Sermon for Midnight Mass – Christmas Eve 2011 - St Mary's Lapworth
I spent much of the summer of 1987(?) at the Diocese of Southwark’s retreat house. It is known as Wychcroft and is near to Blenchingly in Surrey. I knew the place well because I had worked there for a year between school and university, but in the summer of 1987(?) I was hardly fit for work. I feeling very delicate because I was still recovering from a serious personal crisis, which had really knocked me for six in the previous year. I was also feeling delicate at that time because I girl who I liked and wanted to get to know better had just made it quite clear that she did not want anything to do with me! So altogether I was in rather a sorry state and was feeling very unsure of myself.
Well, in the middle of that rather confused summer I received a visit from a university friend. He was indeed a really good friend. He set aside a whole day to come and see me from London. I collected him from the train station and on the way home we ran some errands for the House. He met the people I was staying with. He shared our meals with us. We went for a walk – it really is a beautiful place to walk round – and he saw all the places where I used to do my work. He listened to me as I bemoaned all my troubles, and he helped repair a broken shelf in my room. In the evening I drove him back to the station and he caught the train back to London.
And afterwards I was left with an extraordinary sensation of peace. I was so grateful that he had come to visit me where I was, and had really seen and shared in all the joys and sorrows of my life at that moment. I felt understood and supported, and much more able to really be myself. It wasn’t that my troubles had gone away or that anything had been fixed or solved, but somehow I definitely felt encouraged and supported and I felt more able to face the world and get on with my life. Above all, as I said, I felt at peace.
Well this is the action of a really good friend. Someone who is prepared to set aside his own agenda to spend time with you, who is prepared to share with you all the good things and the bad things about your life. Someone who is prepared to stand with you and suffer with you, when things are tough, who is not going to run away, embarrassed, because he just doesn’t know what to say or because he can’t fix your problems.
In some ways there is something very natural about this. Hopefully we all have friends who are like this. (Or at least we all have friends who can be a bit like this on a good day!) Hopefully we ourselves are good friends to other people and behave like this with other people too. But although it is something very natural, there is also something very spiritual going on here. There is something about this kind of friendship, this kind of behaviour, that teaches us about God’s love for us. Especially it teaches us about God’s love for us in sending us the baby Jesus at Christmas time.
God loves for us is not just the distant, well meaning love of a God who is far away and utterly transcendent. No, God in his great love for us, wants to come to us, to be like us, to spend time with us, to share with us the experience of a human life and a human death here on earth. At Christmas we remember that God was prepared to set aside his power and his glory and become a human being. God took on human flesh and becomes an ordinary man, with all the limitations and vulnerabilities that implies. Today we celebrate Jesus as a new born baby, and this is an extraordinary mystery. The great and mighty God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, came among us completely helpless and dependant, just like any other human baby. And of course Jesus grows up, just like any other child of his time. He learns his father’s trade, and becomes a carpenter. He really shares with us the human experience, with its joys and its sorrows, its highs and its lows. And although Jesus, as God, cannot go against God and so cannot sin, Jesus does share with us fully in experiencing the pain and separation that arises from sin, from our sin, from our going against God, our hiding from God, our rejection of God. Indeed it is this human condition of sin, of rejection of God, that ultimately causes us to reject Jesus, and have him killed on a cross. And God in Jesus did not shirk from this. Truly Jesus did experience all the suffering and pain that arises through sin, truly he shared the full measure of the human experience, not just the good bits, not just the pleasant bits.
We call this mystery the incarnation. God takes on flesh, becomes incarnate, so as to share completely in the human condition. It is truly a mystery; we will never completely get our heads around it. But if we ponder it well, if we seek to draw close to Jesus in prayer and if we seek to imitate him in our lives, then certainly, with time, we do come to understand this mystery better. We start to see its huge value and its huge implications. We start to understand our salvation, first of all personally, then for our communities, our nations and ultimately for the whole world; the whole of creation.
In particular we can start practising love, in the way that God loves us, when he becomes human. We can try to live for other people in this same way. We try to be ready to share experiences with them, to stand by them through good experiences and bad. We try to think about their legitimate needs and concerns, and we make them our needs and concerns. And this can be very costly. Just as God had to set aside his greatness and power to become human, so we often have to set things aside or let go of our own thoughts and feelings if we are properly to take on board the thoughts and feelings of others.
This way of loving is very characteristic of the New Testament. St Paul says “To the Jews I became a Jew, in order to win the Jews...to those outside the law I became as one outside the law ...so that I might win those outside the lew. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have becme all things to all people that I might by any means win some.” (1 Cor 9: 20-23)
I have heard this way of loving describing as “Making yourself one”, being “one” with the other person. It has the quality of empathy; walking in the shoes of the other. And certainly this way of loving has extraordinary effect. It creates an understanding and fellowship that leads to unity. It allows and helps people to be who they are, to be the people God created them to be. It therefore brings peace and harmony, and aligns things with God’s will. Of course it can be very costly; it cost Jesus his life. But such costs are generously repaid by God, by the God who raised Jesus from the dead.
So this Christmas let’s remember God’s love for us in becoming human and let’s try to love others by “making ourselves one” with them.
24 December 2011
13 November 2011
Resurrection hope
Sermon for Remembrance Sunday -13th November 2011
Readings: Ezeikeil 37: 1-14, John 15: 9-17
My wife and I have visited several Cemeteries of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in France. It is a very sobering experience. I am always struck by the sheer number of graves; row upon row of white stones. And we are reminded that a great sacrifice has been made; a very great human cost has been paid. There is a great sense of loss, of young lives that have passed away. And then we drive away, and it seems that we have not gone half a mile before we pass another cemetery and once again we are confronted with row upon row of white stones; many, many soldiers that have died.
