Sermon preached at the 11am Parish Eucharist at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 20th February 20111. Shorter versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton, 9.45am Holy Communion.
Third Sunday before Lent (Septugesima)
Readings: 1 Corinthians 3: 10-11 & 16-23 Matthew 5: 38-48
Notes only
Start with story about “If someone sues for your coat, give him your cloak as well”
- the “I like your shirt” story
Our gospel readings at present come from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is very challenging!
Last week’s gospel gave us some very challenging teachings from Jesus
- he condemned all anger, lust, divorce and untruthfulness
I said in last week’s sermon that Jesus seems to set an impossibly high standard, a standard that is beyond us all.
- we might be tempted to throw in the towel, say “this is too much”
- but we must remember that we are on a journey towards the life of heaven
- we might not be ready for heaven yet, but by the grace of Christ we will be one day if we travel in the right direction
- we journey not in our own strength but in the strength of the Spirit & grace of Christ.
This week we have more very challenging teachings from Jesus
- do not resist the evildoer
- love your enemies
Again Jesus sets a high standard – but we must not despair.
We can think of the Journey again.
Or we can think of the slimily used by St Paul
- we are being built into a spiritual temple – a temple of the Holy Spirit
- this applies to us as individuals, and also to us collectively as church
- God is working in us to build up the temple
- it is a process that happens over time
- We need to co-operate and work on this building up because the spiritual temple endures. Earthly things fall away, we suffer loses, eventually we die, so better to invest in the spiritual temple which endures.
- We are building towards perfection – towards the life of heaven. As Jesus said in the gospel “Be Holy as your heavenly father is Holy”.
Whether we think of it as a journey or think of it as a building under construction our part is to live our day to day life in front of God seeking to grow in love for God and neighbour day by day, moment by moment. But sometimes we must ask ourselves, “What can we do?” “How can we contribute to the journey, to the building?” Lent starts in three weeks so no is an excellent time to ask these questions. Lent is traditionally the time of year for seeking to turn more fully to God.
What might be do this Lent? We could
1) Give up some luxury or pleasure (chocolate, coffee, alcohol, facebook?) in order to orientate ourselves towards God. Every time we miss the item we can remember God, and that we do it for love of him; or
2) Add some new spiritual discipline to our lives; perhaps some extra prayer or worship or bible reading or religious study. We will offer options on a Wednesday evening in church – Complain for prayer or “Explore” for study.
3) Do something practical which involves cost to ourselves for the benefit of other people. traditionally almsgiving. Could also be the giving of time or attention to someone who needs it. Could involve visiting someone who is a bit isolated, or writing to someone we are losing touch with.
So let’s start thinking now, so as to use Lent well, and to make our full contribution in the building up of the spiritual temple. Amen.
Showing posts with label Lent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lent. Show all posts
20 February 2011
01 March 2007
Parish Magazine Editorial - March 2007
The month of March comes as winter is giving way to spring. The days lengthen and the weather improves. It is a month that draws us out of the darkness and monotony of winter towards new starts, fresh beginnings and spring cleaning! March falls in the Church’s season of Lent. Lent also calls us to move our spiritual lives forwards, leaving behind our selfish and inward looking ways, and drawing us forward to live by the fresh hope and new creation of Easter. We call this renewal repentance.
Repentance means putting God in the first place in our lives, and setting aside everything that gets in the way of God. Repentance is the only logical and sensible way to live our lives. God created us and loves us immensely. The deepest desires of our hearts were made by him and it is his purpose to bring them to fulfilment. If we trust God and follow him we can be confident that God will work on us and bring us to the fullness of life that that he intends. Unfortunately we always have a tendency to put our faith in our own agenda and our own self understanding, but this can never deliver to us the good which God intends. Worse still, our pride stops us from admitting this, even to ourselves.
