Funeral Homily - Joseph Foote - Hope

Funeral Homily - 10th September 2007

Funeral of Joseph Foote - 1.45pm St Alphege Church
Background: Joseph Foote was an inspiring 9 year old who died on 1st September after seven years with a brain cancer. More about Joeseph can be found on his website at http://www.josephfoote.co.uk/ including the funeral order of service and Joeseph's father's tribute.

Reading: Matthew 18:1-5,10


Today we have heard a wonderful tribute to Joe from Andy his father. We have heard a piano piece and a very moving poem from Nancy, Joe’s sister. We have also heard a poignant tribute from Ash, who is Joe’s Godfather and who was present at Joe’s baptism.
In his words, Andy described Joe’s story as one of Love, Laughter, Courage and Hope. Today Andy has spoken particularly of the Love the Laughter and the Courage, but when I went to visit Andy and Judy in their home, it was particularly the Hope that we spoke of. And that might, at first sight, seem strange. Someone might ask, “Where is the hope in the story of a child who dies?”
Right from the time of Joe’s first diagnosis back in 2000 Andy and Judy always believed that Joe would get better. They worked hard, and Judy in particular worked hard, to make sure that Joe too believed he would get better; that things would be alright. And this hope gave the family great energy. They did everything possible. They made sure that Joe got the very best medical treatment. They established the Joe Foote Trust to fund research in the treatment of brain cancer. Andy told me how empowering he found this hope. “If you have got hope you can do anything. You can walk through walls if you have got hope,” he said.
And this hope was also very helpful to Joe. According to Andy it was this belief that he would get better that gave Joe his courage and his strength of character. This was the reason that he never moaned and never complained.
Then there was a critical moment, about two years ago. Joe’s condition developed to such a point that the hospitals refused to perform any further operations. And with news came the terrible realisation that the hospitals were not going to make Joe better. And this point all hope seemed to disappear. Andy told me about a terrible two hours, during which he and Judy languished in complete despair. The loss of hope was completely debilitating. They could do nothing. They could barely even stand up. It was a terrible, terrible moment.
But then, as emptiness and despair sank deeper and deeper into their hearts, something strange happened. They realised that at a deeper level there was something solid within them, something that had not drained away in the despair. Something that was still there, that could be counted upon. Despite the terrible news from the hospitals hope was still present in their hearts. They could carry on. They could still do things for Joe. They did not know quite what, but they could find things. They could move forward.
And so hope returned; a deeper and more profound hope. And with this, energy returned. They were able to take Joe to the States for further treatments. They redoubled all their efforts in looking after Joe. The belief that Joe would be alright sustained them and kept them going these last two years.
When I heard this I was quite concerned. I asked Andy, “And what happens to this hope two years later, when the child finally dies.” He told me, “Hope is still there. It is still there. We still have each other. We still have Nancy. We still have the grandparents and wider family. There are still things we can do, people we can work for. And we can still have hope for Joe.”
[Pause]
This extraordinary and inexplicable resilience of hope goes right to the heart of the Christian story.
When Jesus of Nazareth was teaching in Judah and Galilee many people started to place their hope in him. Jesus was a great prophet, who worked great miracles. People thought he would do great things; restore the fortunes of Israel, kick out the Roman occupation and rule as a great and just king.
And then it all went terribly wrong. Jesus was put on trial by his own people. He was scourged, mocked and crucified. He died a most terrible death, hanging on a cross. The friends of Jesus ran away and hid. For two days they suffered the most terrible despair. Was all that teaching for nothing? Could the one who healed others simply be killed himself? Then, on the third day, the strange news of the resurrection started to filter through. Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and to some of the apostles, not as a ghost, but as a complete and real human being, still bearing his scares from the crucifixion. There were more and more appearances, and slowly the realisation set in that Jesus had conquered death. Jesus truly was the resurrection and the life. Hope was born again. Not the futile hope that we can somehow escape death, but rather the deep and profound realisation that death is not the end. We can come to share in the new life of Christ. We can share in his resurrection.
Ash and the other godparents present hear today remind us of Joe’s baptism. When we are baptised we are baptised into the death and resurrection of Christ. Through the darkness and despair of the cross, Christ came to the hope and new life of the resurrection. By baptism we too can pass through the loss and emptiness of our own death, as we come to share in the new life of Christ. And this is our hope for Joe. And this is the hope for each one of us. In particular this is the hope for Joe’s family. I have no doubt that there will be some difficult days and months ahead as the loss of Joe’s earthly presence really sinks in, but through our baptism we have a hope that is deeper and more profound. And with hope we can do anything!

The choice of God; putting God first!

Sermon - 09/09/07 – Trinity 14 (Proper 18) – Year C
Preached at St Alphege, Solihull 8.00am Eucharist on 09/09/07
Readings: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Philemon 1-21 Luke 14:25-33


Our readings today make us to think about the choice of God. Choosing God! What does this mean, choosing God! It means putting God in the first place in our lives and then allowing all the other things in our lives to find their right place in accordance with what God requires.
In our Old Testament lesson the Israelites are just about to enter the Promised Land. For years God has been promising them this land, if they live according to his commandments. At long last God is delivering on his promise. Forty years of wondering around in the desert are over and the good times are at hand. And God chooses this moment to remind the Israelites that they face a clear choice. They can continue to walk in the Lord’s ways, obeying his commandments, in which case God will bless them, and they will be prosperous in their new land and their descendents too will prosper. God describes this as choosing life and blessings. Or they can choose to stray from God’s ways and serve other Gods. If they choose to stray from God then they will not live long in their new land, rather they will perish. God describes this as the choice of death and curses.
And we too all of us face this choice at the personal level. We can put God in the first place in our lives and seek to walk in his ways, obeying his commandments. God is our creator and the source of our life, so to make this choice is to choose life and to choose blessings. Alternatively we can give first priority in our lives to something that is not God, but which feels important to us. We might give top priority to our job, or our home, or our financial security, or to our children, or to our sense of being in control, or to money, or to shopping, or to holidays. It is not that there is anything wrong with these things; if fact they are all very good things when they are put in their rightful place under God. The problem comes if we prioritise these things over God. If we do this then we deprive God of his rightful place, we cease to be open to the things he asks of us. We fail to notice or fail to value the good things that he gives us. To do this is to choose death and curses. Eternal life does not come from shopping. It does not come from financial security, or even from our children. Eternal life comes from God, the giver of all life, the one who created us and who wants our good, and who has a wonderful destiny planned for us in heaven. In fact to choose God, and to put God in the first place in our lives is the only logical and sensible way to live our lives. And the beautiful thing is that if we seek first the kingdom of heaven, then all these other things will be added to us as well. God will give us the things we need. Generally he does allow us to shop, he gives us financial security, he looks after our children, but we have to give first priority to God.
In our gospel reading Jesus tells us very forcibly about the cost of that choice. Jesus is God. There is no conflict between choosing God and following Jesus. These are in fact the same thing. To put God first means to follow Christ. We must not let anything stop us from following Christ. We must put Christ above father, mother, wife and children, above brother, sisters and even above life itself. We have to carry our cross and follow Christ. We have to be ready to give up all our processions.
This might make it seem very hard to follow Christ, undesirable even. But we have to trust God who made us and wants our good. He knows the things that we need and he will provide. We receive these things as gifts, not as things we snatch for ourselves. As we follow Christ we may pass through all kinds of difficulties but over time our lives become simpler and more harmonious. Certainly there are sufferings and certainly we have to be ready to lose things that we value in order to put God first, but everything we ever had comes from God, and he gives us far more back than we ever lose. In the long term Christ’s yoke is easy and his burden light.

