Loving God & neighbour, to please God not mortals

Thought for pew slip 26th October 2008
Last Sunday after Trinity - Proper 25, Year A


Readings Leviticus 19: 1-2 &15-18 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8 Matthew 22: 34-46


In our gospel reading today Jesus tells us that the greatest and first commandment is to love God. The second commandment is to love our neighbours. Jesus says this second commandment is “like” the first. This is because God created people in his own image and likeness and is, in some way, present in all people. We therefore have to treat all people with the most profound respect, loving them as an expression of our love for God; loving them as God loves them.
When Jesus says, “Love your neighbour” he is quoting from the ancient Jewish law in the book of Leviticus. Our first reading today is from this section of Leviticus. The reading gives some practical examples about what loving our neighbour means. Notice that loving our neighbour is about loving God in them, as God loves them. It is not always about being partial to them or deferring to them.
Paul gives more examples like this in the reading from 1 Thessalonians. He is insistent that he must preach the gospel in order to please God, not mortals. In fact it is clear that some mortals have been very unpleased! Notice that Paul’s caring for his fellow Christians compels him to share his own self with them. We are called to lives that are shared in Christ; our Christianity is not a private matter.

Giving to God the things which are God's

Sermon preached at Solihull School Chapel at 6.30pm Coral Evensong
Sunday 19th October 2008, Trinity 22, Proper 24 Year A

Readings: Isaiah 45: 1-7 Matthew 22: 15-22

Lady Nancy Astor once looked Winston Churchill in the eye and said, “If you were my husband, I'd poison your tea.” Churchill looked back at her and said, “Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.” It was a quite brilliant, if rather hurtful, repost.
I heard another one recently. A man at a diner party in New York was asked what he did for a living. He replied, “Oh I hate it when people ask that. Nowadays I don’t like to admit it … but I’m an investment banker.” There was silence around the dinner table. Then the reply came, “Don’t worry about it! Next week you’ll be able to say that you’re unemployed.”
I think we all admire a good repost. My trouble is that I always think of the good repost five minutes after I needed it. It seems that this is a very common problem. The French apparently have two different words to distinguish the repost you actually made from the repost you would have like to have made if you had had time to think about it.
In our gospel reading today we heard about Jesus giving a quite brilliant response to a very difficult question. In fact it was a trick question, specifically designed to catch Jesus out.
At the time of Jesus, God’s chosen people, the Jews, were living in Judea and Galilee. This was the land that God had promised to their forefather Abraham almost 2000 years earlier. It was good for them to live in this land, but the trouble was that had been conquered by the Romans and they were ruled by the Romans. Cunningly, the Romans had put, a Jewish man, King Herod, in charge, so it was Jews governing Jews, but there was no doubt that the Rome Emperor was ultimately in control. On anything really important the Romans made sure that King Herod did what they told him. Taxes were collected and paid to the Romans. The Roman army of occupation was always there should there be any failure to cooperate with the Roman Empire.
For the Jews, this Roman occupation was a terrible humiliation. They had a very clear religious understanding that they were God’s chosen people; that they were destined to be a great nation and to be owners of this land and to be a nation so blessed that through them all the nations of the world would be blessed (e.g. Gen 12: 2, 13: 15). Being ruled by the Roman did not make them feel like a great nation. Being ruled by the Romans did not feel like a blessing, it felt like a curse. It was a violation of the land that God had promised to them. So the Roman occupation was not just a humiliation, it was also a religious evil, something all good Jews should struggle against.
Jesus was asked, “Is it lawful [under the ancient Jewish religious law] to pay taxes to the [Roman] emperor?” If he said, “Yes” then he would be seen to be denying the Jews understanding of themselves as a great nation, God’s chosen people and as owners of the land. Jesus’ enemies would be able to portray him as a collaborator with the Romans, a traitor, an enemy of God and of God’s people. On the other hand if Jesus said, “No!” then his enemies would be able to portray him as an enemy of the Roman Empire. They would be able to report him to the Roman authorities, who would no doubt punish him very severely for daring to say that taxes should not be paid to Rome.
So what did Jesus do? He asked them to show him the coin with which the taxes are paid. They showed him one of the Roman coins. He asked, “Whose head is this on the coin? Whose title?”
“It’s the Emperor’s” they replied. Jesus said, “Give therefore to the Emperor the things that are the Emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” In other words pay the taxes to the Roman’s but continue to give to God the things that God wants from you.
It is, I think, the most brilliant advice. Usually we have no choice but to give to the authorities the things, like tax, that the authorities want from us. But we should not let this distract us from giving to God the things God wants from us.
So what does God want from us? What does it mean for us to give to God the things that are God’s? Well first of all I think it means giving God credit for, and thanks for all he has given us; for our lives, our families, our world, our houses and schools, all the people around us and all the good things we have. These things do not come to us by accident or by our own hard work (although sometimes we do need to work hard). They come to us by God’s good gift and we need to give thanks for that.
Then we need to give to God proper time and attention. It is all too easy to let a day slip by without saying our prayers, to let a Sunday slip by without going to church. But saying our prayers and coming to church does help us to give attention to God. It does help us to be attentive to the things that really matter. It does help us to know the ways of heaven and to grow towards eternal life.
Then we need to show our love for God in the people who are around us. Jesus said, “What you do to the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me” (Matt 25: 40). So loving the people around us is a good way of loving God. Serving the people around us can be a service to God. Giving time or attention or patience or a welcome or gifts to the people around us is a way of giving these things to God.
And if we can do these things, if we can give thanks to God, if we can set aside time for God and if we can love God in our brothers and sisters, then it seems to me that we are giving to God the things that are rightfully his. And if we give generously to God then God will richly repay us. And the gifts that God gives us are not so much things that pass away like money and health (although he often does give these) but rather things of eternal value; happiness, self-fulfilment and eternal life. Giving to God the things that are God’s is is so, so worth it!

Dedication Sunday - our church buildings

Sermon preached at 11am Eucharist at St Catherine’s, Catherine-de-Barnes, Solihull
19th October 2008, Dedication Sunday, Year A
(A shortened version of this sermon was preached at the 8am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull)

Readings: 1 Kings 8: 22-30 [Hebrews 12: 18-24] Matthew 21: 12-16


Our Old Testament lesson today was part of a prayer made by King Solomon as he dedicated the huge temple that he had built in Jerusalem. This happened perhaps round about 950 years before Christ. Let’s do a quick re-cap on some of the history so we understand what this was all about.
After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land it took the Israelites three hundred years or so to consolidating themselves in the Promised Land. Then King David had many military successes. The nation became more secure and he established a capital for the people of Israel at Jerusalem. King David longed to build a permanent temple for the Lord in Jerusalem, but God told him that this work would be completed by his son Solomon. After David’s death Solomon was king. He was a wise king and became immensely wealthy. These were the real glory days of the Kingdom of Israel. Solomon did indeed build a temple for the Lord. It was a huge project and Solomon spared no expense. A massive and wonderful temple was constructed, and it was decorated with much gold and bronze and many fine things.
When the temple was competed a huge dedication festival was planned (1 Kings 8). [The arc of the covenant, which represented God’s presence with the people of Israel, was brought down from Mount Zion. Inside the arc were the two tablets of the Ten Commandments on which God’s covenant with Israel was based. The arc was placed in the holiest past of the temple and mysteriously a cloud appeared and filled that whole part of the temple so all the priests had to come out to get away from the cloud.] The whole people of Israel were assembled and King Solomon made a great speech explaining all about the temple and why it had been built. And then Solomon had made a great prayer to God reminding God of his promise that his “name shall be there” and asking that God would listen to the prayers of the people who prayed there.
Solomon’s prayer was a very long prayer, but we got the start of it in our Old Testament reading. And in this part of the prayer Solomon says a very interesting thing. He says, “Even heaven … cannot contain you [Oh God], how much less can this house which I have built contain you!” God is everywhere, so it is not really that God is in any way more present in the temple in Jerusalem or in our own church buildings, than he is present anywhere else. Rather the point is that the temple in Jerusalem, and our own church buildings are places dedicated, that is to say they are set aside for God, for the worship of God. [And the fact that they are set aside for God, does limit what else can go on in them. In our gospel reading we heard Jesus casting out the buyers and seller and money changers. Jesus says that the temple should not be a den of robbers but rather should be a place of prayer.] And hopefully, because this space is set aside for God, there will be things here like our stained glass, like our altar, which point us towards the presence of God. Also hopefully here there are less distractions, less other things going on, and so in this space in particular we will be aware of the presence of God.
And in the church we always do what we can to build the presence of God, to become more attentive to the presence of God, to grow in awareness of the presence of God. Above all we do this through our worship. Let’s just pause for a moment to remember the special ways that God is present to us as we worship here in this place.
First of all, as we gather here for worship, we meet in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus has promised that where two or three gather in his name, there he is in the midst of them (Matt 18: 20). So it is important that we truly gather in the name of Jesus, in his essence, in his reconciling love, and then Jesus will be present in the midst of us, and we will feel our hearts burn within us, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Then perhaps most obviously, we celebrate the Eucharist here. Christ becomes present to us in bread and wine; we share in his body and blood, and he shares his life with us.
Then, in this place, we read the bible. God becomes present to us in his word proclaimed. We try to allow the word of God to enter into, to change our attitudes and behaviours so that Christ is us may grow in us.
And the presence of God is of great value to us. It is a life giving presence that nurtures us and helps us to grow. The presence of God, helps our relationship with God to grow, helping us to understand who we truly are. The presence of God helps us as individuals and all together to become the people God created us to be. Certainly the presence of God can be uncomfortable. It can make us aware of our sins, of those parts of our lives which are not aligned with God’s will. It can make us aware of the hollowness and fragility of large parts of our lives. It can make us aware of our lack of commitment, our failures to put God in the first place in our lives. But as we work through the pain and discomfort of these realisations, the presence of God assures us that we are loved, that we are forgiven, that we are called to life in Christ. By the presence of God we are healed and made whole.
Now the presence of God does not depend on a church building. It depends on God and on us. But as a place set aside for God, with less distractions, the church building can certainly help us to focus and to do all our part. It is certainly a good place to seek the presence of God. So let us give thanks to God for our Church buildings. Let’s seek to dwell always in the transforming presence of God and let’s allow our church buildings to help us.