And perhaps these feelings of sacrifice and loss tell us something about what Ezekiel was feeling in his extraordinary vision that we heard about in our first reading. Ezekiel was writing in the sixth century BC at a real low point in the history of the Jewish people. They had been utterly defeated by the Babylonians. Zion had been overpowered; Jerusalem had been destroyed. The temple had been desecrated and looted and many Jewish bodies lay scattered over the ruins of Jerusalem, with no-one to bury them. The survivors of the onslaught, had been taken away into exile in Babylon, where life was miserable. It was here that the Psalmist wrote, “By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion” (Ps 137). But among this pitiful remnant of his chosen people, God placed the prophet Ezekiel. And through Ezekiel God had a message for his chosen people and the message was this. The exile would not last for ever, it would come to an end. God would send his people back to Jerusalem. They would rebuild its temple and restore its walls. Although they felt utterly defeated and broken, God would restore them and make them whole once again. This is the primary meaning of Ezekiel’s vision – just as God brought back to life many, many dried bones scattered in a arid valley, so he would breathe new life into the people of Israel. He would restore them to wholeness and bring them back to Jerusalem and Judea.
But beyond its primary, meaning Ezekiel’s vision points us towards the resurrection of the dead. God say, “And you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves O my people.” In fact this is one of the earlier prophecies of the resurrection of the dead, but such prophecies become more common over the following centuries, and then in Jesus it becomes a clear promise (e.g. John 5: 25-29 or 6: 40, 1 Corinthians 15: 20-end, I Thess 4:13- end), signed sealed and delivered by the resurrection of Jesus himself from the dead; a resurrection in which we are all called to share. Now, it has to be said, the resurrection of the dead does remain one of the most strange and mysterious aspects of the Christian promise. The promise is that at the end of time there will be the trumpet call of God announcing the second coming of Christ. This is followed by the resurrection of the dead and then by the last judgement. Our resurrection bodies will have a spiritual quality and will not be subject to corruption and decay like the bodies we know at present. Personally I find that I cannot get my head round this. I can’t really understand how the resurrection of the dead can come about scientifically or in history, but it remains a key part of my Christian hope; something to look forward to at the end of time. And it is deeply, deeply integral to the Christian faith, and to the way we think about people who have died. Every time we recite the apostles creed we are reminded that we believe in “the forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” The hymn “O Valliant Hearts” that we have just sung talks of those who gave their life in war, who lie in those great cemeteries I was talking of earlier, await the last clear trumpet-call of God. The hymn is clear that by linking their sacrifice with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, they too will share in the resurrection of Christ.
This great resurrection is the result of a sharing in the resurrection life of Christ. It is brought about by abiding in Christ, and by having Christ abide in us. Especially it is brought about by sacrificial giving. In our gospel Jesus said, “Abide in my love – if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love... this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this; that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Well this is what Remembrance Sunday is all about; remembering before God those who have laid down their lives for us. It is the supreme act of love; the supreme act of giving. We have everything to be grateful for, and everything to hope for, in the resurrection of Jesus.
And this sacrifice, this gift, this great act of love, calls out to us encouraging us too to live better lives, to be more giving towards others, more generous towards others, more ready to make sacrifices for others. In our present society it is rare that someone is asked to give up their life for another person, but time and time again in our daily lives we are called to do smaller things for others; to give help with the washing up, to give time and attention, to be patient with someone infuriating, to forgive someone who has wronged us...
So as we mark solemnly the great sacrifices made by so many for us today, let’s seek to be ready to make the sacrifices for others that daily life demands of us. And let’s do so believing that love and sacrifice is not in vein. On the contrary it is precisely the way that we come to share in the great resurrection of Jesus.
Readings: Ezeikeil 37: 1-14, John 15: 9-17
My wife and I have visited several Cemeteries of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in France. It is a very sobering experience. I am always struck by the sheer number of graves; row upon row of white stones. And we are reminded that a great sacrifice has been made; a very great human cost has been paid. There is a great sense of loss, of young lives that have passed away. And then we drive away, and it seems that we have not gone half a mile before we pass another cemetery and once again we are confronted with row upon row of white stones; many, many soldiers that have died.
And perhaps these feelings of sacrifice and loss tell us something about what Ezekiel was feeling in his extraordinary vision that we heard about in our first reading. Ezekiel was writing in the sixth century BC at a real low point in the history of the Jewish people. They had been utterly defeated by the Babylonians. Zion had been overpowered; Jerusalem had been destroyed. The temple had been desecrated and looted and many Jewish bodies lay scattered over the ruins of Jerusalem, with no-one to bury them. The survivors of the onslaught, had been taken away into exile in Babylon, where life was miserable. It was here that the Psalmist wrote, “By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion” (Ps 137). But among this pitiful remnant of his chosen people, God placed the prophet Ezekiel. And through Ezekiel God had a message for his chosen people and the message was this. The exile would not last for ever, it would come to an end. God would send his people back to Jerusalem. They would rebuild its temple and restore its walls. Although they felt utterly defeated and broken, God would restore them and make them whole once again. This is the primary meaning of Ezekiel’s vision – just as God brought back to life many, many dried bones scattered in a arid valley, so he would breathe new life into the people of Israel. He would restore them to wholeness and bring them back to Jerusalem and Judea.