The old covenant and the new covenant

Sermon - 26/08/07 – Trinity 12 (Proper 16) – Year C
Preached at St Alphege, Solihull 8.00am Eucharist on 26/08/07
Readings: Isaiah 58:9b-14 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13:10-17

In the gospel reading that we have just heard, Jesus performs a healing miracle on the Sabbath. This is a great scandal to the leader of the synagogue because this appears to be working on the Sabbath and it is certainly not consistent with the Jewish Law as it was generally understood. The synagogue leader argues, “You have six days in a week for work; come and be healed on those six days, but keep the Sabbath day holy.” Jesus however is completely insistent. He appears to see the healing of the woman, bound by Satan for 18 long years, as something that just has to be done. He perhaps even suggests that the Sabbath Day is a particularly appropriate day to do it.
It seems that this was a popular move. The gospel reading tells us that the entire crowd rejoiced at the wonderful things that Jesus was doing. And yet for ordinary Jews who sought to live a good life this must have been a very confusing incident. For a Jew at that time, to live a good life meant, by and large, to follow the Law of Moses. It was the job of the Scribes and the Pharisees to explain to the people what the Law was. It was important to keep the Law. Through Moses, God had agreed a covenant with the people of Israel. They would keep God’s law and God would give them the Promised Land. Keeping the Law was doing you side of the bargain; it was honouring God and helping to secure the Promised Land.
But then Jesus comes along, who is clearly a man of God and a good man, and says don’t just focus on the detail of the Law, rather focus on doing good! Jesus was redefining the covenant of Moses and redefining the relationship between God and his people.
From the earliest times in the Church, we have always been very clear that Jesus was able to do this. Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God, who could be worshipped as God. He was much more significant than Moses, and had every right to redefine the covenant.
Through his passion and death, Jesus mediated a new covenant between people and God. No longer should we be slaves to the details of the Law, but rather we are saved through faith in Christ and by following Christ, the way, the life and the truth. In the Eucharist we celebrate this new covenant, nurturing ourselves on Christ. We hold up the chalice and remember the words of Jesus, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”
The difference between the old and new covenant is emphasised by our New Testament lesson. It is a difficult reading, and worth studying again when you get home. It says that we have not come to something tangible and rigid like the Law of Moses. It describes the scene from Exodus chapter 19 with the tempest, the trumpet and the terrifying voice when the Law was handed over to Moses. Rather, the reading emphasises, we have come to a new covenant, to the city of the living God, to innumerable angels, to the assembly of the first born enrolled in heaven, to God, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and above all to Jesus.
Notice that the new covenant is expressed in terms of people and relationships, much more than it is expressed in terms of rules and regulations. Rules and regulations, like the 10 commandments, are still there to guide us, but our primary responsibility is to true to our heavenly relationships, especially to be true in our relationship with Christ.
So how do we do that? How are we true in our relationship with Christ. Well, in John chapter 14 Jesus says, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” In the same discourse he gives us the New Commandment – to love one another, as he has loved us. Love is indeed the fulfilment of the Law (Romans 13:10). It is by growing in love that we live out the new covenant, and grow in communion with all the citizens of heaven.

Keeping the Sabbath

Thought for parish pew slip – 26th August 2007 - Trinity 12 (Proper 16) Year C
Readings Isaiah 58:9b-14 Hebrews 12:18-29 Luke 13: 10-17

Our readings today challenge us to think about the Sabbath.
In our reading from Isaiah, the prophet asks us not to go our own way, serve our own interests or pursue our own affairs on the Sabbath, but rather to honour the Sabbath and to think of it as a delight.
In our gospel reading Jesus performs a healing miracle on the Sabbath. This is one of several gospel stories where Jesus heals on the Sabbath, and it is always a challenge to the Scribes and Pharisees because it goes against the detailed regulations of the Law. Jesus however is insistent. In Luke 6:9 he asks, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil”.
Nowadays we live very busy lives and it is hard to live the Sabbath well. And yet the busyness of our lives makes it all the more important to set aside time for rest, for the family and for worship. If we don’t do these things on a Sunday, then when do we do them? Trying to observe the Sabbath is a good way of ensuring that rest, family and worship do not get crowded out of our lives. We need these things if we are to live fully human lives.

Basking in the word of God

Sermon preached on 22/07/07 at 9.15am service at St Alphege, Solihull
Trinity 7 (Proper 11) – Year C
Readings: Genesis 18:1-10a Colossians 1:15-28 Luke 10:38-42