Addicted to wealth

Sermon preached at 18:30 Choral Evensong at St Alphege, Solihull
Sunday 12th October 2008, Harvest festival

Readings: Joel 2: 21-27 1 Timothy 6: 6-10


1 Timothy 6: 9: “But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into destruction.” It seems to me that in this one sentence, St Paul very neatly summarises the situation of our western society today. Paul goes on, “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wondered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.” When I read these words, I could not help but think of the credit crunch and of our current financial crisis. How profoundly true these words of St Paul are!
For far, far too long our society has been slave to the desire to be rich and to the love of money. In the 1970s this was a collective desire, exemplified in the demands of Trade Unionists, which often took little account of economic reality. The problems this caused built up until we had the paralysing winter of discontent in 1979. In the 1980s there was a clear political decision to break down the collective greed associated with Trade Unionism by colluding with a new kind of individualistic greed. The YUPPIE (Young Urban Professional) was born. The banks were deregulated, much of traditional British industry disappeared and new service industries appeared. “Job for life” positions and company loyalty both went out of the window together. Gordon Gekko made his “Greed is Good” speech in the film Wall Street. Trade Unionism took a terrible beating. The salaries of top bankers and company directors started to increase rapidly. And after the initial economic shock, there did appear to be some benefits of this new approach. British industry became more flexible and competitive. The rich got richer but there was a significant trick down effect that benefited most people, except the unemployed, whose numbers grew significantly.
The trouble was that this new approach to economics was powered by the individuals motivated by the desire for more money. Performance related pay became commonplace. The trickledown effect started to dry up, such that the rich are now getting richer and the poor, poorer. We have become more and more dependent on financial reward the motivation reason for working. Investments in the City of London have become more and more short term in their outlook and more and more complex in their nature. And now suddenly we are finding that it is all grinding to a halt. Suddenly we have our worst economic crisis since the great depression.
Now the government, supported by all the political parties, has committed a great deal of tax payers money to addressing the immediate causes of the crisis; the lack of liquidity, under capitalisation in banks and lack of trust in banks as borrowers. So far these measures have not been as effective as we might have hoped, but it seems to me that even if the situation is stabilised and we get away with a minor recession rather than a great depression even if these things happen then still some serious underlying problems remain.
As a society we are still addicted to money. We still need the promise of more money, to make us want to do anything. And we are all caught up in this. The attitudes might be at there most extreme amongst the big bankers, but we all share these attitudes. We all hope for an annual pay rise. We all feel hard done by if our neighbour gets better financial treatment than we do. We none of us find financial giving easy. There is no room for feeling smug or self righteous about the fall of top bankers. We are all in this together.
So how do we reform ourselves? How do we start to rebuild the attitudes of trust and integrity needed for economic success. How do we rebuild the values that lead to wealth creation. Well I have to say I don’t think it is easy; in fact I think it is very hard and I fear that it will take a long and severe economic downturn to make us do it.
At a policy level it seems to me essential that we rediscover committed business relationships as the only sound basis for economic wealth. For example, there should always be a close relationship and deep understanding between borrower and lender. If the loan works well then both parties benefit, if the loan fails then both parties lose out. This shared interest in the positive outcome of a loan has been undermined in recent years. The selling on of securitised of mortgages, the trade in credit default swaps, the practice of insuring against none repayment, the outsourcing of the understanding a borrowers credit risk to credit assessment agencies, all these measures can undermine the proper incentives that should arise between borrower and lender.
Similarly issues exist in the relationships between investors and company. Investors like Warren Buffet have always argued that equity shares are long term investments and commitments to the company. They are a commitment to the company and should signify some practical interest in the way the company behaves. If we simply try to make money by buying in and selling out at the right moment, or by loaning the stock out to others, then we undermine the key ownership relationship.
Most especially there is the relationship of fiduciary duty between an owner of a business or business interests and the managers and agents who run those ownership interests on a day to day level. The managers and agents must work to the best interests of the owner. If they are arranging things for their own profit or power and paying themselves huge sums then the agency relationship is undermined. It becomes a relationship of mutual exploitation and ultimately value is destroyed.
And underlying all these policy issues are the values that wealth depends on. Harvest Festival is a very important time for remembering before God all the many, many blessings that we do have in terms of our food and our material wealth. Remembering this and giving thanks to God for it helps us to appreciate how blessed we already are, and helps to reduce are need for further material blessing.
Then I think we need to remember that wealth and poverty are ultimately gifts from God which in his great love he allocates as he chooses. In our first reading we heard from the book of Joel, God promising great blessings to Israel. He says that the land will produce richly and the farm animals multiply. Israel shall eat in plenty and be satisfied. God will pay back for years when he sent the great swarming locusts to destroy all the crops. Obviously we have to do our part to work with God on the creation of wealth, but ultimately wealth or poverty is more God’s gift. We have to see ourselves as the stewards of the good gifts that god has given us, rather than as people who deserve something. Ironically it is our detachment from wealth and our the willingness to loose our wealth for God that is central to all our efforts to build wealth.

Harvest Festival - God's great gifts to us

Informal sermon preached at the 9.15am All-age Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull
Sunday 12th October 2008, Harvest festival, Year A

Readings: [Deuteronomy 28: 1-14] 2 Corinthians 9: 6-15 Luke 17: 11-19

Illustrated with pictures from: www.bathurst.co.za/Pineapples.htm


Today we celebrate Harvest Festival, and at Harvest Festival we give thanks to God for all the good gifts that he gives us in creation. And especially at Harvest Festival we give thanks to God for our food, which grows in the ground all summer and then is harvested at this time of year.
But why should we give thanks to God for our food? We might think, “Our food grows in the ground because of nature. We pay people money to grow it at bring it to us. What has that got to do with God?” But the point is that God has provided all these things for us; the food that we eat, the people who grow it, the ground in which it grows, all these are part of God’s gift to us. And saying thank you to God is very important, because it helps us to realise this and to understand it properly. It helps us to see how deep and wide the love of God for us is.
Look, for example, at all these wonderful harvest gifts. Look at this gift of tinned pineapple.
[Pick up tin of pineapple]
It probably only cost 80 p or something a supermarket, so we might not think that it is very important. But if we pause to think about it, it is quite extraordinary how much has gone into this tin of pineapple; how much of God’s creation has contributed, how many people who God has made have played their part.
First of all someone must have planted the pineapple. Here are some pictures of some people planting pineapples in South Africa.
[Picture of tractor]
Look at the person riding behind the tractor who is placing the pineapple tops in the ground. Here is another picture where you can see it better.
[Picture of woman behind tractor with pineapple tops]
And then God sends the sun and the rain on the pineapples and they grow. Do you know what they look like when they grow? They look like that:
[Picture of man and woman in a pineapple field]
(Do you know? I thought they grew on trees; shows how much I know!)
And then the pineapples are harvested, and that is a big job. Look at all these people involved in the harvest.
[Picture of pineapple harvesting]
So that is how pineapples are grown! So I wonder if we could have someone come forward and stand here and represent all those people who are involved in the growing of the pineapple for us.
[Someone stands up with hoe and pineapple]
And perhaps someone else can stand up and represent the sun, which God sends to make the pineapple grow and ripen.
[Someone stands up with sun picture]
And perhaps someone could come and stand here with a watering can to represent the rain which God sends to water the plants and make them grow.
[Someone stands up with watering can]
But this is only the start of the story. We still have to get the pineapple from the farm to Solihull. Well at the farm the pineapples are all packed into crates so that they can be loaded onto lorries. Here is a picture of them all ready to be loaded onto lorries.
[Picture of crates and crane]
And perhaps someone could come forward and hold up this lorry to remind us of all the people involved in transporting the pineapple.
[Someone comes forward with lorry]
And then the pineapples get to the factory
[picture of people working in factory]
and they are pealed in a machine, and hand checked and then sliced in a machine and the put into tins by hand and look how many people are involved in all that! And that is before we start to think about all the people who supplied the machinery or the empty tins or the metals that the tins are made from. So let’s have some people come forward and represent all the people involved in putting a pineapple in a tin
[Someone stands up with tins]
And we are still not there yet. We have to ship the tinned pineapples to Britain.
[Someone stands up with a ship]
And there is a lot more lorry driving involved the tinned pineapples goes to a supermarket
[Someone stands up with a supermarket basket]
And someone buys it and takes it home and then brings it into church as a harvest gift, so perhaps someone can stand here who has brought in a harvest gift today.
[Someone stands up]
So there we are – amazing how many people and much of God’s creation is involved in bringing us the gift of a tin of pineapple. It is incredible that all this is done so that we can have a tin of pineapple, but it is, and we need to thank God for it.
Giving thanks to God helps us to understand the world as God made it, as God’s gift of love for us. It helps us to realise how many of God’s wonders lie behind a simple thing like a tin of pineapple. It helps us to realise many different people have given something of themselves, so that we can have some pineapple. So let’s praise God and give thanks for his great gifts to us.

Giving good friut to God

Short sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull at 8am Eucharist
5th October 2008 (St Francis tide around 4th October)
Trinity 20, Proper 22, Year A.

