recognise the support they have received from their school and from their family, and recognising that these good gifts are given by God not just for our good, but for the good of others too. Being humble means seeing ourselves as God sees us and of course, God sees us through the eyes of love; God loves us immensely. We must remember that we were created and are sustained by God, we owe everything to him. God sent is own son to die for us and to redeem us. For God we are most definitely “worth it”! And of course God also sees our many frailties and sins and vices, but God sees beyond them, knowing that when we turn to him he forgives us, and heals us and make us whole. So seeing ourselves as God sees us, and loving ourselves as God loves us, means having a very high opinion of ourselves, but it also means having a very high opinion about other people, because we know that God loves them, just as he loves us.
Now prayer is very good discipline for growing in humility. When we pray we place ourselves before God and hold ourselves in our relationship with God, and this really does help us to know who we are and to have the right attitudes. First of all pray is a humbling experience because it is difficult, and we don’t really know what we are doing. As St Paul says (Romans 8: 26) we do not know how to pray as we should, but we depend on the Holy Spirit to pray for us.
And then the things that we do in prayer help us with humility. We say prayers of adoration, praising God for his greatness. This reminds us how very great God is and what a very small cog we are in the mighty universe of God’s creation. In our prayers we make prayers of confession. We hold before God our sins and failures, and this is necessarily very humbling. It reminds us that we are completely dependent on the mercy of God. Also in our prayers we give thanks to God for the good things he gives us. This too reminds us that all the good things we have are gifts from God and not products of our own hard work or cleverness. In prayer we also learn to thank God for the difficult things that come our way, the things we would not choose for ourselves, but by thanking God for them we come to see them as part of God’s love for us, part of his plan for our lives.
So today I would like to commend to you humility as a virtue, a good habit and attitude; humility as the utterly and totally realistic assessment of ourselves, as we are seen by God. I would also like to commend to you prayer, as a way of growing in humility. Amen.
17 January 2010
Longing for the wedding feast
Short sermon preached at 8am Eucharist at St Alphege Church, Solihull
Sunday 17th January 2009, Epiphany 2
Readings: Isaiah 62: 1-5 [1 Corinthians 12: 1-11] John 2: 1-11
Our readings today have a theme of celebration. They are about weddings and rejoicing. They speak of great joys to be shared, and of a party.
In our reading from Isaiah God speaks to his chosen people and tells them that God will rejoice over his people a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. God will deliver his chosen people from their desolation and forsakenness and make them to be a crown of beauty, a royal diadem in the hand of God. This Isaiah reading has the same theme as the last part of the book of Revelation where it talks about the wedding feast of the lamb. The Church is portrayed as the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, purified and made new and to be joined to the lamb, to Christ, forever. As Christians we are called to this great and wonderful destiny, the greatest of all celebrations.
Although promised, the celebration is not yet. And similarly in the gospel reading we have a wedding feast, a celebration which is struggling to happen because the wine has run out. The lack of wine is being felt, and there is a desire, a longing for more wine so the celebration can continue. And in our human lives we are so often aware of things that are lacking and inadequate. If we think about Haiti we become painfully aware of the instability and fragility of our earthly lives. We are aware of the great sufferings, and the inadequacy of any human response. And I think, to some extent at least, we all long for and thirst for the great banquet in heaven. We want to live in the New Heaven and New Earth that God is to create, free from the suffering and pain of the old world. We want to see fulfilled the wholeness, the harmony, the blessed rest of the long promised kingdom of God. And this desire is a very good thing because our desire for these things helps us to walk towards them, it help us to play our part in their realisation. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matt 5: 6).
But the gospel story is also very good because it shows how these desires are brought to fulfilment. They come to fulfilment when they are brought to Jesus. And Mary is the agent here. She brings the need, the thirst, the longing to Jesus. She also tells the servants “do whatever he tells you”. And this is the pattern for us too. We bring to Jesus our thirsts, our longings, and the needs of the world, and then we seek to do whatever Jesus tells us. Two things are required. Trust in Jesus, that he will resolve problems that are brought to him, and obedience to Jesus, such that we play our all part in the resolution.