As I was walking to church this morning I was thinking about all the recent rain, and I thought how ironic it was that I intended to preach about sunshine! I had no sooner thought the thought that the sun came out and shone on me briefly, so let’s spend a moment thinking about sunshine.
My wife loves to sunbath. When the sun comes out she sets aside time to sit in the sun. She slows down and starts to relax. She catches up with herself and recharges her batteries. She also goes most beautifully brown. Now doctors warn us that too much sun can be bad for our skin, and Elaine is careful not to overdo it. Despite this it often seems that it is through soaking up the sun that she regains her equilibrium and is restored in who she is.
Now this idea of sitting in the light of the sun, absorbing its warmth and being restored to wholeness, is a little bit like listening to the word of God. Just as Elaine goes out of her way to sit in the sun, so we need to rest, listening to the word of God. Just as Elaine soaks up the warmth of the sun and allows it to recharge her batteries and make her go brown, so we need to soak up the word of God, allow it to transform us and to form in us the attributes of Christ.
In our OT reading today we heard about Abraham and Sarah listening to the words spoken by the Lord. The Lord mysteriously appears to Abraham as three men, standing near to his tent. Abraham brings them food and drink and sits by the three men as they ate. The three men announce that Abraham’s wife, Sarah, will bear a son for Abraham. This is remarkable, indeed unbelievable, news. If we had read a little further into the passage it would have been explained to us that both Sarah and Abraham were very old at this point and the thought of having a child was quite extraordinary. In fact Sarah, who was listening to the conversation from the entrance to the tent, laughed at the idea of having a child.
The effect of this conversation with the Lord was transformational. God had long promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation, and yet Sarah had never been able to have children. This huge paradox perplexed them for years. Perhaps it was the burden of this paradox that made Sarah suggest that Abraham should have a child through her slave-girl Hagar. But suddenly, when they were ridiculously old, Sarah becomes pregnant and has a son Isaac. God’s promises were fulfilled in a way that was much more direct and total than had ever seemed possible.
Our gospel reading is also about listening to the word of God. In this case it is about listening to Jesus. In the Christian tradition we think of Jesus as the word of God (e.g. John 1) so to listen to Jesus is particularly to listen to the word of God. The story contrasts Martha and Mary and their two different ways of loving Jesus. Martha seeks to love Jesus by performing many tasks; presumably she is preparing a meal for him and his friends. Mary loves Jesus by sitting at his feet and listening to what he says. Martha clearly thinks that Mary should be helping prepare the meal, but Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken away from her. Jesus clearly values people listening too him.
And Jesus’ words, or perhaps Jesus himself, also seems to have had a transforming effect on Martha and Mary. In John’s gospel, Jesus visits Bethany, where Martha and Mary live, many times in the weeks before his death. Martha and Mary show great faith when their brother Lazarus dies, and Jesus raises him from the dead. There is also a remarkable moment in which Mary washes Jesus’ feet with ointment and wipes them with her hair. Jesus recognises this as a preparation of his body for burial.
And so what about us? Do we spend time listening to the word of God? Do we allow it to enter into us and transform us? Well perhaps we read the bible at home. Certainly this is one way of encountering the word of God. If we come regularly to worship then we hear the scriptures read in our worship. Personally I find that when I listen to the scriptures read during worship then they sink into me much more fully than if I simply read the bible on my own at home. In worship I sometimes find that something from a bible reading strikes me, as though I am hearing it for the first time, or in a new way, even if I might already be quite familiar with that particular passage. I am not quite sure why I find a scripture readings during worship so much more helpful than bible reading at home. Perhaps my approach is more prayerful during worship. Perhaps my communion with other worshipers helps me to understand better.
When we read scripture it is important that we allow the Word of God to nurture our whole human person, body, mind and spirit. We need to prayerfully allow the words to enter into us. Spiritual advisers usually say that if something from a bible reading strikes us then we should stay with that thought or feeling and allow it to percolate through us. We should not be seeking to interrogate the text with our own analysis and questions. Rather we should be humbly allowing the text to invade us and question us about our attitudes and the actions of our lives. The Word of God is not a puzzle for us to solve, but rather it is a gift for us to receive.
During Lent last year, many of us followed the Life Source course on prayer. One of the technique of prayer that this covered (albeit rather briefly) was called Lectio Divina or “divine reading”. Lectio Divina is prayer based around the slow and repeated reading of scripture or some other text suitable for prayerful reflection. It allows the word of God to enter into us, to nurture us and to form within the attributes of Christ.
I would like to share with you a recent example where I have found that nurturing myself on the Word of God has helped me in my spiritual life. I spent a month reflecting on the phrase, “those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy” from psalm 126. This helped me to understand that I must not seek instant results or immediate payback when I try to do good. For example, if I try to love someone, and they don’t seem to love me back, then this is not a reason to stop loving them. Another example comes from one of my “hobbies” in which I spend time lobbying for better practice in the field of executive pay. My lobbying appears to have very little effect, and there is a temptation to lose heart. However the text from the psalm encourages me to persevere in doing what is right. When the sower sows the seed the first thing that happens is that the seed disappears into the ground and rots away. It is weeks before any growth can be seen, and months before anything that might be harvested becomes visible. Furthermore the text gives me courage when things are painful and difficult. I might sow in tears today, but can I hope one day to reap with shouts of joy.
So as we go on our summer holidays, and enjoy the warmth of the sun (let’s hope we get the chance!), let’s also make sure that be bask in the light and warmth of the word of God. Let’s let it sink into us, transforming our attitudes and behaviours. Let’s allow it to do its job, so that Christ can be formed within us.

Loving as God loves - The art of loving

Sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull 8.00am Eucharist on 15/07/07
Trinity 6 (Proper 10) - Year C
Readings: Deuteronomy 30:9-14 Colossians 1:1-14 Luke 10:25-37

[Based on Art of Loving in Focolare Spirituality. For more details see page 77-87 or 237 in "Essential Writings" by Chiara Lubich, New City Press, London 2007]