But beyond its primary, meaning Ezekiel’s vision points us towards the resurrection of the dead. God say, “And you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves O my people.” In fact this is one of the earlier prophecies of the resurrection of the dead, but such prophecies become more common over the following centuries, and then in Jesus it becomes a clear promise (e.g. John 5: 25-29 or 6: 40, 1 Corinthians 15: 20-end, I Thess 4:13- end), signed sealed and delivered by the resurrection of Jesus himself from the dead; a resurrection in which we are all called to share. Now, it has to be said, the resurrection of the dead does remain one of the most strange and mysterious aspects of the Christian promise. The promise is that at the end of time there will be the trumpet call of God announcing the second coming of Christ. This is followed by the resurrection of the dead and then by the last judgement. Our resurrection bodies will have a spiritual quality and will not be subject to corruption and decay like the bodies we know at present. Personally I find that I cannot get my head round this. I can’t really understand how the resurrection of the dead can come about scientifically or in history, but it remains a key part of my Christian hope; something to look forward to at the end of time. And it is deeply, deeply integral to the Christian faith, and to the way we think about people who have died. Every time we recite the apostles creed we are reminded that we believe in “the forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” The hymn “O Valliant Hearts” that we have just sung talks of those who gave their life in war, who lie in those great cemeteries I was talking of earlier, await the last clear trumpet-call of God. The hymn is clear that by linking their sacrifice with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, they too will share in the resurrection of Christ.
This great resurrection is the result of a sharing in the resurrection life of Christ. It is brought about by abiding in Christ, and by having Christ abide in us. Especially it is brought about by sacrificial giving. In our gospel Jesus said, “Abide in my love – if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love... this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this; that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Well this is what Remembrance Sunday is all about; remembering before God those who have laid down their lives for us. It is the supreme act of love; the supreme act of giving. We have everything to be grateful for, and everything to hope for, in the resurrection of Jesus.
And this sacrifice, this gift, this great act of love, calls out to us encouraging us too to live better lives, to be more giving towards others, more generous towards others, more ready to make sacrifices for others. In our present society it is rare that someone is asked to give up their life for another person, but time and time again in our daily lives we are called to do smaller things for others; to give help with the washing up, to give time and attention, to be patient with someone infuriating, to forgive someone who has wronged us...
So as we mark solemnly the great sacrifices made by so many for us today, let’s seek to be ready to make the sacrifices for others that daily life demands of us. And let’s do so believing that love and sacrifice is not in vein. On the contrary it is precisely the way that we come to share in the great resurrection of Jesus.
11 September 2011
What has happened to Sermons and Prayers?
I am sad to say that I have not managed to post a sermon to this blog since Lent 2011. This is because something has changed in the way I preach. I used to write all sermons out in full, and this made it easy to post them on the blog. However since Lent I have found myself preaching without notes, or at most with just a full bullet points. It seems to me that, when I preach in this way, I communicate much better with the congregation because I am actually talking to them rather than reading. Also I think I am much more dependent on the Holy Spirit this way, and I am sure that that is a good thing! I do find that preaching this way I am less accurate and I probably miss points out and repeat myself a bit, but it is still worth it because I am sure that more is communicated.
The sad thing is that I am left with no sermon text to post on the blog. I have felt sorry about that for a while. So one time recently I did try to write a sermon out in full, but then I found it changed a lot in the actual preaching and really needed a complete re-write.
So although I still produce a sermon every Sunday (sometimes two!) I can’t post them to the blog. Hopefully the situation will develop and a way round this will be found. I would love to video sermons and post them on Youtube, but we are not at that point yet!
Fr Patrick, 11th September 2011
The Revd Patrick Gerard
Rector of Baddesley Clinton and Lapworth
Diocese of Birmingham
Church of England
I am sad to say that I have not managed to post a sermon to this blog since Lent 2011. This is because something has changed in the way I preach. I used to write all sermons out in full, and this made it easy to post them on the blog. However since Lent I have found myself preaching without notes, or at most with just a full bullet points. It seems to me that, when I preach in this way, I communicate much better with the congregation because I am actually talking to them rather than reading. Also I think I am much more dependent on the Holy Spirit this way, and I am sure that that is a good thing! I do find that preaching this way I am less accurate and I probably miss points out and repeat myself a bit, but it is still worth it because I am sure that more is communicated.
The sad thing is that I am left with no sermon text to post on the blog. I have felt sorry about that for a while. So one time recently I did try to write a sermon out in full, but then I found it changed a lot in the actual preaching and really needed a complete re-write.
So although I still produce a sermon every Sunday (sometimes two!) I can’t post them to the blog. Hopefully the situation will develop and a way round this will be found. I would love to video sermons and post them on Youtube, but we are not at that point yet!
Fr Patrick, 11th September 2011
The Revd Patrick Gerard
Rector of Baddesley Clinton and Lapworth
Diocese of Birmingham
Church of England
03 April 2011
Church as Family
Mini Sermon preached at 9.45am Holy Communion service (BCP) at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton on Sunday 3rd April 2011. Also preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist at St Mary’s Lapworth.
Mothering Sunday
Readings: Col 3: 12-17 Luke 2: 33-35
In the reading from Colossians, Paul presents the church as he would like it to be; its an image of a church as “family”.
There are many different images of the church: “Institution”, “Boat”, “Hospital”, “net”... and each of them emphasises particular qualities, and ways of behaving which are important to the church.
But it seems to me that in our present times it is very important to emphasise the importance of church as “family”.
This emphasises some of the values Paul mentions: compassion, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, above all love.
How much does our world need these values?
How different they are from what we see on telly!
Actually it is the opposite values that make for dramatic, eye-catching telly – cruelty, arrogance, pushing forward, wanting things now. In the case of these values you have something to look at. Looking at someone being meek or patient is less eye-catching. Consequently our TV tends to celebrate and promote these bad qualities.
Also the power of TV pushes our politicians and leaders away from the true values. A prompt and effective intervention, comes over so much better on a TV News report than patience and meekness. An eye catching initiative or gimmick gets so much more publicity than humility.
I believe that this has affected our society in a very bad way. We fail to value properly and celebrate properly the things that are really good for us: compassion, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, love.
In the church we really need to promote and celebrate these values.