Readings: Isaiah 5: 1-7 (Philippians 3 :4b-14) Matthew 21: 33-46


When I picture St Francis I often think of him on his journeys through the countryside, passing by the olive groves and vineyards of the beautiful Umbria region of Italy. It is therefore a pleasant coincidence that our readings today include two parables about vineyards.
It is interesting to compare and contrast the two parables. Both parables compare God to the owner of a vineyard. In both cases God has invested in his vineyard, spending time, energy, money and not a little tender loving care. We can picture the vineyards. They are well dug and planted with choice vines. They are protected by walls, hedges, fences and by a watchtower. They are equipped with winepress and wine vats. In both cases God, the vineyard owner, is expecting a return on his investment in the vineyard. In both cases he is expecting a quantity of good fruit, grapes from the vineyard. In both cases he is disappointed!
But then the two parables are a little different in the way in which they represent God’s people. In the Isaiah parable God’s people are the vineyard itself, and especially they are the choice vines in the vineyard. God wants them to bare good fruit, cultivated grapes; justice and righteousness. Instead God finds that only wild grapes grow; he sees bloodshed and hears the cry of the oppressed. He is disappointed! God warns that if he continues to be disappointed then instead of tending and caring for the vineyard, he will break down its walls and let it go to ruin.
In the parable from the gospel, told by Jesus, God’s people are not the vineyard itself, but rather tenants who have rented the vineyard. The vineyard is more like the spiritual blessing they have from God, and the land in which they live. However the warning from God is the same; if the tenants do not deliver to God good fruit then they will suffer terribly and lose the vineyard. It will be given to others, who will deliver good fruit to God.
Traditionally Christians have seen this as a prophecy fulfilled in the opening up of the Church to the gentiles and in the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 AD; God’s promise and blessing passes from the Jews to the Church. This interpretation makes sense to the Church, but it is not the whole story. God continues to work with the Jews. Amazingly they did not die out in the first century AD and they continue to live in some covenant with God, that we in the Church struggle to understand.
However what is very clear is that we in the Church are now tenants of a vineyard. We have the same obligation to give to God good fruits of justice and righteousness, and where we fail to do this we can expect to see our world pulled apart. In these last days we have all marvelled at the collapse of financial institutions and at fragility in the financial sector. We know that the effects of this are fast spreading into our wider economy. It seems to me that it is now more important than ever that we in the Western world concentrate on delivering good fruits of justice and righteousness to God. Without this it is all too easy to envisage us being cast out of the vineyard, and the vineyard being handed over to others who will give God his rightful produce at harvest time. Let’s therefore try to grow in God’s love in our day to day lives, so that we grow some good fruit to offer to God.

SS Michael, Gabriel and Raphael

Sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull at 9.15 and 11am Eucharists
Sunday 28th September 2008 – SS Michael, Gabriel and Raphael

Readings: Genesis 28: 10-17 Revelation 12: 7-12 John 1: 47-51


Today we celebrate Michaelmas, or more precisely the feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Now Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are not ordinary saints, but rather they are angels and so it is not surprising that this feast is sometimes known as St Michael and All Angels.
“And what are angels?” you might well ask. Well angels are spiritual beings which do not have bodies. They are creatures, that is to say they were created by God (Col 1: 16), but they seem to have been well established by the time that Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1, 24). As spiritual beings, angels have their own personalities and their own free will. Some angels have chosen (as we are all free to choose) to rebel against God and to try to go their own way. These we call demons and we think of the Devil, the prince of all demons, who we read about being cast out of heaven by St Michael in our second reading today (see also 2 Peter 2: 4, Jude 6). When we use the word “angel” we are generally not thinking of demons, but rather we mean spiritual beings that are good. That is spiritual being who choose to use their free will in harmony with the will of God. They choose to do God’s work. In fact, according to St Augustine, the word “angel”, which means “messenger”, is more of a job title than a description of a particular kind of being. Psalm 103 (v20) tells us that angels are “might ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word”. So angels are powerful, spiritual beings who are the messengers of God and who do God’s will.
Now if angels are spiritual beings, who can’t been seen or touched in the visible world in which we live, how do we know anything about them? How do we even know they exist? Well first of all, angels are always much closer than we think. Psalm 34 (v7) tells us that “the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them” and psalm 97 (9-16) tells us that God will deliver those who love him, sending angels to guard them and bear them up. And so we can believe that we each have a guardian angel walking always beside us and protecting us. Certainly Jesus is thinking this when he talks about children. He says, “take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my father” (Matt 18:10). And with angels always so close to us and looking after us it is perhaps not so surprising that we do sometimes meet people who have had some experience of the presence of angels, or of angels protecting them in moments of crisis.
And this certainly seems to have been the experience of God’s people over the centuries. We find that our holy scriptures are full of references to angels. They crop up in literally hundreds of places. As our readings today illustrate, they are spread throughout the bible from Genesis, the very first book, to Revelation, the last book. We find them especially at critical moments in our salvation history; when Abraham is about sacrifice his son Isaac, when Moses is called by God to set the Israelites free, when the Blessed Virgin Mary is told she is to expect the child Jesus, at the resurrection of Christ. The other place that they appear a lot in scripture in where there are visions of heaven. Our reading from Genesis and Revelation both include visions of heaven where lots of angels were seen.
It is interesting to note that it is not just the Christian scriptures that talk about angels. The Jews and the Muslims, who also worship the God of Abraham, also have a great deal about angels in their scriptures. Michael and Gabriel are mentioned in the Muslims holy book, the Koran. The Jewish Talmud has extraordinary details about many angels including Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. It describes many different ranks of angels, and the many different heights of heaven.
And what is so special about the angels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael? Well they are the only three angels to be named in the bible. Michael is the leader of the armies of God, as we heard in our reading from Revelation. Gabriel is the angel who tells Zachariah that he is to father John the Baptist, and tells the Blessed Virgin Mary that she is to mother Jesus. Raphael appears in the apocryphal book of Tobit. He heals Tobit’s eyes so that he can see again.
So that is a bit about angels, but why are angels so important to us in our Christian lives? Well firstly they are important to us because of the practical help that they can give us in our journey towards God. I am thinking here especially of the angels that are close to us all the time, guarding us and protecting us; our guardian angels. But really this is true of all angels. As the book of Hebrews puts it, “Are not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). With so much help available near at hand, we do well to grow in awareness of angels, thanking god for them and sharing with them in the praising of God.
But angels are also important because they show us something of the high court of heaven. Every now and again the scriptures give us a glimpse of the majesty, splendour and awe of heaven. We saw some of this in our scripture readings today, but it happens many times. [I particularly love the passage in Isaiah when Isaiah describes his vision of the throne of God (Isaiah 6: 1-5). There are seraphs in attendance all around singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” And the thresholds shake at their singing, and the house is filled with smoke. And then there is the moment when Jesus is born and a multitude of the heavenly host appeared before the shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace and goodwill among people” (Luke 2: 13-14).]
And the extraordinary thing is that we are called to share in this life of heaven. God wants each one of us to be part of it all. In Luke chapter 20 (v35-36) Jesus is talking about resurrection and marriage. He says, “But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection”. We are called to share in this life of heaven and in the holiness of God (Heb 3: 1, 12: 10) like the angels. We know that all this is only fully realised after the resurrection of the dead. We know that we have a long journey to walk before we get there, because we know that we are far from being angels at the moment. But despite this, there is a sense in which it is true already. If we are in Christ then we are already part of this new creation (2 Cor 5:17). And perhaps our best chance of being aware of this is at the Eucharist, where we join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven to praise the glorious name of God. In the Eucharist, Jesus shares his life with us. Truly it is a foretaste of the great heavenly banquet to which we are called (Revelation 19: 9). Let’s try to place ourselves in that reality as we receive Holy Communion today.

Human fairness and God's justice

Sermon 21/09/08
Preached at the Eucharist at St Catherine’s, Catherine-de-Barnes at 11am on
Sunday 21st September 2008 - Trinity 18 – Proper 20 – Year A