The parable of the Good Samaritan is Jesus’ explanation of what it mans “To love your neighbour”. This is crucially important. Jesus summarised the whole of the Law and the prophets in the two commands “Love God with all you’re your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, and love your neighbour as yourself”, so “loving your neighbour appears to be half of all the Law and the prophets! So what does it mean to “Love your neighbour”.
If we look at the love shown by the Good Samaritan we quickly start to see that it has some extraordinary characteristics. This is not mere human love, and it has very little to do with the images of love that are displayed to us in TV and cinema. Rather it is love with divine qualities and it has a transforming effect on those who encounter it. Let’s think about these divine characteristics.
First of all, divine love loves everybody without distinction. We can assume that the man loved by the Good Samaritan was a Jew, so he was from a different race and from a different religion. Furthermore the Jews and Samaritans did generally not get on. However the Good Samaritan appears not to have considered this. Instead he saw a fellow human being in need, created like him in the image and likeness of God, and loved like him by the same Father in heaven. To love someone does not mean that we agree with them or get on with them or approve of the choices they make. Rather it means that we want their good. We want God’s creation in them to come to fulfilment. We want to love them as God loves them. God loves everybody, even our enemies. As we seek to grow in love we too are called to love everybody.
Second the Good Samaritan is the first to love. He does not recognise the man as someone who has been good to him in the past. He does not wait for the man to be good to him now. Rather he gets straight on in their and takes the initiative in love. St John tells us to love, because God has first loved us (1 John 4:19). This is a second characteristic of divine love. God takes the imitative in love, and we too are called to take the initiative in love.
Third, the Good Samaritans love is about practical service. In a practical way, he does what he can to help. This too is a characteristic of God’s love, and this too is something we are called to. Let’s make our love practical service to help others. This might mean preparing food or laying the table. It might mean washing the car or reading the map. It might mean helping someone to look for something that they have lost. It might mean visiting someone. Let’s make sure we show practical love.
As a fourth characteristic of the love to which the Good Samaritan calls us, let’s notice that he is ready to set aside his own agenda to love the person in front of him. He doesn’t think like the priest, “I’ve got some important praying to do…I can’t get involved here.” He doesn’t think “I have brought this donkey for me to ride on… I can’t use it for someone else.” He is prepared to set aside his own ideas and his own plans in order to love the other person. And we too are called to this and it can be very demanding and costly, because it we have to be ready to lose things, even good things. It calls us to be empty of self. Sometimes we have to hold off saying something in order to properly listen to someone else speaking. Sometimes we have to forget about something we think is important, in order to take on board something that is important to someone else. Sometimes we have to give up on the newspaper, in order to play a computer game with the grandson. We need to be empty of self in order to welcome and be fully present for the other person. This requires great trust in God, because often the things we are called to set aside are genuinely good things…things of God even.
So these are four characteristics of the love of the Good Samaritan; four characteristics of the love that we are called to as we love our neighbour. Love everybody. Be the first to love. Love in practical ways. Be empty of self in order to welcome the other.
In our day to day lives let’s try to love other people in these ways. It will be demanding, and it will require effort, and many times we will fall short. But let’s not be discouraged. God wants to fill us with his love. If we practice and pray and ask for God’s help, then over time love will grow in us. We will start to love more and more like the Good Samaritan and we will find more and more than we have fulfilled all that God asks of us in the Law and the prophets.

Centenary of Scouting and Paul's "flesh" and "Spirit"

Sermon preached on 08/07/07 at the 11am Eucharist at St. Alphege, Solihull
Trinity 5 (Proper 9) – Year C
Readings: Isaiah 66:10-14 Galatians 6:7-16 Luke 10:1-11&16-20



If you arrived early at our service today you might have caught the tail end of the Scouts leaving the 9.15 service where they made a presentation to us. They told us all about the centenary of Scouting which will be celebrated in 24 days time, on 1st August. It will be exactly 100 years from the start of Baden Powel’s experimental camp for boys on Brownsea Island, near Poole in Dorset, and this is the moment that is recognised as the starting moment of the Scout Movement. I would therefore like to spend a few moments reflecting with you on 100 years of Scouting.
Right from the beginning the Scout Movement was about fun and adventure in the open air, and about service to others, and service to one’s country. In Scouting for Boys Baden Powel wrote, “Every Scout ought to prepare himself to be a good citizen of his country and of the World.”[1] He emphasised the importance of getting on with people who are different from ourselves. The Scout promise and law emphasised that a Scout should do his duty to God and the King, and to help other people. The emphasis on helping other people was radical. Baden-Powell wrote, “When in difficulty to know which of two things to do, he [the Scout] must ask himself… ‘Which is best for other people?’ – and do that one. … He must try his best to do at least one Good Turn to someone every day.”[2]
At the time of the centenary, there are about 28 million Scouts worldwide in 216 different countries and territories. It is estimated that over the last 100 years about 500 million people have made a Scout promise. The Movement is still growing. The most rapid growth is occurring in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In the UK Scouting seeks to contribute to the full development of young people as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities. The emphasis on helping others and contributing to communities gives Scouting a counter cultural edge in our consumer driven and individualistic society.
In the 9.15 service today the Scouts showed us the contrast between a 1907 Scout and a 2007 Scout by reading the New Testament lesson set for today twice. First of all it was read by a 1907 Scout, wearing a 1907 uniform and reading from the King James version of the bible, which was pretty much the only English translation around in 1907. He started: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
The lesson was then read a second time, this time by a 2007 Scout, in an up to date uniform, and reading from a radical modern translation called “Good News on the Street”. His reading started, “Don’t worry: No one pulls a fast one on God. What you put in, you get out. If you invest your time in dark things, you’ll generate mess. If you spend your time on what God’s Spirit nudges you towards, you’ll generate limitless life.”
In this service we heard that same lesson again, this time read from the New Revised Standard Version. Hearing this text so many times, and expressed in so many different ways has caused me to reflect on it, and wonder what it means.
When I was a teenager I used to seriously misunderstand what Paul meant by “the flesh”, which he sees as completely opposed to “the Spirit”. Paul certainly didn’t mean that the human body is a bad thing. Quite the contrary in fact; when Paul describes the Church as the Body of Christ he means this as an extremely positive image, and he uses it on several occasions. Elsewhere in his writing Paul is clear that nobody should ever hate their own body, but should nourish and tenderly care for it, as Christ cares for his church. (Eph 5:28). Paul encourages married couples to live out the sexual aspect of their marriage (1 Cor 7:5). He encourages Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach to help him overcome the many illnesses he has faced (Timothy 5:23). So when Paul talks about “the flesh” as a source of corruption we should not understand that he is against human bodies. Rather he sees human bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), and as the weak and perishable seed from which our glorious imperishable resurrection bodies will grow (1 Cor 15:12-28).
When Paul talks about the flesh he means our self-indulgent desires. In fact some bible translations (e.g. NJB) actually use the word “self-indulgent” rather than “flesh”. In this sentence Paul is summarising his fuller teaching from chapter 5 of Galatians, which was our reading last week. He is saying don’t live according to the desires that lead to fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, and carousing but rather live according to the Spirit which leads love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Paul always invites us to make a clear choice in favour of Christ. In this passage he describes this as the choice between “flesh” and “Spirit”. Elsewhere he talks about the “old self” and the “new self” (Col 3:9-10). He also talks about being “children of darkness” and “children of the light” (1 Thess 5:5).
In each one of us there is the saint, the child of the light, the “new self”, the new creation in Christ, destined for eternal life. It is wonderful, but unfortunately, there is also in each one us the sinner, the child of darkness, the “old self”, the flesh, which is destined for death. The skill of living on earth is to choose as much as we can to live by the “new self”, so that the new self grows and develops and becomes strong, and to deny our “old self” so that over time it shrivels and wastes away. Our “new self” is our true self, recreated in Christ that has nothing to fear from death. Of course, this side of death we can never lose our “old self” completely, but by living in our “new self” we can minimize what we will lose in death.
So let’s make this choice to live always in the “new self” choosing to live by love and generosity, by and joy and peace, so that our “new selves” can grow and develop. And let us not be afraid to suffer a little as our “old self”, our ego, our greed and our selfishness have to die in order to let the “new self” grow. In the fullness of time these aspects of our lives have to die anyway, so the loss may be less than it seems.
Recently I was interested to read a Cheroke Indian story, very similar to Paul’s talk about the “new self” and the “old self”. The story goes like this:
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said: "My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all. One is Evil. It is hate, envy, anxiety, impatience, unkindness, greed, jealousy, arrogance and rage. The other is Good. It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed.”
[1] 1963 edition of Scouting for Boys (reprinted 1981) published by the Scout Association – p 178
[2] p vii