It is with these qualities that Love typically heals and resolves difficult situations, and it takes time. Usually these are the qualities that families and the church need to use to overcome their problems. The dramatic intervention is so often damaging in the longer term.
We often associate these true values (compassion, humility, meekness, patience) with Motherly Love, but actually they are essential to all Love. Fatherly Love might emphasis structure and discipline, but if this is not underpinned by compassion, humility, meekness and patience then it loses all meaning. It is no surprise that our society also struggles to formulate structure and discipline in a way that people find helpful and constructive.
So let’s resolve anew to live by compassion, humility, meekness and patience. Let’s bear with one another, forgive one another, and above all let’s seek to grow in love. Let’s promote these values in our families and in our society, first of all by our example, but also by our words, for our good and for the good of all the people around us. Amen.
Mothering Sunday
Readings: Col 3: 12-17 Luke 2: 33-35
In the reading from Colossians, Paul presents the church as he would like it to be; its an image of a church as “family”.
There are many different images of the church: “Institution”, “Boat”, “Hospital”, “net”... and each of them emphasises particular qualities, and ways of behaving which are important to the church.
But it seems to me that in our present times it is very important to emphasise the importance of church as “family”.
This emphasises some of the values Paul mentions: compassion, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, above all love.
How much does our world need these values?
How different they are from what we see on telly!
Actually it is the opposite values that make for dramatic, eye-catching telly – cruelty, arrogance, pushing forward, wanting things now. In the case of these values you have something to look at. Looking at someone being meek or patient is less eye-catching. Consequently our TV tends to celebrate and promote these bad qualities.
Also the power of TV pushes our politicians and leaders away from the true values. A prompt and effective intervention, comes over so much better on a TV News report than patience and meekness. An eye catching initiative or gimmick gets so much more publicity than humility.
I believe that this has affected our society in a very bad way. We fail to value properly and celebrate properly the things that are really good for us: compassion, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, love.
In the church we really need to promote and celebrate these values.
It is with these qualities that Love typically heals and resolves difficult situations, and it takes time. Usually these are the qualities that families and the church need to use to overcome their problems. The dramatic intervention is so often damaging in the longer term.
We often associate these true values (compassion, humility, meekness, patience) with Motherly Love, but actually they are essential to all Love. Fatherly Love might emphasis structure and discipline, but if this is not underpinned by compassion, humility, meekness and patience then it loses all meaning. It is no surprise that our society also struggles to formulate structure and discipline in a way that people find helpful and constructive.
So let’s resolve anew to live by compassion, humility, meekness and patience. Let’s bear with one another, forgive one another, and above all let’s seek to grow in love. Let’s promote these values in our families and in our society, first of all by our example, but also by our words, for our good and for the good of all the people around us. Amen.
27 March 2011
The stream of living water
Sermon preached at 11am Choral Mattins at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 27th March 2011. Other versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton’s 3pm Evensong.
Third Sunday in Lent – Year A
Readings: Ps 95 Exodus 17: 1-7 John 3: 5-42
About three times a year Bishop David calls together all the clergy of the diocese to the cathedral for a “Bishop’s Study Day”. We had one such study day ten days ago on St Patrick’s Day. The topic was Pilgrimage and the main speaker was Bishop Lindsay Urwin. Now Bishop Lindsay is an interesting character within the Church of England. In 1994, at the young age of 39 he was made Bishop of Horsham, a Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Chichester. He looked destined for great things, but in fact he never progressed from Horsham. It is possible that his very traditional views on women’s ordination made it difficult to appoint him as a diocesan bishop. Anyway in 2008 he resigned as Bishop of Horsham and took up the post of Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, based in Walsingham, a small and rather remote village near the north coast of Norfolk.
Now I don’t know how much you know about Walsingham? The shrine to our lady there goes back to the eleventh century, and a Saxon noblewoman called Richeldis. Richeldis was a window known for her good works, care and generosity towards the people around her, for her deep faith and for her particular devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus. In 1061, five years before the Norman Conquest, Richeldis had a vision in which she was taken by Mary to the tiny house in Nazareth where the angel Gabriel had told Mary to expect the child Jesus. Mary asked Richeldis to build a replica of this house of the Annunciation in Walsingham. Mary showed Richeldis where to build the house by making water spring up from the ground. Now there are various miracles and strange stories associated with all this (not to mention some confusion and uncertainty), but certainly a house was built and certainly it became an important centre of pilgrimage visited by many people including several generations of kings and queens of England. Then in 1538 King Henry VIII had the whole place destroyed. It wasn’t under the 1920’s that the Shrine started to be redeveloped by the Church of England.
Now as he was telling us all this, Bishop Lindsay focused on the spring of water that Mary had used to indicate the position of the holy house. He pointed out that springs of water are very often a feature of Marian shrines. Certainly I know that this is the case in Lourdes, France, where a new water spring was an important feature of St Bernadette’s visions of Mary in 1858, and I know it is true of other Marian shrines too. Bishop Lindsay comment was that it was very typical of Mary to draw attention to Jesus. A spring of water is indeed a powerful reminder of Jesus, who in our New Testament lesson today said that the water he gives a person, becomes in them a spring of living water, welling up to eternal life.
And this image of Jesus as giving a spring of living water, water that forever quenches thirst, is an image that goes very deep. It is very mysterious and worthy of being pondered at length. It resonates with many other themes in John’s gospel and in the wider scriptures.
For example, in John 6: 35 Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. No one who come to me will ever be hungry, no one who believes in me will ever thirst”. There is this same theme of thirst being quenched by Jesus. It is as though Jesus sustains the life of believers, just as bread and water sustain our earthly lives. Jesus takes this even further, perhaps making a link to the Eucharist, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day, for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” (John 6: 54)
Also in John 7: 37-38 Jesus cries out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, let anyone who believes in me come and drink”. John refers to a scripture [what scripture?] “from the heart shall flow streams of living water.” This explanation reminds of us of the blood and water that streamed from Jesus’ side when he was pieced on the cross (John 19: 34), and also the river of life that rises up from the throne of God and from the lamb, and flows through the recreated New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation (22:1). John also states that Jesus is talking of the Holy Spirit when he talks of streams of living water (John 7: 39) and indeed we often think of the Spirit as the sustainer of life.