Now an interesting aspect of this story that the need, the desire, for more wine is not presented directly to Jesus by those organising the feast; it is presented by Mary. In prayer we can, and should, approach God directly and ask him for the things we need. However we also can, and should also, approach him indirectly, through the prayers of other people, our friends, our families, the saints. And in my experience this approach through other people is often works better than the direct approach. In this approach the desire, the need, has to be owned by other people before it is presented to God. In this way the request depends on the charity of others, so it comes to God purified of some of the selfish and individualistic intentions that might accompany a direct prayer. And the granting of the prayer becomes a gift that not only helps the individual with the particular need, but also strengthens community through the sharing of needs and desires and prayers. It promotes a spirituality in which we think about others and help others, because only through others are we helped. It reminds us of the importance of praying for others people, because that is how we are prayed for. It reminds us of the importance of empathising with others people, so we know their needs and know what to pray for. It encourages us to use our time, our talents and our gifts in the service of others in the church community, because this is how we ourselves are served. And all this builds true communion; true sharing of the gifts God give us, above all in the gift of eternal life. Amen.
Sunday 17th January 2009, Epiphany 2
Readings: Isaiah 62: 1-5 [1 Corinthians 12: 1-11] John 2: 1-11
Our readings today have a theme of celebration. They are about weddings and rejoicing. They speak of great joys to be shared, and of a party.
In our reading from Isaiah God speaks to his chosen people and tells them that God will rejoice over his people a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. God will deliver his chosen people from their desolation and forsakenness and make them to be a crown of beauty, a royal diadem in the hand of God. This Isaiah reading has the same theme as the last part of the book of Revelation where it talks about the wedding feast of the lamb. The Church is portrayed as the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, purified and made new and to be joined to the lamb, to Christ, forever. As Christians we are called to this great and wonderful destiny, the greatest of all celebrations.
Although promised, the celebration is not yet. And similarly in the gospel reading we have a wedding feast, a celebration which is struggling to happen because the wine has run out. The lack of wine is being felt, and there is a desire, a longing for more wine so the celebration can continue. And in our human lives we are so often aware of things that are lacking and inadequate. If we think about Haiti we become painfully aware of the instability and fragility of our earthly lives. We are aware of the great sufferings, and the inadequacy of any human response. And I think, to some extent at least, we all long for and thirst for the great banquet in heaven. We want to live in the New Heaven and New Earth that God is to create, free from the suffering and pain of the old world. We want to see fulfilled the wholeness, the harmony, the blessed rest of the long promised kingdom of God. And this desire is a very good thing because our desire for these things helps us to walk towards them, it help us to play our part in their realisation. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matt 5: 6).
But the gospel story is also very good because it shows how these desires are brought to fulfilment. They come to fulfilment when they are brought to Jesus. And Mary is the agent here. She brings the need, the thirst, the longing to Jesus. She also tells the servants “do whatever he tells you”. And this is the pattern for us too. We bring to Jesus our thirsts, our longings, and the needs of the world, and then we seek to do whatever Jesus tells us. Two things are required. Trust in Jesus, that he will resolve problems that are brought to him, and obedience to Jesus, such that we play our all part in the resolution.
Now an interesting aspect of this story that the need, the desire, for more wine is not presented directly to Jesus by those organising the feast; it is presented by Mary. In prayer we can, and should, approach God directly and ask him for the things we need. However we also can, and should also, approach him indirectly, through the prayers of other people, our friends, our families, the saints. And in my experience this approach through other people is often works better than the direct approach. In this approach the desire, the need, has to be owned by other people before it is presented to God. In this way the request depends on the charity of others, so it comes to God purified of some of the selfish and individualistic intentions that might accompany a direct prayer. And the granting of the prayer becomes a gift that not only helps the individual with the particular need, but also strengthens community through the sharing of needs and desires and prayers. It promotes a spirituality in which we think about others and help others, because only through others are we helped. It reminds us of the importance of praying for others people, because that is how we are prayed for. It reminds us of the importance of empathising with others people, so we know their needs and know what to pray for. It encourages us to use our time, our talents and our gifts in the service of others in the church community, because this is how we ourselves are served. And all this builds true communion; true sharing of the gifts God give us, above all in the gift of eternal life. Amen.