Life of the Trinity

Thought for the parish pew slip – 3rd June 2007 – Trinity Sunday
Readings: Proverbs 8:1-4&22-31, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15

Today we reflect upon the most Holy Trinity; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Within the oneness of God there are these three persons, perfectly united as one God. The life of God therefore includes an aspect of community; a shared life of perfect love and communion.
Our Old Testament reading reminds us that Wisdom (who we think of as Christ) has been present and working with God since the beginning of creation. In our gospel reading Jesus tells us that everything that is of the Father, is also of the Son and is declared to us by the Spirit. As St Paul puts it, in our reading from Romans, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” God wants to share his life of love and communion with us!
Let us therefore make our church community into a community where love is shared, following the model of the Trinity. Even in sufferings and troubles, let’s keep on building a community of love. In fact St Paul teaches us to boast of such troubles because, over time, they become the source of our hope; our outrageous Christian hope of sharing in the glory of God! - Fr Gerard

Funeral homily - Nothing can separate us

From homily on 30th May 2007 at Robin Hood Crematorium
Romans 8:31-end

When someone close to us dies we become aware of the importance of our relationships. Death brings about separation and loss, but the love that we have for one another remains, and continues to be important to us.
Ultimately all love comes from God, who is love. We know that ???? had a strong belief in God. In the reading that we had earlier we heard St Paul affirm that nothing in creation can separate us from the love of God. He said, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I don’t know about you, but I find this tremendously reassuring. What ever disasters come (including death) I can continue to trust in the love of God. I can continue to believe that he wants my good, and works for my good. And I can try to love other people as God loves me, and, if by God’s grace I manage that a little, then that love starts to take on the supernatural and eternal qualities of God’s love for me.
So as we go away from this place, let us feel confident that we have entrusted ??? to God’s great mercy. Let us feel confident that the true love that we have shared is something that will remain. Let us allow the love of God to penetrate and sustain all our relationships so that when we in our due turn come to die, something of enduring value will remain.

Admission to Holy Communion - part 1 (text)

Sermon - 13/05/07 – Easter 6 – Year C
Admission of Young People to Communion – preached at St Alphege 9.15am
Readings: Acts 16:9-16 Revelation 21:10,22-27 John 14:23-29

Sermon delivered without notes so text is approximate.


As Fr Patrick was saying earlier, today is a very exciting day because we are about to admit, I think it is 23, children and young people to Holy Communion. Today they start receiving Jesus, present in the consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist.
They have all been baptised, Prudence was baptised just last week.
They have all attended a course so help then understand the Eucharist and to make the most of the gifts they receive.
They all come from families that are committed to supporting them in their faith and in their attendance at the Eucharist.

So now a question: Why do we want admit young people to Holy Communion?
Many answers are possible.
For me, I remember the start of the first epistle of John. It says something like, “What we have seen and heard we share with you, so that you may join with us in the life that we share with the Father and with Jesus Christ…so our joy may be complete.”
Because when we receive Holy Communion, Christ shares his life with us. We receive his body and blood; his very life. And this is very good for us. It draws us into communion with him; into the life that he shares with the Father, and as we all start to share in that life, it draws us into communion with one another. If we think of life as a spiritual journey, a journey that starts here on earth and continues and we draw closer to God, and finally ends in heaven where we share in the life of God in a much fuller and more complete way, then Holy Communion is the food for the journey. It nurtures us in the shared life of heaven. It nourishes us, giving us strength for our holy journey. It keeps our souls healthy and our spirits full of the life of Christ. And we all know that we need that, living in the very secularised world that we live in.

But, a word of caution.
In past years we have received young people into communion, and they have received with us and it has been wonderful, but then after a few months they have stopped coming. We don’t see them and they start to miss our on all the benefits that the Eucharist brings.
Well this is very sad. It’s a bit like passing your driving test and then never bothering to drive. And I don’t think it is that people make a conscious decision not to come. I think rather they have busy lives, full of many good things and these grow and take over and squeeze out the most important thing, the source of all life. So how do we avoid this trap. The answer is to build a habit of coming to the Eucharist, build a discipline. Each of us, and especially the new communicants, need to work out how often we want to come; perhaps once a week, perhaps twice a month. It is important that we are realistic, but once we have made that choice, then let’s commit to it and build it into a habit. That we can prevent the many good things in life from squeezing out the one thing that is essential.

I was listening to the radio recently and I heard some good news. Apparently as a nation we are doing better in the battle against heart disease. There are several reasons for this, but one of them is diet. Apparently, as a nation we are eating better and this is helping us to be healthy.
Perhaps you are familiar with this symbol [image - "five a day" logo]. This was a campaign that the NHS launched a few years ago to get us to eat more fruit and veg; “five a day”. Well it seems that this has been very successful. We are eating more fruit and veg and we are healthier. I was discussing this with Fr Patrick [whose idea this was!] and we were saying that if a campaign like this can improve the heath of our early bodies, which we have for perhaps 70 or 80 years, how much more important it is to improve our spiritual heath, and the life of our souls, which are promised eternal life? Perhaps we need a campaign like this [image - “just receive more”]. “Just receive more – Holy Communion”.
So let’s finish with this image in our minds. Let’s work out how often we can come to communion and then let’s make a commitment, and keep to it, so that it becomes a habit. And let’s use that habit to support us in our spiritual lives and to draw ourselves into the shared life of God. In this way we can be nourished and strengthened on our holy journeys towards heaven. Amen.