But in our New Testament lesson there was another explanation of God’s gift for sustaining life, as bread and water sustain us when we are hungry or thirsty. When the disciples ask Jesus to eat something, he says that he has food they don’t know about. He says, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me.” So Jesus himself is stained by doing the will of the Father in heaven.
And in so many ways this is true for us too. It is by doing what God wills for us that we grow into what God has created us to be. It is by doing God’s will for us, that our particular way of serving the people around us is revealed. This is where our true identity is found; it is revealed in doing God’s will.
So as we think of Jesus as the stream of living water, welling up to eternal life, so let us focus on doing God’s will in our lives, moment by moment, day by day and so let us be sustained by Jesus, who is himself sustained by doing the Father’s will. Amen.
Third Sunday in Lent – Year A
Readings: Ps 95 Exodus 17: 1-7 John 3: 5-42
About three times a year Bishop David calls together all the clergy of the diocese to the cathedral for a “Bishop’s Study Day”. We had one such study day ten days ago on St Patrick’s Day. The topic was Pilgrimage and the main speaker was Bishop Lindsay Urwin. Now Bishop Lindsay is an interesting character within the Church of England. In 1994, at the young age of 39 he was made Bishop of Horsham, a Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Chichester. He looked destined for great things, but in fact he never progressed from Horsham. It is possible that his very traditional views on women’s ordination made it difficult to appoint him as a diocesan bishop. Anyway in 2008 he resigned as Bishop of Horsham and took up the post of Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, based in Walsingham, a small and rather remote village near the north coast of Norfolk.
Now I don’t know how much you know about Walsingham? The shrine to our lady there goes back to the eleventh century, and a Saxon noblewoman called Richeldis. Richeldis was a window known for her good works, care and generosity towards the people around her, for her deep faith and for her particular devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus. In 1061, five years before the Norman Conquest, Richeldis had a vision in which she was taken by Mary to the tiny house in Nazareth where the angel Gabriel had told Mary to expect the child Jesus. Mary asked Richeldis to build a replica of this house of the Annunciation in Walsingham. Mary showed Richeldis where to build the house by making water spring up from the ground. Now there are various miracles and strange stories associated with all this (not to mention some confusion and uncertainty), but certainly a house was built and certainly it became an important centre of pilgrimage visited by many people including several generations of kings and queens of England. Then in 1538 King Henry VIII had the whole place destroyed. It wasn’t under the 1920’s that the Shrine started to be redeveloped by the Church of England.
Now as he was telling us all this, Bishop Lindsay focused on the spring of water that Mary had used to indicate the position of the holy house. He pointed out that springs of water are very often a feature of Marian shrines. Certainly I know that this is the case in Lourdes, France, where a new water spring was an important feature of St Bernadette’s visions of Mary in 1858, and I know it is true of other Marian shrines too. Bishop Lindsay comment was that it was very typical of Mary to draw attention to Jesus. A spring of water is indeed a powerful reminder of Jesus, who in our New Testament lesson today said that the water he gives a person, becomes in them a spring of living water, welling up to eternal life.
And this image of Jesus as giving a spring of living water, water that forever quenches thirst, is an image that goes very deep. It is very mysterious and worthy of being pondered at length. It resonates with many other themes in John’s gospel and in the wider scriptures.
For example, in John 6: 35 Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. No one who come to me will ever be hungry, no one who believes in me will ever thirst”. There is this same theme of thirst being quenched by Jesus. It is as though Jesus sustains the life of believers, just as bread and water sustain our earthly lives. Jesus takes this even further, perhaps making a link to the Eucharist, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day, for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” (John 6: 54)
Also in John 7: 37-38 Jesus cries out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, let anyone who believes in me come and drink”. John refers to a scripture [what scripture?] “from the heart shall flow streams of living water.” This explanation reminds of us of the blood and water that streamed from Jesus’ side when he was pieced on the cross (John 19: 34), and also the river of life that rises up from the throne of God and from the lamb, and flows through the recreated New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation (22:1). John also states that Jesus is talking of the Holy Spirit when he talks of streams of living water (John 7: 39) and indeed we often think of the Spirit as the sustainer of life.
But in our New Testament lesson there was another explanation of God’s gift for sustaining life, as bread and water sustain us when we are hungry or thirsty. When the disciples ask Jesus to eat something, he says that he has food they don’t know about. He says, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me.” So Jesus himself is stained by doing the will of the Father in heaven.
And in so many ways this is true for us too. It is by doing what God wills for us that we grow into what God has created us to be. It is by doing God’s will for us, that our particular way of serving the people around us is revealed. This is where our true identity is found; it is revealed in doing God’s will.
So as we think of Jesus as the stream of living water, welling up to eternal life, so let us focus on doing God’s will in our lives, moment by moment, day by day and so let us be sustained by Jesus, who is himself sustained by doing the Father’s will. Amen.
20 March 2011
Born from above
Sermon preached at 9.45am Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton’s on Sunday 20th March 2011. A shorter version of this sermon was preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth
Second Sunday of Lent – Year A
Readings: Romans 4: 1-5 & 13-17 John 3: 1-17
Jesus conversation with Nicodemus is very famous
- He was a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews, perhaps the only such leader who really believed in Jesus
- Came to Jesus by night, because of fear
- Nicodemus crops us throughout John’s gospel
o He is argues that Jesus should be given a hearing, when Pharisees plot his arrest (7: 45-52)
o He is perhaps the example of a leading Jew who did believe in Jesus but dare not admit it (12: 42)
o At the death of Jesus he brings myrrh and aloes for his burial (19: 39)
Jesus gives him a hard time by talking of being born from above, or born again.