Readings: Jonah 3: 10 - 4:11 Philippians 1: 21-30 Matthew 20: 1-16



In 1987 I joined British Gas as employee. At that time in British Gas there used to be an annual pay negotiation. The unions would argue that gas workers should get a pay rise to give them parity with what was earned by staff in telecoms or the electricity board. The management would argue that a more appropriate comparison was with council workers and the water board, and gas employees already received more than what theses groups earned. In the end a compromise was always worked out, but to achieve this, the management and unions had to put aside their chosen comparisons and focus on what made sense for the gas industry.
We know that comparison with other people is a very common way of determining appropriate pay in the working world. But we also know from today’s gospel reading that this is NOT how the kingdom of heaven works! In the parable there were some workers who had started work in the early morning, some had started at 9, some at noon, some at 3 and some at 5. At 6, when everybody finished work and was paid the landowner chose to give each one the normal full daily wage. It is very, very easy for us human beings to understand why the people who started work first thing in the morning might find that frustrating. The landowner has been very generous to some people, who started work late. Those who started early might well hope that he will be generous with them too. In fact he pays exactly what was originally agreed, which felt like a fair wage when it was agreed, but now suddenly it feels very stingy because other people have done a lot better.
But Jesus tells us that this is what the kingdom of heaven of like! The truth is that God gives out his gifts just as he pleases to each different person. We should not make comparisons between different people, because if we do we soon start to think, “It’s not fair!” And it is certainly true that on a comparative basis life can be very “unfair”. This “unfairness” is most obvious in the way people are born. Some people are born rich, beautiful and intelligent. Others are born poor, ugly and stupid. Some people are born into good families, are loved by their parents and grow up secure and happy. Other people are born into miserable family situations and grow up believing that nobody is out to help them and everybody is out to exploit them. But “comparative unfairness” is not just about birth. As we grow up, some people land good jobs, and buy into the housing market just before a housing boom. Other people struggle with jobs and get caught in negative equity traps on their mortgages. Some people enjoy good health, some people have poor health and some people die young from accidents or terrible diseases.
And religious gifts are not dished out equally either. Why should God have a “chosen people”? Are they any better than the rest of us? Why did God choose the Blessed Virgin Mary to be “blessed among women” (Luke 1: 42)? Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem and not in Catherine-de-Barnes?
If we think in comparative terms we can quickly start to see God as very unfair. We can even start to feel resentful or indignant towards God. But of course we know we should not think about God in this way. So why is it that God seems so completely unconcerned about fairness from a human perspective? Well this is something of a mystery which we need to ponder over time. But there is a big difference between the justice of God, and our human notions of fairness, especially comparative fairness. I would like to set out a few pointers to help us ponder the mystery.
First of all there is something very personal about our relationship with God. Each of us is completely unique. Each of us is loved by God in a way that exactly and perfectly matches our uniqueness. For each of us God has a plan, a route to eternal life, and this plan, this journey is very specifically ours; nobody else can walk the journey for us, nobody else can experience God in exactly the same way as we do. So the challenge for each one of us is not to grumble about the gifts that God has evidently given to other people, but rather to discover and make the most of and to rejoice in the gifts that God has specifically given to us personally.
Secondly, in the Church, the body of Christ, the community of Christian people the gift that God gives to one person is not solely for the benefit of that person but is for the benefit of the whole community. We all need to use our gifts for the benefit of the others. The one who can welcome, should welcome on behalf of us all. The one who can pray well should pray well on behalf of us all, the one who can make tea and coffee should do it for us all. We need to develop a culture of giving, of sharing. When we get to heaven I suspect that we will find that our gifts and good fortunes will be so perfectly shared among us that we will not pause to worry about which individual God originally gave them to.
Thirdly, as human beings we are created for eternal life. The time we spend on this earth is relatively brief, and although things might seem unfair in this earthly life they might look very different over all eternity. Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven, blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled, blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh,” (Luke 6: 20-21). St Paul teaches that the sufferings of this present life are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed (Romans 8: 18) and Peter preaches that after we have suffered for a little we will be restored, supported, strengthened and established by God (1 Peter 5:10).
Fourthly it was through his passion and death that Christ reconciled us to God. When we approach our sufferings in fellowship with Christ in his sufferings then they become immensely valuable. Through fellowship with Christ in his sufferings we can hope for fellowship with Christ in his resurrection and new life. Even if some people seem to suffer more than others in this life, we should not assume that they are less blessed. In fact the opposite might be true. Surely Jesus suffered greatly, and surely he is greatly blessed.
And I believe that we can use these four pointers to align our own lives with the kingdom of heaven, and to make our communities more like heaven. In particular we make our own contribution by seeking to walk the path that God has planned for us personally, discovering all its beauty and potential. We should not worry, but rather should rejoice, if God appears to have given other very attractive looking paths to other people. And we must also work on that culture of giving. The good things we have been given are given to us for the benefit of all. We need to be generous in giving and in receiving. Let’s not be too proud or ashamed to share in the good things that God has given to others. Rather, let’s give thanks and rejoice when this happens, because we start to make earth look more like the kingdom of heaven that Jesus described.

Justice of God

Thought for parish pew slip
Sunday 21st September 2008 - Trinity 18 – Proper 20 – Year A

Readings: Jonah 3: 10 - 4:11 Philippians 1: 21-30 Matthew 20: 1-16


Our scripture readings today are about people getting what is rightfully due to them. This is the justice of God.
Our Old Testament lesson tells us about Jonah, who had been sent to tell the people of Nineveh of a great disaster that God was planning to inflict on their city. The people of Nineveh repented of their wickedness and changed their ways. God was pleased and decided not to destroy the city. Unfortunately Jonah saw this as a major loss of face and was angry with God. God taught Jonah a lesson to make him understand how much God cares for Nineveh and its people.
In his letter to the Philippians, St Paul ascribes great value to the privilege of suffering for Christ. This has been Paul’s path and it has led him to an extraordinary confidence in God, such that he is equally happy to carry on living or to die and be with Christ.
In our gospel reading some workers who have received a just wage feel they have been treated unfairly compared to other workers who have received a generous wage. The rewards of the kingdom of heaven might be just or generous, but it is not for us to make comparisons. Converting the good things others have is always a problem (e.g. Exodus 20: 17).

The Secret Weapon

Informal sermon preached a Solihull 6th Scout Group Camp at Broadwater Scout Campsite, Meriden, Warwickshire on Sunday 14th September, 1.30pm.

Camp theme of “Army”.

Reading: Ephesians 6: 10-17


Very often in Christianity we are taking about love and peace and joy. So it might seem surprising that Christianity has anything to say about army camps, weapons, battles and wars. But in fact Christianity has quite a lot to say about weapons and wars, and that’s because one way of thinking about the spiritual life is thinking of it as a war.
Certainly the spiritual life can be like a war. On the one side we have God and Christ and all the angles and saints and all the hosts of heaven, and even us too, to the extent that we are managing to live in our saintly selves, following God and rejecting evil. On the other side we have the Devil and his demons and all the powers of hell, and perhaps even us too if we are rejecting God and his ways.
And what is the war between these two armies about? Well it is a war that is fought at every level. First of all it is about you and me. Are we choosing God or are we choosing the Devil? Are we choosing heaven or hell? Are we trying to become what God created us to be, or are we rejecting God and going our own way? And then it is about our families. Are they following God, or going away from God? And it is about our communities, our nation and our world. At every level this great war rages, and we need to do our part to be a good soldier of God.
Now let’s hear our reading: Ephesians 6: 10-17
So did you manage to follow that? Did you hear St Paul talking about the struggle against the spiritual forces of evil? Paul tells us to take up the whole armour of God, in order to stand firm in this great battle. He tells us to use the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith which protects us from all the arrows of the enemy. Paul tells us to take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, the word of God. And with all these weapons and all this protection we can fight well in the army of God.
But as Christians we have another weapon, a secret weapon, more powerful and more extraordinary that all the rest. This is the cross of Christ. Today, 14th September is a special day, Holy Cross Day, when we think about the cross of Christ and how it helps us in the great battle against the Devil.
When we fight in this battle, when we try to do good, when we try to love other people, when we try to walk in God’s ways and follow in his paths, we find very often that things go wrong. Very often things do not turn out as we had hoped. We find that we fail to do good. We find that we are let down by faults in us and by faults in other people. We encounter sufferings. We suffer disappointments and we can easily get discouraged. And this is exactly what happened to Jesus. Jesus spent his whole life doing good and preaching good and helping other people, and yet many people disliked him and in the end they arrested him and killed him on the cross. And at that point it looked like his life had been a complete failure. His friends had run away. He had been killed in a most horrible way. It looked like the war had been lost. It looked like the complete triumph of evil.
But on the third day God raised him from the dead. God is the source of life. Jesus is God and has life within himself. Death cannot hold Jesus. Even the very worst things that can happen, even disasters, even death, cannot keep Jesus down. He comes back with new life, new wisdom to share, new hope and with a great healing of all our broken relationships. And through the cross of Jesus we too can share in the destiny of Jesus. If we walk in the ways of Jesus we know that whatever goes wrong, what ever disasters befall, whatever deaths we die, we will continue to have life in Christ. Love is from God, and when we live in love, we live in God and death cannot hold on to us. So we can fight in the battle against evil with enormous confidence. We do not need to fear, because our secret weapon means that whatever goes wrong, whatever disasters befall, we will be alright in the end. If we follow in the way of Christ then, by his cross, we cannot lose the battle. The suffering and death of the cross make us invincible!
So let’s take courage! Let’s play our part in the great spiritual battle. Let’s struggle always for good, for the love of others. Let’s walk in the ways of God and reject evil. And when things go wrong let’s trust in the cross of Jesus, the secret weapon that wins the victory.

Holy Cross Day

Preached at 10.00am Eucharist at St Helen’s Church, Solihull.
Sunday 14th September 2008, Holy Cross Day.
A shorter version was also preached at 8am at St. Helen's.