Admission to Holy Communion - part 2 (images)

Mutual Love

Thought for Pew Slip - Easter 5 – Year C – 6th May 2007
Readings: Acts 11:1-18 Revelation 21:1-6 John 13:31-35

Our first reading, from Acts, reminds us that the message of Christ is for all peoples. The call to follow Christ stretches out to everyone, irrespective of their birth and their circumstances.
Our second reading from Revelation tells that at the end of time God will renew the whole of his creation. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. People will dwell with God himself and there will be no more death, or crying, or pain anymore.
In our gospel reading we hear Jesus speaking at the last supper. He gives the disciples the New Commandment; “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” He explains that it is through our love for one another that people will recognise us as disciples of Christ.
So mutual love is central in our witness to Christ! Even very great acts, done without love, count for nothing (c.f. 1Cor 13:1-3). As we think about Going for Growth and the quality of our Christian witness, let’s remember that we can’t “love one another” on our own. Let’s think about the other Christians who we love and who love us, and let’s renew our commitment to loving in the way that Jesus has loved us.

Funeral homily - The way, the truth and the life

Extract from funeral homily, preached 26 04 07
Readings "She is Gone" (see below) and John 14:1-7


A few moments ago we read the poem “She is Gone” which was taken from the order of service for the Queen Mothers funeral. It contains the line “or you can be full of the love you shared”. This reminds us of St Paul’s affirmation in 1 Corinthians 13, that Faith, Hope and Love remain. When we die we lose all our lose all our earthly possessions and our body returns to dust and ashes, but in the Christian Faith we believe our soul returns to God and in some sense its faith and hope and love are retained.
In the paragraph from the gospel of John that we read at the start of this service we heard Jesus speaking to his disciples shortly before his death. He said, “In my Fathers house there are many dwelling places…I go and prepare a place for you.”. This once again affirms the Christian hope that the essential part of us survives death and goes to dwell with Jesus. Thomas struggles to understand this and asks, “Lord, how can we know that way”. And Jesus answers, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. To us with our very material understanding of the universe it is not easy to understand this comment, but it seems that it is Jesus himself, the man who conquered death, who shows us the true way, and who shares his resurrection life with us. So this is our hope for ????. May she follow Jesus, the way the truth and the life. It is also the hope for each one of us. May we too grow in Christian love so that when we die the love may remain, and go to dwell with Jesus in one of the Father’s many rooms.

Homily for St George's Day Parade (Scouting)

Preached at Solihull School Chapel, 22nd April 2007
Reading John 6:5-14 (Feeding of the five thousand)

Let’s spend a moment reflecting on the story.
As much as anything the story is about sharing.
Jesus thanks God for the bread and the fish, and he then shares them out.
It appears that there is virtually no food, but miraculously it turns out that there is plenty for everyone, and twelve baskets left over.
It is never very clear where all the extra food came from. Perhaps some people had brought food in secret, perhaps some miraculously appeared, perhaps a bit of both, but the point is that when Jesus gave thanks and shared, everyone had plenty.

Sharing things, especially food is an important part of being a family. If we share things our lives grow closer together. We start to feel that we belong to one another. If something good happens to one of us, then we all benefit, if some bad happens we are all affected.

The Scout Law affirms that a Scout belongs to the worldwide family of Scouts. This is why the Scout law also tells us that we have to be friendly, considerate, trustworthy, loyal and respectful. These are the qualities that are needed if sharing is to occur. These are the qualities that are needed to be part of a family.

Usually the sharing in Scouting occurs at the section or group level. We spend time together, share experiences, share equipment, share buildings and leaders even. In the best sections and groups we start to feel like family. But today we are also sharing as all the Scouts in the County, and if we do that well, we will feel like family. Later this year there will be an international sharing at the World Scout Jamboree. That is when we really remember that we all belong to the worldwide family of scouting.

So lets remember to be god at sharing. Sharing turns into brothers and sisters. It makes us into family, gives us a sense of home, a sense of belonging, in which problems, like the shortage of food disappear.

Prayers for St George's day Parade (Scouting)

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for St George

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your servant St George.
We thank you for his skill as a solider
We thank you for his great courage in the face of danger
We thank you that he refused to persecute others,
even when this cost him his life.
As we remember St George we pray for all the people and groups that he patrons.
We pray for this country of England.
We pray for the worldwide Scout Movement.
May his example and prayers help us to become ever better Scouts,
to live better our promise and our law,
and to take forward the work of the Scout Movement.
Amen.


A Prayer for our Section Meetings

Heavenly Father, we thank you for our section meetings,
for the fun that we have and for the things that we learn.
We thank you for the equipment, skills and experiences
that we share in our sections.
As we remember the wonderful miracle that Jesus performed
by giving thanks for and sharing the bread and the fish,
so we pray that you will help us to grow ever better at sharing.
Help us to get better at giving and at receiving
so that the shared life of Scouting might be built up among us
and our sections may become what you want them to be.
Amen.


A Prayer for the worldwide Scout Movement as it celebrates its Centenary

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the centenary of Scouting.
We thank you for our founder Baden-Powell
for his vision, his charisma and his commitment to young people.
We thank you for our leaders who share in that vision and charisma.
We thank you for their commitment to us,
and for the many ways in which they help us.
We thank you for the extraordinary success of the Scout Movement,
We thank you for the 500 million people who have made a Scout Promise.
Dear Lord, we have renewed our promise today,
Help us to live by that promise,
to do our duty to God and the Queen
to help other people and to keep the Scout Law.
We pray that, by your grace, we might live well the ideals of Scouting,
so that the Scout Movement might continue to flourish and grow
in accordance with your desires.
Hear our prayer good Lord.
Amen.


A Prayer for the 21st World Scout Jamboree

Heavenly Father, we pray for our 40,000 representatives who will meet together at Hylands Park, Chelmsford for the 21st World Scouting Jamboree.
We pray for this celebration of the worldwide family of Scouts.
We pray that the participants may have respect for themselves and for others
so that people who are very different may work harmoniously together
so that international friendships can be built
so that the dream of a “world village” can be realised
so that the world can be changed for the better.
We ask you Good Lord, to hear this and all our prayers.
Amen.