Nicodemus tries to flush out what Jesus means by being “born from above”
Jesus confirms that he does not mean a physical re-birth, but rather being born of “water and the Spirit”.
So just as a human person must be born of the flesh, and physically grow up, so that person must also be born of the Spirit and grow up in the Spirit, and come to maturity in the Spirit. Jesus says that this is essential to enter the kingdom of God. It is as though it is our life in the Spirit that enters into the kingdom of God, while out earthly body rots in the ground.
Now in the Church we associate “being born through water and the Spirit” with baptism – the moment when the life of the Spirit begins within us in a characteristic Christian way. This birth is certainly an essential step, but it is also essential that this life in the Spirit must grow and develop and reach its full stature. The fathers of the church always talk about baptism as essential for salvation.
So what is it that is essential for salvation?
- To be Baptised?
- To be born of the Spirit?
- to believe in Jesus? – as is often repeated in John’s gospel
- to live by faith – as Paul tells us in our epistle today
Sometimes there can be anxiety of this point.
- Perhaps you met Christians who ask “have you been born again?”
- Perhaps you have met Christians who scramble to get a new born baby baptised for fear that it might die un-baptised
Well to seek salvation is clearly a good thing, but I we are meant to get anxious about it. Salvation is God’s gift, freely given. We have to learn to trust God and to have faith in his love for us. First and foremost we must believe that God wants our good, wants our salvation and, one way or another, God will secure that salvation if we just do our part, and respond positively to the invitation of God. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4: 18).
Neither should we think of salvation as a tick list:
“I just need to be baptised, then I am saved”
“I just need to be born again, then I am saved”
“I just need to believe in Jesus, then I am saved”
“I just need to lead a good life, then I am saved”
The truth is that all these things go together and grow together in our spiritual lives. Everyone is different and God calls people in different ways. Many are baptised as babies and then need to grow into their faith. Other come to Christ differently and in certain ways might already be fairly mature as Christians before they are baptised. Some Christians emphasise faith in God, others emphasise the importance of living a good life and of loving our neighbour. But ultimately all these things go together and build on each other. Ultimately all are important, all our signs of each other. The Christian who emphasises faith, but has no love is clearly lacking (1 Cor 13: 2). The Christian who knows the scriptures but does not know Christ is clearly lacking (John 5: 39-40). The person who responds positively to Christ, but who has not be baptised or “born from above” clearly is lacking, as Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus shows.
So as we think of our salvation, let’s not worry about specific tests to determine if we are saved or not saved. Rather let’s seek to make progress in all the different aspects of the Christian life so that we can grow up into our salvation (c.f. 1 peter 2: 2) in a balanced way. Certainly, if we are not baptised then we should seek baptism. If we were baptised as babies then we should seek Confirmation, taking our personal ownership of our baptismal promises. Certainly we should seek to grow in faith and trust in God. We should seek to build our personal relationship with Jesus through prayer, by reading the gospels and by living as Jesus commands. Similarly we must live by the Spirit. Above all we must seek to grow in love for God and for our neighbours, because ultimately it is on love that the saved the unsaved are separated (Matt 25: 31ff). Amen.
Second Sunday of Lent – Year A
Readings: Romans 4: 1-5 & 13-17 John 3: 1-17
Jesus conversation with Nicodemus is very famous
- He was a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews, perhaps the only such leader who really believed in Jesus
- Came to Jesus by night, because of fear
- Nicodemus crops us throughout John’s gospel
o He is argues that Jesus should be given a hearing, when Pharisees plot his arrest (7: 45-52)
o He is perhaps the example of a leading Jew who did believe in Jesus but dare not admit it (12: 42)
o At the death of Jesus he brings myrrh and aloes for his burial (19: 39)
Jesus gives him a hard time by talking of being born from above, or born again.
Nicodemus tries to flush out what Jesus means by being “born from above”
Jesus confirms that he does not mean a physical re-birth, but rather being born of “water and the Spirit”.
So just as a human person must be born of the flesh, and physically grow up, so that person must also be born of the Spirit and grow up in the Spirit, and come to maturity in the Spirit. Jesus says that this is essential to enter the kingdom of God. It is as though it is our life in the Spirit that enters into the kingdom of God, while out earthly body rots in the ground.
Now in the Church we associate “being born through water and the Spirit” with baptism – the moment when the life of the Spirit begins within us in a characteristic Christian way. This birth is certainly an essential step, but it is also essential that this life in the Spirit must grow and develop and reach its full stature. The fathers of the church always talk about baptism as essential for salvation.
So what is it that is essential for salvation?
- To be Baptised?
- To be born of the Spirit?
- to believe in Jesus? – as is often repeated in John’s gospel
- to live by faith – as Paul tells us in our epistle today
Sometimes there can be anxiety of this point.
- Perhaps you met Christians who ask “have you been born again?”
- Perhaps you have met Christians who scramble to get a new born baby baptised for fear that it might die un-baptised
Well to seek salvation is clearly a good thing, but I we are meant to get anxious about it. Salvation is God’s gift, freely given. We have to learn to trust God and to have faith in his love for us. First and foremost we must believe that God wants our good, wants our salvation and, one way or another, God will secure that salvation if we just do our part, and respond positively to the invitation of God. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4: 18).