Readings Numbers 21: 4-9 Philippians 2:6-11 John 3: 13-17

I am sure that you have heard the phrase “Touch Wood” many times. I often hear it when I go visiting. People say something like, “Well the doctor has told me that I should be OK now, so I am really grateful for that, touch wood!” and then they look around for something wooden to touch, and they usually find something and touch it. And then they might say something like, “Well, I’m sorry…I shouldn’t be doing these supposititious things in front of you, should I?” Sometimes it seems that people have no problem with being superstitious, so long as they are not superstitious in front of the vicar (or curate)!
I spent a few minutes yesterday searching the internet for the origins of the phrase “touch wood” and I have to say I did not find anything very enlightening. However there are some intriguing references to an extraordinary series of events which happen around 325 AD. This was a very exciting period in the life of the Church. After three centuries of often brutal persecution by the Roman Empire, suddenly Rome had a Christian emperor, Constantine. Suddenly, far from being persecuted, the Church was in great favour with the state. At this time, the emperor’s mother, Helena, who we now call St Helena, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When she went to see the place where Jesus had died and had been buried she was disappointed to find nothing but a pagan Roman temple on the site. You will recall that, as punishment for the Jewish rebelion, the Romans had completely destroyed Jerusalem and sent the Jews away in 70AD. The Roman temple was built to remind people who was in charge.
Helena ordered that the temple be demolished an excavations started to see what, if anything, remained from the time of the death of Jesus. As they dug, they found what they soon came to believe to be the tomb of Jesus and nearby they found buried three wooden crosses, including the inscription plate from Jesus’ crucifixion. This was of course very exciting. It was clear to the people involved that the three crosses were those of Jesus and the two thieves, but it was not clear which cross was which. This was resolved by bringing in a very sick lady, who in an atmosphere of intense prayer, was touched by the wood of each of the three crosses in turn. As soon as she was touched by the third cross, she was miraculously healed. This was taken as conclusive proof that the third cross was indeed the “True Cross”, the cross on which Jesus died. The True Cross quickly became one of the most important relics in Christianity, known for its healing qualities, and many legends and myths grew up around it. Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre over the whole site. It was completed in 335 AD, and it was dedicated over a two day festival on 13th and 14th September. People would come to venerate the cross on which Jesus died, and to this day we reserve 14th September as Holy Cross Day, a day for the veneration and remembrance of the cross of Jesus. The idea of healing by "touching wood" still resonates down the ages.
Now in this parish we often have some form of veneration of the cross on Good Friday. I don’t know what your practice is here, but at St Alphege we have a wooden Crucifix and one by one we come up before it. Some people kiss it, some bow reverently before it, some pray quietly. But whatever we do outwardly with our bodies and with a material wooden cross only has really value if it corresponds to what we are doing spiritually and inwardly in our relationship with Jesus dying on the cross.
The cross is absolutely central to our faith. Only two weeks ago in our gospel reading we heard Jesus say to us, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt 16: 24). In our gospel reading today Jesus was clear that, as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent on a pole, so Jesus must be lifted up, in order to bring eternal life to those who believe in him (c.f. John 3:14). And the reason that the cross is so important to Christianity is because the death of Jesus is so very closely linked to his resurrection. The new life, joy and fulfilment of the resurrection come about precisely because Jesus died on the cross.
As Christians we are always called to grow in our love for Jesus. We might find it very easy to love the baby Jesus born at Christmas time, or Jesus the wise and merciful teacher who drew great crowds. But we are also called to love Jesus on the cross; Jesus treated as a criminal, Jesus humiliated and dying, who feels himself forsaken even by God.
And I would like to suggest that we have an opportunity to do this every time any kind of suffering crosses our path. Every time we suffer a disappointment, every time someone is rude to us, every time we encounter pain, every time we become aware of faults in ourselves or in others, these are moments when we need to love Jesus dying on the cross. In each of these sufferings we can, through prayer, find a link to Christ, suffering on the cross and we can try to love him.
And this is not easy. We are usually more keen to avoid suffering, than to see and love the suffering Christ in sufferings. But Jesus did not avoid suffering. Even though he was God, he was humble enough let go of his equality with God, to become human and to walk willingly into a most horrifying human death (c.f. Phil 2:6-8). In the face of suffering Jesus did not run away, but rather he loved. He continued to love throughout his passion, even forgiving his executors.
So when encounter suffer, in ourselves or in others, let’s first of all try to find a link to the sufferings of Jesus on the cross. Then let’s try love the suffering Christ in that situation. Sometimes love will show us things we can do to alleviate the sufferings. Sometimes, like Mary watching Jesus die on the cross, we can do nothing but just stand there. Either way, the important thing is to love.
And in this way our hearts grow. Our relationship with Jesus grows. As we share more with Jesus at his death, so we share more with him at this resurrection and we experience his reconciliation and new life in our lives. Loving Jesus in all our sufferings; this is the true way to venerate the cross.

Equality and non-discrimination

Preached at St Alphege, Solihull at Evensong 6.30pm, 7th September 2008 - Trinity 16
Readings: Isaiah 35: 4-7a Psalm 108 James 2: 1-17

This morning in church, in our observance of Racial Justice Sunday, we reflected on unjust discrimination against people from other races.
But then the theme of discrimination came up in the church news last week in a completely different way. A newly form group called “Accord” accused Faith Schools of discrimination in the selection of teachers and pupils. I found myself wondering what it means to be a faith school if it does not mean that at least some members of staff and pupils come form the designed faith. A ballet school must necessarily select people who are interested in ballet. Surely a faith school must do the same? But in the perception of people like Accord there is a particular difficulty of discrimination arsing from faith.
And then in our scripture reading today we heard St James warn against unjust discrimination against the poor.
So it seems like an appropriate moment to reflect around this theme of equality and non-discrimination, in the Christian understanding.
The equality of dignity of all human beings arises above all from our creation. God, in his great wisdom and love, has created human beings to share in his image and likeness (Gen 1: 26-27, 5:1 James 3:9). We are created for a great destiny; to share eternal life with God, through Christ. We are called to grow into the likeness of Christ (1 Cor 15:49, 2 Cor 3:18), the likeness of God. Whether or not people are aware of it, we are all called by Christ (John 12: 32, Matt 28:19). We are all created sons and daughters of the same heavenly father. Through Christ we have the possibility of fully realising that potential as fellow heirs with Christ, inheritors of God’s glory (Rom 8: 13-17).
So, all human beings share a common dignity. All are called to share in the life of heaven. Therefore each human being must be treated with great respect and afforded great value because of the presence of God, and the further potential presence of God in each one. And this dignity is equal among all human beings because it is one and the same dignity which is held in common; the share in the image and likeness of God.
And this has consequences in our attitude to other human beings, which are well illustrated in our reading from James this evening. We heard James emphasise that the Church must not show favouritism to the rich over the poor. He says tells us not to make distinctions among ourselves or make judgements about one another. He says that acts of favouritism suggest a failure to truly believe in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. He reminds of the beatitude, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). He grounds all this in the commandment, “Love your neighbour as yourself” and says that this commandment is broken if we show partiality. He says we should speak and act as those who are to be judged according to the law of liberty. He reminds us of the importance of an attitude of mercy, because the mercy that we show to others is the mercy that we will receive.
In the passage we read, James is particularly concerned with the poor; that there dignity be preserved (vv 3-5) and that their basic human needs for food and clothing are satisfied (vv15-17). But this need to preserve human dignity applies equally to all human beings who are likely to be discriminated against. We think especially today of people of different races, but we could also think of the very young, the very old, people with disabilities of different kinds, the uneducated, foreigners or people from different religions. As Christians we try to seek out, honour and develop this basic human dignity in all people. It is important even in people who wilfully damage the dignity of themselves or of others through greed or sex or drugs or violence or deceit or neglect. We might not agree with their actions, but we still value them as human beings and recognise that, like us, they are created by God, and like us, they are called to heaven, and like us their getting to heaven depends entirely on the grace and mercy of God.
My guess is that this understanding of the basic human dignity of all people is unlikely to cause problems for the supporters of Accord. But there are other aspects of it that they might find more difficult. In particular we must not think that our dignity as human beings a static thing. It arises from our creation as human beings who are called to share in the life of God. It is God’s call to us and his hope for us that is the source of our dignity. We are called to develop our relationship with God and to move ever closer to him. We are called to move from sin to righteousness. We are called to grow in holiness. We know that are human bodies are destined to die, but that we are called to life in the Spirit (c.f. Romans 8: 9-11).
And this call of God has consequences which sometimes are quite wrongly construed as inequalities. For example, God call is very personal to each one of us and the callings are quite different. It uniquely and precisely matches the way we have been made, our personal fulfilment and our personal contribution to the Church and to the whole body of humanity. We try to follow God’s calling for us in our everyday life in society and also in the life of the Church. As St Paul explains, “And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. … But eagerly desire the greater gifts.” (1Cor 28-31) Over time the roles we are called to move on and develop. Hopefully we mature, grow closer to God and offer better and purer service to the life of the whole Church. Paul talks about some gifts being “higher” than others, but this is not about having dominion over others, rather it is about serving others; the wider the scope of service to the whole church, the higher the gift. It is when gifts are properly used for the service of others that we are able to see most clearly that the diversity of gifts and the diversity of roles does not compromise our equal dignity as human beings.
Also this call to righteousness means that we value and celebrate our efforts to become better people, and to correspond better to God’s aspirations for each one of us. And when we try to follow God in this way it does introduce a certain tension into our life. We find ourselves trying to behave like saints, when manifestly we are sinners. This is sometimes quite wrongly construed as hypocrisy, as though it would somehow be more honest and better to fail to journey towards God and to rejoice in our inadequacies and sinfulness. Of course our own human efforts to become holy are in themselves completely futile. We fail and fail and fail again, but our efforts are still very important and significant because they express our desire to move towards holiness. As we fail and confess our sins and start again, so we create a humble space in which God’s grace and mercy is able to work, taking us forward not as we would expect, but as God has planned for us.
[The call to holiness therefore means that there are certain values, behaviours and attitudes that are helpful to us personally, to the church and to wider society. These we seek to promote. Similarly there are other approaches which are rebellious against God, unhelpful and destructive. These we would seek to move away from. What groups like Accord sometimes find difficult is that promoting certain values can feel like discrimination in favour of people who display those values and discrimination against people who don’t. Needless to say, I do not accept this. It seems to me that seeking to remove discrimination by removing values ultimately removes the very reason why we want to avoid discrimination. All sense of right and wrong, and all sense of justice disappears.
So what are the valid ways of promoting equality and non-discrimination? Well certainly it is to “Love your neighbour as yourself”. Certainly it is to recognise and rejoice in the dignity of each human being. Certainly it is to want the good of that human being, and want to help them on their journey towards God, even if they are currently very far from God. But we must not allow desire for equality to force everybody to be the same, or to exercise the same roles in society. Rather we should rejoice in diversity and encourage the people who are “greater” to focus more completely on the service of others. Neither should we allow the desire for equality to stop us from saying that certain behaviours are “good” and desirable, and others “bad” and undesirable. Rather we should redouble our efforts to promote that which is good, whilst retaining and attitude of great mercy towards those whose behaviour is “bad”.]