Transformation of life

Sermon – Easter Sunday - 08 04 07 – Evensong

Preached at St Alphege, Solihull 6.30pm on Easter Sunday 8th April 2007

Readings: Jeremiah 31:1-6 Acts 10: 34-43


I don’t know if your heard John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, speaking on the Today Programme yesterday morning. He made several very good points about contemporary culture, the desire for self-fulfilment and the problem of what he calls “secular illiberalism”. However the point he made that really caught my attention was this. He said,

The church has not been very good at clearly spelling out what the message of Jesus is about … God in Jesus has come in a human form, has died, rose again and his presence, in terms of the spirit, actually transforms lives.

What caught my attention was the outstanding one sentence summary of Christianity, “God in Jesus has come in a human form, has died, rose again and his presence, in terms of the spirit, actually transforms lives.” I thought this was brilliant.
Our second reading today also includes a very brief summary of Christianity. Peter, as recorded by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, sums up Christianity in seven sentences. At the heart of it Peter says, “and they killed him by hanging him on a tree yet on the third day God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen.” Peter does not talk about the transformation of lives, but he does talk about the forgiveness of sins.
Yet, as I reflect on what John Sentamu said, and as I examine my conscience about the Church’s failure to get its message across, the bit that stands out to me is the bit about the transformation of lives. I think, on the whole, most people know what the church teaches about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Of course there some people just don’t believe it, but I think that the much bigger problem is that an awful lot of people don’t see why the death and resurrection of Jesus is relevant. Perhaps Jesus did die and rise again, but so what? Why does that make such a big difference? Why is it worth my while spending time on that question?
Well many evangelists make the point that the death and resurrection of Jesus are relevant and important because if you do not believe in them and call upon the forgiveness that they reveal, then you will rot for all eternity in the fires of hell. Well that certainly makes Christianity relevant! I have heard evangelists say that if you can persuade someone to believe in hell, then you can persuade them to accept Christ.
Now I don’t want to knock this tradition of fearing hell. It is a profound part of our Christian heritage. St Peter himself in his seven sentence summary reminds us that God has appointed Jesus as judge of us all.
However, it does seem to me much, much more important to proclaim our Christianity because of our hope of heaven, rather than because of our fear of hell. As John Sentamu suggests, it is the transformation of lives that makes all the difference, that creates a positive reason to engage with Christianity.
So what about this transformation of life? It may well be that we feel that we have done our best to be good Christians for many years, and in some ways we feel we succeed, but in other ways really don’t feel very “transformed” at all. In fact we feel very ordinary, mundane even. I think this is a very common situation in our churches today. Certain I, personally, have spent many years feeling like this. So how do we move on from this? How do we come to experience God’s transformation in our lives? What do we need to do to make it work?
Well based on my personal experience I would like to offer a couple of top tips!
First top tip! Seek always to grow in love for God and love for neighbour. As John puts it, “My dear friends, let us love one another because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). To love other people means to want their good, to seek to help them and support them in practical ways. We are called to love everyone, but to make that real and concrete the most important people to love are those who are right beside us, right now; our own family, our work colleagues, the people we meet on the street. And notice that this growth in love needs to be a mutual thing. “Love one another” is something we can’t do on our own. We need to seek out other Christian people who will try to love us, as we try to love them. We also need to love ourselves, forgive ourselves, be generous to ourselves and to be prepared to risk pain and difficulty in order to be true to ourselves.
My second top tip is to learn to believe in and trust ever more fully in God’s love for us. To trust that Jesus took on human flesh out of love for us. To trust that he died on the cross out of love for us. To trust that God raised him from the dead out of love for him but also out of love for all of us. And this is what we celebrate today – on Easter day. That God brings new life, new hope into even the most desperate and hopeless of all situations.
As we try to grow in love we encounter all kinds of difficulties and sorrows. We encounter people who we do not instinctively like. We encounter ambitions, or greeds or hurts or insecurities within ourselves or within others that can cause us to lash out at one another. We encounter people in situations that are sad or lonely or debilitating, and we find that we can’t solve these problems. These are our Good Friday moments. We need to learn to accept these sufferings, as Jesus accepted his sufferings on the cross. We need to learn to carry on loving through these sufferings, as Jesus carried on loving whilst on the cross. We need to continue to trust in God, even when we do not understand, just as Jesus commended his soul to God, even as he cried out “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And if we live our Good Friday moments well, then God will act. Unexpectedly we shall have our Easter moments. Moments of new life, new hope and new possibilities. Just as Christ conquered death, never to die again so will find that our own new life in Christ has an eternal quality, a quality that will survive death. This is what we celebrate today; Easter Day. This is what it means to be baptised into the death and resurrection of Christ. This is the pattern that we re-enact and mould ourselves into through our liturgies of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. This is how God transforms lives. So let’s seek this transformation of life. By loving others, let’s help other too to be transformed. If we do this then the Church will properly get its message across, as John Sentamu has suggested. But more than that we will also make our contribution to the renewal of society and contemporary culture that is so badly needed.

Funeral Homily - The New Jerusalem

Extract from a funeral homily 02 04 07
Reading: Reverlation 21:1-7

It was ????’s specific request that we should all sing William Blake’s hymn “Jerusalem” at his funeral, and we shall be doing that after the prayers. It is not very clear what the hymn is all about, but it seems that Blake is pondering a medieval legend that suggests that Christ visited Glastonbury as a youth with Joseph of Arimathea. Blake does not tell us whether he believes the legend is true or not, but rather he moves straight on to his compelling desire to build the new Jerusalem here in England’s green and pleasant land. Blake sees this process of building as “mental strife”. It may be that he sees his gold and his desires as weapons with which the battle can be fought.
The reading that we listened to a few moments ago picks out that theme of the new Jerusalem. It talks of the end of time, immediately after the last judgement, when God makes a new heaven and a new earth. In the new earth God dwells continually with his people. He is their light and mourning and crying and pain and death are no more, because the old things have passed away and God has made all things new.
And this is our Christian hope. Death is not the end, but rather is the entrance to everlasting life. Our soul returns to God our creator, and at the end of time we will regain our bodies and dwell with God in the new Jerusalem. So this is our hope for ???, and our hope for each one of us. And like William Blake, let us commit ourselves to the building of the New Jerusalem. Let us prepare ourselves to dwell always with God. Let us learn to live and work in harmony with all that God desires, and let’s develop our own personal relationships with God through prayer.