10 January 2010
Spirit driven lives
Short sermon preached at 8am Eucharist at St Helen’s Church, Solihull
Sunday 10th January 2010 – Baptism of Christ – Year C
Readings: Isaiah 43: 1-7 Acts 8: 14-17 Luke 3: 15-17 & 21-22
In the Epiphany season we think about Jesus being “manifest” or “revealed”. Last week we focused on the baby Jesus being revealed to the whole wide world, symbolised by the wise men from far away in the East. Today we think of the revelation that occurred at the baptism of Jesus, which we heard about in our gospel reading. Specifically we think of the Holy Spirit descending onto Jesus and the voice from heaven, “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.
All four gospels tell the story of this event. Many of the details are different between the four accounts, but one thing they all agree on is that the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descended upon Jesus. And this is very significant because it reveals Jesus to be God’s anointed one, the Messiah, the saviour of Israel, the one promised from of old by the prophets.
In John’s gospel the story is told by John the Baptist. The descent of the Holy Spirit is the specific sign that John has been told to look for, and from this John knows that Jesus is the Son of God. John says, “I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel” (John 1: 31). The great revelation that we think of this week is Jesus being revealed to the Jews as the Messiah. So today I would like to spend a little time reflecting on the role of the Holy Spirit, and its links to the revelation of Jesus as Christ, which is so important to our mission.
In Luke’s gospel especially, the Holy Spirit seems to be involved in just about all the important happenings. Mary is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit when she conceives Jesus. Elizabeth and Zachariah are filled with the Holy Spirit when they make their big speeches. Jesus’ public ministry seems to be completely driven by the Spirit.
In Christianity we seek to become Christ like, to have Christ grow within us. So like Jesus we too need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and live Spirit driven lives. In John’s gospel we are told that we must be born anew of the Spirit (John 3) and we link this with our own Baptism. Just as Jesus’ received a particular anointing with the Spirit at his Baptism, which gave purpose and direction to his ministry, so we have received great gifts of the Spirit through our Baptism and Confirmation. And to make the most of these gifts we need to be true to our baptismal promises. We need to renounce evil and follow Christ. Following Christ means following his commandments, especially his commandment to love one another. So in day to day life, seeking to love other people is often the best practical route to life in the Spirit.
But there is also a prayerful side to it. We can and should seek to pray with the Spirit, who is far better at prayer than we are. St Paul says, “And the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8: 26) Jesus also tells us to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). So as we pray and as we worship let’s try to be attentive to the Spirit praying within us, and let’s try to join our prayers to the prayer of the Spirit.
And this is very important, especially as we think about mission and church growth. It was the Holy Spirit who revealed Jesus to be the Messiah at his baptism. So we should hope and expect that if we live Spirit driven lives, then Holy Spirit will reveal to the people around us Christ working in us and in the church. And it is the revelation of Christ which makes all the difference.
Sunday 10th January 2010 – Baptism of Christ – Year C
Readings: Isaiah 43: 1-7 Acts 8: 14-17 Luke 3: 15-17 & 21-22
In the Epiphany season we think about Jesus being “manifest” or “revealed”. Last week we focused on the baby Jesus being revealed to the whole wide world, symbolised by the wise men from far away in the East. Today we think of the revelation that occurred at the baptism of Jesus, which we heard about in our gospel reading. Specifically we think of the Holy Spirit descending onto Jesus and the voice from heaven, “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.