Neither should we think of salvation as a tick list:
“I just need to be baptised, then I am saved”
“I just need to be born again, then I am saved”
“I just need to believe in Jesus, then I am saved”
“I just need to lead a good life, then I am saved”
The truth is that all these things go together and grow together in our spiritual lives. Everyone is different and God calls people in different ways. Many are baptised as babies and then need to grow into their faith. Other come to Christ differently and in certain ways might already be fairly mature as Christians before they are baptised. Some Christians emphasise faith in God, others emphasise the importance of living a good life and of loving our neighbour. But ultimately all these things go together and build on each other. Ultimately all are important, all our signs of each other. The Christian who emphasises faith, but has no love is clearly lacking (1 Cor 13: 2). The Christian who knows the scriptures but does not know Christ is clearly lacking (John 5: 39-40). The person who responds positively to Christ, but who has not be baptised or “born from above” clearly is lacking, as Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus shows.
So as we think of our salvation, let’s not worry about specific tests to determine if we are saved or not saved. Rather let’s seek to make progress in all the different aspects of the Christian life so that we can grow up into our salvation (c.f. 1 peter 2: 2) in a balanced way. Certainly, if we are not baptised then we should seek baptism. If we were baptised as babies then we should seek Confirmation, taking our personal ownership of our baptismal promises. Certainly we should seek to grow in faith and trust in God. We should seek to build our personal relationship with Jesus through prayer, by reading the gospels and by living as Jesus commands. Similarly we must live by the Spirit. Above all we must seek to grow in love for God and for our neighbours, because ultimately it is on love that the saved the unsaved are separated (Matt 25: 31ff). Amen.
13 March 2011
Temptation and testing
Sermon preached at 11am Coral Mattins at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 13th March 2011. Shorter versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton’s 3pm Evensong.
First Sunday of Lent – Year A
Readings: Ps 32 Gen 2: 15-17 & 3: 1-7 Matt 4: 1-11
Many thanks to all those who participated in yesterday’s churchyard working party. Hopefully you will notice some of the fruits of the work as you leave church today. Those who have been to one of these the working parties will know that one of the most enjoyable aspects is the food that Vera puts out at lunchtime. Yesterday there were two excellent soups, crusty bread (both brown and white) and butter. There were baked potatoes and several different choices of filling; chilli, or cheese or tuna mayonnaise or spaghetti in sauce. Well it was all very excellent and I had seconds of the soups (spicy parsnip), plenty of bread and a very large baked potato, with two fillings. And after that, really, I was more ready for a nap than for more work in the churchyard. Someone said, “Hay Vera, with all this good food you are making us eat too much.” Vera said, “Well I don’t actually force people to eat it!” Well no, perhaps I am not actually forced to eat too much, but somehow with so much good food readily available the odds are stacked me. It is an example of temptation; a temptation I am not good at resisting.
What is temptation?
It is the danger that we trade in God’s hopes and plans for us, for something less, something outside of his will for our lives. It might be something that our appetites suggest to us (like food) or something suggested to us by doubt, or pride or envy ...
In the Christian tradition we often see the three biggest seducers as money, sex and power. E.g.
- Cheat on tax return or expenses for the sake of money
- Cheat on a spouse for the sake of sex
- Uncharitably highlight the failings of others (perhaps a colleague at work) for the sake of power
There is nothing wrong with money, sex and power in themselves. They are all gifts of God which can and should be used to build up his kingdom. But experience suggests that they have particular power to lead us into temptation. The Christian tradition highlights counteracts this by emphasising the importance of poverty, chastity and obedience, most noticeably in the vows taken by monks in the Benedictine tradition.
So in situation of temptation are situations where we are in danger of getting our priorities wrong. We are in danger of choosing some created thing that we desire (perhaps money, sex or power) over God’s desires for us, over God’s will for our lives, over the goodness that God wants to give us. Very often we are tempted to trade in something spiritual for something more tangible. Very often we are trading in a long term benefit for something more immediate. And if we give in to temptation then we go against God’s will, we sin, we damage our relationship with God and with others, we jar against God’s goodness to us and sooner or later this inevitably causes sufferings to ourselves and to others.
Two scripture readings today are stories of temptation.
Adam and Eve fall – traditional theology sees this as disastrous for the whole human race, the source of our Original Sin; the source of our clouded understanding of the things of God and our tendency towards sin. And this fault is finally made good by Christ in his death and resurrection. As we heard in our NT Reading, Christ passed through temptation without sin. He was always true to God, he always rejected the devil.
Notice the role of the devil in both stories. Bible is full of examples where God deliberately allows the devil to cause problems for people as some kind of test, as a means of proving their worth:
God must have allowed the serpent (the devil) into the Garden of Eden.
In our NT reading the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness specifically to be tempted by the devil.
In the book of Job, God specifically allows the devil to torture Job.
Jesus understands this. He says occasions for stumbling must come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes (Matt 18:7, Luke 17: 1). God, in his goodness and love, allows us to be tested and tempted, but that woe betides the tester or tempter. So often Satan tests us, perhaps with crushing under pain and adversity, perhaps with the wrongful fulfilment of desire, perhaps through our complacency and arrogance, perhaps by misrepresenting to us the things of God, as he misrepresented the scriptures to Jesus in our reading today.
Why does God allow trials or tests of this sort? Why is the devil allowed anywhere near us? (Especially as we are taught to pray “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil (i.e. from the evil one”)
These are deep mysteries – part of God’s love for us – perhaps so that we can share in, and make our own contribution towards the overcoming of evil???
With these tests or trials the dominant biblical image is gold or precious metal refined in the fire (Ps 66: 10, Is 48:10, 1 Peter 1: 6-7)
Tests which God allow both reveal how pure we are and help to build up that purity further.