Taking up our cross and following Christ

Sermon preach at 9.15 Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull
Sunday 31st August 2008, Trinity 15, Proper 17, Year A

Readings: Jeremiah 15:15-21 Romans 12: 9-21 Matthew 16: 21-28


One of my favourite television programmes is “You’ve been framed”. It is a programme where they show funny or embarrassing moments that have been captured on family camcorders. To try and keep people watching the during the advertisement break they often have a, “What happens next?” clip. Last thing before the break they show the start of some clip and you have to guess what happens next. Perhaps you see some lad on a quad bike skilful negotiate some hazard and start to accelerate way. So can you guess what happens next? Somehow you know it will be some kind of disaster. Perhaps he will over do it with the acceleration and the bike will go over backwards? Perhaps he’ll drive straight into a tree? Then after the break you see the second half of the clip. And what happens? Well, another quad bike zooms in from nowhere and knocks him for six. Well we knew it would be something like that, but we did not know exactly what!
This week’s gospel reading is a bit like the second half of a “What happens next?” film clip that we started last week. If you remember last weeks gospel you will remember it recounted a wonderful moment for Peter. He proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus was ever so pleased with Peter. He declared Peter to be the rock on which Jesus would build the Church, and he gave Peter great authority both in heaven and on earth.
And what happened next? Well that’s this week’s gospel. Jesus starts to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer at the hands of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed. Well Peter, full of confidence following his great success, marches in and says, “Forbid it Lord, this must never happen to you!” And Jesus is furious. He says, “Get behind me Satan!” Peter must have felt stung to the core.
And what had Peter done wrong? What he said seemed pretty reasonable really. If you have just worked out that someone is the Messiah, the Son of God, you don’t in the next breath agree to let that person be killed by the very people who need him most. But Jesus explains. Peter was “setting his mind not on divine things, but on human things.”
So Jesus accepts that, humanly speaking, Peter’s has a point. But Jesus is not just human, he is also divine. He has come to earth to teach the divine ways to the apostles and to the whole world. He has come to show us the ways of heaven, and the ways of heaven are different from the ways of earth.
Humanly speaking we all want to avoid suffering. We instinctively want fullness of life, and suffering seems like the very opposite of that, it seems like the lose of life, it seems like the road to death. Yet Jesus teaches us the divine ways, and he is very clear. He says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
What does it mean in practice to take up our cross and follow Jesus? Well it means following Jesus through the bad times as well as the good. It means following Jesus in situations of suffering, or hurt, or pain. And it doesn’t matter if the suffering is physical, or emotional or spiritual. It doesn’t matter is the suffering is our own fault or the fault of the people around us, or no ones fault at all. It does not matter if the suffering is large or small. In all cases of suffering the call is the same; to continue to follow Jesus.
And as we think about Jesus carrying his cross to Calvary, and we think of us following with him, each carrying our own little crosses then there are a two ways in particular in which we are asked to follow him.
Firstly we follow Jesus by continuing to do God’s will, even when it is very costly. The gospels tell us about Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane praying that the Father might make the cup of poison may pass from him, and yet also praying, “Not what I want, but what you want” (e.g. Matt 26: 39). Following God’s will can be very costly. Sometimes we need to accept something hurtful or discouraging or sad. Sometimes we need to confront people or situations and risk conversations that might be difficult or painful. There can be all kinds of difficult things, but if we follow God’s will, even through sufferings, then we are following Jesus with his cross and sharing on his journey to Calvary.
Secondly we need to continue to love other people, even when we are suffering. Jesus continues to love through his passion. He forgives the people who crucify him. He ministers to the penitent thief. He makes arrangements for St John to take care of his mother. He continues to think about the others, to hope for the others, to see the good in the others, despite the great evil that is done to him.
So this is how we can follow Jesus in our sufferings; by continuing to do God’s will for us, and by continuing to love. And this very often means denying ourselves, giving up on our own plans and aspirations, giving up on our resentments and frustrations, giving up our sense of comfort or of being in control. This is costly, but Jesus is very clear, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
But now for the good news. By denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following Jesus we find that we are bound into a much deeper relationship with Jesus. It is a relationship that becomes deeper and purer and truer as we carry our crosses together. Sometimes we hear war veterans talk of difficult or dangerous situations that they have passed through together. This experience binds them together with a trust and understanding that goes very deep. It is the same with us and Jesus. When we continue to love, and continue to do the will of God through our sufferings we share in a profoundly important experience with Jesus, who loved and did God’s will through his whole passion and death. Jesus starts to share our burdens with us. Our trust and understanding of Jesus grows.
And the news gets even better, because we discover that we are sharing more and more with Jesus. We find we share in the healing and reconciliation that Jesus won for us. Slowly God starts to transform us, and the situations around us, and they start to reflect his peace and his justice and his love.
But the very best news is that when we start to share with Jesus in his sufferings and death, so we begin to share with him in his resurrection, in his newness of life, in his glory (c.f. Romans 6: 5, 8: 17). The risen life of Jesus restores us and makes us whole. It gives us power to hope. We start to share in the eternal life that Jesus promises.
So when sufferings come, let’s follow Jesus by continuing to love and by continuing to do God’s will. In this way we take up our cross and share sufferings with Jesus. In this way too we start also to share in his risen life. Amen.

St Bartholomew

Sermon preached at Congregational Evensong at 6.30pm at St Alphege, Solihull
Sunday 24th August 2008 - Trinity 14
Readings: Deuteronomy 18: 15-19 Matthew 10: 1-22

Today, 24th August, is the day when the Western Church remembers Saint Bartholomew one of the apostles. Bartholomew is mentioned four times in the New Testament. Each time he is mentioned it is because the writer is listing the names of the twelve apostles. His name usually comes next to Philip name. And the truth is that we do not know very much more about him, although there are a number of rumours that we receive from some of the less authoritive early Church traditions and writings.
For example, there is some speculation that Bartholomew might be the same person as Nathanael. The speculation arises for two reasons. Firstly because it was Philip who introduced Nathanael to Jesus (John 1:45-51). (You will recall that Jesus saw Nathanael sitting under the fig tree and said of Nathanael, “Here is truly and Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”) Secondly because in John 21 there is a list of apostles, which includes Nathanael (who is not listed elsewhere) but which does not include Bartholomew.
There are several traditions about Bartholomew going on missionary journeys, particularly to India. There are also traditions about his missionary work in Armenia and Azerbaijan. This is the area to the immediate South East of Georgia, much in the news at present. There is a tradition in this area that he was brutally martyred. First flayed (that is skinned alive!) and then crucified upside down. Because of the flaying, St Bartholomew is the patron saint of tanners. In the vast Last Judgement scene in the Sistine Chapel St Bartholomew is shown in a most disturbing way. He is brandishing a knife in one hand and holding his own skin in the other. He has been painted with Michelangelo’s own facial features!
St Bartholomew is also associated with medicine; hence the dedication of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. He is also associated with miracles whereby things become suddenly and mysteriously either very heavy or very light.
It is not easy to know how much truth lies behind all these stories, but it is clear that Bartholomew has had a considerable impact in Christian culture and tradition. And yet all this comes from an apostle who the gospels never record as doing anything, except just being there. In this week’s Church Times, John Pridmore describes Bartholomew as the “hidden disciple”. Much of what he said and did seems to have had a hidden quality, yet in the long term it has turned out to have a great impact.
Here we have to pause for a moment and remind ourselves that many of the things that have most value in the Christian life, also have a hidden quality about them. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field (Matt 13). He tells that when we fast or pray or give arms to the poor we should do it in secret (Matt 6) and win a reward in heaven. We should not do these things so that people say how good we are, and if people do praise us on earth then we have already received our reward. Jesus assures us that everything hidden will eventually be made know (Matt 10:26) and St. Paul says that the Lord “will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his reward from God (1 Cor 4:5). Paul always insists that it is our inner prayers and intentions that matter. What we outwardly achieve is less important. This means that we are not wasting time when try to love someone we will never meet, or do something good which no one will hear about.
This is very counter cultural. We live in a television age where only visible things are considered important. The more spectacular something is, the better its chance of being seen on TV. The quiet, ordinary behind the scenes things are not celebrated or valued, but are often ignored. In business or government organizations things that are not objectively quantifiable and measurable tend not to be taken seriously. And the result of forever prioritizing things that can be measured (things like GDP growth or crime rates reduction) is that things that can’t be measured (things like happiness or fulfillment or peace) get de-prioritized.
So let’s take heart from Bartholomew, the hidden apostle. Let’s remember to value things as God values them, not as they might appear on TV or in the papers. Let’s continue with acts of love or honesty that nobody will ever know about. Let’s prepare for the time when all secret things are revealed. Let’s have confidence that we have a reward in heaven, for the good things that we do that are not recognized on earth.

Two visions of Church

Sermon preached at 11am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull on Sunday 24th August 2008
Trinity 14, Proper 16, Year A.