All four gospels tell the story of this event. Many of the details are different between the four accounts, but one thing they all agree on is that the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descended upon Jesus. And this is very significant because it reveals Jesus to be God’s anointed one, the Messiah, the saviour of Israel, the one promised from of old by the prophets.
In John’s gospel the story is told by John the Baptist. The descent of the Holy Spirit is the specific sign that John has been told to look for, and from this John knows that Jesus is the Son of God. John says, “I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel” (John 1: 31). The great revelation that we think of this week is Jesus being revealed to the Jews as the Messiah. So today I would like to spend a little time reflecting on the role of the Holy Spirit, and its links to the revelation of Jesus as Christ, which is so important to our mission.
In Luke’s gospel especially, the Holy Spirit seems to be involved in just about all the important happenings. Mary is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit when she conceives Jesus. Elizabeth and Zachariah are filled with the Holy Spirit when they make their big speeches. Jesus’ public ministry seems to be completely driven by the Spirit.
In Christianity we seek to become Christ like, to have Christ grow within us. So like Jesus we too need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and live Spirit driven lives. In John’s gospel we are told that we must be born anew of the Spirit (John 3) and we link this with our own Baptism. Just as Jesus’ received a particular anointing with the Spirit at his Baptism, which gave purpose and direction to his ministry, so we have received great gifts of the Spirit through our Baptism and Confirmation. And to make the most of these gifts we need to be true to our baptismal promises. We need to renounce evil and follow Christ. Following Christ means following his commandments, especially his commandment to love one another. So in day to day life, seeking to love other people is often the best practical route to life in the Spirit.
But there is also a prayerful side to it. We can and should seek to pray with the Spirit, who is far better at prayer than we are. St Paul says, “And the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8: 26) Jesus also tells us to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). So as we pray and as we worship let’s try to be attentive to the Spirit praying within us, and let’s try to join our prayers to the prayer of the Spirit.
And this is very important, especially as we think about mission and church growth. It was the Holy Spirit who revealed Jesus to be the Messiah at his baptism. So we should hope and expect that if we live Spirit driven lives, then Holy Spirit will reveal to the people around us Christ working in us and in the church. And it is the revelation of Christ which makes all the difference.
16 August 2009
The Blessed Virgin Mary
Sermon preached at 11am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull
Sunday 16th August 2009, The Blessed Virgin Mary
Readings: Revelation 11: 19-end 12: 1-6 & 10 Galatians 4: 4-7 Luke 1: 46-55
Today we celebrate the festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary, transferred from its normal date of 15th August. There are many different festivals in the churches year when we remember different events in Mary’s life, but this is perhaps the festival where we think especially of her. It is a very important date; 15th August is a public holiday in many countries because of this festival.
And why is it so important to have a special day set aside for Mary? Well first of all we have to acknowledge that not all Christians think it is important. More protestant Christians tend to play down the significance of the saints and encourage us to focus on Christ and on God. But this kind of thinking is relatively modern. It has only been around in the church for 500 years or so. The much older and much more widely established tradition of the wider Church has been to place great importance on the saints and on the BVM in particular. And why is this?
Well I believe the saints are important because they show us what can and should be happening to us. God calls all of us to holiness (Matt 5: 48, Rom 6: 19-23, Eph 4:23, 1Peter 1:15-16). We are all called to become saints, to take up our own special place in heaven, fulfilling our own special function for the good of all.
But the holiness that we aspire to does not come from our own resources. Our human nature can be very base and ordinary. Rather our holiness comes from Jesus, it is a sharing in the holiness of God (Heb 12:10). We are co-heirs with Christ, destined to inherit his glory (Rom 8:17). So this pattern of shared life in Christ becomes very important and it is the saints who show us how to do it.
Looking at the saints, and studying their lives helps us to understand how all this can come about in practice. There are many, many saints and their lives are all very different. But some of them have personalities that we can identify with. Some of them have passed through situations that we can recognise. There are some extremely inspiring examples here.