Repentance is a lifelong process that we need to engage with all the time, but especially in Lent we are reminded of its importance. Repentance can sometimes feel costly because we have to let go of things which we hold dear, or own up to sufferings that we have caused others. Repentance calls us to devote ourselves to loving God and other people (e.g. Matt 22:37-40) and to spend less time thinking about ourselves. Obviously we have to love ourselves too, forgive ourselves and make sure that our own needs are met, but the purpose of doing this is to serve God better, and especially to serve him in the brothers and sisters we meet around us.
This year, in the Parish of Solihull we have wonderful Lent time resources to help us do just this. Many of us are involved in the “Life Source” home groups looking at prayer. In these groups we explore some of the different patterns of prayer that have arisen within the tradition of the church. Prayer helps us to focus more on God and to be more attentive to God. Through prayer we start to know God better and to understand more clearly the things that he wants from us in each present moment of our lives.
Another resource that we have is the Love Life Live Lent booklets. These suggest lots of simple, practical ways of loving our neighbours. By loving and serving our neighbour we are loving and serving Jesus (see Matt 25:31-46). All too often, our Christianity remains a spiritual thing which does not transform our outward lives. However by loving Jesus in the people around us, little by little, we start to build authentic relationships and to transform the world we live in. Loving the people around us requires us to laugh with those who laugh and weep with those who weep and this can require us to put aside our own joys and sorrows, as required by repentance. The booklets are especially good at challenging us to love people who are very different from us; from a different generation, culture or religion. This challenges us to make our love grow and become universal, like the love of Christ. This too requires repentance.
So this Lent may God’s grace help us to move forwards in true repentance. May we practice growing in love for God and growing in love for our neighbour, so that we can become ever more an influence for good in the world around us. - Fr Gerard
Repentance means putting God in the first place in our lives, and setting aside everything that gets in the way of God. Repentance is the only logical and sensible way to live our lives. God created us and loves us immensely. The deepest desires of our hearts were made by him and it is his purpose to bring them to fulfilment. If we trust God and follow him we can be confident that God will work on us and bring us to the fullness of life that that he intends. Unfortunately we always have a tendency to put our faith in our own agenda and our own self understanding, but this can never deliver to us the good which God intends. Worse still, our pride stops us from admitting this, even to ourselves.
Repentance is a lifelong process that we need to engage with all the time, but especially in Lent we are reminded of its importance. Repentance can sometimes feel costly because we have to let go of things which we hold dear, or own up to sufferings that we have caused others. Repentance calls us to devote ourselves to loving God and other people (e.g. Matt 22:37-40) and to spend less time thinking about ourselves. Obviously we have to love ourselves too, forgive ourselves and make sure that our own needs are met, but the purpose of doing this is to serve God better, and especially to serve him in the brothers and sisters we meet around us.
This year, in the Parish of Solihull we have wonderful Lent time resources to help us do just this. Many of us are involved in the “Life Source” home groups looking at prayer. In these groups we explore some of the different patterns of prayer that have arisen within the tradition of the church. Prayer helps us to focus more on God and to be more attentive to God. Through prayer we start to know God better and to understand more clearly the things that he wants from us in each present moment of our lives.
Another resource that we have is the Love Life Live Lent booklets. These suggest lots of simple, practical ways of loving our neighbours. By loving and serving our neighbour we are loving and serving Jesus (see Matt 25:31-46). All too often, our Christianity remains a spiritual thing which does not transform our outward lives. However by loving Jesus in the people around us, little by little, we start to build authentic relationships and to transform the world we live in. Loving the people around us requires us to laugh with those who laugh and weep with those who weep and this can require us to put aside our own joys and sorrows, as required by repentance. The booklets are especially good at challenging us to love people who are very different from us; from a different generation, culture or religion. This challenges us to make our love grow and become universal, like the love of Christ. This too requires repentance.
So this Lent may God’s grace help us to move forwards in true repentance. May we practice growing in love for God and growing in love for our neighbour, so that we can become ever more an influence for good in the world around us. - Fr Gerard
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