Or we might fail. If we do we are in trouble, but we are also in good company. Jesus said to Peter “Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat” (Luke 22: 31) and indeed Peter, in his fear and confusion, denied Jesus three times. This must have caused Peter, and the other disciples great distress; to be alienated from Jesus at the time of his death. But after the resurrection Jesus restored Peter by three times saying “Peter – do you love me – feed my sheep” (John 21: 15ff)
When we fail we have to throw ourselves back on the mercy of God. We have to ask for forgiveness and start again in our Christian endeavour. Note that we have to start again in grace, not in our own strength, or we will fail again. We have to build up the presence of Christ within us by being honest about that failure, by accepting the pain it causes ourselves and others (rather than pretending the pain is not there) and by giving thanks to Christ for the pain that he accepted in his death on the cross, which has conquered sin and death, and by which we can be restored.
So let’s live our temptation well, hopefully being purified like silver in the fire, but if we fail let us seek forgiveness, growing in our knowledge of our dependence on God and in our thankfulness to Christ for his redemption. Amen.
First Sunday of Lent – Year A
Readings: Ps 32 Gen 2: 15-17 & 3: 1-7 Matt 4: 1-11
Many thanks to all those who participated in yesterday’s churchyard working party. Hopefully you will notice some of the fruits of the work as you leave church today. Those who have been to one of these the working parties will know that one of the most enjoyable aspects is the food that Vera puts out at lunchtime. Yesterday there were two excellent soups, crusty bread (both brown and white) and butter. There were baked potatoes and several different choices of filling; chilli, or cheese or tuna mayonnaise or spaghetti in sauce. Well it was all very excellent and I had seconds of the soups (spicy parsnip), plenty of bread and a very large baked potato, with two fillings. And after that, really, I was more ready for a nap than for more work in the churchyard. Someone said, “Hay Vera, with all this good food you are making us eat too much.” Vera said, “Well I don’t actually force people to eat it!” Well no, perhaps I am not actually forced to eat too much, but somehow with so much good food readily available the odds are stacked me. It is an example of temptation; a temptation I am not good at resisting.
What is temptation?
It is the danger that we trade in God’s hopes and plans for us, for something less, something outside of his will for our lives. It might be something that our appetites suggest to us (like food) or something suggested to us by doubt, or pride or envy ...
In the Christian tradition we often see the three biggest seducers as money, sex and power. E.g.
- Cheat on tax return or expenses for the sake of money
- Cheat on a spouse for the sake of sex
- Uncharitably highlight the failings of others (perhaps a colleague at work) for the sake of power
There is nothing wrong with money, sex and power in themselves. They are all gifts of God which can and should be used to build up his kingdom. But experience suggests that they have particular power to lead us into temptation. The Christian tradition highlights counteracts this by emphasising the importance of poverty, chastity and obedience, most noticeably in the vows taken by monks in the Benedictine tradition.
So in situation of temptation are situations where we are in danger of getting our priorities wrong. We are in danger of choosing some created thing that we desire (perhaps money, sex or power) over God’s desires for us, over God’s will for our lives, over the goodness that God wants to give us. Very often we are tempted to trade in something spiritual for something more tangible. Very often we are trading in a long term benefit for something more immediate. And if we give in to temptation then we go against God’s will, we sin, we damage our relationship with God and with others, we jar against God’s goodness to us and sooner or later this inevitably causes sufferings to ourselves and to others.
Two scripture readings today are stories of temptation.
Adam and Eve fall – traditional theology sees this as disastrous for the whole human race, the source of our Original Sin; the source of our clouded understanding of the things of God and our tendency towards sin. And this fault is finally made good by Christ in his death and resurrection. As we heard in our NT Reading, Christ passed through temptation without sin. He was always true to God, he always rejected the devil.
Notice the role of the devil in both stories. Bible is full of examples where God deliberately allows the devil to cause problems for people as some kind of test, as a means of proving their worth:
God must have allowed the serpent (the devil) into the Garden of Eden.
In our NT reading the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness specifically to be tempted by the devil.
In the book of Job, God specifically allows the devil to torture Job.
Jesus understands this. He says occasions for stumbling must come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes (Matt 18:7, Luke 17: 1). God, in his goodness and love, allows us to be tested and tempted, but that woe betides the tester or tempter. So often Satan tests us, perhaps with crushing under pain and adversity, perhaps with the wrongful fulfilment of desire, perhaps through our complacency and arrogance, perhaps by misrepresenting to us the things of God, as he misrepresented the scriptures to Jesus in our reading today.
Why does God allow trials or tests of this sort? Why is the devil allowed anywhere near us? (Especially as we are taught to pray “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil (i.e. from the evil one”)
These are deep mysteries – part of God’s love for us – perhaps so that we can share in, and make our own contribution towards the overcoming of evil???
With these tests or trials the dominant biblical image is gold or precious metal refined in the fire (Ps 66: 10, Is 48:10, 1 Peter 1: 6-7)
Tests which God allow both reveal how pure we are and help to build up that purity further.
Or we might fail. If we do we are in trouble, but we are also in good company. Jesus said to Peter “Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat” (Luke 22: 31) and indeed Peter, in his fear and confusion, denied Jesus three times. This must have caused Peter, and the other disciples great distress; to be alienated from Jesus at the time of his death. But after the resurrection Jesus restored Peter by three times saying “Peter – do you love me – feed my sheep” (John 21: 15ff)
When we fail we have to throw ourselves back on the mercy of God. We have to ask for forgiveness and start again in our Christian endeavour. Note that we have to start again in grace, not in our own strength, or we will fail again. We have to build up the presence of Christ within us by being honest about that failure, by accepting the pain it causes ourselves and others (rather than pretending the pain is not there) and by giving thanks to Christ for the pain that he accepted in his death on the cross, which has conquered sin and death, and by which we can be restored.
So let’s live our temptation well, hopefully being purified like silver in the fire, but if we fail let us seek forgiveness, growing in our knowledge of our dependence on God and in our thankfulness to Christ for his redemption. Amen.
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