And the Blessed Virgin Mary is probably the most inspiring of them all because her co-operation with God is so perfect, so intimate and so very important to the salvation of the world. I would like to highlight some of her qualities in particular.
The first quality is her readiness to follow God’s plans. At the annunciation Mary famously says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” Luke 1: 38. With great simplicity and humility she agrees to go along with God plans and to do her part, at great personal risk. Through her, Jesus is brought into the world, and by her Jesus is brought up and educated in the values of family life.
A second quality is her readiness to suffer with Jesus. Unlike most of the disciples, who ran away when Jesus was crucified, Mary stood near the foot of the cross and suffered in her own way alongside Jesus until he died. She was not able to do anything practical to help Jesus in that situation, but she stayed there in solidarity with him. We are left with a sense that she has a mother’s love, a great big heart overflowing with motherly love. She is ready to care for and to suffer for all her children, and in a certain sense this includes all of us.
A third quality is her ability to persuade Jesus to act. We see this most obviously at the wedding in Cena in Galilee (John 2: 1-11). The family who have run out of wine approach her. She approaches Jesus, and Jesus gives a couple of good reasons for doing nothing, but in the end he cannot refuse his mother so he performs an extraordinary miracle creating the equivalent of about 800 bottles of wine! And many, many Christians repeat this pattern in their prayers. Rather than pray directly to Jesus or to God, they pray to Mary, and invite Mary to somehow sort things out with God. And for reasons that are hard to understand this does seem to work. It seems to be a very powerful way of praying and it continues to be extremely popular.
Now I have to admit that, in the past, I personally have had a bit of a problem with this. I used to think that it must surely always be better to pray directly to God. But as I have got older I have come to realise that life doesn’t necessarily work like this. The kingdom of heaven is not just about God; we all share in it. Things happen by the mutual love and co-operation of a great many angels and saints. Just as we all have different roles in our local church, so different angels and saints have different roles in the life of heaven. Now you might be best mates with Fr Tim, so when you want a Baptism Information Pack sending out you telephone Fr Tim and ask for one. Well, Fr Tim, however pleased he is to talk to you, is eventually going to pass that request on to Paula in the Parish Office, because it is Paula who does that job of sending out Baptism Information Packs on behalf of Fr Tim and the whole parish. And if you were to regularly ring up Fr Tim asking for Baptism Information Packs he would certainly tell you to start telephoning Paula directly, and the truth is that the whole business would work much quicker and more efficiently if you did go directly to Paula. Well it is my belief that there are many things that we can ask for in prayer that actually get sorted quicker and more cleanly if we address them directly to Mary. That in no way undermines the authority of God. Rather it properly and respectfully recognises the way that God as ordered things, and the way that he wishes relationships to work. Also Mary knows how to approach God and to ask for things. So, it seems to me that very often God would prefer us to communicate in pray directly with is his servant Mary, and in my experience this does seem to work.
A forth quality of Mary is her ability to get things done very quietly and with no fuss and without blowing a big trumpet to announce all that is happening. This is to do with humility and simplicity and beauty and love. She has the absolute opposite attitude to our current day world where everybody has to seek to raise their own profiles, to publicise and promote their activities and to draw attention to themselves by shouting loader and more persistently than the other people. This very low key approach of Mary’s makes it very easy for us to overlook her, to fail to take her seriously, to judge her by the standards of this world. There is something very quiet and recessive about Mary, but in the kingdom of heaven this is not a weakness, rather it is a way of serving others that we are called to emulate.
So I would like to encourage all of us to develop our own personal relationship with Mary, by praying to her. We don’t worship Mary, because she is not God, but we do venerate her, because she is in very close relationship with God. She is a person and we can talk to her, in prayer, just as we can talk to any other person. Let’s talk to her, trusting in her motherly love for us. And let’s become students of all the relationships in heaven, so that when we ask for things in prayer we know who to ask, and how to ask, and so our prayers can become more effective. Amen.