Readings: Isaiah 51:1-6 Romans 12: 1-8 Matthew 16: 13-20


Our readings today encourage us to reflect on two different images of the Church; two different ways of thinking about the Church, and our role in it.
Our gospel reading was the story of Simon recognising Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Let’s just take a moment to think about though two titles, Messiah and Son of God, to check that we know what we mean by them.
First of all, the word Messiah. This is a Hebrew word which means “anointed one”. This equivalent Greek word is “Kristos” from which we get our word Christ. Within the kingdom of Israel the tradition was that God would choose a king, and he would tell a prophet to go and anoint that person with oil to show that they were to be king. Perhaps the most famous occasion when this happened is the one recorded in the first book of Samuel, Chapter 16. The prophet Samuel was sent by God to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king over Israel. Jesse paraded seven sons in front of Samuel, but none of these were to be king. Jesse’s eighth and youngest son, David, had to be called back from the fields. The Lord told Samuel that David was the one to be king, so Samuel anointed him with oil, and of course he went to become the great King David, who established the people of Israel in Jerusalem at the start of what was to become their golden age.
But the golden age only lasted for two or three generations. After that the people of Israel passed through hard times. They were always ruled by some foreign king or empire and they always felt oppressed and downtrodden. God promised them that in the fullness of time he would send a descendent of David to be a new Messiah, the anointed one, to be a great King, to save Israel and to enlighten all the people of the world. The people of Israel were always looking for the new Messiah and in our gospel today Simon recognised Jesus as the long awaited Messiah, the Christ.
Simon also recognised Jesus as the Son of God. This is effectively saying that Jesus is God, is of the same being as God. The rest of us were created by God, but Jesus was in some sense “begotten by God, before all things began.” The virgin birth bares witness to the fact that Jesus had no earthly father, but rather he should be called the Son of God.
So Simon’s recognition of Jesus as Messiah, anointed one, Christ, and as Son of God is very, very profound. Jesus certainly was very impressed and said to Simon, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Now it is not easy to understand what all this means. Jesus later repeats many of these things to all the apostles, so there is a sense in which they are shared by all the apostles, by all of the church. But within this sharing they still all come together in a particular way in the person of Simon, now called Peter, which means Rock. And this image of Peter, the rock, on which the church is founded, and the ministry that Peter shares with the other apostles, has been very influential in the churches understanding of itself; of what it means to be church. In Ephesians 2:20 St Paul compares the Church, the people of God to small stones which are being built together to form a great structure, a temple which is being built up to form a dwelling place for God’s Holy Spirit. In this comparison St Paul says that the prophets and apostles are the foundations and Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone.
And I think that this is a very helpful and useful image of the church. But it is by no means the only helpful image of the church, and in fact it is necessary to lay it alongside other images of the church, in order to develop a fuller understanding of what the Church is, what it is for, and how we play our part in it.
In our second reading today from Romans chapter 12, we heard St Paul set out a different image of the church. It is the image of the Church as the body of Christ, and it is one that Paul repeats several times in his epistles (e.g. 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 1:23, Col 1: 18). In this comparison, Christ is the head of the Church, and the Church is like his body. We are like different members of the body, perhaps we are an arm or a leg, and ear or a nose. We are all very different, but we all have a role to play that is of service to the whole body. We are all joined together in the body; we are members one of another. Just as the different parts of the human body are sustained by the flow of blood round the body, so we in the church are sustained by the presence of God in the Church. God present in his Word proclaimed from the scriptures. God present in the consecrated bread and wine of Holy Communion, God present in the midst of his people gathered in his name (Matt 18:20).
The image of the Church has a great building has it strengths. It makes us reflect on the structures and organisation of the Church, on the bishops and on all the rules and regulations which give us clear guidance on how we all fit together. However this is no more a complete view of the Church, that a skeleton is the complete human body. The body includes many soft tissues, much that is moving and changing all the time, and blood that is in constant circulation.
In our reading St Paul also said, “Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12: 2) And this is essential. It is by discerning God’s will that we work out how we, personally, fit into the body. Perhaps we are an arm, and rather action focused. Perhaps we are an ear, and draw the Churches attention the cries of the people around us. Perhaps we are good at talking and, with all charity (not as idle gossip!) we keep news moving and circulating round the people of the Church. Perhaps our role is to pray; we are more like the soul of the body, holding the whole body up before God.
So as we reflect on our own role in the church let’s make sure that everything is done in accordance with God’s will, so God will show us our right place alongside all the other people. Let’s remember that those structural bits, the Bishops and the rules, often show us the will of God and give form and structure to the church, just as the skeleton gives structure to the body. But let’s not make the mistake of thinking the skeleton is more important than the flesh and blood; otherwise we reduce the church to dry bones. Rather let’s recognise that we all need each other, and lets rejoice together, each in accordance with God’s will for us personally, so that the church can be a strong and vibrant body.

Everybody called to share in the life of heaven

Preached at 9.15am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull on Sunday 17th August 2008
Trinity 13, Proper 15, Year A.

Readings Isaiah 56:1,6-8 Romans 11: 1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: 21-28


Years ago the Church Times published a letter. It said something like this: “Sermons – what is the point of them? Our Vicar’s preached hundreds of sermons over the years and I can’t remember any of them.” The next week the Church Times published a letter in response. It said, “Over the years, my wife’s cooked me thousands of dinners. I can’t remember many of them, but I am ever so grateful.”
I think it is a very, very helpful letter. It reminds us that, just as we need to keep feeding our bodies with food, so we need to keep feeding our souls with the presence of God. Coming to the Eucharist is a good way of doing this, because we encounter God in his Word proclaimed in scripture and when we receive Jesus present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
So, just as we don’t worry that we can’t remember all the good meals that we have eaten, so we should not worry that we can’t remember all the good sermons we’ve heard. And this is a good job, because I know that I have listened to hundreds and hundreds of sermons and I can hardly remember any of them!
But here is the funny thing, although it feels like I can hardly remember any sermons, I can remember two sermons about the particular gospel reading that we heard today! They were completely different sermons, by different preachers given years apart, and yet I can remember them both! And the reason I remember them is that they both surprised me, shocked me! So, I’ll tell you what the two preachers said, and let’s see if I can surprise you!
The first preacher said something like, “Well, of course, the big thing about this gospel reading is that Jesus is so rude to the Canaanite woman. She comes to him, wanting him to heal her daughter. To start with Jesus ignores her. When she won’t go away, he explains that he is sent to the people of Israel, not to the Canaanites. Then she comes and kneels in front of him. He can’t ignore her then, and so he says to her, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ Well you can’t get much ruder than that, can you? Basically he is calling the Canaanites, dogs. Nowadays we might call that racist.”
I found this a deeply shocking viewpoint. I was very surprised. I was not ready to think about Jesus being either “rude” or “racist”, even if the woman was being completely unreasonable. Fortunately Jesus’ tone does change dramatically at this point in the story. The woman answers him very graciously and with great faith. She says, “Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table.” She means that Jesus may have been sent to the people of Israel, but the goodness of Jesus spills over beyond the people of Israel. Like crumbs falling from a table it spills over. Perhaps it spills over because it is so abundant. Perhaps it spills over because the people of Israel don’t value it properly, don’t take it seriously enough. Either way, it spills over and the Canaanites get to share in the goodness of Jesus. Jesus is deeply impressed with this answer. He say’s to her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was heeled at that moment.
So that was the surprise from the first preacher. The second preacher to surprise me when discussing this story said something like this: “This was a crucial moment of Jesus. This was the moment when Jesus realised that his mission was for everybody, not just for the people of Israel. This was the moment when he realised that he had come to save, not just the Jews, but the whole world.” Again, this was a big surprise for me. Since Sunday school I have been taught that Jesus came to save the whole world. I thought everybody knew that! It had never occurred to me that Jesus himself must have learned that at some point. Because Jesus has a divine nature and is God we sometimes forget how humble and ordinary his human nature was. Just like us he had to start as baby and grow up. He had to lean things. We sometimes thing of Jesus as being like some great superhero, but in fact in so many ways he was just like us.
Now I have to say that I am not altogether sure that either of the two preachers was entirely correct. There are certainly other considerations here, but the point is that both sermons helped me to move forward in my journey of faith, and remarkably I remembered them both.
So as we leave church today let’s remember that Jesus came to save everybody. That means he came to save each one of you, and he came to save me. And we might think, “I’m not the religious type”, or “I’m a terrible sinner” or “I’m not worth it” but the fact remains that Jesus came for each one of us. God calls each one of us to our place in heaven. Now we all have a journey to walk. Even Jesus had to walk a journey as he grew up and grew in understanding. We all have to grow in love. We all have to grow in repentance. We all have to become good citizens of heaven. Some of us are starting from places a long way from God, places of great sin and darkness and we have a long, long journey ahead of us, but we are still called. God still wants to share the life of heaven with us. Jesus will still give us the grace we need to walk the journey.
And if we are already on the journey, if we are already growing in love, already growing in repentance then let’s work with God on all these other people, who he also calls to heaven. Let’s love them as God loves them. Let’s have hope for them, as God has hope for them. Let’s want to share the life of heaven with them as God does. And this can be quite a challenge. Do I really want to share heaven with that nasty man at the bus top? We need to grow in love. We need to help the man at the bus stop to grow in love. We will be ready for heaven ourselves when our love is like Jesus’ love; when we truly want to share heaven with everybody.