Slavery and Freedom

Preached at Solihull School Chapel, 25th March 2007, 6.30pm (evensong)
Fifth Sunday in Lent – Year C
Readings: Isaiah 43:16-21, John 12:1-8

As I am sure you can’t help but have noticed, today is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. This important anniversary has been marked in many different ways. For example, there is the new film Amazing Grace, which follows the years of struggle by William Wilberforce, John Newton and the many other abolitionists leading up to the passing of the Abolition Act in parliament. I have not seen the film, but it appears to convey a sense of thanksgiving for the progress that humanity has made in recognising that God created all people equal and realising that Christian morality could not sanction the cruel and debilitating domination of one race by another.
Beyond thanksgiving, the archbishops of Canterbury and York have emphasised a need for repentance. The slave trade may have been abolished 200 years ago but in many ways our society still benefits from the wealth created by that trade. Similarly the legacy of the slave trade can still be felt in Afro-Caribbean communities that often remain under-educated and under privileged to this day. The archbishops also draw attention to present day practices like the trafficking of sex workers which have exploitative and dehumanising characteristics comparable with the slave trade of old. In repentance we are called to acknowledge past wrongs. We are called to recognise the equal dignity of all peoples. We are called to commit ourselves anew to the service of others rather than the domination of others.
In his sermon at St Alphege this morning, Fr Tim Pilkington drew attention to another form of slavery that is alive and well in our society today. He was talking about our own slavery to consumer expectations; and certainly I felt he made an important point. We all see dozens of advertisements every day. These build in us the desire to have a bigger house, a better car, a smarter kitchen, a more exotic holiday and so on. Over time these desires turn into needs, real needs. We really need a flashier mobile phone or people will think we are out of touch. We really need some designer clothes to feel good about ourselves. We really need a holiday home so that we can escape from all the stress in our lives. We really need a bigger salary in order to feel valued. Over time we find we find that we focus more and more of our time and energy on our financial and material well being and we lose sight of other factors which are in fact much more important to our long term happiness. Spending time with our families, serving our communities and developing the spiritual aspect of lives would almost certainly contribute far more to our long term happiness than an extension to the conservatory, and yet we find it almost impossible to make that kind of choice. Somehow the conservatory is much more tangible and real. It is more visible, it gives more to show for our efforts. Its financial value can be quantified. It can be explained to the neighbours.
Perhaps we feel like a slave to the mortgage, or the school fees! Perhaps we feel like a slave to our employer. Perhaps we feel like a slave to the expectations of others. I don’t know if your saw the film The Devil Wears Prada. In it a young woman gets a top job with a fashion magazine. She struggles hard to live an authentic life in a very competitive environment, where everything is about outward show, and inward realities count for nothing. The job makes extreme demands on her. She always says “yes” to these demands, explaining the high cost to others by saying, “I have no choice!” Eventually she realises that she does not want the life that that particular career maps out for her. She realises that she does have a choice and she quits the job. She is older and wiser, but by this time some real damage has already been done. She has betrayed her colleague and destroyed her relationship with her long-term boyfriend.
Hopefully we have already learnt to protect the things that really matter from the endless demands of the consumer society. Hopefully we have learnt to see the limitations of what we can achieve with money. Hopefully we have not forgotten to value the things that money cannot buy. Hopefully we have learnt to build our identity through service to other people, and are not dependent on consumer branding to tell us who we are.
I have been interested to watch a TV programme called The Trap – What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom. You can catch the third and final part on BBC2 at 9pm tonight. In it, Adam Curtis argues that human freedom and fulfilment are being destroyed by a view of human beings as self interested robots responding to market forces. I think he makes some important points. Certainly I notice that my children have far, far less freedom than I enjoyed as a child thirty odd years ago.
In my opinion we have also been tricked by some very mistaken views about what freedom is. Some people seem to think that “Freedom means I can do what I like”. This is not right. This idea of freedom gives me licence to drop litter, to tell lies, to be rude and selfish, to damage myself through drugs or frivolous sexual relationships. In the extreme it allows me to dominate and exploit other people, to enslave them even. This is not really freedom at all. It leads to a world in which we damage the lives of other people, and ultimately damage ourselves. It is much more like the slavery to sin that St Paul talks about in Romans chapter 7.
So what is freedom? Freedom is the ability to become the person God created you to be. When we think of freedom we might think of the birds of the air, or the fish of the sea. A bird is free to be a bird, but it is not free to be a fish. A fish is free to be a fish, but it cannot fly and behave like a bird. Freedom therefore involves being true to what God created us to be. God, in his great love has created us in his own image and likeness and wants our good. He has prepared for us a place in heaven where we shall live in perfect harmony with the people around us. He calls us to be filled with his divine spirit and to share in his divine life. This is true freedom; responding to God’s love for us and following God’s plans for us. This is what makes us whole. This is what fulfils all our potential. Our own dreams for ourselves are empty delusions by comparison.
So as we think about the abolition of slavery let’s commit ourselves anew to freedom. Let’s seek to be the people God wants us to be. Let’s believe in God’s plan for us, and let’s follow that plan. Above all let’s believe in God’s great love for us, and let’s share that love with the people around us. By growing in his love and growing in obedience to God we can become agents of freedom, both for ourselves and for the people around us.
I would like to finish by quoting John Sentamu, Archbishop of York. He says,
“For me, Faith is the spiritual engine of change. … We need to rediscover a new faith-based movement for social and economic justice, which has hope, rather than anger, at its core. I believe that movement is the Church and it is my hope that as we commemorate the achievements of the abolitionists over the coming months we might also re-dedicate ourselves to being that change which we want to see in the world.”

Old things pass away so that new things can come

Thought for pew slip – 25th March 2007

Fifth Sunday in Lent – Year C
Readings: Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:4b-14, John 12:1-8

Our readings remind us that old things need to pass away so that new things can come to life. Through Isaiah, the Lord says, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing.” In his letter to the Philippians St Paul tells us that he has come to regard all his old merits as loss, in order to attain the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ. In the gospel reading Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume and Jesus interprets this as her preparing his body for burial.
Of course, when the old things pass away we experience this as loss, or pain or suffering, and we find it very difficult. Fortunately St Paul shows us how to turn these difficulties to our advantage. Like St Paul, we can see our sufferings as a sharing in the sufferings of Christ, and becoming like Christ in his death. If we live our sufferings in this way then we can also hope to be joined to Christ in his resurrection. We start to share in Christ’s new life, and become part of the new order with the new righteousness that comes from faith in Christ. (See also 2 Cor 1:5, 1 Peter 4:13.)

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