Sunday 16th August 2009, The Blessed Virgin Mary
Readings: Revelation 11: 19-end 12: 1-6 & 10 Galatians 4: 4-7 Luke 1: 46-55
Today we celebrate the festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary, transferred from its normal date of 15th August. There are many different festivals in the churches year when we remember different events in Mary’s life, but this is perhaps the festival where we think especially of her. It is a very important date; 15th August is a public holiday in many countries because of this festival.
And why is it so important to have a special day set aside for Mary? Well first of all we have to acknowledge that not all Christians think it is important. More protestant Christians tend to play down the significance of the saints and encourage us to focus on Christ and on God. But this kind of thinking is relatively modern. It has only been around in the church for 500 years or so. The much older and much more widely established tradition of the wider Church has been to place great importance on the saints and on the BVM in particular. And why is this?
Well I believe the saints are important because they show us what can and should be happening to us. God calls all of us to holiness (Matt 5: 48, Rom 6: 19-23, Eph 4:23, 1Peter 1:15-16). We are all called to become saints, to take up our own special place in heaven, fulfilling our own special function for the good of all.
But the holiness that we aspire to does not come from our own resources. Our human nature can be very base and ordinary. Rather our holiness comes from Jesus, it is a sharing in the holiness of God (Heb 12:10). We are co-heirs with Christ, destined to inherit his glory (Rom 8:17). So this pattern of shared life in Christ becomes very important and it is the saints who show us how to do it.
Looking at the saints, and studying their lives helps us to understand how all this can come about in practice. There are many, many saints and their lives are all very different. But some of them have personalities that we can identify with. Some of them have passed through situations that we can recognise. There are some extremely inspiring examples here.
And the Blessed Virgin Mary is probably the most inspiring of them all because her co-operation with God is so perfect, so intimate and so very important to the salvation of the world. I would like to highlight some of her qualities in particular.
The first quality is her readiness to follow God’s plans. At the annunciation Mary famously says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” Luke 1: 38. With great simplicity and humility she agrees to go along with God plans and to do her part, at great personal risk. Through her, Jesus is brought into the world, and by her Jesus is brought up and educated in the values of family life.
A second quality is her readiness to suffer with Jesus. Unlike most of the disciples, who ran away when Jesus was crucified, Mary stood near the foot of the cross and suffered in her own way alongside Jesus until he died. She was not able to do anything practical to help Jesus in that situation, but she stayed there in solidarity with him. We are left with a sense that she has a mother’s love, a great big heart overflowing with motherly love. She is ready to care for and to suffer for all her children, and in a certain sense this includes all of us.
A third quality is her ability to persuade Jesus to act. We see this most obviously at the wedding in Cena in Galilee (John 2: 1-11). The family who have run out of wine approach her. She approaches Jesus, and Jesus gives a couple of good reasons for doing nothing, but in the end he cannot refuse his mother so he performs an extraordinary miracle creating the equivalent of about 800 bottles of wine! And many, many Christians repeat this pattern in their prayers. Rather than pray directly to Jesus or to God, they pray to Mary, and invite Mary to somehow sort things out with God. And for reasons that are hard to understand this does seem to work. It seems to be a very powerful way of praying and it continues to be extremely popular.
Now I have to admit that, in the past, I personally have had a bit of a problem with this. I used to think that it must surely always be better to pray directly to God. But as I have got older I have come to realise that life doesn’t necessarily work like this. The kingdom of heaven is not just about God; we all share in it. Things happen by the mutual love and co-operation of a great many angels and saints. Just as we all have different roles in our local church, so different angels and saints have different roles in the life of heaven. Now you might be best mates with Fr Tim, so when you want a Baptism Information Pack sending out you telephone Fr Tim and ask for one. Well, Fr Tim, however pleased he is to talk to you, is eventually going to pass that request on to Paula in the Parish Office, because it is Paula who does that job of sending out Baptism Information Packs on behalf of Fr Tim and the whole parish. And if you were to regularly ring up Fr Tim asking for Baptism Information Packs he would certainly tell you to start telephoning Paula directly, and the truth is that the whole business would work much quicker and more efficiently if you did go directly to Paula. Well it is my belief that there are many things that we can ask for in prayer that actually get sorted quicker and more cleanly if we address them directly to Mary. That in no way undermines the authority of God. Rather it properly and respectfully recognises the way that God as ordered things, and the way that he wishes relationships to work. Also Mary knows how to approach God and to ask for things. So, it seems to me that very often God would prefer us to communicate in pray directly with is his servant Mary, and in my experience this does seem to work.