The kingdom of heaven

Preached at St Catherine’s, Catherine-de-Barnes, Solihull at 11am Eucharist
Sunday 20th July 2008, Trinity 9, Proper 11, Year A.
A shortened version of this sermon was preached at the 8am Eucharist at St Alphege Church, Solihull
Readings Wisdom 12: 13,16-19 Romans 8: 12-25 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
(N.B. – The “Book of Wisdom” or “Wisdom of Solomon” does not appear in many standard bibles. To find it you need a bible that includes the Apocrypha, or a Catholic Edition)


One of the themes of Matthew’s gospel is the kingdom of heaven. In Chapter 13 of Matthew’s Gospel there are seven parables in which Jesus tries to explain what the kingdom of heaven is like. Today we heard the parable of the wheat and the weeds, which is quite a long parable, especially because Jesus explained it afterwards. The other six parables are very short, and we hear many of them in the gospel reading next week. But today, let’s spend a few moments thinking about the kingdom of heaven, as it is presented to us in Matthew’s gospel.
Jesus was concerned with preaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven (Matt 4:23, 9:35). The kingdom of heaven requires of us repentance (Matt 3:2, 4:17). Repentance means putting God in the first place in our lives, and making sure that everything else in our lives finds its right place under God. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to pray, “Thy kingdom come”. This tells us that the kingdom of heaven something that is coming. It is not something that is already here, or at least not already here in a full and complete way. Closely related to this we pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. So the kingdom of heaven is a place where God’s will is done, and heaven is already part of the kingdom. (See also Matt 5:19 and 7:21). In the beatitudes Jesus tells us that, “Blessed are the Poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3). He also says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:10).
The kingdom of heaven is something that we should be seeking (Matt 6:33) and we need to enter it with the simplicity and humility of a child (Matt 19:14). It is impossible for us to enter if we our attached to our personal riches (Matt 19: 23-24).
So let’s think again about the parable of the wheat and the weeds. What does this tells us about the kingdom of heaven? Well certainly the kingdom of heaven is something that grows. We are told that the good seed are the children of the kingdom and they have to grow. Hopefully this is something that we all experience. The life of God within us isn’t something static and stuck, rather it is something that grows and develops and matures and eventually it completely overtakes us. One of the six other parables is the parable of the mustard seed, which starts of very small and insignificant, but grows to be great tree. It is a bit like when a child comes into the world. To start with it is very small and hidden away, and only the mother knows it is there. Then the child is born and we all know about it, but it is very small and helpless. Slowly the child grows and develops. The child goes through many different stages and makes many different demands on the parents. Over time the child becomes as big and strong as the parents and starts to take over their roles. Eventually the parents grow old and frail and then die. At this point the child inherits all their processions and has taken them over completely. So it is that the kingdom of heaven grows within us, and eventually it takes us over completely. And this is a good thing, a wonderful thing, because our sharing in the kingdom of heaven is eternal.
And what about the weed in the parable? Jesus tells us that the weeds are the children of the evil one, sown by the devil. Notice that the weeds do not come from God, they come from the enemy; the one who rebels against God. And the weeds grow up alongside the good wheat, and what is surprising to the servants in the story is how tolerant of the weeds the Master appears to be. The Master says that pulling out the weeds would be more damaging to the crop than leaving the weeds in there. It is better to let the weeds grow up with the wheat and to separate them out at harvest time. And this goes someway to towards explaining our experience of evil in the world. As we grow up in the world we experience all kinds of sufferings and difficulties which we can attribute directly, or indirectly to the evil one. But we need to be patient. God has chosen to leave those weeds in there with us, for our own good, so let’s not grumble, but let’s get on with the uncomfortable business of living alongside them. And let’s not simply think of ourselves as good wheat and other people as weeds. There is plenty that is weedy about each one of us; we all need to repent and let our good wheat grow up good and strong, and hope that by God’s grace our weedy bits will wither and die. The more they wither and die now, the easier it will be for us at harvest time. We could paraphrase our reading from St Paul; “if you live according to the weeds you will die, but if by the wheat you put to death the weeds, then you will live.”
So let’s grow up like good wheat. But let’s also be patient with the weeds. God has chosen to leave them there for our good, and let’s be grateful that more time is given for ever greater and truer repentance (c.f. Wisdom 12: 10 & 20)

Why does God tolerate evil?

Thought for the parish pewslip.
Readings: Wisdom 12: 13,16-19 Romans 8: 12-25 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
(N.B. – The “Book of Wisdom” or “Wisdom of Solomon” does not appear in many standard bibles. To find it you need a bible that includes the Apocrypha, or a Catholic Edition)


If God is all powerful, and all good, why does he tolerate evil? Why does God allow bad things to happen? Our readings today give some insights into these deep mysteries.
The book of wisdom reminds us that God is all powerful, but cares for ALL people, and judges them with mildness and forbearance. Above all he allows time for repentance (verses 10&20).
In Romans, St. Paul tells us not to live in accordance with our flesh, because we know that one day we will die and our flesh will turn to dust and ashes. Rather he tells us to live by the Spirit because by the Spirit we share the destiny of Christ. He tells us that we suffer with Christ, so that we may be glorified with him. Certainly we suffer as earthly things pass away (our health, our bodies, our wealth) just as Christ suffered, but Paul tells us to have hope and confidence that a much more wonderful glory will be revealed, just as Christ’s resurrection was revealed. And this glory of renewal is not just for us, and our bodies, but for the whole of creation.
From Matthew’s gospel we hear the parable of the weeds among the wheat. We need to concentrate on doing good, and growing up like the wheat, which has a great future. We should do our best to ignore the weeds in us and in other people, because at the end of the age the weeds are destroyed.

Our destiny in Christ

Preached at St Alphege, Solihull at Evensong 6.30pm 13/07/08
Readings: Amos 7:7-17 Psalm 63 Ephesians 1: 3-14


Both of our reading today talk about destiny. However the contrast between the two readings could hardly be greater. One talks of a terrible destiny of destruction and death; one talks of blessing, holiness and grace.
Our first reading came from the prophet Amos. Amos prophesied in the 8th Century BC, when God’s chosen people were split into two kingdoms. There was the Northern Kingdom which comprised 10 of the 12 tribes of the original Israel. The Northern Kingdom was known as Israel and it lived in the area around Samaria and Galilee. There was also the Southern Kingdom, based around Jerusalem which was made up of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. Although the two kingdoms were politically separate they still shared the same religion and were all part of God’s chosen people. Something that the kings of the Northern Kingdom found very difficult was that all the citizens of the Northern Kingdom still needed to go to Jerusalem, in the Southern Kingdom several times a year for the religious festivals. Kings of the Northern kingdom were therefore always tempted to set up their own temples, or worse still their own idols in the Northern Kingdom, to stop people going to worship in Jerusalem. God however would not tolerate such behaviour and Israel experienced great political instability as kings came and went quite rapidly.
Somewhere round about 786 BC Jeroboam II came to the throne of Israel. He was a shrewd politician and his 41 year rule of Israel was very successful in terms of things outward and visible. Jeroboam II maintained good relationships with the kingdom of Judah. He recaptured lands that Israel had lost to the Syrians and the Moabites. Above all his economic policies were extremely successful and Israel enjoyed great wealth and prosperity during his reign. Jeroboam II’s relationship with God however appears a little ambiguous. On the one hand Jeroboam II appears to have supported and helped God’s prophets Hosea and Jonah. On the other hand, the worship of Baal and images of cows and calves continued during his reign and seemed to grow in its lavishness with the increasing wealth of the population. Also economic injustices and corruption became a big problem. Jeroboam II colluded with the rich and powerful in his land, and did little to defend the rights of the poor and weak.
And it was to this Northern Kingdom of Israel, in this time of great prosperity, that the prophet Amos was sent. Amos came from the land of Judah, so in some sense he was a foreigner in Israel. He was not a “professional prophet” who set out to make his living through prophecy. Just as today we buy different national newspapers according to what we want to hear, so in 8th century BC Israel, people often paid for and supported the “professional prophets” who said the things that they wanted to hear. Amos is quite clear that he is not a “prophet” but rather one sent by God to prophesy to the people of Israel. And the message that God sends to the people of Israel through Amos is very firm. He wants to see Israel straight and true, like a plumb line. He is critical of the religious cult at Bethel, because the unjust are not sincere in their worship. Of course this message did not always go down well. In our reading today we heard Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, took great exception to it, and complained to the king. Amos was not put off, however, we heard that he also had very strong words for Amaziah.
Throughout his prophecies Amos demands justice and integrity in trade. He is scandalised by the biased weighing scales used to sell food to the poor. He is scandalised that the poor are sometimes sold chaff and the sweepings of wheat, rather than real wheat. He warns of a forthcoming “day of the Lord” which will be a terrible day of justice. He talks of Israel being taken into exile. Scholars think that Amos was prophesising round about 750BC, towards the end of Jeroboam II reign. After Jeroboam died (round about 745BC) Israel experienced political instability and great political pressure from the Assyrians. When the Assyrians finally conquered Samaria in 722 they took and many of the citizens of Israel away into exile.

In sharp contrast to Amos we heard in our New Testament lesson of the wonderful destiny promised to us in Christ. Paul goes on an on about this. First of all he tells us that we have been given “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”. Perhaps we don’t quite know what that means, so Paul elaborates; we were “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. This does not mean that we are already holy and blameless in love, but this is what we are called to. This is what we must seek and must work towards, by practicing as best we can being holy and blameless and by practicing loving the people around us. Of course we know that this is not easy and that we will fail many times, but Paul has an answer for this. He says, “In him [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, that he lavished on us.” It is not we who make ourselves holy, rather it is the grace that Christ lavishes upon us that makes us holy. Our part is to want it, to pray for it and to do what we can to work towards it. However it is God that actually does it.
St Paul tells us that we are destined for adoption as children of God, through Christ. We are called to be brothers and sisters of Jesus. This is a very high calling. St Paul talks of the inheritance that we will share with Christ. He says that the seal of his spirit that we receive in baptism is the pledge of this inheritance. And what is this inheritance. It is “to live for the praise of the Glory of God.” Elsewhere in the scriptures we might understand this to be to share in the life that Jesus shares with the Father.
So let’s give thanks to God for the great destiny that we have in Christ. Let’s praise God that he considers us as brothers and sisters of Christ, and worthy of sharing the same inheritance as Christ. Let’s do all our part to seek this destiny; to want it, pray for it and work towards it. Let’s not be put off when we fail. Rather, let’s always start again, and in this way we learn to trust and rest in the forgiveness and grace of Christ, which brings this destiny about. Amen.