A forth quality of Mary is her ability to get things done very quietly and with no fuss and without blowing a big trumpet to announce all that is happening. This is to do with humility and simplicity and beauty and love. She has the absolute opposite attitude to our current day world where everybody has to seek to raise their own profiles, to publicise and promote their activities and to draw attention to themselves by shouting loader and more persistently than the other people. This very low key approach of Mary’s makes it very easy for us to overlook her, to fail to take her seriously, to judge her by the standards of this world. There is something very quiet and recessive about Mary, but in the kingdom of heaven this is not a weakness, rather it is a way of serving others that we are called to emulate.
So I would like to encourage all of us to develop our own personal relationship with Mary, by praying to her. We don’t worship Mary, because she is not God, but we do venerate her, because she is in very close relationship with God. She is a person and we can talk to her, in prayer, just as we can talk to any other person. Let’s talk to her, trusting in her motherly love for us. And let’s become students of all the relationships in heaven, so that when we ask for things in prayer we know who to ask, and how to ask, and so our prayers can become more effective. Amen.
29 March 2009
Discerning God's call
Short sermon preached at 8.00am Eucharist at St Alphege on Sunday 29th March 2009.
Lent 5, Year B, but with a special reading from the Parish Lent Course. The Parish Lent Course follows the book Life Calling by Robert Warren and Kate Bruce (London, Church House Publishing, 2007).
Readings: 2 Samuel 7: 1-17 John 12: 20-26
First three paragraphs are repeated from sermon for Lent 3, 15/03/09.
In our Lent Courses so far we have been thinking about God’s call in our lives. We have seen how God’s call is very personal to each one of us. We have seen how God calls us from where we are right now. God’s call takes perfect account of the person we are with all our specific talents and attributes and virtues, and also with all our many sins and hurts and difficulties and weaknesses. God calls me “just as I am”.
But although God’s call starts with us “just as we are”, it leads us to somewhere new. It is a calling to draw closer to God. It is a calling to grow in love, because God is love. It’s a calling that draws us forward towards our true identity, towards being the person God created us to be. It is a calling to live in perfect harmony with God and with all the other citizens of God’s kingdom. It is a calling to holiness and to the life of heaven.
So it is that we can think of our lives as a journey, a journey towards heaven, towards complete fulfilment, towards discovering our true identity within the love of God. And how do we make progress on this journey. We make progress by following the call of God, by following God’s will for our lives.
But how do we hear God’s call? How do we understand what God’s will is? Well, in our Old Testament reading today there was an interesting story of David trying to discern God’s will. First of all he has an intuition, that it would be good to build a house for God. Then he tests this intuition by talking to the prophet Nathan. Nathan initially says, “Yes”, but very quickly God corrects this understanding. God then talks to David through Nathan, and basically God says “No”.
Notice that God’s generosity in this story far exceeds David’s. David offers to build God a house, but God says that he will make the House of David great, and he will establish the throne of David for all time. As Christians we see this promise fulfilled in Jesus, the eternal king, who was born into the line of David.
Also it is clear from other parts of the book that God does have his own plans for his own house. It is David’s son Solomon who builds a great temple for God. And because of Solomon’s great wealth the temple he builds is altogether far bigger and grander than David could ever have imagined.
So David gets a “No” from God on his suggestion to build a house for God. If we had read further we would have heard that David tests this “No” by praying over it as some length. But then once he is satisfied that he understood correctly he seeks out other activities. In the next chapter of the book he returns to his military conquests, and in this he is greatly blessed by God. Notice that most kings would instinctively want to conquer their neighbours, but would not think to build a house for God. With David it is the other way round, and he has God’s full support.
So, how do we discern God’s will for our own lives? Well, like David, we should certainly listen for intuitions from God. These are often planted by the Holy Spirit. On important matters we should certainly talk our intuitions through with others for verification. Who do we talk things through with? Who has the role of Nathan in your life? Then prayer certainly has an important role in verifying the will of God. God’s will is often suggested to us by circumstances. It is often something very simple and natural and low key. But following God’s will, moment by moment as our lives progress is the key to walking the journey towards heaven. It is growing in love and in holiness. It is walking towards the full realisation of God’s creation in us. It is our fulfilment as human beings. Amen.
Lent 5, Year B, but with a special reading from the Parish Lent Course. The Parish Lent Course follows the book Life Calling by Robert Warren and Kate Bruce (London, Church House Publishing, 2007).
Readings: 2 Samuel 7: 1-17 John 12: 20-26
First three paragraphs are repeated from sermon for Lent 3, 15/03/09.
In our Lent Courses so far we have been thinking about God’s call in our lives. We have seen how God’s call is very personal to each one of us. We have seen how God calls us from where we are right now. God’s call takes perfect account of the person we are with all our specific talents and attributes and virtues, and also with all our many sins and hurts and difficulties and weaknesses. God calls me “just as I am”.
But although God’s call starts with us “just as we are”, it leads us to somewhere new. It is a calling to draw closer to God. It is a calling to grow in love, because God is love. It’s a calling that draws us forward towards our true identity, towards being the person God created us to be. It is a calling to live in perfect harmony with God and with all the other citizens of God’s kingdom. It is a calling to holiness and to the life of heaven.
So it is that we can think of our lives as a journey, a journey towards heaven, towards complete fulfilment, towards discovering our true identity within the love of God. And how do we make progress on this journey. We make progress by following the call of God, by following God’s will for our lives.
But how do we hear God’s call? How do we understand what God’s will is? Well, in our Old Testament reading today there was an interesting story of David trying to discern God’s will. First of all he has an intuition, that it would be good to build a house for God. Then he tests this intuition by talking to the prophet Nathan. Nathan initially says, “Yes”, but very quickly God corrects this understanding. God then talks to David through Nathan, and basically God says “No”.
Notice that God’s generosity in this story far exceeds David’s. David offers to build God a house, but God says that he will make the House of David great, and he will establish the throne of David for all time. As Christians we see this promise fulfilled in Jesus, the eternal king, who was born into the line of David.
Also it is clear from other parts of the book that God does have his own plans for his own house. It is David’s son Solomon who builds a great temple for God. And because of Solomon’s great wealth the temple he builds is altogether far bigger and grander than David could ever have imagined.
So David gets a “No” from God on his suggestion to build a house for God. If we had read further we would have heard that David tests this “No” by praying over it as some length. But then once he is satisfied that he understood correctly he seeks out other activities. In the next chapter of the book he returns to his military conquests, and in this he is greatly blessed by God. Notice that most kings would instinctively want to conquer their neighbours, but would not think to build a house for God. With David it is the other way round, and he has God’s full support.
So, how do we discern God’s will for our own lives? Well, like David, we should certainly listen for intuitions from God. These are often planted by the Holy Spirit. On important matters we should certainly talk our intuitions through with others for verification. Who do we talk things through with? Who has the role of Nathan in your life? Then prayer certainly has an important role in verifying the will of God. God’s will is often suggested to us by circumstances. It is often something very simple and natural and low key. But following God’s will, moment by moment as our lives progress is the key to walking the journey towards heaven. It is growing in love and in holiness. It is walking towards the full realisation of God’s creation in us. It is our fulfilment as human beings. Amen.
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